Best instances of social media being used by airlines and airports to tackle crises, keep customers informed in real-time and allay panic.
If you work in an airline or airport organisation and wish to download the slides, please email contact@simpliflying.com
3. Keeping people informed
When
a
crisis
takes
place
the
single
most
important
thing
to
keep
in
mind
is
the
need
to
provide
a
constant
flow
of
informa7on.
In
November
2011
when
a
LOT
767
suffered
a
landing
gear
malfunc7on,
Warsaw
airport’s
social
media
team
gave
a
text
book
demonstra7on
of
how
social
media
can
be
used
in
a
crisis.
www.SimpliFlying.com
4. Using social media to reach more people
With
the
emergency
situa7on
being
broadcasted
live
on
TV
the
airport’s
call
center
and
website
were
overloaded
but
the
social
media
team
was
able
to
use
both
Facebook
and
TwiLer
to
keep
users
informed
of
the
situa7on,
thus
easing
the
load
on
“tradi7onal”
channels.
www.SimpliFlying.com
5. Avoiding the spread of false rumors
Furthermore,
social
media
allowed
the
airport
to
engage
users
into
conversa7ons
and
provide
more
accurate
informa7on
thus
avoiding
the
spread
of
false
rumors/info
and
ul7mately
improving
the
user
experience
www.SimpliFlying.com
7. Ice pellets vs Aircrafts
When
a
storm
hits
an
airline’s
major
hub
it
is
reasonable
to
expect
some
flight
delays.
However,
what
if
that
storm
happens
to
carry
golf-‐ball-‐
sized
ice
pellets,
and
damages
one
third
of
their
fleet?
The
solu7on
was
found
by
Fron7er
Airlines
in
social
media.
www.SimpliFlying.com
8. Two easy steps
The
airline
knew
from
the
start
that
a
lot
of
passengers
were
going
to
arrive
at
the
airport
only
to
find
out
that
their
flights
had
been
cancelled.
In
order
to
reduce
the
nega7ve
sen7ments,
they
started
using
social
media
to
disseminate
informa7on.
Step
1:
Keeping
people
informed
It
reduced
stress
and
helped
customers
understand
what
was
going
on.
www.SimpliFlying.com
9. Listen, Empower, Engage.
They
also
knew
that
passengers
were,
understandably,
going
to
be
angry
and
complain
about
it
on
the
social
web.
So
they
used
Radian
6
to
track
down
any
men7on
of
Fron7er
and
address
the
complaints.
Step
2:
Being
proac@ve
and
empowering
their
social
media
team
The
employees
were
empowered
to
help
customers
re-‐book
their
flights
through
TwiLer
and
Facebook.
www.SimpliFlying.com
11. Eyjafjallajökull
In
April
2010
the
unpronounceable
name
of
the
Icelandic
volcano
EyjaXallajökull
suddenly
became,
for
all
the
wrong
reasons,
a
very
familiar
one,
especially
for
the
eyes
and
ears
of
airline
staff
and
passengers.
Thankfully
however,
at
exactly
the
Vs.
same
7me,
and
this
7me
for
the
right
reasons,
a
TwiLer
handle
also
became
famous
www.SimpliFlying.com
12. A reference point for all stakeholders
While
several
airlines
did
a
good
job
at
keeping
their
customers
informed,
it
was
the
@eurocontrol
TwiLer
handle
that
provided
the
most
up
to
date
informa7on
on
the
crisis.
Furthermore,
since
most
of
the
tradi7onal
lines
of
communica7on
were
heavily
overloaded
it
became
an
important
reference
point
for
airlines,
airports
and
their
staff.
www.SimpliFlying.com
13. Constant crisis management
Since
the
volcano
crisis
the
@eurocontrol
handle
has
become
a
reference
point
for
air
travel
disrup7on
in
Europe
and
in
recent
7mes
it
has
handled,
amongst
others,
the
following
crises:
Ø North
African
revolu@ons
and
subsequent
airspace
closures
Ø “surprise”
strike
from
Spanish
air
traffic
controllers
Ø
Greek
strikes
and
frequent
ATC
delays
Ø
Italian
volcano
(mount
Etna)
Ø
Portuguese
strikes
Ø
Italian
strikes
www.SimpliFlying.com
14. Engagement and sense of humor
Furthermore,
it
has
managed
to
engage
users
by
interac7ng
with
them
and
even
proving
to
have
a
good
sense
of
humor
as
demonstrated
by
the
tweets
below:
www.SimpliFlying.com
16. A Viral Crisis
Some7mes
even
a
simple
misunderstanding
can
cause
havoc,
especially
if
it
involves
passengers
that
are
either
famous
or
highly
respected
by
the
general
public,
as
Delta
Air
Lines
found
out
when
this
video
went
viral:
www.SimpliFlying.com
17. Mostly negative comments across the board
Delta
received
3.5X
as
many
men7ons
on
TwiLer
as
all
other
US
airlines
combined,
on
8
June
2011,
and
8X
their
normal
men7ons!
