India Post's on a Twitter account

Turning e-savvy

The Department of Posts (DoP) is the first government organisation to join the social networking site. The DoP page titled ‘PostOfficeIndia’ already has around 200 followers from both India and abroad, in less than two months of its operations.

The DoP has posted information about its services, new schemes and promotions for users on its Twitter page. It has posted links to its website, telling users how they can calculate postage tariffs or know pin codes of their respective areas.

“If anybody has any query regarding the department’s services, they can seek clarifications by tweeting and the department will reply promptly,” a senior official in the Department told Deccan Herald.

“As the department provides various kinds of services like delivering mail, transferring money and dispatching passports, the social networking site will act as a bridge between the department and customers,” the official said.

The DoP has already started a ‘tweet-campaign’ for India’s biggest-ever stamp show that will be held in Delhi next February. It has also been sending messages to people who want to partner the DoP in various projects or apply for some tender. Followers have also been making complaints and giving suggestions on how to improve the functioning of the department.

The page has also become a boon to those who pursue philately as a hobby, as it has been informing them about limited edition stamps that India Post keeps on issuing from time to time.

At present some of the senior officials of the department are managing the webpage and soon it plans to have a dedicated team to answer queries of followers.  “The DoP is surprised at the response it is receiving. It also plans to have sub-categories for various users like business users and foreigners, to make it more user-friendly,” said the official.