I was perusing Twitter today and came across a few posts made by President of Vital Insight Grp, blogger and “customer satisfaction evangelist,” Jason Tryfon. He was commenting on his terrible experience on a United flight with a particularly rude flight attendant. These posts were made in real time, as the incident was taking place. Now, I’ve heard stories from my PR professor of this happening (with Ford in particular) but, this is my first experience with the power of Twitter and the disadvantage a company puts itself in when they disregard social media.
It’s yet to be seen just how this will turn out but, it is clear that United Airlines is in dire need of social media counseling. Jason posted this comment on Twitter, “The good news about my #United experience today is my entire sales team is cold calling them. United we want to help.” And, a google search of “United Airlines blog” brings up several results for blogs complaining about United Airlines service.
I should also point out that the search does generate a very good blog post about one “rogue pilot at stodgy United Airlines creating his own word-of-mouth-worthy experience for fliers.” But, this is only one employee and he’s not 
reaching out to the negative words online. Kudos to him though for putting in the extra effort, United can sure use it.
The story my professor told about Ford had a happy ending because there was someone in the wings ready to tackle the situation. In this case, United doesn’t seem to have a link to bloggers, twitterers, or other social media outlets. Hopefully, they will take the hand Jason Tryfon is attempting to outstretch. United, he wants to help. And, you need it.
Oh and, I plan on following this as it develops more. Jason promised a blog post about his experience, if you’re interested in following the situation as well, here’s the link – http://www.williamsdesignstudios.com/main/
[...] across the globe are getting it in the neck from people on Twitter, from a disgruntled United Airlines passenger “tweeting” in real time about a rude [...]
Thank you very much for sharing my experience with your readers. This was a great read you put together and I linked to it in my follow up post! As I promised to my 5500+ followers, the synopsis of the events can be found here at my blog at http://www.uhaveavoice.com
http://bit.ly/Ne3Q
Thanks again!
Jason Tryfon
http://www.twitter.com/jasontryfon
http://www.uhaveavoice.com
Understanding the power of tools such as Twitter is something that too many senior level PR practitioners have failed to grasp. You’ll find your interest in social media invaluable in today’s workplace.