Having an account in social media like Twitter may be a sign of an existence in the virtual world, but people expect more than just smooth operators when it comes to public service.

Ratri Wibowo, an occasional passenger of the Transjakarta bus, said he has stopped expecting a response from @BLUTransJakarta, the Twitter account of Transjakarta Management Agency.

'€œI used to get some direct messages from the account'€™s administrators, but after I frequently criticized their deteriorating service, I never received any response anymore. Maybe they are tired [of my complaints],'€ he told The Jakarta Post over the phone recently.

Besides the official Twitter account, the agency also has a website and call center to receive feedback.

Head of the agency M. Akbar admitted that the Twitter account of the agency was not responsive
toward complaints.

'€œWe are still talking about this matter in our internal discussions. We will try to make the account more active, so we can interact with passengers,'€ he told the Post over the phone on Tuesday.

Galuh Pradhita, a commuter from Depok in West Java, said she relied on @CommuterLine, the official Twitter account of PT KAI Commuter Jabodetabek (KCJ), to get to know the latest information on schedules.

'€œThe account is helpful, but unfortunately, they only respond to good comments but not criticism,'€ said the avid Twitter user.

Galuh said she understands that it would be an arduous job to reply to every comment of the followers, but she is still curious about how the company handles protest.

KCJ communication manager Eva Chairunisa denied that her company could not handle complaints well.

'€œThe social media administrators will categorize the complaints and relay them to related units,'€ she said, adding that the company planned to add three more people to the existing six administrators of its Twitter account.

Hari Ambari, an analyst with Awesometrics, a social media and mass media monitoring agency, said social media accounts that have products and services are expected to interact with their followers.

He said @BLUTransJakarta had a risk to become an object of cyber bullying because it was present in the social media, but did not work as it was supposed to.

'€œThe followers only use it as a means to unleash their annoyance without expecting solutions.'€

Hari said @infoBMKG, which is managed by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), positions itself as an account that gives information and alerts, so it tends not to be interactive. He said @PoskoDPUDKI, which is managed by the Jakarta Public Works Agency, is quite popular compared to other city accounts, but it only posts a few tweets a day.

'€œ@PoskoDPUDKI still has room to develop, so it should involve more people by familiarizing them with their account,'€ he said. Pamudji, head of the information and technology unit at the agency, said the agency relies on media coverage to promote their account.

Governmental social media accounts, Hari said, should be able to cut the bureaucratic lines to give immediate answers to their followers'€™ questions or complaints, '€œotherwise it can be suicidal'€.

He said governmental agencies or companies that already have twitter accounts should also have the technology to get the actual message of the buzzing posts and educate their followers to use the hash tag to talk about certain topics.

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