Govt-run organisations bitten by Twitter bug

Government organisations are generally not known to be frank and interactive. But things may very well be changing, what with Doordarshan leading the way.

In a Twitter conversation in late March 2014, a user of the social networking website commented on Doordarshan - @DDNational1 - and its programming, asking the channel not to 'bore' people with 'art' movies every Sunday. The channel's response: "Dear @XXX, those are not 'boring' art movies, but award-winning regional movies with plenty of admirers. Learn to appreciate art!" Shortly afterwards, the national public service broadcaster gained some 700-plus followers, and currently has close to 10,000 followers.

There was a time a while ago when the State Bank of India (SBI) - India's largest public sector bank - rolled back its Twitter account as it could not handle the number of queries that were coming its way. The bank had said at the time that it did not have a proper backend to be able to manage the flow. SBI currently has two accounts that are dedicated to its debit/credit card division and the insurance division, and it launched an official Twitter account recently (@TheOfficialSBI).

According to Sanjay Mehta, Joint CEO at Social Wavelength, India's leading social media agency, public sector companies are gradually recognising the importance of social media and the need to be out there and engaging their consumers on these platforms.

"There will be some hits and misses that will happen as a result... It's a transition phase where learning will happen. Mistakes will happen, but they will learn," says Mehta, adding: "Because you have to think of so many angles and you don't want to give the wrong information and it's a dynamic medium in nature so you have to be really careful as a government body."

There are, however, several profiles of government agencies that are either non-existent, or barely active online.

The Passport Seva Kendra, for instance, does not have a Twitter handle. Then, the Tourism Ministry account - @tourismoffice (not verified) - is followed by other official government accounts, but is barely active, with its last post being on February 14, 2014.

Moreover, public transport services such as Delhi Transport Corporation or DTC and Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport or BEST (in Mumbai), or government-owned insurance companies such as National Insurance and Oriental Insurance do not have an account altogether.

Oil companies such as Indian Oil (IOCL), Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) have posted less than 20 tweets each. Then there is the Delhi Traffic Police account (@dtptraffic), which is fairly active, but is primarily informative and not interactive at all.

Here's hoping that more government/public organisations become social media-savvy at the earliest!