Week 9: #QantasLuxury Twitter backfire

Social media provides two way communication and collaboration for organisations while utilising it to great success building tool. If engaged poorly, social media could lead to miss an opportunity and lead to variety of risks.  A single public failure could affect the overall reputation of the organisation. 

Qantas founded in the Queensland outback in 1920 is Australia’s largest domestic and international airlines services. Registered originally as the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited (QANTAS), it is one of the world’s leading long distance airlines. Qantas is also one of the strongest brands in Australia. 

Qantas is also strongly connected to social media. Its social media pages have thousands of followers connected through their Facebook,   Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media pages providing information about company’s offers, travel deals and more. The official Qantas Twitter page is used to share information and get feedback from the customers about the services.  

Few years back, Qantas launched a campaign on their Twitter page. The campaign was about a competition to win one of 50 pairs of Qantas first-class pyjamas and amenity kits. Qantas asked user to use hash tag #QantasLuxury and express their views on “dream luxury inflight experience” would be. 

@QantasAirways To enter tell us 'What is your dream luxury inflight experience? (Be creative!) Answer must include #QantasLuxury.TCs qantas.com.au/travel/airline…

Within an hour, the hashtag #QantasLuxury was trending across the Australia, but the tweets weren’t as expected by the management.  Due to Qantas ongoing industrial relationship dispute with its workers, passengers were not happy with their services.  The entire fleet of Qantas was grounded few days back and due to this reason, passengers faced several problems to commute. 

The backfire was then taken on Qantas official Twitter #Hashtag campaign.  Though many of the tweets were sarcastic, most tweets were from the unhappy passengers who had experienced the disruption by industrial action and with the current state of the airlines.

@timwattsau#qantasluxury was being abandoned at Heathrow for 4 days in the snow with no customer support while trying to get home to 8mo pregnant wife! 

 @davidheth#qantasluxury is sitting on the tarmac for 90mins staring at a full-page SMH ad claiming "We're back on schedule!". Then returning to gate.

 @2FBS#QantasLuxury is dressing your staff in t-shirts that say "We're Sorry" and believing that makes up for missing a friends funeral.

 @KathyReid#QantasLuxury "Still calling Australia home" even after you've driven the airline into the ground to offshore it.

Within few hours there were many tweets coming from the Twitter users either making fun of the airlines or blaming directly and indirectly to Qantas airline management. This social media backfire was bad for the business of Qantas. Dozens of tweets were coming every minute.

They include

Getting from A to B without the plane being grounded or an engine catching fire #qantasluxury

#QantasLuxury is a complimentary cheap hotel room because your cynical airway left you stranded in Adelaide, of all places. Adelaide.
#QantasLuxury is a massive executive bonus while your workers starve and your former customers choke
My idea for #QantasLuxury is not having cabin crew lie to my face about my electronic devices and their safety on a plane.
Couriers to make sure my staff around the world get their lockout notices any hour of the day or night #qantasluxury
More than 3mins notice that the whole service has been grounded #QantasLuxury
A ‘Full service’ airline that gives apples or cookies for flights between 11am and 3pm #NoLunchForYou
A plane that doesnt have an exploding engine! #QantasLuxury
My #QantasLuxury experience would be no matter what time or duration of the flight a proper meal is served a cookie is not a meal its a joke
Flights that leave on schedule because Management doesn’t arbitrarily shut down the airline #QantasLuxury
Planes that arrive intact and on time because they’re staffed and maintained by properly paid, Australia-based personnel.
#qantasluxury having a skybed so “superior in its class” you have to be under 5 foot to be able to use it with your legs straight.
#QantasLuxury? 1. Plane takes off/arrives on time; 2. Baggage delivered promptly. This used to be called #QantasService
#qantasluxury – is not being told you can apply for refund online & finding out they only refund via a phone # that no one answers for 4hrs
#qantasluxury is the dream world Alan Joyce lives in where all the feedback to the Qantas action has been positive.

 

The consequences of this action were losing in reputation of the company.  Social media is a powerful tool; it could either help grow business or could create problems. 

Managing risk is the best practise. Qantas could have managed this risk to avoid such public stigma. To avoid such impacts in future, Qantas social media management team should adopt a comprehensive social media strategy to promote their business.  The public relations team should engage in company’s social media sites to unsure what is being posted and communicated with rest of the world. Ultimately, Qantas should create a culture in the organisation where everyone is aware to protect the business and maintain the brand.

Thank you for reading my blog. Please let me know what Qantas could have done to avoid such misuse in the comments section below.