UPDATE: Amtrak says an unauthorized individual previously was using the @Amtrak Twitter account, but the rail line has now secured it for itself. The @AmtrakUSA account was a placeholder while efforts were under way to get the @Amtrak account.

Amtrak, the federally funded rail line operating in 46 states, launched a Twitter account, @AmtrakUSA, the other day and is trying to get its social-media act together.

As of this writing, AmtrakUSA has issued a modest two tweets and had 13 followers since March 4, but has hired a social media director and is making sure that internal stakeholders, including corporate communications and customer relations, are on board with the effort.

The rail line is also establishing a social-media policy for employees with guidelines about how to handle status updates on Amtrak’s Facebook page, for instance.

As with many travel companies these days, Amtrak has had internal debates about whether getting involved with social media is too risky or the smart thing to do.

Apparently the social media advocates have won out for now — or at least they have been granted permission to test the waters.

Amtrak opted to establish the AmtrakUSA account because the Amtrak name was being used by an unauthorized user.

With the rail line having just launched its AmtrakUSA Twitter handle, it’s too early to assess the direction of Amtrak’s Twitter strategy.

Perhaps Amtrak doesn’t even have it totally formulated yet.

In other Amtrak tech-oriented news, the rail line introduced AmtrakConnect Wi-Fi service for all first and business-class passengers on its 20 Acela Express trains.

Amtrak partnered with GBS Group and Nomad Digital to deploy the service, which initially will be free, but the compensation model will be under review.

In addition, Amtrak is introducing Wi-Fi for all passengers in gate areas at eight stations in the Northeast.

The rail line already offers Wi-Fi in its ClubAcela lounges at several major stations.

Ahead of the Tnooz-run PhoCusWright Bloggers’ Summit panel sessions at ITB, we would like to gauge opinion from readers to the following questions.

Question One:

Question Two:

Question Three:

Question Four:

NB: This poll will be reproduced on-stage during the Bloggers’ Summit workshops in Berlin on Thursday 11 March 2010.

If you work for a hotel or cruise line and you are attending the Pest Management Canada 2010 conference in Ottawa starting on Thursday, chances are you won’t be tweeting too much about it.

Bed-bug infestation is a touch-and-go problem for hotels and conference organizers state: “Due to the sensitivity of this issue, attendees will also be provided opportunities to ask questions of the expert instructors anonymously and meet with trained professionals to address site-specific questions in a confidential fashion.”

The annual, three-day event, hosted at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier, is organized by the National Pest Management Association, the Canadian Pest Management Association and the Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations.

The main conference is designed for pest control companies, but a one-day Bed Bug Symposium Friday will be geared for hotels, cruise-ship administrators, hospitals and apartment managers.

The organizers cite “industry research” showing a 71% increase in bed-bug calls to pest management companies since 2001.

Of course, if your hotel, cruise ship or hospital has a bed-bug infestation or incident, keeping it hush-hush is paramount, according to some.

In that regard, the keynote address by Dini Miller of the Virginian Polytechnic Institute State University promises that “identification, inspection and prevention tips will be provided, along with suggestions for dealing with incidents and staying out of the media.” [my italics]

The main conference will feature helpful sessions on “Maggot Mortality” and “Bird Management as an Add-on Service,” so I’m glad the pest technicians are hip to ancillary services.

There also is indeed a session on social media — how to build a Facebook fan page and how to link it to your Twitter account — but I couldn’t figure out if it is geared toward pest-control companies or hotels, cruise lines and apartment complexes.

That’s because people from the National Pest Management Association didn’t have time to answer my questions today in the run-up to the conference.

I guess they know how to stay out of the travel media.

UPDATE: I just spoke with Missy Henriksen, vice president of public affairs, for NPMA. She says about 60 people from government agencies, the lodging industry, apartment rental industry and colleges are expected to attend the Bed Bug Symposium.

Her description of bed bugs as “hitch-hikers” would give any seasoned traveler pause as she notes that bed bugs that make it from a hotel room into your suitcase may crawl into other travelers’ suitcases in airliner cargo holds.

