Unlike Everyone Else, Ryanair Refuses to Engage in Social Media
Ryanair executives recently caused some confusion by adding comments to the airline's site, making it seem like they were taking tentative steps into social media. The Irish LCC is not exactly known for its emphasis on customer relations, and it was difficult to imagine what a Ryanair Twitter feed would look like. Would they just tweet "@upstercustomer it's your fault" and "@angryflyer drop dead" over and over again? Would they post Twitpics of empty terminals where they used to employ customer service reps? Or would they just use their stream to taunt other airlines? "@BritishAirways is teh suck lolol!!1!"
Nothing of the sort. It turns out that user-generated content doesn't really mean the same thing to Ryanair that it does to the rest of the world. For most companies and almost all people, the phrase evokes images of social media—fast customer service or sustained two-way communication or both. But that's not how Ryanair sees things. For them the idea more or less means letting people post info about local hotspots in and around Ryanair destinations. TNooz has that and a few other choice quotes from airline officials. Our favorite: "This will be one way communication." Of course it will be.
It's really too bad that Ryanair doesn't allow customers to talk back, because we've got a lot of questions. What's up with forcing customers to pay just to be subjected to Ryanair's ads? And why did they think it was OK to strand Canary Island-bound passengers on the wrong island? And is it really a good idea to insult the integrity of specific bloggers after trashing all bloggers as "lunatics"? You know, stuff like that.
Even some oil companies— which UK voters place at the same ethical level as Ryanair—go through the motions of having halfway-decent Twitter feeds. That doesn't really have anything to do with this story. We just kind of like to remind people that Brits hold Ryanair in the same esteem as companies they think are literally destroying the planet and all known life in the universe.
[Photo: Jaunted]
Related Stories:
· Ryanair – we will not engage in social media [TNooz]
· Ryanair [Jaunted]
· Airline News [Jaunted]
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