Andrew Hyde
Andrew Hyde, a prominent blogger, discusses his unofficial social media outreach on behalf of Frontier Airlines. This is his take on why he took up the effort, and why he wants Frontier to own it moving forward.
Over the last few months, I have pushed Frontier Airlines (the best choice out of DEN) to be more open and honest about their policies and customer support. That is the nice way of putting it, it started with a six-hour wait at an airport because an employee lied to me. I spent my six hours being productive, launching a site aggregating complaints about the airline.
It pains me that I turned into the torch waving blogger.
A simple tweet saying ‘we hear you’ could have prevented all of that, and seeing that Frontier really had no interest (or internal budget) I decided I would be that change. I became @frontierair.
It was an admitted ‘fan account.’ I didn’t pretend to be the airline, or an employee. But I did become a cheerleader. It was fun at first! Reposting fans tweets about excellent service, great deals and fun experiences was rewarding (even for a humble fan account). But I’m a bit tired of missing so many opportunities for the same messaging control that I started the account. I don’t have any info on the flight that landed with one engine malfunctioning. I can’t do anything to the person that got bumped and is cursing your name. I’m not empowered to make things right.
So Frontier, I love you, please take over the account, and use it. Be transparent with your brand. Be honest with your fans. Have fun with it.
Andrew Hyde
andrewhyde.net
They’re in bankruptcy right now. While increasing their web presence would be nice, that’s probably not so feasible given the fact that they’ve laid off something akin to 20% of their staff in the last year. It makes sense to focus their cash where it best reaches their customers. No matter what social media experts think, that’s not going to be Twitter. It’s going to be on tangible improvements to the customer’s direct flight experience and to their bottom line.
While it would be nice to placate the technologically inclined via “new media,” this isn’t nor should it be a company priority at the moment. It would quite truthfully be an irresponsible corporate policy, in my opinion, to be focusing on minutia when there are obviously bigger fish to fry.
Andrew – Great post and I totally agree. It would be nice for some companies to actually tweet themselves rather than hire someone outside the company to take care of it for them. I think it is fine to set up social media sites for the companies but eventually they need to manage it themselves or take an active role in the site somehow.
Rachel – I don’t agree with some of your comments. If Frontier allowed Andrew to create this site, then they need to understand that they own it and are responsible. Even if they are laying off 20% of their staff, they either need to continue the twitter account or delete it entirely. It would be like if Frontier started a newsletter, but did not submit any of their own material or information.
Also I think Twitter is a great place to reach a significant portion of their customers. It won’t reach all or a majority of their customers, but it will reach those customers who don’t read the newspaper or watch “live” TV. Newspapers are folding and local news stations are losing money because readership/viewership is going down. Those people have to be going somewhere else. If 15 to 20% of their customers just use online resources, then do they completely ignore those 15 to 20%. I don’t think that would help their bottom line.
I think a lot of other companies have found success in using twitter such as @comcastcares and @talktoqwest. Personally, I like having the ability to send someone a tweet and get a response in around 5 minutes, rather than being on hold for an hour and getting nowhere. I guess some people just haven’t experienced all the advantages that “new media” can afford to you.
@Zach Don’t get me wrong, I like Twitter. I think it’s a fabulous tool and it’s great when used correctly. Like you, I too have enjoyed @comcastcares and appreciate how Zappos runs their business.
But from a sheer cost perspective, which I guarantee you is where Frontier is coming from right now, it’s simply doesn’t make sense. The company lost a lot of top talent and corporate leadership, not just staff level employees. But aside from the issue of finding the people to man the account, there’s a bit of a moral issue in my mind. If you’re not paying off creditors and letting go of your workforce, you shouldn’t be making cost allowances for things like Twitter. In an ideal world, it’d be great. But in reality, it’s not feasible to be adding extraneous costs into the equation, even if it would be a nice touch for reaching out to their customers.
I agree with your comment that they should own the account, not Andrew. However, in the end I think the pragmatically is not the time for them to be taking on an additional program to maintain. We can all spot half-hearted corporate social media efforts. My opinion is that if you’re not going to do it right, don’t do it. And while I don’t really know about the inner-workings of the company, my guess is that it won’t be a focus until after they come out of bankruptcy later this year.
Rachel I agree but I am actually @twodogszk not @Zach
awwww twitter
I think you may be misunderstanding what he is saying. Nowhere does he say that Frontier asked him to create the account. It sounds to me like he developed this all on his own “on behalf of Frontier”. Am I wrong? That is one huge problem I see with social media – just about anyone can hop on and start speaking on behalf of someone else whether they like it or not. I agree with Rachael. They are in bankruptcy and have bigger fish to fry.
