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Andrew Davidson 
Susan Menke 
Susan Wolfe 
Lisa Hronek Posts Tagged ‘social media’
Airlines on Twitter
Everyone can find something to complain about when it comes to airlines these days. But one area where they seem to be excelling is their social networking skills. JetBlue must have a lot to say because they are the most followed airline on Twitter, and with over 1.6 million followers, people seem to be listening. In fact, JetBlue saw so much action on Twitter that it started an entirely new account dedicated solely to selling unsold seats at the last minute, @JetBlueCheeps.
Southwest Airlines is the second most followed airline on Twitter. Southwest’s Twitter description reads “The LUV Airline! Planes can’t type so @christimcneill is piloting the Twitterverse! For official concerns please use the link provided.” The majority of Southwest tweets seem to be responses to customer comments, announcements or updates. For longer messages that exceed the 140-character limit, the airline provides live links to find additional information.
A recent story in USA Today described how airline tweets were actually helping to ease passenger frustrations. One customer new to flying asked where the best seat on the plane would be for his upcoming trip in order to get the best view. Southwest sought the help of one of its own pilots and advised the customer that the left side would give him a nice view of downtown San Diego and the Pacific Ocean during landing.
Twitter offers a real-time venue for customers to voice their questions or frustrations to the airlines and actually get a response. Twitter has become such an important part of the airline customer service process that JetBlue recently expanded its Twitter team, made up of 17 employees who work around the clock, to respond to messages quicker. Delta Airlines, which is also high on the Twitter follower list, is planning to increase its Twitter team from 9 to 12, according to the same USA Today article. This team will be entirely dedicated to monitoring the customer service channel, @DeltaAssist, 24 hours a day. Delta might not have the most followers, but it does post the most messages per day, around 70.
While Twitter might not be the best way to distribute important information because of its inherent brevity, it is a valuable tool to keep customers up-to-date on where to find more detailed information should an important change or update arise.
The next runner-ups in terms of Twitter followers are Virgin America and TAM Airlines, both nearing 200,000 followers.
Does Facebook know my friends better than I do?
I’ve blogged quite a bit recently about social networking news, so when I read an article in USAToday about Facebook’s new facial recognition feature, I just had to comment. This latest update to the social networking behemoth’s repertoire has me intrigued, nervous and a little insulted all at the same time.
According to the article in USAToday, Facebook is scheduled to release a new feature called Tag Suggestions before the end of December. Tag Suggestions, as its name quite accurately describes, will use Facebook’s own facial recognition technology to match photos not yet tagged, to similar faces in your network of friends and automatically suggest the friend you should tag in that photo. The biggest concern most users will have is the issue of privacy. Supposedly, this new feature will also include an opt-out option if you don’t want your name to show up as a possible suggestion on someone else’s photo.
I’m intrigued by this new feature mostly because it sounds like something that you see in all those legal dramas like CSI and Law and Order. I’ll be anxious to see if the technology is as accurate as what the FBI uses to catch criminals and whether Facebook will be able to identify everyone dancing the Hora in my wedding photos.
What makes me nervous is the issue of privacy. Yes, Facebook give users the ability to opt-out, but for those who don’t, what does it mean? Perhaps retailers and online marketers can hone in on a similar technology that will make their brand name pop up anytime a user sends a chat with specific key words in it. Or what if someone’s face in recognized in a photo taken in front of their car? Will auto insurance companies with Facebook pages be able to target those users? Where will Facebook draw the line?
The insult comes from the sheer fact that I take this to mean that Facebook thinks it knows my friends better than I do. In my mind, if I want to tag a friend in a photo, I would simply enter their name into the clearly labeled box.
So what do you think about the Facebook feature? Is this a privacy issue or an opportunity to ramp up connections in your social network?