An angry, sassy amazon using Twitter bickering with politicians could be the concept of the next big comedy film. However, believe it or not, we already have it here in the real world. Although, Amazon in this context does not pertain to a muscular warrior woman from Greek mythology. Instead, it pertains to the titan company, Amazon. This war started after CEO Jeff Bezos told his executives that they are not doing enough to fight critics.
What is Happening?
You might be wondering, why do this all of a sudden? Did they get attacked or are they facing a lawsuit? One word should answer those questions: Union. Another answer is that everyone still loves buying Twitter followers.
Amazon is facing the largest union election in its history of business operations. It is happening in their Bessemer Alabama Warehouse, where there are nearly 6,000 employees eligible to vote. So, the company needs to dispel some controversies revolving around them. Also, they need a way to improve their public image. What better place is there to do that than on social media?
The Twitter War
It was top Amazon executive Dave Clark who started this Twitter war. Upon learning the news that Bernie Sanders (I-VT), one of their top critics, will be visiting Alabama during the last days of voting, he began the aggression.
His tweet seemed like a friendly welcome at first. However, the second half of his tweet revealed that it was, in truth, sassy criticism. Clark stated that Amazon often sees itself as the Sen. Sanders of employers. However, he claimed that, unlike the senator, Amazon actually delivers a progressive workplace.
House Rep. Mark Pocan questioned this claim, citing that Amazon employees peeing in bottles does not mean they have a progressive workplace. Pocan also stated that Amazon employees are underpaid, considering they are working in such an environment.
The Amazon News Twitter account took charge from here. The account snarkily replied: “You don’t really believe the peeing-in bottles thing, do you? If that were true, nobody would work for us. The truth is that we have over a million incredible employees around the world who are proud of what they do, and have great wages and health care from day one.”
After that came Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who criticized Amazon’s tax payments. She claims that the company reports huge profits to its shareholders but pays almost nothing for its taxes. Warren believes that Amazon is exploiting loopholes in the law to do this. In her tweet, Warren revealed that she will be introducing a bill to make them pay a fair share.
Amazon News snapped back at her by saying lawmakers are the ones making the law. Companies like Amazon only follow them. The business giant told Warren that if lawmakers do not like the laws they have created, they are free to change them.
“And while you’re working on changing the tax code, can we please raise the federal minimum wage to $15?” they added.
In addition to that, Amazon emphasized how much the company paid for corporate taxes, federal taxes, and sales taxes over the past few years.
Sen. Warren fought back by saying she was not the one who wrote the loopholes. Amazon’s lawyers are the ones responsible for that. She also boldly stated that she is going to break Big Tech so they will not be powerful enough to bother senators with their stupid tweets.
Amazon news replied by simply saying that Warren’s motivation for bringing down Big Tech was so immature. Wanting to silence a company as big as Amazon just so she would not be criticized was not something they expected from a powerful woman like Warren, the tweet implies.
The Consequences of This Twitter War
Remember, the reason Amazon is pushing back against critics is to improve the company’s image. They are doing this to save the company from losing to the union. Unfortunately, the snarky tweets did the opposite.
People on Twitter were disappointed by this sudden change in the tone of Amazon accounts. One user even said that it made it easy to identify Amazon as the evil in the story. The majority told them to stop and go back to what they usually do. The aggression was unnecessary. To some, this even became the trigger that made them unsubscribe to the services offered by Amazon.
People saw Amazon as a friendly service. If they need something, they can search it on amazon.com. Then the company will deliver it to them. Seeing this snarky attitude in their recent tweets might change a customer’s perspective about them. Especially since the previous posts by that account have a different vibe. They were positive, happy, and carefree. These out-of-the-norm posts could make a person see their company as pretentious and fake. What happens is, the company loses its customers’ trust, thus affecting the business negatively.
Social Media on Businesses
Social Media, as they are today, are powerful and have many uses. They can be used to express feelings, showcase talent, show passion, connect people, and other things.
Needless to say, they also do a lot for businesses. Social media networks can be used by companies to advertise themselves. Since these platforms are big and popular, it is easy to find potential buyers or possible subscribers in them. Additionally, they can post about new and upcoming products, give updates about improvement in their services, inform people about their locations and do so many more on these sites. Companies can also utilize these networks to improve their public relations. Through their pages or accounts, they can form more intimate bonds with their consumers. They can also clean their names from controversies and misinformation.
To do this, however, businesses should handle their account responsibly. They should think about every post thoroughly. What image do they want to form on their customer’s heads? What tone do they want to use? They should decide on those things first before uploading their content to the networks.
In summary, social media networks can make or break a business. It just depends on how professionally the accounts are handled. But, as long as they are properly managed, businesses can expect great results.