Simpliflying.com: Imperatives for Airline Social Media Policy

With Dave Carroll’s third public spanking of United Airlines just around the corner, and yesterday’s sudden, incendiary hoopla over Southwest’s eviction of actor/director Kevin Smith from an L.A.-bound flight, it appears that the airline industry still hasn’t learned the most important lessons concerning the implications of social media on the reputations of large companies.

Over at Simpliflying.com, Rachel Levy provides guidance at the 20,000-foot level in her excellent blog post “Five Imperatives For Your Airline’s Social Media Policy.” Job #1 is, of course, to 1) thoroughly understand the external and internal business implications of social networking, and then 2) articulate a policy regarding the use of social networking in the workplace (including customer-facing functions), and as a business tool.

Today, Rachel drills down with more detail in her post “Must-Have Elements for Your Airline’s or Airport’s Social Media Policy.” Her points are excellent, but geared toward internal use of social media, in the workplace, by employees. Employees can certainly benefit (even if in corporate self-defense) from a coherent policy that helps them avoid messaging, on or off the job, that might harm or embarrass their employer, even unintentionally. But it is the external, customer-facing dimension that is potentially most problematic, and any corporate social networking strategy or policy that doesn’t anticipate this will fail at some point.

Now, I’ll share with you a bit of common knowledge that doesn’t get mentioned nearly enough: The advent of Web 2.0 technologies beginning in about 2004 means that it is easier than ever for almost every computer-literate, network-connected individual to have his or her own stage and a shot at 5 minutes of fame.

The plain truth about social media content is that 99% of it is uninteresting to 99% of the people who stumble on to it. The remaining 2% of content that pools up at the top gets its surface tension from savvy, passionate content-producers whose convincing messages resonate with wide swaths of individuals who may be anywhere in the world. (“United Breaks Guitars,” anyone?) That content-producing passion is most likely to break from a connected individual who has just been disserviced, or who is just plain pissed-off (as with Southwest Airlines and Kevin Smith).

The airlines (all large-volume service providers, actually) need to learn a lesson from retail.

The majority of large retailers learned long ago to adopt quiet, understated return policies that avoid arguing with customers, at the risk of very public displays of hate and discontent in the store or marketplace. It is easier to satisfy a single angry customer, at the moment and at almost any cost, than it is to regain the loyalty and trust of a bunch of watchful bystanders. It is the simple truth behind the old proverb “The customer is always right.” This bit of foundational wisdom needs to be modernized and folded into the social networking strategies and policies of the airline industry, and taught to every front-line employee who interacts with customers.

More from www.ex-united.com

• A Dave Carroll/ United Breaks Guitars Update: Song 3, March 2
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• “United Breaks Guitars” Goes to Washington