Social Media is Hot over Iceland Ash

The immediacy and community of social media benefitted many of the millions of stranded travellers across Europe and the world. Sitting around in an airport is never fun. I have had my share of long layovers and having access to other people rather than running amok in a terminal was really a Godsend. I was never as unfortunate (knock on wood) as the "victims" of the Icelandic ash vs flightplans, but I can well imagine how having a channel to the outside world, to tips and help would lend to maintaining one's sanity in the face of uncertainty, especially after several days.

The Survival Guide page was one such page created on Facebook, where already over 1600 persons have been offering tips, advice and using the space for frustrated discussion.

Not only was it an opportunity for travellers to connect with each other and share their experiences and gripes, but it also afforded many of them the opportunity to find accomodation and support from others. On Twitter, hashtags like #getmehome, #putmeup and #stranded have provided tweeters with dozens of links to available hotel rooms, guest rooms, people willing to put up the stranded in a spare room of their private homes, etc.

The uncertainty lately with flightplans, with strikes and acts of God have made it even more important for social media to play bigger roles in the tourism and hospitality industry. Their crisis management plans not only kicked into high gear but also took to the cyberverse in a big way. Communication in this instance needed to be immediate and ongoing, with so many people being affected and taken completely by surprise. Not knowing when you're going to be seeing your home, your dog, your 2.5 kids because you're stuck in a foreign country can only exacerbate an already tenuous scenario. Twitter sites from airlines and hotels lit up like flash bulbs when news of the ash cloud stopping flights first dropped. Tweets and DMs have been going back and forth between airline representatives and passengers, as one can imagine. Despite not being stranded anywhere myself, I still took time to tweet @British_Airways yesterday on something related to the ash and their tweeters are on the ball, though it must be an extremely tough time for them all at the moment - passengers and airlines alike.

This Facebook group is just one of many which was formed within hours of the closure of European airspace to offer solace to passengers stranded miles from home in New Zealand.

There have also been a number of people who have used the opportunity to blog about their experience, from sitting in an airport terminal, to looking for more comfortable accomodation, trying to reach family in other cities, and the long, convuluted journeys home. Nadia El-Awady chronicled her Icelandic ash "adventures" in her blog, Inner Workings of my Mind. There are many more and which would be excellent reading, I am sure.

The silver lining in this ash cloud is that we are reminded that community still exists and though we use social media everyday for idle chatter or for business/marketing, we only fully appreciate how powerful social media communities really are in times of crisis. The help which many of the stranded have been able to get simply by logging on to Facebook or Twitter or Roadsharing via their laptops or their mobile phones, is testament to how important social media has become in our daily lives and how it can connect us to people we never imagined we would need to be connected to. Had this happened back in the 90's or maybe even 3-5 years ago, when social networking had not yet gripped our senses, I can only guess that the chaos experienced by those left behind would have been multiplied by 10,000. Here's hoping everyone gets back home safely in coming days and weeks.

Here is a really cool story about a webcam wedding which happened as a result of the bride and groom being stranded. Congrats to them. Ahh...technology. Isn't it great?

Red Carpet Customer Service and PR

Yes, it is Carnival Tuesday and yes, I am at home, in my jammies, blogging. I did not anticipate I would be on the blog, but minus that I would not have had this day any other way.

So though I have been offline from the world of news and important stuff, I had some time off from vegging last night to catch up on news and came upon the Southwest Airlines/Kevin Smith situation. Talk about drama. I was not on the plane and cannot say whether the situation was handled badly or not, nor determine whether the airline was really in the wrong. But someone asked me whether the LUV airline  would have responded so quickly to Kevin Jones, from Nowhere, USA or Nowhere, Trinidad.

I think the fact that they are even using social media should signal that they are actively trying to monitor customer experiences, for better or worse, and proactively address them. The fact that Kevin Smith is a celebrity, with over a million followers on Twitter and the fact that his rants were relentless (he tweeted from beginning to end, and after, and also did an entire podcast on the event...I mean really!)  just made the situation a PR nightmare for Southwest. One look at their Twitter page and these guys are busy keeping on top of the tweets in which they are mentioned.

Customers also need to remember that often there is only so much a PR person can do in the blink of an eye. When an incident unfolds, in an area far removed physically from the team, or out of their sphere of expertise, ultimately any good PR person would need to first get the facts, find out exactly what has transpired from the relevant sources within the company and otherwise, all before giving the disgruntled, often impatient customer some feedback. In my own role as professional tweeter, I often do not have all the answers and have to either forward a request to the relevant persons or do some research in order to ensure accuracy of information being given to a customer. Depending on the nature of the request, I cannot always guarantee an answer within 30 mins, or an hour, but I let the customer know that I am working on it and he/she usually gets a response.

BUT the key is to always let the customer know that you're listening and that each and every piece of feedback, for better or worse, is important to you. Communications is not just about talking and getting defensive, but allowing the channel to be interactive and giving the customer not only a voice but more importantly the opportunity to be heard. I have called customers, or dropped them an email, while I wait for an answer to their issue to let them know their feedback is truly important and is being actioned so they do not think it's pointless sending a DM, a tweet, or leaving a comment. It does not matter whether the customer is a housewife watching soaps or a CEO. It has to be equal opportunity day, everyday, with customer service, customer feedback and followup.

The fact that Kevin Smith's tirade would surely have been a catalyst for swift(er) action from the Luv folks. I don't look at it as responding to him any faster because he is a celebrity, but responding to him to manage a very volatile situation - one that quickly had the attention of millions and millions of people, many of them Luv customers. You want to minimise the damage done to your brand as much as possible and the truth is noone knows about Kevin Jones. Does it mean he is not being attended to? No. It means you're probably just not hearing about it. Maybe his 103 followers know about it, including the spammers, but that may be as far as it goes. His audience and his sphere of influence may just not be wide enough to make the news or "make the web" in this case. It's natural for the louder voice to get a bit more attention, and ultimately because he is louder, he would also be more visible and inevitably a greater risk to your brand.

Just wanted to say though, Luv's "Not so Silent Bob" post - the title alone makes me cringe cause it immediately, in my mind, makes the "victim", the bad guy. I did not feel the title, Luv, and this was before I even read the post. It really does not suggest any empathy with the passenger and almost mocks him. I would have taken it the wrong way if I were Mr Smith. The other entry is much more conciliatory and even-keeled and clearly underlines the point that though we are humans and get snarky, we should really take a moment, count to 10, have a cookie or a glass of Pinot, and not act in the heat of the moment. The Not So Silent Bob reference was snarky, to say the least. Bad idea.

Anyway...

I am not a Luv customer but I have used social media to raise concerns about the airlines I do use and always have gotten a response. Same goes for the other companies I follow using social media. They are out there trying to keep the communications channels open and if they're not, you better believe they find out the hard way. Would Kevin Jones have gotten a phone call from a Southwest VP? I am not sure. I do not know enough about the company's culture to say yay or nay, but I have no doubt Kevin Jones, in an age where negative comments can circulate with a single (re)tweet, blog post, or status update, would have gotten some type of response. If not, then that company would need to immediately review its social media "strategy", if you dare call it that.

Back to vegging.