Henriksen ties the bed bug “epidemic” to increased international travel over the years and notes that bed bugs are equal opportunity inhabitants. That is, their presence doesn’t necessarily indicate a hygience problem and their infestation can happen to hostels and five-star properties alike.

Here are some of Henriksen’s tips for travelers:

• Keep your suitcase in the hotel-room bathroom on the tiled floor because bed-bug eggs are sticky and are less likely to be present on the bathroom floor, where they can be more easily spotted anyway.
• Take all of your clothes out of the suitcase and hang them up in the closet or put them in drawers.
• Inspect the hotel-room bed for small specs of blood — bed bugs feed on humans and one feeding can last for a year — and the bed bugs themselves by inspecting sheets and the bed’s skirting.
• When you return home, wash all of your clothes in hot water or take them to the drycleaner and vacuum your suitcase.

Henriksen’s urges hotels to tackle any bed-bug infestations immediately and to contact pest professionals.

And, she defends lodging companies trying to keep a bed-bug problem out of the media.

“If there is a broken water pipe, hotels don’t alert the media,” Henriksen says. “The same is true with bed bugs.”

As SeaWorld got ready to resume conducting its Shamu Believe shows at its three parks today, it posted a video tribute to slain trainer Dawn Brancheau on its blog.

The video shows Brancheau, who was killed by orca whale Tilikum on Wednesday, frolicking in the waters and working with the whales at SeaWorld in Orlando.

“Today in memory of Dawn we are doing a tribute to her before the first Believe show at each of our three SeaWorld parks,” the SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment blog says. “This has been an extremely difficult time for the entire Shamu family. We believe that Dawn would want our work with these whales, that she loved so much, to continue. So with that in mind, we dedicate our shows this weekend to our dear friend.”

SeaWorld’s video tribute is another example of the company’s deft use of social media at a very sensitive moment.

However, cynics might argue that it is a skillful public relations move as SeaWorld combats critics who want to see the whale shows terminated.

Blog comments under the video post recalled tourists’ interactions with Brancheau and included criticism of SeaWorld, as well.

For example, an anonymous comment states:

“SeaWorld cannot ignore that this happened. This is the third human life lost due to “accidents” with the same orca. That is too many people killed to be deem it rare. A tribute to Dawn at the show is most appropriate. But what will be the next step? Will the administrators of SeaWorld continue to use the animal that has now killed three people? What kind of tribute will be appropriate for the next victim?

“God Bless you, Dawn. This is a terrible loss to your family and the countless people whose lives you touched. Your death brings attention to the practices at Sea World, and may be saving the animals that you loved.”

Other unofficial tributes and videos about the fatal incident were popping up on YouTube.

The Orlando Sentinel pointed me to the fact that SeaWorld has silenced Shamu as the voice of one of its Twitter accounts.

Shamu had more than 10,000 followers and tweeted Thursday afternoon, a day after the killer-whale attack that drowned a trainer in Orlando: “At this difficult time, @Shamu will not be active. For Twitter updates follow @SeaWorld_Parks. http://bit.ly/b0oU3l“

Although SeaWorld was sensitive enough to silence Shamu’s sometimes-irreverent tweets, the company has not withdrawn from social media because of the tragedy.

SeaWorld, which operates facilities in Orlando, San Antonio and San Diego, has posted a handful of blog updates since Wednesday.

For example, SeaWorld uses the blog to address what will happen to Tilikum, the orca whale that killed the trainer.

“Many people are asking about the future care of Tilikum, the whale involved in the incident,” SeaWorld states.  “We have every intention of continuing to interact with this animal, though the procedures for working with him will change. We are still reviewing this incident and will evaluate the situation and make a decision accordingly.

“We are open to comments from you, our blog readers. However, as a policy, any comment that uses foul language or could be hurtful to the trainer’s family will be deleted. We appreciate everyone’s understanding and will share more information as it becomes known and available.”

SeaWorld continues to use its SeaWorld Parks Twitter account and posted streaming video of a SeaWorld press conference in which park officials said they will resume the Shamu Believe show in Orlando, San Diego and San Antonio on Saturday, although trainers won’t be allowed in the water, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In this kind of situation, silence is never golden and continuing to engage consumers through social media can only help.

