Earlier this week, I gave an example of an un-social company. Well I found Jennifer Van Grove’s article on Mashable and thought how interesting that companies, in Client X’s industry, have been embracing social media. I love the layout to how each company is using Twitter to their advantage. Cheers to the Top 40 Best Twitter Brands and thank you Jennifer for revealing the people behind them!
This is a big category and it’s growing every day. We’ve include airlines, hotels, a cruise ship, and even a rental car service under the travel umbrella. We admire these big brands for being bold on Twitter, and we hope that their ground-breaking efforts lead to better service for all of us who travel and know just how stressful it can be.
Twitter Name: JetBlue
Jet Blue Official Tweeter: Meet Morgan Johnston, manager of corporate communications with Jet Blue. Morgan’s high flying Twitter philosophy is to tweet as the community sees fit saying, “our role on Twitter is driven by the requests of our followers. Twitter is a great way to talk to many, but even better for listening.”
Stats: 10,771 following/10,076 followers
So why is JetBlue tweeting?: “Our goal would be to make ourselves available, help whenever possible, and to show that our brand is built by real people who care about our customers.”
Most interesting Twitter discussion: “Probably being asked what our policy was on furries following an exchange http://is.gd/f1k8.” [I’m not sure what furries are, but I think it’s a Comic Con thing, and vaguely reminds me of something I saw on Entourage.]
On plans to promote the account to passengers: “Short answer: no, we want to grow naturally with the Twitter audience, long answer: We know we’re guests of the Twitter community. Inviting our own guests who might not understand how Twitter works, and only see it as a tool to talk to us is a bit presumptuous.”
A follow-up to the above question: “There are some rules and practices on Twitter that aren’t immediately obvious to new users. (following, DMs, replys) It’s hard to help when people sign up and simply say, ‘hey, when’s my flight?’ assuming we see an unaddressed tweet.”
Twitter Name: SouthwestAir
Southwest Airlines Official Tweeter: Meet Christi Day, the emerging social media specialist at Southwest Airlines, and the gal behind the famously low fair offering and customer-friendly twittering airline. According to Christi, Southwest, an early Twitter adopter, “had been blogging for more than a year when we discovered and joined Twitter in July 2007. We were intrigued by its possibilities.”
Stats: 6,085 following/8,287 followers
On 2009 promotional opportunities via Twitter: “We will do announcements on Twitter from events…posting pics/vids. And whatever else unfolds, we’re open to ideas : )” [Twitterers take note – I think she’s hinting that they want good ideas from you]
On lessons learned: “Be honest, be real, be quick, be FUN”
When asked about internal awareness re:Twitter: “Hard to say for sure, but we promote our activity internally and encourage Employee participation.”
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