I just read an article in the Public Relations Strategist about how social media is reshaping PR. The story reviewed the incident a few months back between Southwest Airlines and portly film director Kevin Smith who was bounced off a flight because of his weight. Some say the Smith problem was sincere others say he instigated the scene to draw media attention to a new film. Nevertheless Southwest was confronted with Smith’s powerful Twitter presence where he was able to inform his 1.5 million followers about his grip with the airline.
The portion of the story that gave me sweaty palms as a PIO who uses Twitter, is that Southwest Airlines was able to respond to Smiths initial Tweet within 20 minutes after the posting. Not only were they able to help diffuse the situation among Smith followers, but they were also able to interact with Smith himself, to apologize and offer new flight options.
I don’t suspect that any of us, in our public information offices, have the dozens of employees that Southwest does to monitor and respond to PR crisis and social media. But I feel that if we use Twitter, we can’t let it lay dormant and unmonitored and expect that followers of our Departments might not be interacting about us.
It’s great to use Twitter and Facebook and see our numbers of friends and followers increase, but if we cannot maintain the infrastructure of monitoring and responding to wall comments, Tweets and discussions we are doing ourselves and the community a great disservice.
Also on The Fire PIO…
- Responding to unfounded Complaints – November 12, 2010
- Should we use social media as a crisis or emergency unfolds? – November 9, 2010
- Simply Explained Social Media Policy – September 20, 2010
- Where have all the laptops gone? – October 27, 2010
No Comments