Feedback could be hard to come by even with the best social media strategies. Simply implementing an internal social media team isn’t a magic bullet solution for company outreach. Updating a Facebook page or composing clever tweets may work for some companies and not others. Jon Bird, Creative Manager for Social Media at American Airlines, spoke at the Feb. 3 SMCKC Breakfast. Bird presented the necessary social media strategies @AmericanAir uses to interact with their customers.

Strategy

Approximately 250,000 people fly with American Airlines daily and have around 35,000 social media interactions weekly. As Bird mentioned, there is a lot of interactions customers go through in one trip with American Airlines. What some would consider “normal” social media outreach to gain feedback probably wouldn’t suffice for such a diverse clientele interaction experience. Therefore:   

GOAL: Optimal Interaction.

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Step 1

Know your customers, know your industry. This may sound basic, but the way Bird explained it as a way to be advocates for your customers really seemed to bring to a new level. Knowing how your customers interact with your company and how to use social media to assist them in the experience will probably optimize consumer feedback.

 “Impact of social for @AmericanAir: They know their customers better, serve their customers more efficiently, generate new revenue #smckc.” -@benasmith

Using social media to fix any potential problems in advance is one way to know your audience. American Airline’s Facebook page serves as a forum for customers to share news and find helpful links concerning American Airlines. Giving customers helpful links before they use your product/service would eliminate damage control later, or maybe yield positive feedback. Forums can also assist in transparency between the company and its customers. As stated in the presentation, “Give them a place to send praise/concerns”.      

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Step 2

“Pair your promotions with social, it's 2012 #smckc” -@yourdp

If budget allows for it, pair events and social media to engage your customers. The NBA Finals with American Airlines was a promotion in which Facebook fans participated in an online game to determine which city (Dallas or Miami). A total of 145,000 shots were taken with 7,397 sweepstake entries. Promotional events with social media could generate optimal customer interaction/feedback.    

Step 3

Combining the knowledge of your customers with innovative social media tactics that fit your industry could yield the best results in generating feedback and an active social media following. Bird’s presentation illustrated how social media feedback has helped American Airlines in multiple ways. One way is that allowed make their company better through their knowledge of their customers and to be advocates for them.

“Go back internally with all of this instant feedback and make changes and improvements”.

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GOAL: …Did it work for you?

Protip: Another way to determine ROI on your company’s social media campaigns (in addition to customer activity) is to infiltrate customer and social data to reflect total customer experience. 

Other tweets I took away from the breakfast.

 “Sometimes social media is like People magazine @americanair #smckc” -@TechGuyTom

“Great presentation from @AmericanAir on how they use social media to improve customer experience. Follow along on the #smckc hashtag.” -@SocialIRL

Do learn more, view Bird's presentation here.

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