Two examples:
Delta - either someone who was a Delta fan, or (more likely) a Delta employee started a Twitter account on May 10, 2007. It was pretty cool for a while, with updates that were seemingly coming from inside the company. The style was informative and a little irreverent, but it definitely felt like there was a personality to it - not some corporatespeak straight from a press release, which was very refreshing.
Unfortunately, this didn't last. The party ended only 5 days after beginning: May 15 is the date of the last post. My guess is that someone higher up at Delta found out about it and put the kibosh on it. This was an incredibly short-sighted and stupid move on their part. Delta actually seemed relevant again for a short while.
YouTube
And here we have the power of consumer-generated media to showcase the true nature of a brand. If you ever want to see what an enterprise is truly all about, catch them in a crisis situation.
In this case, the passengers were stuck on the tarmac at JFK for 7 hours. One passenger had the presence of mind to take a video. It's now being passed around the Web. Last night, it had about 400 views; as of this posting, it's up to over 13,000. Expect many, many more people to witness the ineptitude of Delta in action.
Delta, what's the matter with you? You're coming off of a precarious bankruptcy in a market where low-cost airlines provide better service and hipper attitude. As far as I'm concerned, "Today is a New Day" is just lip service. Today is the same as every other crappy day you've given your customers.
It'll be a new day when you understand that you're not in the airline business - you're in the customer service business.
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