On December 15th, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, or someone working on her behalf, elected to announce to the World that the Mayor’s Facebook Page would be, in their words, “disabled.” Not to be insulting, but frank: that was a great example of how the Mayor and the Mayor’s Office doesn’t know how to use social media. The Mayor’s staff and the Mayor herself should have known that the very minute they say the Facebook page is going to be removed, it would become a story itself.

The Mayor – or someone on her staff or a family member – issued this Twitter tweet:

@jeanquan Jean Quan
Mayor Quan will be disabling this facebook fan page. If you would like to contact the Mayor’s Office, please use… fb.me/1pfhUrQsz
15 Dec via Facebook Favorite Retweet Reply

But on December 16th, the Facebook page is still up (another new story), and has a ton of comments from Oaklanders (it would seem) who are irate about everything from parking to how she handled Occupy Oakland. Here are some choice examples (and some avoided were just too insulting):

Norman Hersch I am waiting for an answer. Why did the intelligent employees of the mayor agree with me that parking is unfair throughout Oakland, while I eventually paid $500.00 to the illiterate, unsympathetic people that review these tickets. Please someone look into wheather or not there was a pep talk from the supervisors to issue lots of tickets in the month of April May. I spoke to a policeman that also agreed The oakland parking is killing the economy of Oakland.
18 hours ago · Like · 1
Norman Hersch Hey Mayor the stores pay your salary. Home Depot, Gap Starbucks don’t give a damn about us. But, the ACE hardwares that are going out of business, the cleaners, the doughnut shops etc are all dying.
18 hours ago · Like · 2
Norman Hersch I am waiting for some answer. We know it is a tax. On who. ON WHO. At what point can one not defend themselves. Is it worth missing work? Well statistically you know the answer. That is why you stole $500.00 from me. You and your soldiers.
18 hours ago · Like
Christine M. Hansen Must be hard to hear truth from the common people. I heard all her lies at the forum tonight – RECALL QUAN!
16 hours ago · Like · 1
Colm Quinn Oakland has already lost my business and will continue to do so until it’s safe to go there and the city has decent leadership.
14 hours ago · Like
Grace Kwok hang in there, stay your course….
13 hours ago · Like · 1
Sara R. Wynne I’m glad the East Bay Express article says that the media and others wrongly pointed fingers at Quan for chief Batts’ departure… in hindsight. Good riddance to Batts, from what I can see. Sorry to see Quan disabling her fb page because of all the vitriol and disgusting messages posted here. Why can’t people explain their points civilly…a few do, but …..
13 hours ago · Like · 1
Esta Noche BTW.. to all of you complaining people aren’t “being civil”
How civil is it to beat people and turn chemical and explosive weapons at them? She deserves to be in prison… or tried for treason with the MAXIMUM penalty.
12 hours ago · Like · 2
Patti Rich people of the year ..PROTESTORS .. and you call the police on them ..WTH … you have some nerve talking about your youth in berkeley ..you lost touch w the pulse of the community … the 99% is full of mental health, substance abuse issues, and hungry ..your job is to take care of these people …not mace them
12 hours ago · Like · 3
Laurel McNeil ‎@ Patti Rich: Before you get too self-congratulatory you should know that Time’s “Person of the Year” is chosen on the basis of the person(s) who most affected events. Not necessarily on the basis of those who most affected events positively. As for Frank Ogawa Plaza being “yours”, yes. Of course it is. It is also mine. And my neighbor’s. And we are required to share it with Oakland’s other 397,000 residents, not allow it to be seized for the exclusive use of the .001% of Oakland residents who make up the Occupation.
4 hours ago · Like · 3
Brendan Baker I would delete my facebook page too to get away from the annoying, ignorant protesters
3 hours ago · Like
Robert Camacho Thank you for all that you do Mayor Quan, you will always have our support. Rob n Tim.
52 minutes ago · Like

The Mayor does reserve the right to take down offensive comments. It’s clear that the staff doesn’t have the time, or perhaps does not take the time, to manage the Mayor’s online properties. Social Media is something you have to give time for, not just “be in.” The Mayor’s exacerbated her own bad PR with how poorly her social media effort has been handled.

By Zennie Abraham

Zennie Abraham | Zennie Abraham or "Zennie62" is the founder of Zennie62Media which consists of zennie62blog.com and a multimedia blog news aggregator and video network, and 78-blog network, with social media and content development services and consulting. Zennie is a pioneer video blogger, YouTube Partner, social media practitioner, game developer, and pundit. Note: news aggregator content does not reflect the personal views of Mr. Abraham.

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