All Facebook takes a look at how the top U.S. airlines use Facebook, based on a Tnooz article about how the top European airlines take advantage of the social-media megalith.
None of the top 10 US carriers encourage customer complaints on their Facebook pages, with most guiding their users to a 1-800 number (?!) instead. Hint: your customer is online. Throw ‘em a link.
JetBlue, the #7 airline, has far and away the most fans (over 316,000; 3x as many as United Airlines, who comes in second with nearly 150,000).
The European list was interesting, if predictable in places. Obviously Ryanair isn’t too active on Facebook, since Michael O’Leary’s antics are pure, unadulterated flamebait.
Ryanair could use social media to its advantage, if only it could muzzle its CEO in order to stay out of damage control mode. Alternatively, Ryanair could shoot the moon and have a Facebook group dedicated to coming up with the most heinous airline surcharges and changes that anybody could invent.
Then again, Ryanair has cultivated a corporate culture of just not caring what its customers think; at least, the past several years’ worth of bizarre moves has made the rest of the world believe that that’s the case.
In the US, Delta is alone in integrating ticket purchasing into its Facebook page. Hard to tell how effective this is (do you buy a plane ticket because you saw your friend do it?), but it makes all the right noises in terms of “that social media thing that all the kids’re doing”.
KLM lets its fans make their own luggage tags, which can include a picture. The potential for having a laugh with this feature is limitless.
Cathay Pacific uses its Facebook page as a recruiting tool; it’s the only airline on the list that does so.