Interestingly, Frontier is on Twitter – they’re @flyfrontier. Their account shows no tweets, but it looks to be official. My two cents: if a company needs to rebuild itself, then it needs to rebuild itself, in whatever form that takes. Southwest has used social media quite successfully for years (shameless plug for the chapter program coming up June 17th), so maybe Frontier could learn from them. I understand they have financial considerations – but don’t most companies these days? And don’t we, as public relations professionals, advise our clients or employers in slow economic times to not stop communicating? Whether it’s with customers, employees, citizens, or other people that can make or break you, now is no time to retreat into your shell. Engagement must continue, and it’s even more important critical when you’re struggling to stay afloat. Yes, focus on getting out of bankruptcy – but don’t abandon communications at the same time (and I’m not saying Frontier is doing this, it’s a general recommendation). That will hurt you more in the long run.
In re. the issue of the account Andrew created – I can see both sides. He created it voluntarily and shouldn’t have an expectation that the company will swoop in and rescue him from maintaining the account. He can cancel the account and delete all tweets and be done with it. At some point, though, I do see it makes sense for Frontier to somehow get engaged in Twitter. It could be as simple as directing all of Andrew’s followers to follow the official Frontier account, and to start using that same account in the way that Andrew’s is used, or to figure out some other way to engage with Frontier fans and customers on Twitter in a way that is not all-consuming. (Andrew does it on his own time, he works – I think! – and he’s involved in his own social media. Participating in Twitter does not have to be a full time job.)
Great dialogue and valid point about Frontier being in bankruptcy. However, Frontier has been in bankruptcy protection for less than a year, and social media has been around much longer. Why didn’t they engage when times were good and the airline was thriving? If they spent a small chunk of what they did on their advertising on social media, they could have owned this space.
Several weeks ago when Andrew tweeted about an airfare sale, I bought two airline tickets, one of which I’m using this weekend. It was a great way to reach me and keep me informed. But furthermore, I’d also push Southwest to use it more then pushing promotions and sales.
During a recent flight to Kansas City on Southwest, they experienced weather problems, didn’t have enough fuel and re-routed us to Oklahoma City. What was a one-hour flight became a nine-hour nightmare. Rationally, I know there was nothing they could do. Weather can’t be helped. Emotionally, I was tired and burnt out. I reached out in a good-mannered way on Twitter, and never heard back. Ultimately, Southwest sent me a sizable voucher for a problem that was never theirs in the first place. Customer retained. But if you’re a company who prides yourself on customer service, should you provide customer service on the channels your customers are most comfortable using?
Andrew – While I agree that Twitter could be a great customer service tool for Frontier, I think you are missing a huge point. In order to effectively run and maintain a corporate Twitter account, businesses need at least one dedicated person to post updates and respond to followers. I can tell you from personal experience that manpower at Frontier has been an issue since they filed for bankruptcy. I would argue that it’s smart for them to stay away from Twitter until they have the resources and/or budget to manage it effectively.
Unfortunately for Frontier (and you), there is now a Frontier Twitter account that is NOT run by employees and isn’t really doing much to help customers solve their issues. I vote for you to take it down!
A couple more thoughts from me. First, Frontier is on Twitter beyond the inactive @flyfrontier account. I’ve been following their active @frontiersale account since it launched several weeks ago.
I spent some time looking through the @frontierair account and I have to say Andrew did a very mediocre job of updating it until just the last week or so. I can only assume the recent increase was an effort to fuel this little publicity stut he’s created for himself. I second Wendy’s vote for Andrew to take it down.
As public relations professionals I don’t think it’s responsible for us to condone what Andrew has done here. The decision to launch an account should be up to the company. Don’t create an account on your own and then rant about how great it would be if the company took it over. Yes, Southwest has a great social media presence and we all love to compare everyone else to what they’ve done. What you have to remember is that they are a much larger company and have at least five people responsible for just their social media efforts. If Frontier tried to launch a similar program with the resources they have now, people like Andrew would surely rake them over the coals for doing an inadequate job. How can they possibly win?
Don’t kick our Denver-based company while it’s down. As a loyal Frontier flyer I couldn’t be more excited about what they’ve managed to accomplish during these difficult times. If this is what they can do while in chapter 11 I’m looking forward to seeing what they produce when they get out.
Jamie – thanks for sharing the @frontiersale Twitter account information, I didn’t know it was there!