Posts Tagged ‘public relations’

Every so often, somebody does something that resonates with the public and inspires the masses. Yesterday, that person was Steve Slater, a 38-year-old JetBlue flight attendant.

It all started when a particularly uncooperative passenger gave Slater sass, refusing to sit down when he asked her to. Determined to reach her things from the storage compartment above the seat, she then hit Slater in the head with her luggage (accidentally, it seems) as he tried to intervene.

And after 20 years of service, Slater had had it.

Going over the in-flight PA system, he cussed out the passenger and then grabbed two beers before sliding his way down the exit chute, out of the plane and away from his high-stress job. Though potentially endangering those around him, his actions are representative of what several of those working in customer service probably have at least at one point in their lives wished they too could do.

Who knows how many other people quit their jobs in style yesterday, but let’s just say that between the Facebook pages and wide coverage of the event, something about Slater struck a cord with people. And in the midst of all this news flurry, one organization for a long time stayed noticeably silent: JetBlue.

As an Advertising Age article published yesterday specifically highlighted, JetBlue has been slow in updating its Facebook and Twitter accounts. Even as of noon today, its Facebook wall still had no trace of the Slater incident. The same was true for its Twitter.

Then, this afternoon a link was finally posted on both these social media sites to a blog post: “Sometimes the Weird News Is About Us.” And interestingly, it was a post about… staying quiet. In a surprisingly short note, Jet Blue writes:

It wouldn’t be fair for us to point out absurdities in other corners of the industry without acknowledging when it’s about us. Well, this week’s news certainly falls into that category. Perhaps you heard a little story about one of our flight attendants? While we can’t discuss the details of what is an ongoing investigation, plenty of others have already formed opinions on the matter. Like, the entire Internet. (The reason we’re not commenting is that we respect the privacy of the individual. People can speak on their own behalf; we won’t do it for them.)

While this episode may feed your inner Office Space, we just want to take this space to recognize our 2,100 fantastic, awesome and professional Inflight Crewmembers for delivering the JetBlue Experience you’ve come to expect of us.

Simple, clear, and professional, the post focuses on highlighting the positives of their other flight attendants and, by keeping mum, inadvertently acknowledges the sticky situation that JetBlue is in. While many find Slater’s actions funny, the blog post demonstrates how taking the situation too lightly as a corporation could make things complicated legally and potentially even reduce trust in their in-flight personnel. Furthermore, it is consistent with an official statement released to the press, which said the airline company was working with both the Federal Aviation Administration and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in investigating the situation. This previous statement also made to sure to include how “at no time was the security or safety of our customers or crew members at risk.”

“Usually when a flight attendant gets called out it’s for something they have done wrong that pissed off passengers,” said Jonathan Bellinger, the vice president of social media strategy at Ketchum, in AdAge. “But when an attendant does something where passengers say they wish they would do the same thing at their own job, that’s great. It’s a net positive story for the brand.”

So what took so long for JetBlue to respond on the social media front if all they had to do was repeat what they had already told traditional media outlets?

For the most part, this seems less like neglect than underestimating the importance of their social media reach. It’s been “about an hour” since the link to the blog was posted on JetBlue’s Facebook site and already there are 139 comments–and with 301,305 Facebook fans of the page itself, that isn’t a surprise. Marty St. George, the head of JetBlue marketing, alone has 1,958 followers for his personal Twitter, while JetBlue’s corporate handle has 1,595,120. Staying consistent in a message means updating all channels of communication, including social media, and especially social media if you are, as St. George described it, “a brand with a customer base that skews young and affluent; they are on social media, and we want to be where our customers are.”