Usage of Social Media In Airline industry Contd..

5) FOR AIRLINES, NEW
CUSTOMER RELATIONS
STRATEGIES ARE NOW
ESSENTIAL, REGARDLESS OF
ENGAGEMENT WITH SOCIAL
MEDIA OUTLETS. The pointed end
of social media is Twitter and instant
messaging – positively, for its potential
use in customer relations, marketing
and selling and – negatively, for its
ability to magnify problems which are
not well handled.

6) TWITTER IS A WAKE-UP
CALL TO IMPROVE MINI-CRISIS
COMMUNICATIONS. This medium
allows the communication process to be
followed back up the communications-
operations chain (and across an airline’s
“silos”). That trail can then be retraced
back down the line – keeping frontline
staff in the picture.

7) PASSENGERS FEEL
EMPOWERED IF THEY KNOW
WHAT’S GOING ON – and best they
hear it directly from the horse’s mouth
than from other dissatisfied passengers
sitting around in the informational
dark. Every “crisis” becomes a great
opportunity to shine with sensible use of
the new media.

8) DON’T USE SOCIAL MEDIA
TO TRY TO CHANGE YOUR
IMAGE WITHOUT CHANGING
YOUR FUNDAMENTALS. What
works for a fresh young LCC often won’t
work for a long-established legacy
airline, even where it has recognised
that Twitter or Facebook are for real.
And the old maxim applies – don’t overpromise and under-deliver. Upscaling
some of the current initiatives will
become impossible as one-to-one
communications propositions.