Five ways airlines can tame Twitter – Jesse Engle of CoTweet shares his expertise

Posted on November 11, 2009, 5:05 am, by Shashank Nigam Comments Comments

Twitter is the latest rage, and companies are flocking to it in hordes. Half of Fortune 100 companies are already on Twitter. Helping put some order to the chaos is Jesse Engle’s CoTweet – a startup that has caught the eye of big Twitter corporate players like Ford and JetBlue. CoTweet helps frontline staff collaborate in real-time conversations with the customers. And it comes packed with workflow and CRM-type tools.

How can airlines tame Twitter?

Twitter is different when it comes to branding and connecting with your customers. Twitter is all about earning the right to be heard, as opposed to putting a list of people together and sending them an email. And this is why a number of brands struggle with it.

When I met Jesse at the Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston last month, I thought he’d be the best person to talk about how airlines can get on-board this latest craze and actually master it. And he sure obliged to my request.

Watch the full interview (8:30 mins) to hear Jesse explain:

  • How airlines with little money or resources can get started on Twitter (1:07)
  • How to set up an initial team to handle Twitter (1:30)
  • How to listen well on Twitter (1:50)
  • How many minimum hours per week are needed for managing Twitter (2:10)
  • How to deal with irrelevant “noise” on Twitter (3:05)
  • Should an airline’s Twitter profile be personal or corporate? (4:20)
  • How to scale up Twitter “operations” once they start going well? (5:20)
  • Why we should talk to Morgan Johnston from JetBlue =p (5:31)
  • What does a successful Twitter strategy look like? (6:25)
  • What’re the future opportunities on Twitter (7:28)
  • If airlines can manage frequent fliers through Twitter (7:57)

So, what do you think about airlines’ efforts on Twitter branding? Do you think Jesse’s suggestions make sense? Let’s discuss in the comments or over on Twitter (@simpliflying)

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  • vimalrai
    Hi Shashank. Great interview. My thoughts are as follows : I'm not sure airlines today really "know" what it means to be "successful" on Twitter. Hence most probably don't even truly understand the value of being on Twitter. As much as it is an "opt-in" platform for social interaction by the user, I think most airlines are probably too scared to opt out! Hence they are "on" Twitter by default. Jesse hints at what could constitute "success" on Twitter. The question really is - are airlines set up administratively and technologically today to do what he is recommending ? Do we (as airlines) feel it necessary or sufficient to respond to tweets on baggage delays, rude service etc ? Can we manage the load of responding to such tweets ? Does it actually constitute a "response" from an airline (legally and morally) ? And suppose someone tweets abt a service lapse, we have to remember the human responding to the tweet and the human who needs to engage in service recovery are physically miles apart. So how useful - REALLY - is Twitter ?
  • sumitroy
    Another a great interview, Shashank
  • awardtravelguide
    Thanks for this -- I know of few cases where airlines have used Twitter during irreg ops, but most are relatively passive. I'm trying to collect a list of tweeting airlines here @AwardTravel/airlines.
  • Kudos.This is a gem for travelers and online marketers. Keep it up. U got a new fan here.
  • Good question on the frequent flyer via Twitter. I think airline are able to create a sense of "wanting to belong" if they communicate with their FF's (also) via Twitter.
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