Silence Isn’t Always Golden in the World of Social Media
Four days after one of the most epic on-the-job resignations of the decade, the Steven Slater Facebook page has grown to almost 200,000 supportive fans. The mainstream press has covered it, YouTube videos have been created to re-enact it and The Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show produced a song about it.
But surprisingly Jet Blue airlines, which are considered one of the most social media-savvy and customer-friendly companies out there, have been deftly silent. As of Tuesday, the company’s Facebook page lacked any reference to Mr. Slater, and as AdAge noted, its handful of tweets on this red-hot topic consist mostly of short statements like “an investigation is ongoing” and “we will not comment”.
It is likely this is due in some part due to the involvement of the FAA, Homeland Security, and possibly other agencies who are investigating the incident due to the actions during the now famous resignation. But for a company with over 1.6 million followers on Twitter, 301,000 fans on Facebook and a reputation for having an open dialogue with their customers, should they not have had a more hands-on online crisis management plan?
According to the New York Times, Zeta Buzz online media technology has shown that positive conversations surrounding Jet Blue have decreased from 79% to 70% since the incident.
However despite this initial decline, there is still an opportunity for JetBlue to turn this around and seize the generated publicity and weigh it against the company’s positive aspects, such as its previous safety record etc.
As of now, this story has a hero in search of a villain, and JetBlue doesn’t want to be it. But more importantly they don’t want to simply cater to public online opinion in the short-term when the incident could have had much more serious implications.
Four days after one of the most epic on-the-job resignations of the decade, the Steven Slater Facebook page has grown to almost 200,000 supportive fans. The mainstream press has covered it, YouTube videos have been created to re-enact it and The Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show produced a song about it.
But surprisingly Jet Blue airlines, which are considered one of the most social media-savvy and customer-friendly companies out there, have been deftly silent. As of Tuesday, the company’s Facebook page lacked any reference to Mr. Slater, and as AdAge noted, its handful of tweets on this red-hot topic consist mostly of short statements like “an investigation is ongoing” and “we will not comment”.
It is likely this is due in some part due to the involvement of the FAA, Homeland Security, and possibly other agencies who are investigating the incident due to the actions during the now famous resignation. But for a company with over 1.6 million followers on Twitter, 301,000 fans on Facebook and a reputation for having an open dialogue with their customers, should they not have had a more hands-on online crisis management plan?
According to the New York Times, Zeta Buzz online media technology has shown that positive conversations surrounding Jet Blue have decreased from 79% to 70% since the incident.
However despite this initial decline, there is still an opportunity for JetBlue to turn this around and seize the generated publicity and weigh it against the company’s positive aspects, such as its previous safety record etc.
As of now, this story has a hero in search of a villain, and JetBlue doesn’t want to be it. But more importantly they don’t want to simply cater to public online opinion in the short-term when the incident could have had much more serious implications.
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