How to Take Advantage of Twitter During Transport Crisis? Uber and Hailo Show the Way

Skift Take

Hailo and Uber saw an easy opportunity to pick up new riders during the strike. Neither of them tweeted if they were involved in surge pricing, though.

Joyce Manalo, Skift

Can’t Tube it? Carpool it, tweeted both Uber and Hailo.

The transportation booking app competitors were responding to a 48-hour Tube strike by workers in the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union in London that left 3.5 million passengers seeking alternative transportation. The strike began on Monday evening and ended last night.

Here’s a look at their social activity in the past two days.

Hailo London published a blog post on April 25 that encouraged people to use their service with a reality check. “That said, we need to be upfront here. The truth is that it will be much harder than usual for us to get everyone a cab who wants one, so we apologise in advance for that.”

Their first tweet was sent on Monday at 10am local time, 11 hours before the strike began.

We know it’s going to be busy this week with the tube strike. We’ll be doing our best to get you a cab. Read more: http://t.co/I4xh9w95CT

— Hailo London (@HailoLondon) April 28, 2014

3.5 hours later, Uber London’s first tweet was fired with an encouraging hashtag, #KeepLondonMoving and a handsome 50% discount to share the ride and a link to the blog that explains how it works. To drive the brand message, they closed with, “We’re all in this together, so grab a friend and SPLIT!”

#NoTubeNoProblem: 50% off Uber rides during the strike when you split with a friend: http://t.co/TUvSw8pGRr #KeepLondonMoving

— Uber London (@Uber_LDN) April 29, 2014

According to SkiftIQ, Uber London tweeted 33.6 tweets/day in the past 14 days, a 57.0% change from its past 60-day rate of 21.4 tweets/day, 20% more than Hailo London’s 5.3 tweets/day, 32.5% increase from its past 60-day rate of 4.0 tweets/day. These spikes reflect their effort in the midst of the shuffle.

Uber London’s Tweet Rate

Hailo London’s Tweet Rate

Overall, both brands’ efforts to meet the demand was received well on social media. During this commute nightmare, Hailo London’s followers grew 2.5x over their 60-day average of 9.4 followers/day and Uber London 4x over their 60-day average of 31.6 followers/day.

Uber London’s Follower Growth

Hailo London’s Follower Growth

Although Hailo London did not have a specific campaign to target riders, their response time is 50 minutes faster than Uber London. The next 72-hour strike is planned for Monday, May 5th.

Below is their current average reply time against their industry’s performance. Let’s see how well they will fair next week.