Does @unitedairlines get a #FAIL with Twitter?

Written on February 20th, 2010 by Stuart Crawford

United Airlines is becoming the friendly skies – sort of

I recently return from a trip to Phoenix, Arizona and during my travels on United Airlines which I normally travel because I collect Aeroplan points and since I am a Star Alliance Gold member it just makes sense for me to travel on the airlines that allow me to collect points and keep my status. I actually enjoy the lounges at the airports and I noticed this time around that United is really trying to become friendly.  I made this observation a few times during my travel.

During this trip United started advertising their “connect to us on Twitter” as part of their in-flight entertainment system and really encouraging people to connect with them on Twitter.  Kudos to you United. United may now be understanding the importance of offering other ways to connect with their customers especially in our socially connected world in which we live in today.

It can also be a brand reputation activity as well.

Good start with Twitter, United

No #Fail from me, still have work to do though

However, does the big bloated company culture spill over to the social media space? It is no secret and something that is not unique to United, all big firms suffer from a certain degree of being bloated.  I would guess the older corporate culture still plays an important role and it really doesn’t matter what the tool is. If your firm has problems returning a phone call, replying to an email or offer poor customer service when dealing face-to-face with people, what makes you think you can reply better with Twitter?

Corporate culture still plays an important role. When I arrived in Phoenix I tweeted about my great trip to Sky Harbor via Denver but then realized my suitcase was still in Denver after my first tweet on the pleasurable trip I was on.  United Airlines never did retweet my good comment about my experience nor did they get back to me on my tweet about my bag not making it to Phoenix.

Let me make this clear, the staff at Sky Harbor were awesome in dealing with my lost luggage.  No complaints what so ever, I am just focusing on the culture around social technologies and if you are going to use them you need to embrace the culture.

United is on the right track, just need some tweaks.

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Canadian Social Media Professional Ulistic focuses on serving the needs of Canadian Small Business, REALTORS, and Information Technology firms across Canada and United States. Helping your business understand, deploy and leverage social media, search engine optimization and online communications to generate business opportunities and make an impact inside your community and industry.

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I invite you to reach out to me personally at 403.775.2205 or email Stuart at scrawford@ulistic.com.

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21 Responses to Does @unitedairlines get a #FAIL with Twitter?
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