On this blog in August 2009, I wrote about how tweeting can get your own way and how the power of Twitter is unbelievable, which is very true and I think people forget this all too often!

The latest article I found was relating to how people forget about social networks being as powerful as they are – a Vodafone employee wrote an offensive and obscene message on a Vodafone customer complaints Twitter account. The Twitter account in question had over 8,000 followers at the time and Vodafone had to apologise to each and everyone who was following them.

Another instance of lack of awareness of how powerful social networks are was just after New Year, when a so called ‘joke’ on micro blogging site Twitter ended up with a Doncaster man being arrested under the terrorism act!

“Robin Hood airport is closed, You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!” (Source: The Independent Online)

Another story appeared around a similar time about a questionable picture (a baby with a cigarette in his mouth) on Facebook by a teenage mother, who was subsequently arrested and had social services checking around to ensure the baby was not subjected to any harm.

I think there are some very important lessons to be learnt here;
Think before you speak/act/type!
What enters the web stays on web, search engines index everything!

Micro-blogging certainly gets whatever you write about passed around the world, depending of course what, where, when and how you write it. Current affairs, news stories, etc etc are tweeted about constantly, with Twitter setting up a real-time search for most popular talked about categories. A great example is when the plane crash landed in the Hudson River in New York. The news of this accident spread around the world faster than any news network could report about it live on air.

The power of Twitter is unbelievable.

So when a Los Angeles blogger (Jessica Gottlieb) watched helplessly while her kids were on-board a plane waiting to depart for their destination, she got out her phone and tweeted; “Dear Virgin Air, My children have been on the tarmac for one hour with 90 more minutes to wait. I am at JFK gate b25. Pls RT.” (Which her followers did.)

Ms Gottlieb got a response from Virgin America with the plane taking off 20 minutes after her phone conversation with them. So, can you get your own way by tweeting or using status updates to get what you want?

I think it depends on your audience, who you tweet to, how well your tweets are written and how you come across (are your tweets interesting?) as well as what you tweet about.

The fact that this tweet helped improve customer expectations in this instance doesn’t mean that it will necessarily be the same for other people in this situation, or does it? What are your thoughts on this? Have you experienced something similar with businesses meeting or exceeding expectations when they were dashed to begin with?

What does this mean for marketers of the companies who dash hopes and then exceed expectations? Is it truly possible for this to happen at all? As I have a retail background I have very high expectations of customer service, therefore maybe I would expect more?!

What do you think as a marketer? Is this positive or negative marketing for Virgin Air (America)?

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