Running a social media account for a major public transportation agency does not seem like it would be a particularly fun or interesting job. Most of the tweets would be dull announcements about delays and schedule changes. Occasionally, one might have to deal with complaints from disgruntled customers who took to the internet to register their disgust throughout the world. Other than that? Dullsville.
But then there are accounts like SFBART, the feisty but nevertheless official Twitter voice of San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit. As documented by Kelly Bonner at UpOut, SFBART recently answer a customer’s rhyming gripe with a poem of its own:
And this was merely the beginning of what turned into a full-on public transportation Twitter poetry slam. High from its recent social media triumph and thirsty for blood, SFBART then challenged Metro, the Twitter account for Los Angeles’ own beleaguered transportation agency, to a haiku battle. Metro did not immediately take the bait, so SFBART called them out.
In other words, bawk bawk bawk. Metro not only chimed in but brought the heat as well:
Ouch. It only got weirder from there. SFBART responded with the public transportation equivalent of a diss track:
But Metro was having none of it, going full David Spade with this comeback:
Eventually, after several more rounds, SFBART called for a truce:
And thus ended a strange chapter in both social media and public transportation. It remains unknown whether either agency actually got their customers where they were going on time during all of this. But at least some social media managers had an interesting day.
[via UpOut]