Use of Social Media by Indian companies have skyrocketed in the recent years due to many reasons, two to be specific –

1. It helps people connect directly with government – a lot has been done in this regard under the Digital India initiative.
2. Since social media is a public space, brands / companies are pressurized to correctly resolve the issue or it is a ticking time bomb for them in case the problem becomes viral, can damage reputation easily.

Now coming back to the support brands on Twitter, an example here:

BSNL is a telecom operator in India, and they have a Twitter account where they answer queries. My query was pretty simple – BSNL announced availability of 4G uSIMs nationally so I asked them if 4G service is available in Pune. Their response as seen above – they want contact details from me. Moreover, the reply says “Sorry for the inconvenience caused”. I didn’t face any inconvenience here. It’s just out of context! Why not just reply to the tweet with a simple yes or no? It doesn’t contain any private information.

Many such countless examples can be seen on the Tweet with replies page of their twitter profiles. Interestingly it’s a common trend, and I don’t know why. If you look at the twitter profiles of some international brands – they don’t reply in similar fashion, except in cases where private information (account number, mobile number, etc.) is involved.

Common general information can be shared publicly, no? If information involves private matters such as – someone has a specific problem for which details are needed – that conversation can happen in private.

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