Social Media Analysis: Lakpahana FB Fiasco

Last couple of days were a nightmare for the management of Lakpahana (Hand Craft), Sri Lanka. Recently their official Facebook page received enormous attention due to some of its controversial advertisements. We will be analysing this incident through our Social Media Analysis: Lakpahana FB Fiasco.

On 4th April the following image featuring a naked male with a shawl was published on Lakpahana’s FB page, which went viral and received a lot of negative attention (87 shares at the time we took the screenshot) that reflected badly on Lakpahana’s brand image.

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After 4 days, on 8th April at 1.00 PM the following image was published on Lakpahana’s Facebook page, as a reply to one of the top comments made by fans on the ‘naked man’s’ post;

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However, both these posts were deleted, which followed an official  public apology from the page;

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The apology was also later removed. The apology was not well structured and proper wordings were not used in order to explain what happened to their fans. These two images created enough social buzz, which made older yet similar Lakpahana posts to reface. These posts were also poorly worded, which received a lot of negative & sentimental attention.

However, what started on Facebook has carried over to twitter as well. Many tweets were followed by the Facebook postings with the hashtag #lakpahana

Twitter took time to mock the ‘apology’ as well;

When Daily Mirror asked Lakpahana Marketing Manager about this fiasco she commented “We don’t know what happened. We are inquiring into this matter at present, that’s all I can say for now”

Further, the assistant manager Rosemarie Patternot stated that “I do not know what happened with the advertisement; I am just in charge of sales. The director is the only one who will have any knowledge over this incident and she is currently out of the country”

These comments depict the level of awareness the management holds regarding social media and their lack of knowledge to address this issue professionally.

We took the liberty to analyze their page insights so that we could understand the interaction levels occurring inside the page; Lakpahana Facebook page has over 3,500 fans, consisting both foreign & local fans. The Facebook page saw a huge increase in page likes on 6th April which continued to increase till 9th April. The page recorded an Engagement Rate of 29.17 % and PTAT (People Talking About This) of 1,036.

All in all our conclusion was that, If their  “Former admin” has left their organization or does not work for the company in any way, the management should immediately remove his access rights to the brand Facebook page to protect the privacy of the company and its internal processes. Facebook has introduced a tool called the Business manager for brands to manage their Facebook pages accordingly and effectively, including allowing brands to appoint admins and define/control their access to the page.

However, due to Lakpahana’s negligence their brand went viral with high traffic levels onto their Facebook page, likes & shares and press mentions. These however, were largely negative and affect the brand’s overall profile.

 

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