Five Imperatives For Your Airline’s Social Media Policy

Rachel Levy — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:51:19 +0000

So you’ve got a sizeable social media presence for your airline over the past year. And now, the employees are starting to participate too. But there’s a constant tug of war, between Legal, Corp. Comms and Marketing – on how employees should and shouldn’t participate in social media. The solution? An airline-wide social media policy.

What is a social media policy, you ask? Basically, it addresses the concerns that many airlines have when getting started in social media… What if an employee says something they shouldn’t? How do we respond to passenger complaints and compliments? How can we possibly control what our employees are doing online? If you’ve been up and running on social media for a few months, it’s time you formalize your thoughts in this area, and ensure everyone at the airline is on the same page. Here are five key imperatives for your social media policy:

1. Explain the Scope in User-Friendly Terms

When you say “social media policy” to many of your employees, they may think “that doesn’t apply to me because I’m not in Marketing.” So, it’s important for your policy to explain what types of activities it covers, possibly including their personal Facebook profile, their Twitter account, YouTube accounts, etc. Giving these types of examples up front in the policy will ensure that employees understand that their online persona is a reflection of the company, even if they are not an “official spokesperson” for the company.

2. Authenticity and Transparency

I could write an entire blog post alone about what these two terms mean! But, basically, employees need to be transparent; meaning that they should use their real names in anything they are writing online, and disclose that they work for your airline when appropriate. For example, if they are commenting on a blog post related to the airline industry, they should be clear that they work for your airline. And state clearly whether or not their views are personal, or official.

Authentic and transparent also mean being human. Show who you are as a person, not just an employee. Be real. Be wrong. Be personal.

3. Confidentiality

Being authentic and transparent don’t mean that everything that happens in the company is open for public consumption. Employees need to understand what is confidential, and exercise judgment about what to share and what to keep private. Explaining what is considered confidential and off limits for social media, is an important part of your social media policy.

4. Think About Who is Listening

Before anyone writes anything online, they should think about who could see it. If your competitor saw it, would that be OK? If your airline’s promotions agency saw it, what would they think? These questions should be asked with every online interaction. If the employee is unsure, they shouldn’t post it.

It’s also important to remember that the Internet is permanent. Anything written will stay on record in some way. Nothing is ever fully deletable.

5. Guiding Principles

Porter Novelli, a public relations company, has a set of guiding principles in its social media policy. This is a great way to summarize the policy into overarching guidelines, rather than rules, that are easy to remember.

The web is not anonymous. Assume that everything you write can be traced back to the company, if not you personally.
There is no longer a clear boundary between your personal life and your work life.
Do not lie or withhold the truth.
he web contains a permanent record of our mistakes. But do not try to change things retrospectively.

I can picture these as thought bubbles running through someone’s head before writing anything online.

While these are the 5 most important items to include in your social media policy, there are many more considerations when writing one. Look out next week for a follow up post with more on this topic.

What do you think? Have we missed any imperatives? Have you had success with a social media policy? What are the key elements there? Let’s discuss.

(Photo credit: Transparency, Big Ear)

Branding Head at Burson-Marsteller wants airlines to “stop being the Greyhound of the skies”

Shashank Nigam — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:32:36 +0000

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Recently, Delta Airlines hired a new COO for the merged entity. He is the former CEO of Greyhound – the notorious bus service in the US with customer service horror stories abound on the internet. When I read this news, I couldn’t help but forward it to the lady who had animatedly mentioned to me that airlines are becoming “like the Greyhound of the skies”.

Airlines have often learnt the hard way that well managed public relations (PR) forms the backbone of successful airline marketing and branding. To learn more about what constitutes a successful PR strategy for airlines, and how it ties in with the overall branding approach, I met up with Samantha Lucas, Chair, U.S. Brand Marketing Practice at Burson-Marsteller, one of the world’s largest PR agencies. She shared with me some original insights on how airlines can build brands that soar above the Greyhounds of the world.

Local PR for a global airline brand

Samantha believes that “perception of airlines differs from region to region.” Hence, PR efforts should appeal to the locals, instead of trying to impress with the same message around the world. A localized PR message will focus more on local needs and cater to local tastes, hence creating greater traction. When combined with other local messages, such PR helps foster a global airline brand that resonates with the locals too.

A good example of this is Emirates Airlines. In my earlier conversation with Gary Leopold, the CEO of ISM Boston – the agency that leads the Emirates account in the US, I was told that when launching the first routes to New York, Emirates had to build trust from scratch, since it was perceived as an unknown “Middle Eastern” airline. For this, they adopted a very local approach, creating basic awareness in the City, rather than touting product features. Moreover, I’ve myself noticed that Emirates’ local messages are omnipresent from the monorails in Sydney to the football stadiums in the UK.

Consistent PR over time helps foster trust in the brand

I asked Samantha a simple question. Which are the airlines best with PR in her opinion and what are their traits. The answer: Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, JetBlue and Qantas. Their key success factor: consistently authentic PR over time.

Samantha believes that “honesty is the best policy” when it comes to PR. If something goes wrong, admitting to the mistake will only earn respect in the long term, rather than denying the facts. An example she shared with me was that even after the string safety fiasco at Qantas recently, the airline did not deny its mistakes, took immediate action and let everyone know about that. JetBlue Airways also set an example, when its CEO David Neelman posted a video apology on his blog when passengers were stuck on the tarmac for hours during a snowstorm last year.

I personally enjoyed my conversation with Samantha and found her insights to be very enriching. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the interview too – where she shares her foresights about 2009. Here is Samantha Lucas for you.

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