British Airways (BA) is a company which somehow always manages to find itself on the wrong side of the social media divide. It became a little of a laughing matter at the beginning of the year when Virgin's knowing jab at BA's faux pas with the London Eye gave us the 'BA Can't Get It Up' moment.
Now it seems the company is using Google to ferret out information about its customers in an attempt to appear knowing, friendlier and caring and it is taking some flak for it. The report which appeared in a British national newspaper says the airline has given access to customer information to 2,000 of its staff who use iPads to search Google for additional details.
This is part of a social media initiative put in place by the company, titled 'Know Me'. According to a company spokesman "The most recent advancement of the system enables the British Airways team to search Google Images for a photo of specific customers, so they can recognise them as soon as they enter the airport or aircraft and proactively approach them." The hope here is that by knowing which of their customers are high profile or have experienced problems with the company and used social media channels to publicise them the company can be proactive and appear to be friendlier and more responsive.
Although there are some issues here concerning privacy and customer information the bigger deal lies in what all this signifies.
First, search and more particularly Google, has become the de facto means of navigating the web. Although this is not news to online marketers and social media experts, it is a huge step for companies the size of BA who until recently had been locked in a legacy business model and were wondering just what search might do for them, are now embracing both search and social media in a big way.
Second, social media is beginning to play a big enough role for old-fashioned companies like BA to take seriously. The fact that BA is paying special attention to customers who are high profile (and have a strong social media presence) and those who have actively complained using a social media channel shows that the company is beginning to identify influencers (the first step in any credible social media marketing effort) and is working to connect with them.
Third, the company is looking for shortcuts. The fact that they are using Google search to gather information about their customers about whom they should have, by now, a fairly rounded picture shows that they are behind and they know it and are now scrambling to get ahead. That, alone, is a good thing as far as the importance of social media in marketing is concerned.
Of course, when any social media campaign like this gets under way the real questions arise, such as what training has been given to company staff to deal with false positives? Are there any company guidelines to help those on the ground when dealing with social media savvy customers and how does the company measure the return on investment (ROI) of what appears to be a significant, company-wide push into the social media sphere?
The answers to at least some of these we will know soon enough I guess. In my experience, when companies enter so aggressively in social media they are just one misstep away from a fall. Stay tuned.
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