JEDDAH: A Twitter handle mix-up has caused a New Jersey man to gain over 4,000 followers from Saudi Arabia in the past 24 hours.
The handle of the Jersey resident, St. Chris, goes by the same name as that of a known Saudi telecommunication company STC, which became the cause for all confusion.
“Yesterday, if I’d realized that my Twitter account would gain 4,000 followers from Saudi Arabia in the span of 24 hours, I’d have written a nice blog post for you to come here and read — maybe spruced up the graphics for Retina displays and such,” St. Chris wrote on his blog yesterday.
“I hate to disappoint an audience— particularly an audience larger than I’ve ever had in my life — so I’ll write something worthwhile. Might take a few days before I really have the time. Meanwhile, I’ll still be on Twitter. This is pretty amazing and fun,” he said.
St. Chris was bombarded in no time with queries from phone users in Saudi Arabia requesting customer service.
User @ceilck tweeted: You’re a Saudi Telecomm company? We should catch up! Let me know when your customer service agents are done assisting other friends.
Interestingly, with St. Chris’ picture up on his Twitter page, it is clear that many knew he is not in any way related to the telecom company yet they kept tweeting to him, joking and asking him to “provide better services.”
Overwhelmed with the sudden attention from an unlikely country, the Jersey resident tweeted: “Okay, NOW I have to learn Arabic so I can read everyone’s answers.”
One of his followers replied: “From now I am ready to teach you an Arabic words...one word per day, to communicate with your Saudi audience! Are you ready?”
“One word a day? I think I can handle that. Anymore and my head might explode,” St. Chris shot back.
St. Chris, who describes himself in his Twitter bio as: “I am neither a Saudi phone company nor a shopping mall in Jakarta, but I’m pleased to make your acquaintance,” is clearly enjoying all the attention.
“Good night / good morning to all my friends in Saudi Arabia and all the other places you live. Be good to yourselves” was his last tweet at the time this report went to press.