MySkyStatus, a system developed by Lufthansa to allow passengers to send status updates to their social networks in-flight, has doubled the number of messages sent out in the space of a month.

The airline launched the system in October 2009 and in mid-January had pushed out around 17,000 tweets from passengers – a figure which has risen dramatically to over 36,000 within the space of four weeks.

Lufthansa says it will be launching a new version of the product in the coming months with a number of new features, including the ability to send pre-written emails through the system.

MySkyStatus works by connecting to a passenger’s Twitter account and allowing them to place a standard message in a store, released only when the aircraft is in the air and at a specified time.

The system also tracks flight details and data from every airline in the world in order to establish when a passenger is off-line.

Lufthansa has opened the system to passengers on any airline but admits a good proportion is currently coming from its own customers.

Surprising news for the digerati from a large survey by budget accommodation provider Hostelworld indicating that Facebook and YouTube lead the way in use of social media by travellers at the expense of Twitter.

The poll of 2,000 regular hostel users found that only 9% used the Twitter micro-blogging platform, while almost half used Facebook  and nearly a third were users of video sharing service YouTube.

1. 47% – Facebook
2. 31% – YouTube
3. 9% – Twitter
4. 6% – Flickr
5. 6% – MySpace
6. 1% – Bebo

The results, presented at Hostelworld’s annual customer conference in Dublin, Ireland, also revealed how travellers are booking their accommodation online.

Home desktop computers secured 34% of the vote, behind laptops at 46% but way ahead of smartphones with just 5%.

Although 87% of respondents claimed they would take take a mobile device with them when travelling, almost half said it was for SMS messaging (46%) and calls (41%). Only 13% pinpointed web browsing as an activity they would use their phones for.

Other areas covered the survey included booking windows for travellers, with the strong majority buying accommodation within a month of their arrival time.

• 13% – 3 months or more
• 41% – 1 month
• 27% – 1 week
• 12% – 3-4 days
• 7% – 1-2 days

The travellers represented 70 countries around the world (Australia – 9%, USA – 8%, Britain and Canada – 7%) and 42% were aged 25-34 and 36% were 18-24.

Cheapflights has a canny PR campaign working behind the scenes to support the launch of its Zugu metasearch business – guess the logic behind the new name.

It could be a clever wheeze to get people talking about the new site in online social areas such as Twitter, especially as it has a competition attached to it.

But it isn’t the first time a consumer-facing travel company has used a seemingly unconventional, non-travel name for its brand, and some companies will go to extraordinary lengths to decide on an identity.

Microsoft, for example, spent millions on obtaining the rights to the name “Expedia” ahead of its launch in the mid-1990s. It previously belonged to a French tyre company.

The people on this list may not have gone to the same lengths, but the names come from similar levels of obscurity.

• CouchSurfing – makes sense for those in the know, otherwise a watersport/furniture mystery.

• Black Tomato – uber-trendy travel agent site.

• Boo.com – forever associated with a dot-com failure, now a trip planning site.

• Goby – travel search engine with a cute fish logo.

• Gorp – adventure-based ideas and content site.

• Hotelicopter – possibly the only site with a name inspired by desire to do a fancy launch video.

• Hotwire – Expedia-owned answer to Priceline, nothing to do with heat or electricity.

• Joobili – well-deserved darling of the seedcamps, content and inspiration site based in Hungary.

• Kayak – metasearch engine, rather than water-based activities operator.

• Mr and Mrs Smith – luxury hotel guide, no sign of 80’s indie band in sight.

• Mobissimo – Beatrice Tarka-fronted (one of only a few female CEOs in travel) metasearch site.

• Momondo – more travel search, but with stylish design more akin to fashion sites.

• NileGuide – not specifically about Egypt, or the River Nile. Great content site.

• Oodles – not a typo on noodles, but a clever car hire site.

• Opodo – one of the original European OTA giants, still no obvious clue to its meaning.

