What happens when an employee opens a Facebook page without knowing how it works?
What happens when he gives his word and doesn't stick to it?
What happens when he ignores fans?
What happens when he deletes fans' comments?
A few days ago Times of Oman (mis)reported on the farewell party organized by the 12th Grade students of the Indian School of Muscat. According to students, ex students, parents, staff, and committee members of ISM the article was just an accusation to tarnish the image of the school and its students. However I will not go into that and i will only focus on the social media aspect.
What happens when he gives his word and doesn't stick to it?
What happens when he ignores fans?
What happens when he deletes fans' comments?
Some students, very proactively, opened on Feb 13th a Facebook page (as well as inundating ToO with mails, letters and calls) called Times of Oman - Time to Apologize, with the aim of gathering support against the "lies" posted by the journalist in the article titled Farewell parties turn into wild night-out for kids. In a few hours the page reached nearly 1000 fans.
What Times of Oman did on Feb 16th, very bravely, was to open another Facebook page called Timesxpresso in order to have an open, frank, uncensored and bold discussion…as it states on the page. Many people, most of them students, immediately commented and all of them were either ignored for a couple of days or replied, yesterday only, with the following same two messages:
When 6pm came the Business Editor of Times of Oman, James, was finally there to answer the long awaited questions by several hundred irritated fans.
Sadly, even then their questions were not answered and James left after 10 minutes!
All people were looking for was an apology and to correct the facts, nothing more. By behaving that way Times of Oman infuriated even more all ISM students, parents and staff and James definitely damaged even further his own, and Times of Oman, reputation and most likely future sales. Surely there will be further developments in the next few days and I'll update the post if necessary.
Sadly, even then their questions were not answered and James left after 10 minutes!
All people were looking for was an apology and to correct the facts, nothing more. By behaving that way Times of Oman infuriated even more all ISM students, parents and staff and James definitely damaged even further his own, and Times of Oman, reputation and most likely future sales. Surely there will be further developments in the next few days and I'll update the post if necessary.
Social media is not a game. Do not go into it if you’re not prepared and if you don’t know how to use it. Hopefully this will be another lesson to learn for any company before entering social media.
If you want to see other famous online dramas here they follow: Benihana, Dell, Nestle', Gap.
If instead you want to know how James should have handled this crisis please click here.
If you want to see other famous online dramas here they follow: Benihana, Dell, Nestle', Gap.
If instead you want to know how James should have handled this crisis please click here.
I followed the story on the newspaper but i was not aware of this. How childish and unprofessional is this??
ReplyDeleteThis is a timely and informative analysis on the social media angle by a third party, who is not involved in this imbroglio. Well done Oman Collective Intelligence.
ReplyDelete"Social media is not a game." 1OO%
ReplyDeleteMaurizio, very well put together post. I agree 100 per cent with the social media comment - if you don't fully understand it, don't use it
ReplyDeletesocial media isn't handled maturely in Oman is it should be yet.
ReplyDeletethat's sad.
Even the questions that he did try answering were answered so pathetically. And it was funny how he kept saying "my time is over". His time as a journalist, indeed, is over.
ReplyDeleteMohana and her cronies are mighty thrilled with Times of Oman’s ‘fiasco’.
ReplyDeleteI would not blame 'Mohana and her cronies' if they are thrilled about their competition making complete asses of themselves without any external help.
ReplyDeleteKS, you (who posted anonymously) talk like James - get the people, school etc in your story completely wrong but instead of apologising for one's mistake, take the moral high ground and talk about correcting society's evils. Stop wallowing in your hypocrisy and go do some real work for God's sake!
Deepak Balakrishnan
Thanks for sharing this. This shows how people are now more empowered and the media is losing credibility. Gone are the days of the one-sided flow of information. I personally do not trust the media anymore unless they have some sort of open platforms where the general public can participate, interact and share opinions. Well done once again.
ReplyDeleteKS, you bet we are laughing our heads off. We won't have to really sell Muscat Daily now since our egoistic friends elsewhere are helping us do that very well.
ReplyDeleteKS, what's KS is short for? I wonder ;)
ReplyDeleteLike yeah, w/o this story, MD kicks ToO butt anytime! compare their contents in term of quality = no match!
To crony 1 and 2: Journalism is crappy here. Publishing photo in front page of a tree where a labourer committed suicide is journalism? Muscat Daily or ToO, all papers offer same rut. Newspapers are run by egoistic people.
ReplyDeleteGuys, i would appreciate if we could stick to the topic, thanks. Should i do a post about journalism in Oman?
ReplyDeleteI loved this article
ReplyDeleteI'd love for you to do a post on journalism in Oman...or any place.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how many trained journalists there are in my country.
Does anyone practise examining an event objectively [as opposed to subjectively] any more? I get the feeling it's all about opinions these days...I can be wrong, of course.
Hi Guyana, long time. I think the level of journalism here could and should be higher, it definitely needs a big push.
ReplyDeleteFor all the ones living here; i have just started a poll on Facebook, please let me know your feedback:
http://apps.facebook.com/opinionpolls/index.php?pid=ABBQTIm%2FZyw
Thanks.
Wow! Hats off to Oman Collective Intelligence! This was a brilliant article and explained very aptly, to all readers and followers of this blog, the demands and intentions of ISM students as well as the blunder of a page that the creation of the Times espresso page was. Social media is of-course, an excellent way of popularizing ideas and products but this example clearly shows how counterproductive it can be too. On behalf of all Ism Students I would like to thank the developer and the team behind this article.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, we will be given an official apology soon.
Anon; you guys did a great job, we just reported it. Thanks for your nice words and i also hope you'll get an apology. I really can't understand why they haven't apologised yet....Anyway, feel free to go to our poll on the Facebook page and let us know your opinion about the media in Oman. If you can share it with your friends would be great; the more people vote the more credible it'll be and we can then take it to the several media houses in Oman.
ReplyDeletehttp://apps.facebook.com/opinionpolls/index.php?pid=ABBQTIm%2FZyw