Jet Blue - Would Social Media Marketing Have Made A Difference?
02/20/2007
Recently Diva Marianne Richmond wrote what Robert Scoble called "The Definitive Social Media Post." She joined in on a discussion regarding the definition of social media - "the social media world, is one of "ubiquitous connectivity and pervasive proximity" - going 'round with some of the blogarati pundits like -
- Robert Scoble - When I say “social media” or “new media” I’m talking about Internet media that has the ability to interact with it in some way.
- Stowe Boyd, - Social Media = what the edglings use to communicate about how to define social media.
Wondering where this discussion would go I clicked on a few links and came across a post from Stephan Collins at acidlabs - Explaining web2.0 and social media to non geeks. My kinda post so I read on. - To me, it’s the connectedness and the community that defines social media. Back in January 2007 Jeremiah Owyang was asking if the very words social media should be changed. To what? He wasn't sure. Perhaps he has a point. It took me awhile to get that social .. media was not a new type of GNO. Only kidding .. well sort of .. this is Diva Marketing after all. ;-)
Smart people. But all this chatter made my head spin since they were basically saying the same thing. At least I think they were. By the way, my favorite description of social media is one I heard from Mike Murphy, chief revenue officer Facebook. Active Sharing Online. Simple. To the point. Easy to remember. Actively sharing implies conversations which implies building community. Online sharing implies the 2.0++ widgets and gidgets. Perhaps we should add .. "available to anyone with internet access" and be done with it!
Girlfriend, I needed more coffee! Armed with the last of my stash of Trader Joe's Christmas Coffee blend I continued the follow-the-link-game which led me to Brian Solis at PR 2.0 who brought the dissuasion to social media and marketing and a side step away from our friends the geeks (all but Marianne who is a savvy marketing diva!). The end line of Brian's post What's Wrong With Social Media? is relevant to marketers. - Social Media has yet to reveal its true impact among those around the would who have yet to embrace it and participate. The way we consume and share information will only continue to change until it completely transforms from one-to-many to many-to-many.
And then one more click to BL Ochman's very clever 12 Tenets of Social Media Marketing which proves that marketers do have a sense of humor .. even if a few indulge in a drink or two of the proverbial kool aid!
At that moment the news reported the jetBlue was instituting a new concept in airline customer service - a Passenger Customer Bill of Rights. I hoped hopped (thanks to Valeria Maltoni for the catch .. perhaps I was hoping for something innovative!) over to the jetBlue website and found front and center on the home page that David Neelman, CEO of jet Blue is using You Tube to get the message out.
According to jetBlue's YouTube profile page and based on 12:45p Eastern Time
- jetBlue joined YouTube 20 hours ago
- Video was added 10 hours ago
- Some one from jetBlue logged in 1 hour ago
From a marketing perspective, jetBlue's use of YouTube, as a distribution channel, is on target. I can't help but wonder if this is the start of a beautiful friendship between jetBlue and social media marketing. Or is it simply part of a crisis management strategy? Will jetBlue join Southwest Airlines as the second commercial airline to be a part of the bigger conversation?
Just for fun .. here is the blogophere buzz on jetBlue. Google Blogs shows that in the past week there were 6185 mentions of jetBlue. Technorati shows that jetBlue's buzz went over 500 mentions a day.
Posts that contain Jetblue per day for the last 30 days.
Get your own chart!
What's interesting, and may not be a big surprise with jetBlue customers, is that among the justified rants there are a significant number of people who still love jetBlue. jetBlue customer evangelists are ready to kiss and make up. From a marketing perspective, jetBlue has a great opportunity to leverage this positive energy to help with the healing of the runway fiasco. How about a blogger relations program? How about developing a social media community where people can share their passion for cheap travel? How about an easy way to communicate with jetBlue that goes beyond the email form on its website? The sky's the limit jetBlue!
So divas and divos of social media marketing or social media or whatever you are calling yourselves these days ..The Question Of The Day: Would a social media marketing strategy have made a difference to the short-term and long-term impact of the brand called jetBlue?
