Municipality gets a roasting over social media fail

eThekwini Municipality's attempt to be cool on social media was an epic fail on Tuesday.

The municipality's social media team posted a meme on its FaceBook page on Tuesday morning with the caption: "Good Morning to everyone except those who waste water and those who don’t report water leaks via WhatsApp on 0731483477. You can go and get your Good morning from a high water bill. ~sm."

The municipality's social media team posted a meme on its FaceBook page on Tuesday morning with the caption: "Good Morning to everyone except those who waste water and those who don’t report water leaks via WhatsApp on 0731483477. You can go and get your Good morning from a high water bill. ~sm."

But Durban ratepayers were not impressed and many accused the municipality of being unprofessional.

The person posting on behalf of the city‚ however‚ took the criticism in his stride‚ angering ratepayers even more‚ with comments of "rude and arrogant" being levelled against the person responsible for the account.

When Michelle Vermeulen commented that she found the post "very unprofessional"‚ the municipality responded: "Thank you Michelle and we do value your opinion."

The response then led to others questioning if the posts were "checked" by a supervisor before they went public or if the poster was drunk or a small child.

Meredith Haywood commented that the post went against all social media guidelines.

"It certainly does not speak to the city's directive nor hope of being Africa's most liveable city. How on earth do you justify being so condescending to your ratepayers!"

But a few others called out the "complainers" for lacking a sense of humour.

Nwabisa Samkelisiwe Radebe said: "Actually‚ using humour‚ memes‚ slang and the language of the day have proven to work wonders for the social media pages of institutions that are deemed to be serious. A good example is the City of Joburg's Twitter account‚ Cape Town FC's Twitter and Facebook as well as entities like Vodacom and Burger King. It gives the account a personality and makes it relateable.

"Maybe the issue here is that the person didn't deliver the humour in a way that is palatable to you. Of course‚ it would also help if their work was super efficient. But social media and digital marketing aren't stuck in the age of typing long‚ boring statements that no one ever reads."

And others gave the municipality a taste of its own medicine.

Roxanne Tarboton said: “Good morning to everyone except the municipality to doesn't respond to above mentioned Whatsapp number or fix the craters in our roads but can come on Facebook and throw shade around like the unprofessional entity they really are.”

Municipal spokesman Mandla Nsele said the team merely wanted to keep up with social media trends and not exclude millennials with "archaic updates”.

"Our target audience is wide-ranging. However‚ the stats on that post have proved that the millennials identified with the content and context; whereas the older generation didn’t quite relate as they found it rather unprofessional."

"Keeping in mind also that the municipality’s largest followers are within the youth age gap‚" he explained.