• Ruelala – membership-based, private sale site, nothing to do with French streets.

• Sandy Balls – UK-based camping and caravan centre, became recent internet hit.

• Seat61 – hugely popular yet randomly named rail travel site.

• Simonseeks – vanity name perhaps, brainchild of TravelSupermarket-founder Simon Nixon.

• Wayn – once explained the Where Are You Now? tagline, but then they changed strategy, and tagline.

• Tourism Federation of Wisconsin – forced to re-arrange name after WTF became web humour fodder

• Yapta – US-based, highly regarded airfare tracking site.

• Zugu – new metasearch effort from Cheapflights, no idea (yet) what it means.

• Zuji – Travelocity brand for the Australia-New Zealand market.

• Zoombu – closed-beta metasearch site, ZoombuSki offshoot also shed little light.

NB: Also worth noting the dreaded curse of “Trip”, highlighted recently by Tripology (temporarily), TripHub, TripSync et al.

Feel free to add more names in the comments section.

There are two basic tenets of Social Media 101 when your brand has been attacked: Be fast in responding and be transparent.

On Monday evening, more than 24 hours after MG Siegler savaged Expedia.com for allegedly botching Siegler’s Valentine’s Day hotel reservation through a waylaid faxed booking and confirmation, Expedia.com — to the best my knowledge — has uttered nothing about the incident on its blog [actually it doesn't have one], on Twitter or Facebook.

On Monday afternoon, Expedia.com did issue a statement to Tnooz and perhaps other press outlets vowing to get to the bottom of the incident.

But, consider Expedia.com’s social media response more than 24 hours after Siegler’s post, which has drawn 158 comments and 489 retweets on TechCrunch alone.

What did the online travel agency, which is running an expensive offline advertising campaign under the theme, “Where you book matters,” tell its more than 24,400 followers about the incident?

Nothing.

Zilch.

In fact, @Expedia, as of this writing on Monday evening, hasn’t tweeted anything since Feb. 12.

OK, it’s Presidents’ Day today, a federal holiday, but attacks on your brand can happen anywhere, anytime and a global brand needs a rapid response team at the ready.

There’s also been no word about the Saturday night booking-gone missing from the much smaller @ExpediaInc account, which hasn’t tweeted anything since Jan. 29.

These days there is a raging debate within the travel industry about social media. Many hotels, airlines, cruise lines, and rental car companies don’t really believe in it, are timid or are just beginning to toy with it. There are more important priorities where the return on investment is more visible, some believe.

Expedia.com, despite having a following to die for, apparently is among those entities yet to really buy into social-media.

Expedia’s Facebook fan page had nothing to say about the “Bloody Valentine” either.

Expedia basically ceded the social-media airwaves to its critics, who have been making the Expedia brand bloody.

Even if Expedia doesn’t know all the facts behind the incident 24 hours later, the online travel agency might have tweeted something like this:

“TechCrunch post is upsetting, we have a team en route to hotel, we’ll make sure if we were wrong this won’t happen again. Stay tuned.”

Meanwhile, let’s do some compare and contrast.

While Expedia.com has avoided any social media commentary of its own, @SouthwestAir was practically tweeting apologies to director Kevin Smith [aka Silent Bob] –who was led off a Southwest jet because of his weight –practically before the staff got him down the aisles.

In fact, this evening, @SouthwestAir posted “My Conversation with Kevin Smith,” and spokeswoman Linda Rutherford acknowledged: “Although I’m not here to debate the decision our Employees made, I can tell you that I for one have learned a lot today. The communication among our Employees was not as sharp as it should have been and, it’s apparent that Southwest could have handled this situation differently. Thanks, Kevin, for your passion around this topic. You were a reasonable guy during our conversation.”

Compare that bit of humanity from Southwest with Expedia’s being missing in action.

In addition to its lack of speed in defending its brand in social media, Expedia.com’s transparency and candor in its press statement appeared, well, challenged.

Expedia’s statement read: “Obviously this is a high-profile case, but the profile doesn’t dictate the response. [my italics]. The details do. I am sure that they are going to do everything possible to try and make things right but can’t offer any particulars right now, since the internal investigation – which is being led at the highest levels – isn’t complete.”

