Egypt’s Etisalat Misr mobile operator is a subsidiary of UAE-based Etisalat, in which the state-run Emirates Investment Authority holds a majority of its shares.
How many times should we say it people, what you say on social media sticks! In an obvious satirical attempt to engage with fans on social media, Etisalat Misr had a sense of humor failure while publishing a stereotypical sexist Tweet about Egyptian women.
Recommended: Cairo Runners, Run Social Media Crisis Successfully
The controversial tweet mocked women’s parking skills, claiming that it takes them 15 minutes to park compared to men, who take only a minute.
Etisalat Misr Twitter handler forget about the fact that Social Media corporate accounts should avoid all topics concerning politics, religion and gender issues!
What happened:
Etisalat’s social media engagement campaigns adopts different kinds of content themes that vary from nostalgia, humor, football to recently integrated movies and cinema updates and reviews.
Occasionally, Etislalat Misr publishes humorous posts to position itself as an amusing brand with a modern tone voice that is relevant to the Egyptian youth on different social media channels while increasing the brand’s shareability and viral impact on different social media channels.
Throwback: Etisalat Misr Social Media Eclipse
When it comes to the Egyptian sense of humor, you better be careful and post something really funny / relevant or, it will definitely backfire. While some sarcasm communities find it somewhat humorous to mock women’s parking skills, Brands should know by now that gender issues and other controversial topics are off limits and irrelevant.
Etisalat Misr’s cheap sarcastic attempt to take advantage of such a topic just for the sake of tweeps attention while hoping for more re-tweets and likes is outrageous and a big slab to their reputation.
In fact, Etisalat forgot the fact that both genders are considered to be their main clients and source of income!
The negative feedback went too viral to the extent that it became hard to ignore. As a result, Etisalat had no choice but to delete the tweet, however deleting the tweet was not enough cause it’s not as easy as writing with a pencil!
Social Media Reaction:
Digita Marketing Expert once said: My morning alarm goes off at 7am. To be honest, it’s less an alarm to wake me and more to alert me that I haven’t checked Twitter in six hours.
The sexism tweet last for more than 14hrs without a proper action from Etisalat. Even while receiving negative feedback for the tweet.
@EtisalatMisr And your advertising people should find another job, their failure hit a whole new level.
— Sara (@Saraheshamzayed) May 10, 2016
@EtisalatMisr i would challenge the maker of this stupid ad for a driving competition anytime 🙂 lets see if he can park or just "Barks"
— Angie Al Habib (@Angie_AlHabib) May 10, 2016
https://twitter.com/KarmaGeddon_/status/729998874019008512
And here's a sexist ad by @EtisalatMisr with no correlation whatsoever with any of their services. #blacklisted https://t.co/GqEhKTJauW
— Mariam مريم (@MariamKirollos) May 10, 2016
The negative feedback went too viral to an extent that it become hard to ignore and Etisalat run out of options and had to delete the tweet but deleting a tweet was not enough!
Tweets send to Etisalat guiding them how they should do next:
.@EtisalatMisr this is absolutely unacceptable and requires an immediate apology to your female customers and women in general. This is 2016
— Mai Sirry – مي سري (@maisirry) May 10, 2016
an apologize is needed y @EtisalatMisr instead of just deleting the tweet #etisalat
— 🇸🇩🇸🇩 بسابيسو (@basmaosmaan) May 10, 2016
LESSON NUMBER 1: IF YOU SNOOZE ON SOCIAL MEDIA YOU LOSE
If you’re a social media marketer, you already know that brands must monitor its reputation. In case you drift off and start offending people you will definitely lose, and your brand advocates will turn into a merciless brand monsters who will devour your long earned reputation in seconds.
It's time for @VodafoneEgypt & @Orange_Egypt to come out with a sassy and classy ad to put @etisalat to shame. pic.twitter.com/uRNCFDNF4S
— Victor Salama (@VicoSalama) May 10, 2016
@mefoad أهلاً بيكى.. ممكن تعرفى خطوات و تفاصيل التحويل من خلال اللينك ده https://t.co/mut6lHMVVn
— Vodafone Egypt (@VodafoneEgypt) May 10, 2016
LESSON NUMBER 2: IT’S [NEVER] TOO LATE TO APOLOGIZE:
Your sincere apology is definitely required, and your brand’s tone voice should reflect that immediately and the sooner you apologize, the better.
بنعتذر لو فى حاجة قولناها وزعلتكوا مننا، اتصالات بتحترم كل الناس. pic.twitter.com/Tie2EzqLRm
— Etisalat Egypt (@EtisalatEgypt) May 10, 2016
“We apologize if anything we said upset you, Etisalat respects all people”
LESSON NUMBER 3: YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA FANS CAN BE YOUR GREATEST ALLIES OR YOUR SWORN ENEMIES:
A quick innocent reminder: social media do not differentiate between large and small companies. You can’t just ignore your negative reviews. However, in every crisis lies the seed of opportunity.
https://twitter.com/ranawallflower/status/730027713755492352
https://twitter.com/KarmaGeddon_/status/730043354902335490
Power of social media, as usual @EtisalatMisr pic.twitter.com/Ha33Zwo0eA
— Marwan El-Qalmoush (@Qalmoush) May 10, 2016
Recommendation:
If you are a big brand and do not have a social media policy, you should definitely consider adopting one.
