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Ufone’s Top Rated Political Twitter Incident – An error of Human Mind

Noaman Rasheed09 mins

Ufone apologised for a mistaken endorsement against sitting Govt.

Pakistan’s mobile operator, Ufone came under fire on Thursday after when the official Twitter handle was found to having liked a tweet by someone saying “Go Nawaz Go”, a most hatred slogan among a political party’s fan following.

Following the incident, Ufone kept in twitter trends for long hours negatively with the hashtag #BoycottUfone. People started bashing or softly complaining about the matter as it really has hurt them. On the other hand there were also people being too cool and considering it as a freedom of speech expecting no serious public reaction over the incident.

ufone-go-nawaz-go-tweet

The screenshot on the right contains the endorsement from Ufone which triggered the hype. The slogan in the tweet, is of course felt as one of the most hatred action for Pro-Govt. and Pro-PMLN that when is shouted by some individual creates a response back debate between Pro and Anti Govt. individuals.

When the same was liked by a company, sure it would have impact back and the company would come with a statement having or not having any involvement in the issue.

While the post has been unliked by the company’s handle and a statement of apology has been issued, the people are still in a charge mode where some are thankful and grateful to the brand for acknowledging, some think that it’s just a formal statement to reduce the hype and cool down the people, in fact some still think that the hype is a nonsense.

A list of tweets can be seen after a break.

Well, the incident was just a result of human response over something on which he/she couldn’t resist responding.

“A tweet by an individual got liked from Ufone’s twitter handle.”

In this case, on twitter, the only responsible individual is the one who was sitting and managing Ufone’s handle on that specific time. The person must knew that it’s not their personal handle and they have to be free out of their own mindset while engaging through company’s handle. A company does not usually endorse something which may lead to a division of their consumer base.

Well, Ufone later tweeted and apologised for the incident on twitter.

We regret & apologize for the inappropriate tweets today. We are investigating the issue & action will be taken against those involved

“We categorically state that the said tweets do not in any manner represent our position or opinion. We are a responsible, law abiding and apolitical organization that is committed to serve its customers at all times.”

The response is just like an official statement, however I personally do not think there is something that is intentionally done by someone. It’s just an error of human mind that actually is sitting behind a company’s handle. He/she just couldn’t resist liking or endorsing a tweet or post which was just according to his/her own mindset which of course is a big mistake as a job.

While it’s a formality from a company to state their position about what has been said from their account, people’s concern over there favoritism and reaction is also by nature. I have seen people binding this issue to some freedom of speech or something like it. It’s not really that but it is an irresponsible act from someone who didn’t know what job he/she was doing on behalf of a company.

 

A short list of tweets

You can go ahead and see for yourself with the hashtag #BoycottUfone.

The big companies, like “Ufone” in this case, have their social media department specially dealing with consumers over facebook and twitter or alike social networks now days. But anything that is broadcast via the company’s official handle is accounted as company’s opinion. So a person tweeting, posting or doing anything via a company’s account is better to stick with the company’s policies and be responsible for what he/she is speaking or endorsing on behalf of the company.

Good companies and organizations do it much better way when they hire a team consisting more than one person for social media engagement. One of the easiest approach is to put the person’s initials in the tweet/post at the end when there are shifts of time for individuals. I haven’t seen anything like that from a Pakistani company while they are socially very charged. They really should be responsible at this factor.

Endorsing or liking other’s content is still prone to the fact that it can’t be tagged with who specifically did that behind a company’s twitter handle.

So it’s actually better to know at what place you are working and in which limit. And companies must learn from such incidents and know how they could manage their social activities in much better way which won’t harm their brand’s reputation.

 

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