Had the incident not been disclosed in TechCrunch and not received any publicity, would the incident really have triggered an investigation “at the highest levels?”

Incidentally, Siegler lacked a little transparency, as well.

Why did Siegler not disclose the name of the property and the town where the botched booking allegedly took place?

If you are going to detail an alleged crime, you are required to reveal the crime scene.

It’s a basic tenet of Social Media 101.

With the controversy still swirling about director Kevin Smith’s unceremonious removal from a Southwest Airlines flight Saturday, Smith kept up the pressure after the airline published a blog post Sunday about the incident, defending its 25-year-old Customer of Size policy and hoping to contain the damage.

In the blog post, “Not So Silent Bob,” Southwest apologized again for Smith’s “travel experience,” although it isn’t clear what aspects of that experience the airline was issuing the mea culpa for.

In fact, there was so much traffic to Southwest’s blog, that it overloaded a blog server. So, Southwest also posted the apology to its media relations website.

Filling in some of the details, Southwest noted that Smith had purchased two seats for an Oakland-Burbank flight, but decided to fly standby on an earlier flight. The airline said only one seat was available for Smith when the standby passengers boarded the earlier flight,  and employees “explained why the decision was made, accommodated Mr. Smith on a later flight, and issued him a $100 Southwest travel voucher for his inconvenience.”

“Our pilots are responsible for the Safety and comfort of all Customers on the aircraft and therefore, made the determination that Mr. Smith needed more than one seat to complete his flight,” Southwest said.

While lots of airlines have similar policies for safety reasons, Southwest said, the airline uniquely refunds the price of the second seat if the flight does not sell out.

“The spirit of this policy is based solely on Customer comfort and Safety,” the airline said. “As a Company committed to serving our Customers in Safety and comfort, we feel the definitive boundary between seats is the armrest. If a Customer cannot comfortably lower the armrest and infringes on a portion of another seat, a Customer seated adjacent would be very uncomfortable and a timely exit from the aircraft in the event of an emergency might be compromised if we allow a cramped, restricted seating arrangement.”

Meanwhile, Smith, who portrays the fictional character Silent Bob, was not soothed by Southwest’s apologies and $100 voucher, and has kept tweeting away about the incident, telling travelers that Southwest “might be coming for you next.”

Early Monday, Smith, claiming he fit into the seat and should have been allowed to fly, challenged Southwest to bring the same row of seats to the Daily Show.

He tweeted: “Hey @SouthwestAir: you bring that same row of seats to the DailyShow, and I’ll sit in ‘em for all to see on TV.”

Smith said he’ll donate $10,000 to charity if he doesn’t fit in one seat and can’t buckle the belt.

If he fits, Smith said Southwest should change its policy or or at least re-train your staff to be a lot more human & a lot less corporate…”

He’s also issued an “emergency smodcast” with the nuanced title,  “Go Fuck Yourself Southwest Airlines,” in which Smith chastises Southwest’s “corporate” focus of trying to get flights out on time to the detriment of customer service.

The Southwest-Kevin Smith viral stand-off will make for an interesting social-media case study.

Southwest has been out-front and deft in tackling the incident head-on and in a timely manner.

But, sometimes such situations can take on a life of their own on social-media airwaves, whether they have merit or not.

So, how does a brand, which feels it is in the right, push back effectively?

The jury is still out.

Social Media has only one constant – and that is change, according to conclusions in eMarketer’s recent The Future of Social Media Marketing.

There is a lot of talk about the value of social media, but as regulars readers will know I am something of a skeptic.

Social media is one of the best metric’d vehicles for advertising and marketing to come along in years, yet when its proponents are asked for a rationality for it in economic terms, the arguments I hear liken social media adoption to that of the PC and initial forays on the web.

This turns off traditional media buyers who are looking for something more tangible.

The Shearwater Blog had an interesting post recently about Twitter, citing the study done RJ Metrics which combines a number of analytic tools together.

