Though I couldn’t get to the Airline Passenger Experience Expo (APEX10) this year due to client engagements in Toronto, I’ve been following closely updates from the likes of Mary Kirby and Jon Ostrower. And I almost feel like I’m there myself. But, why is that? Because they are sharing their experiences from the conference, in real-time.

These days it is safe to assume that at least a couple of passengers per flight would be tweeting or updating their social status (like American Airlines learnt) when they are in the plane. Regardless of whether they have wi-fi available. And often, they are rating the airline experience itself.
Why existing airline ratings don’t work?
For a long time, the airline industry has lacked a good alternative to what TripAdvisor does for hotels. Yes, there are the Skytrax ratings and other annual magazine airline rankings – but I personally feel they’re irrelevant – for three key reasons:

They are annual – that means they are never current enough to be relevant when I fly
They are for the whole airline – the brand experience on an Air France flight from Nice to Paris can be vastly different on one from Paris to Boston …

Now that you’ve had a chance to digest the imperatives of a social media policy from my article last week entitled “Five Imperatives For Your Airline’s Social Media Policy“, we decided to write a follow up post with additional considerations for inclusion. Again, these are must-have elements that make your social media policy very user-friendly. Objectives — Talk about the objective of using social media, so employees have a background as to why the company is participating.Disclosures — Educate employees about the FTC guidelines (pdf) about endorsements and testimonials, which is explained well in this article.  Basically, they are required to disclose the company’s connection with the product or service. Use common sense — You can explain that further in your company’s language, but it’s a good one to include. Give and take — Much of social media is about give and take, meaning that you “give” value, and “take” help or value back.  Don’t forget to work both sides of the equation. Personal versus work time — Define what is acceptable to do during work hours.  Updating …