This is the course blog for an upper-level class on Social Media and Public Relations taught at St. Edward's University. In this course, we explore emerging social media technologies and study their application in contemporary PR practice.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Airline use of social media during the Icelandic volcano eruption
It seems like every time I'm scheduled to discuss the role of social media in crisis communication some major crisis comes along -- usually just in time for class. This semester was no exception. The global disruption in air travel caused by the eruption of a volcano in Iceland created an interesting case for us to examine in class today. What I like about this case study is that it deals with a different type of crisis than the ones we normally look at in our PR classes: a crisis that wasn't directly or indirectly caused by an organization. The fact that it affected not just one airline but an entire industry also allowed for an interesting comparative analysis of the various airlines' crisis responses.
I split my class into teams and had each team examine a different airline's social media use. We then compared notes and gave each airline a grade on its crisis response. In case you're curious, the highest grades went to KLM and Lufthansa (both received As for their use of social media during this crisis). KLM is even rebooking passengers through Twitter!
Update: Also check out this excellent post by Thorsten Ulmer comparing several German airlines and their use of Twitter during this crisis (in German).
7 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Did you evaluate airBaltic? I think they dis outstanding job and were better than Lufthansa or KLM. They were there from very beginning, 24 hours day. Other airlines jumped learned only to use social media after weekend
I agree with anonymous in the first comment. airBaltic absolutely got this right. But they're doing good things with twitter and facebook in general.
I like the presentation, be the way. There's a lot to be learned from how the likes of KLM & airBaltic handled this, also outside of crises. See also page 6 of this pdf: http://www.amcham.lv/data/E-Newsletter_May3.pdf
7 comments:
Did you evaluate airBaltic? I think they dis outstanding job and were better than Lufthansa or KLM. They were there from very beginning, 24 hours day. Other airlines jumped learned only to use social media after weekend
To be honest, I've never even heard of airBaltic. Will have to check them out. Would have been a good one to add to the list.
Great presentation! And thanks for linking to my blog!
Thorsten - You're welcome. Great analysis. Wish my students spoke German so they could read it :)
Great post,Corinne, I hope you don't mind to post it in my blog. I will follow your posts from now on.
I agree with anonymous in the first comment. airBaltic absolutely got this right. But they're doing good things with twitter and facebook in general.
I like the presentation, be the way. There's a lot to be learned from how the likes of KLM & airBaltic handled this, also outside of crises. See also page 6 of this pdf: http://www.amcham.lv/data/E-Newsletter_May3.pdf
Its no supprise at all that KLM and Luftansa had the highest scores. These are airlines that put in a lot of hard work in their business.
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