It confirms the position that despite the huge buzz around Twitter, adoption is somewhat sporadic and its usage is decidedly inconsistent.

The web can be an unforgiving place when you venture into un-prepared. Even established brands can get trashed quickly by the mood of the crowd.

However, the mood of the crowd moves on but everything stays forever on the web. And the crowd does tend to report bad things rather than good things.

How many tweets have gone out about “how great  is someone’s Prius”  vs, say, “it’s the brake system or the cruise control”?

The process of social media is not a dark art where there are specific experts. Common sense in the main will carry the day. However when it comes to optimizing your delivery mechanism then do seek help. Just don’t confuse the delivery with the message.

The use of social media has to be a clearly thought out process. I don’t buy that just because everyone is there that you need to be making noise as well.

Lemming behavior never benefits anyone (just as the airlines). I do agree with many of my fellow TNoozers that you cannot avoid it. However attempting to control it… well, that’s akin to putting fingers in the dyke.

So here is my advice on the subject. If you are expecting to get ROI from social media… it doesn’t happen.

Once you are involved – you have to stay involved. Focus your attention on providing value. And remember that the crowd is not collective wisdom.

Anyone who relies on the wisdom of the crowd will be brought down by it.

Hot on the heels of my Winning Airline Twitter Strategies post is a story hot off the Twitter feed.

Normally a complaint regarding an airline’s overweight policy wouldn’t really get much traction on Twitter, but when that passenger is Kevin Smith, actor, director and Tweeter with 1.6 million followers, then you’ve got a veritable Twitter war of words.

This is the kind of social media firestorm that every marketing manager dreads.

It seems the issue started when Smith was told he had to leave the plane because he is over-sized.

That resulted in a number of other tweets that describe the situation from Smith’s point of view.

Smith goes on a bit of rant (justified or not) about the way he feels he was treated by Southwest during the incident.  From the tweets, it appears that he got on to another Southwest flight without incident but because he was already in a bad mood, he continued to comment.

So now that the Southwest brand has been frontally assaulted on Twitter, what are the poor people behind the @southwestair twitter account to do? Well, what would you do if Smith came up to your counter and yelled at you?

In my opinion, @southwestair ’s response to the @kevinsmith comments on Twitter were timely and appropriate.

Will the way that @southwestair dealt with the situation on Twitter mitigate the potential damage caused by Smith’s tirade?  That remains to be seen.

The oversized passenger debate is current, hot, and highly controversial.  Smith’s incident on Southwest is probably not a singular event and there are probably many other passengers on many other airlines that have had similar experiences.

Whether he chose to or not, Smith is now a very vocal spokesperson for oversized passengers.  Unfortunately, it happened on Southwest and in front of over a million followers.

Update: Eurostar appears not to have learnt completely from its communication problems of the recent months.

Further contact with the operator reveals that drivers will NOT be carrying smartphones after all, as the company suggests on its website.

An official says drivers will have better onboard communication, smartphones are reserved for station-based managers – although a subsequent release says train managers will have them.

Original post:

Eurostar has recognised the communication screw-ups that took place during its calamitous mechanical failure before Christmas and is rolling out what it says are “major improvements”.

Following the release today of a stinging independent report, Eurostar accepts much of the criticism levelled at it following a series of train breakdowns in the Channel Tunnel between France and the UK which caused confusion in carriages and also at the line’s various terminals.

The service was disrupted as a result of the locomotives failing when apparently unusually fine and very cold snow entered engine grilles and began melting once the trains entered the tunnel, causing the engines to fail.

As a result of the problems experienced on-board, when passengers were unaware of the situation and evacuation procedures, Eurostars says drivers and train managers will be armed with smartphones “so they have access to the latest information to communicate to passengers”.

In addition, the supposed Twitter storm that erupted as friends and families desperately tried to find out what was happening at terminals in London, Brussels and Paris is also being addressed.

The operator says it has developed “real-time” systems so passengers and customers can access information about delays or problems via its website.

It promises to beef up email and SMS alert systems alongside using social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to improve the flow of information about disruption to services.

NB: Eurostar’s full response to the review.

