ByAditi Roy

May 6, 2020 (IANSlife) An outreach campaign initiative to address lewd comments targeted towards women on its social media platforms has recently been launched by a company, as internet harassment against women is at an all-time high in India.

In OYO Hotels & Homes efforts to make online space safer for women, the firm took on online harassers across its social media platforms by identifying offensive or vulgar comments directed towards women and reinforced trollers to spread positivity and cheer.

To achieve this, its in-house Brand and Social Media teams creatively leveraged ORM. A first responder function that is used to curb negative sentiment, and instead got it to motivate users to respect women. Through a creative take, OYO discouraged users who left smutty comments and pushed them to opt for compliments on its social platforms. 

This initiative led to improved behaviour on the company’s social media, with a 42 percent drop in negative sentiment towards the brand in less than two weeks (precisely 11 days).The company via this platform also observed some users deleting distasteful comments. Additionally, post-OYO’s active outreach campaign, the company’s social media platforms are now witnessing a higher share of positive or neutral speak at 26 percent and 62percent, respectively in comparison to only 12 percent comprising negative comments.

Mayur Hola, Head of Global Brand, OYO Hotels & Homes said, “Have we ever come across a woman who hasn’t faced online threats, trolling or harassment at least once in her life? And how are we as members of a responsible society tackling this menace? These are the questions that moved us. As a hospitality chain, it is our responsibility to provide safe spaces for all our guests and especially women, be it offline at our hotels and indeed online on our social platforms. With this core thought, we mobilised ORM, usually, a function that deals with consumer complaints and transformed it into a first responder that supports women and corrects lewd behavior. This is brand building at its simplest yet deepest level."

The campaign which started out as a Women’s Day initiative in March, has now become a policy. They are now tackling this issue on a daily basis by identifying lewd trolls targetted towards women and schooling them through positive reinforcement.

"A brand has to influence behavior, both within the organisation as well as our consumers or external audience. We as a brand want to set an example and not stay at the surface level. This policy does both," stated Hola.

Adding, "It essentially walks the talk of our content. We’re super thrilled to share that since the past couple of weeks since this has gone live, there’s been a significant drop in online harassment of women on our platforms. Similarly, we will continue to mobilise every part of our organisation to address various issues that exist in the social media world. This is a first but very important step in tackling lewd behavior against women. By creatively addressing such social issues, there is a lot more we will continue to fix going forward,”

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Aditi Roy can be contacted at aditi.r@ians.in