Australian airline Qantas has seen a string of social media ‘fails’ in the last several months, the latest being a Twitter contest labeled the “Hindenburg of of social media strategies” by one irate tweeter. How did Qantas manage to embroil itself in such social media hot water, and then continue to make the situation worse? And what can the beleaguered airline do to resurrect its reputation with frustrated customers? Read →
Gone are the days of sending off complaints via snail mail and waiting 6-8 weeks for a reply. Now, customers can shoot off a 140-character tweet and expect a reply within minutes. New research by Maritz shows that nearly half of those who tweet a complaint at a brand expected the company to read and respond to their tweet. Read →
A recent study by Amplicate, a tracker of social media sentiment, ranked airlines by the number of positive and negative social media comments. Overall, 57% of comments about US airlines on social media in the past year were negative. But American Airlines – the world’s fourth largest airline – stood out with only 12% of social media opinions about the airline being positive. Read →
ABC Network just launched Pan-Am, a new show about the 1960′s stewardesses and pilots on the famous airline. Social media played a huge part in promoting the new series, and Lost Remote interviewed Marla Provencio, Executive Vice President of Marketing for ABC, about how social elements figured into the launch. Read →
There’s no question that Virgin America has embraced technology and social media. Referred to as a “snazzy airline” by Mashable, it has a plane named by hashtag (#nerdbird), was the first airline to offer free Wi-Fi fleetwide and outlets near every seat, and has run promotions using social media platforms as diverse as Twitter, Foursquare, Loopt, Groupon and Klout. Read →
TWTRCON SF 2010 will be a one-day total immersion in the case studies, the practical skills and the tools that companies need to stay at the cutting edge of the real-time web. We’ve added a lot of beefy content for the November 18 event (download a PDF of the full agenda here), but the heart [...] Read →
TechCrunch reports that a Loopt promotion Virgin America promotion appears to have been extremely succesful. On Tuesday, August 31, 2010, Virgin America and location network Loopt partnered to offer two-for-one tickets from California to Cancun or Los Cabos. To earn the deal, customers had to check in on Loopt at SFO, LAX, or at one [...] Read →
Part 1: Marty St. George, Senior Vice President of Marketing & Commercial Strategy at JetBlue Airways, speaks about how and why JetBlue began to use social media. He presents the challenge of creating a successful marketing plan in the airline industry, which traditionally isn’t rated well with consumers. Read →
A growing number of frequent fliers are using their mobile devices to create an informal travelers’ community in airports and aloft, thanks to the ubiquity of WiFi. Airlines are finding it a money-maker, by encouraging social media activity in the air through its fee-based WiFi on planes. More than 10 airlines in North America, including [...] Read →
The Associated Press says that while airfares generally are higher these days, last-minute sales that ask you to fly at a moment’s notice are popping up everywhere. And, thanks to Facebook and Twitter, those sales should last all summer, according to the AP’s interview with Rick Seaney of FareCompare.com. Airlines have realized the potential free marketing that [...] Read →