The
story
peaked
between
4pm-‐5pm
ET
on
June
8,
2011,
with
over
800
TwiLer
men7ons
an
hour
www.SimpliFlying.com
18. Delta posted a response through a blog post
Despite
a
public
apology
and
policy
change
to
accommodate
more
bags,
emo7onal
comments
were
received,
almost
all
nega7ve
www.SimpliFlying.com
20. Why Delta did the best job they could
1. This
was
a
Bizarre
crisis
–
Unexpected
and
something
Delta
probably
never
thought
of
2. This
was
a
baggage
policy
all
airlines
in
the
US
followed,
not
just
Delta
(and
most
changed
it
following
Delta’s
lead)
3. Delta
was
fast
in
responding
–
within
2
hours
of
the
topic
peaking
on
tradi7onal
and
social
media
4. The
response
was
not
through
a
press
release,
but
done
on
a
blog
–
which
is
indeed
the
appropriate
response
to
a
YouTube
video
5. Delta
made
sure
that
the
response
was
personal,
with
the
author
rela7ng
personal
stories
6. An
update
was
provided
on
the
blog
itself,
based
on
the
ini7al
comments
received
7. The
detractors
weren’t
providing
construc7ve
feedback.
Most
were
emo7onal
rants,
hence
didn’t
need
regular
responses
www.SimpliFlying.com
22. What seems to be just another take off…
The
problem
with
crises
is
that
there
are
not
usually
any
warning
signs
and
when
a
normal
take
off
turns
into
something
like
the
one
shown
below,
only
a
good
plan
and
an
effec7ve
social
media
team
can
help
manage
the
public
rela7ons
side
of
the
airport
closure.
www.SimpliFlying.com
23. Immediate reaction
In
Yeager
Airport’s
case
the
key
to
the
successful
handling
of
the
situa7on
was
the
ability
of
the
social
media
team
to
immediately
start
informing
through
both
Facebook
and
TwiLer
by
using
their
already
established
accounts.
www.SimpliFlying.com
24. Images and press releases
Interes7ngly
the
airport
was
also
able
to
provide
images
of
the
situa7on
and
several
were
later
used
by
the
media.
Furthermore
it
also
managed
to
send
out
press
releases
and
contact
the
media
using
TwiLer.
www.SimpliFlying.com
27. A recipe for disaster
In-‐flight
engine
failures
are
drama7c
enough
by
themselves,
however
we
can
only
speculate
on
what
must
have
gone
through
Qantas’
social
media
team’s
minds
when
they
discovered
that
a
huge
twiLer
celebrity,
Stephen
Fry,
was
on
board
the
diverted
A380…
and
that
he
was
twee7ng
to
his
3.5
Million
followers!
www.SimpliFlying.com
28. Timing is of the essence
When
influen7al
users
are
on
board
a
diverted
or
delayed
flight,
fast
response
7mes
are
essen7al
and
they
can
only
be
achieved
through
a
constant
and
effec7ve
monitoring
of
the
social
media
men7ons
of
the
company’s
brand.
In
this
case
Qantas’
social
media
team
proved
to
be
alert
and
was
able
to
react
quickly.
www.SimpliFlying.com
29. A well-executed recovery!
As
it
turns
out
Stephen
Fry
wasn’t
only
upset
for
the
delay
but
had
also
lek
his
wallet
on
the
plane…
Thankfully
Qantas’s
response
team
was
listening
and
managed
to
reunite
the
wallet
with
his
owner,
provoking
a
very
posi7ve
reac7on.
Overall
the
Social
media
team
manage
to:
•
Reduce
anger
by
reac7ng
quickly
and
being
proac7ve
•
Get
a
powerful
TwiLer
influencer
on
their
side
www.SimpliFlying.com
31. It all started with a phone call
In
august
2010
an
anonymous
phone
call
alerted
of
an
alleged
terrorist
plot
to
hijack
an
American
Airlines
aircrak.
When
the
call
was
received
the
plane
was
about
to
take
off,
filled
with
passengers
and…
mobile
phones
connected
to
TwiLer!
www.SimpliFlying.com
32. Live Tweeting
Following
the
emergency
protocols,
the
aircrak
was
grounded
and
passenger
were
not
allowed
to
disembark
un7l
the
police
had
cleared
them
to
do
so.
