How airlines are benefiting from social media
There’s an in-depth piece here about how North American airlines are using Facebook and Twitter as a customer service channel.
After the terrorist attempt at Christmas the US authorities issued a security alert, which most airlines passed on to their customers through vaguely-worded statements, warning them to expect new security measures. By contrast, Canada’s low-cost operator WestJet posted regular tweets on Twitter, which enabled it to provide more details about the security measures and respond to customers’ concerns in real time. These followers retweeted the information to their social networks via the Internet and mobile phone. The company’s Facebook page carried discussion about the new measures.
Twitter is also being used for promotion by North American airlines. JetBlue Airways claims over 1.6 million followers and last year ran a promotion offering unlimited travel for a month. United Airlines offers special fares called ‘Twares’ to its 51,000 followers on Twitter.
But few airlines use social media as effectively as Southwest Airlines, which runs a highly active blog, containing news, photos and videos about the company and its marketing activities, to generate content for Twitter and Facebook.
See the full article here.
