When it comes down to the airline industry and Twitter, there is a huge aisle between those who have embraced the medium and those who are trying to largely ignore its importance. If you study how different airlines use Twitter, it serves to teach us about the power of transparency and the impact Twitter has had on an individual industry.
My own personal study of airlines using Twitter came about because I was curious how my old employers (United and Delta) were playing in this space. The results were both surprising and predictable at the same time. Both airlines I worked for were very conservative. Its hurt them in this space. Read on.
The first airline that really embraced Twitter was @jetblue. Their first tweet was in July of 2007. Since then, they have built a following of over 1.5 million followers who tweet a mix of questions, praise and complaints every day. The employees that monitor the account answer all of these questions and even the negative comments immediately and with answers. Tough questions are usually jetted to a Direct Message status.
To further demonstrate the power of Twitter has for JetBlue, they ran an All You Can Jet pass special this summer which sold out 36 hours before the deadline to sign up directly because of Twitter. A JetBlue spokesman, is quoted as saying, “Within minutes (of the Tweet), we could see the response start to trickle in…We were just watching the hits come in on Twitter. They were coming in by the dozens. It really got its jumpstart in the social media world.” JetBlue always has someone monitoring the account and they are able to help passengers and curious travelers with questions. Customers rave about JetBlue's Twitter campaign and a lot of news stories have been written about the company embracing their tweets and the company has gone on to build other Twitter accounts like @jetbluecheeps which posts deals.
On the other side of things, it was a shock to learn @deltaairlines didn't have the foresight to set up their own Twitter account. A vendor did it for them and offered to run the account. The account was then abandoned in June of 2009, then picked up again by Delta in December. (Take a look at the dates below.)
Delta has a following of only 16,000. A Delta insider also shared with me the airline had to actually fight Twitter to get the account back under their control. The fact that no one was keeping up with the account for 6 months hurt them and they lost both trust and followers. They are desperately trying to make up for lost time. Delta has a lot of ground to cover to win back the trust of those who followed the account from the beginning.
Delta is not prepared to use Twitter as a customer service tool although they are setting up a listening station within their company to better serve customers in the future. Delta claims not to have enough people to keep up with the number of tweets which I find pretty funny. They have a ready-made in-house staff of experts in their reservations department (I used to be one!) or airport customer service department who would gladly help. Also, the airlines slow down after evening hours on normal operating days. Surely there would be people willing and available to take over 3 8-hour shifts or even 6 4-hour shifts. Excuses, excuses. This is a perfect case of how companies who are unwilling to embrace social media and didn't form a plan early on are getting left behind.
Content matters as well as regular posts. @southwestair is winning at the social media game with almost 1 million followers. Their upbeat posts and funny pictures keep passengers as entertained as they are on their flights. Here's one of a first flyer posted today http://tweetphoto.com/8091291. They even point out great places to eat in various cities. @unitedairlines comes in with only 43,000 followers. Most of their posts are about their promotions, bad weather and flight delays. This goes without saying, but positive posts will get more followers on social media and more interest in general. Content is still, very much, king.
Airlines using Twitter as a social media tool is a tough case study. They have to deal with a lot of things most companies don't have to worry about like people missing flights because of outside circumstances beyond their control, moving personal belongings from one place to another, policies enforced by government and strict airport and airline safety regulations. Being transparent is a balancing act they have to perform every day. Its not always straightforward and can be hard to control. The fact that almost all major airlines have risked their reputation by embracing public opinion on Twitter is a huge step. Its something most business owners can learn from.
All in all, when it comes to Twitter and the airlines, it seems the players that got in the game early are reaping the rewards and have flown onto other platforms like Facebook and YouTube to rule the social media skies. (Pun intended.) It will be interesting to watch how airline revenues will or will not be affected by this new transparency in the future. If you're still using the worn out excuse that your company doesn't have time or doesn't want to risk its reputation on Twitter, you might want to rethink your strategy before you miss your flight and your competition leaves you behind.