Within
minutes
several
passengers
started
twee7ng
the
crisis
live
from
inside
the
aircrak
providing
a
very
detailed
account
of
everything
that
happened
inside
and
around
the
aircrak.
www.SimpliFlying.com
33. Taking control of the situation
Soon
mainstream
media
spo:ed
the
tweets
and
started
using
them
broadcast
live
developments
of
the
situa>on.
The
AA
social
media
team
realized
what
was
happening
and
immediately
intervened
by
engaging
the
users
who
were
twee7ng
from
inside
the
aircrak
and,
at
the
same
7me,
providing
clear
and
accurate
informa7on
on
the
situa7on
www.SimpliFlying.com
35. A single tweet = hundreds of angry fans
In
September
2011
Green
Day
singer
Billie
Joe
Armstrong
was
removed
from
a
Southwest
Airlines
plane
for
refusing
to
hike
his
pants
higher
and
asking
the
flight
aLendant
if
she
didn’t
have
anything
beLer
to
worry
about.
Sarcas@c
tweets
Posts
on
SWA’s
wall
+
Crea@on
o
f
a
Facebook
G
roup
www.SimpliFlying.com
36. Negative sentiment increases
The
nega7ve
tweet
by
Billie
Joe
caused
an
increase
in
nega7ve
comments
as
can
be
seen
in
this
sen7ment
graph
elaborated
by
posi7on2
www.SimpliFlying.com
37. Quick reaction = Crisis Over
However
Southwest
Airlines’
team
was
quick
to
react
issuing
an
apology
that
was
followed
by
a
drop
in
nega7ve
sen7ment
and
a
number
of
suppor7ng
tweets
by
SWA
fans.
www.SimpliFlying.com
39. A Snowy Christmas Season
Having
a
winter
holiday
season
with
plenty
of
snow
is
perhaps
one
of
the
most
typical
pre-‐holiday
wishes,
however
during
the
2010
season
it
turned
into
a
nightmare
for
thousands
of
passengers
who
were
lek
stranded
at
London
Heathrow
Airport
by
a
snowstorm
that
forced
airlines
to
cancel
hundreds
of
flights.
www.SimpliFlying.com
40. Huge Twitter customer service effort during disruption!
Virgin
proac7vely
broadcasted
key
messages
to
their
social
following
as
well
as
answering
as
many
individual
passenger
ques7ons
as
possible.
This
peaked
at
more
than
460
tweets,
1,950
comments
and
posts
and
almost
1
million
post
views
on
Facebook
up
to
the
19th
December.
The
social
team
worked
in
8
hour
shiks
to
cover
a
24*7,
one-‐on-‐one
response.
At
its
peak,
they
were
handling
a
TwiLer
response
every
20-‐30
seconds.
www.SimpliFlying.com
41. Special chartered flight to repatriate US travellers
for Christmas, FREE!
Since this decision was taken
hurriedly, Twitter and Facebook
were used to inform stranded
customers of the option.
Virgin filled the plane by actively
promoting the flight on Twitter for
several hours. They achieved Top
Tweet status resulting in filling
450 aircraft seats in 7 hours.
The fully-loaded flight left on time
and the customers got back to
New York in time to meet their
family and friends for Christmas.
This was a first for any airline.
www.SimpliFlying.com
42. Virgin’s integrated communication strategy
Trough
social
media
Virgin
was
not
only
able
to
fill
a
747
in
just
7
hours,
but
was
also
capable
of
maintaining
a
posi7ve
brand
image
by
being
proac7ve
and
keeping
people
informed
about
the
development
of
a
situa7on
over
which
they
had
liLle
control.
www.SimpliFlying.com
44. Immediate response
On
the
19th
of
July
2011,
a
heavy
storm
hit
the
town
of
Akron,
Ohio,
flooding
the
airport’s
basement
and
shuqng
off
power
to
the
terminal,
forcing
it
to
cancel
all
commercial
flights.
The
airport’s
social
media
team
sprung
into
ac7on
and
immediately
started
twee7ng
all
the
available
informa7on.
www.SimpliFlying.com
45. Twitter focus
Interes7ngly,
the
airport
chose
to
focus
on
twiLer
as
it
provided
a
more
direct
line
of
communica7on
with
the
affected
passengers
and
the
was
a
powerful
news
spreading
tool
as
it
is
monitored
by
mainstream
media.
www.SimpliFlying.com
46. Visualizing Teamwork
Furthermore
the
airport
was
able
to
show
its
efforts
to
solve
the
situa7on
by
tweets
and
Facebook
posts
showcasing
photos
of
its
staff
members
hard
at
work
to
fix
the
situa7on.
One
of
them
even
featured
their
CEO
inspec7ng
machinery
in
the
Airport’s
basement.
www.SimpliFlying.com