There seems to be two very distinct types of airlines using Twitter – those who “get it” and those who don’t.

The difference doesn’t seem to be due to a lack of technical infrastructure, expertise, or even corporate policy.  The underlying difference seems to be cultural.

In a recent discussion with Greg Hounslow, Emerging Media Adviser for WestJet, I asked some pointed questions about why WestJet seemed to be having success with their Twitter strategy while so many other airlines seemed to be stumbling.

Having a Clear Strategy

There was a a time when WestJet didn’t have a strategy for Twitter or Social media in general for that matter.  This isn’t altogether surprising since most companies lack a cohesive strategy.

During this time of flux, a keen WestJetter took it upon themselves to be the keeper of Twitter.  Although this wasn’t their primary job, they did it anyway.

That seems to be the nature of many employees at WestJet, they tend to be brand advocates even when they are off duty.  Once the company as a whole identified that they needed to have a cohesive strategy, the Twitter account was left dormant until a policy could be developed.

According to Hounslow there is a six month period where the account sat idle.  This was a delicate time because six months of inactivity on any social network generally spells doom for a brand.  In the case of WestJet however, this was a necessary period of planning.

Clear Commitment to the Channel

Once the strategy was developed, the organization was committed to making the channel work for them.  This meant that resources were dedicated to social media, Hounslow was brought on board to manage it, and the team was tasked with ensuring it was successful.

This kind of commitment can be difficult to make for many organizations, especially those that don’t understand the requirements or impact.  Hounslow explains that Twitter is only one part of a cohesive strategy that includes reputation management and Facebook.

He goes on to say that Twitter and Facebook are just like any other communication medium.  A customer may call, email, DM through Twitter, or post a message on the Facebook wall.  It doesn’t matter which channel or medium they wish to use, the response from the company is the same.

Extension of the Customer Service Culture

Hounslow theorizes that the success of WestJet’s Twitter and Facebook strategies are largely due to the company’s focus on a customer first culture.

When a customer contacts WestJet, whether it is through Twitter or Facebook, the team responsible for Social media communications responds with the same care and attention that they would if it were a phone call.

Hounslow goes on to explain that most of the one on one communications with customers through Twitter are taken off-line or done through direct message.  He goes on to explain that followers are not interested in hearing where another passengers bags are.

Besides being a customer service channel, the Twitter and Facebook accounts are used to promote specials and last minute deals.

Keeping Followers Engaged

Hounslow explained that one of the most popular ongoing events on their Twitter account is “Winglet Wednesday” where passengers are encouraged to send photos of WestJet winglets as viewed from inside (or outside) the aircraft and post them on Twitter.

Encouraging brand interaction and rewarding followers by being responsive and personable can go a long way to building loyalty.  Although Houslow wouldn’t share details about the WestJet strategy, he did say that being responsive to followers and being aware of activity around the brand on both Twitter and Facebook is an important way of staying on top of potential problems.

So what can other airlines (and travel brands) learn from the WestJet experience? It would seem that the first thing an organization needs to understand is their customer service culture and how social media fits into the big picture.

Next, the organization needs to decide if social media and Twitter specifically is something the culture will support, commit to doing it if it is, and then put the resources behind it in order to make it a success.

You can follow WestJet on Twitter and you can also follow Greg Hounslow.

GAP Adventures is the latest in what is becoming an increasingly long line of travel companies to turn to online competitions to raise their profile.

The tour operator says to celebrate its 20th anniversary it is allowing web users to create a perfect trip itinerary and then ask other users to vote to determine its overall quality compared to other submissions.

Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler, Céline Cousteau, National Geographic Adventure Magazine editor-in-chief John Rasmus and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh are among the judges to determine the final overall winner once the user voting is complete.

GAP’s foray into online competitions follows the success of the now infamous Queensland Best Job campaign, New Zealand’s Peter Jackson-fronted effort, a wacky Finland initiative, and the recent HomeAway Grand Tourismo project.

Using the GAP itinerary builder, entrants must select three countries for a trip, include activities and excursions, and explain why the selection was made.

The winner, inevitably, gets to carry out the dream trip.