The @Darwinairport Social Media Story - Part 2

It’s not for twits. How the Darwin Airport team learned to love Twitter and their followers loved them back.

The adoption of Twitter as a mainstream and highly valued communication tool within the Darwin Airport team was definitely a slow-burn event.

In the beginning, Twitter was mainly used to send out links to media releases stored on the website or to advertise internal jobs. Darwin Airport also retweeted standard fare about the weather and announcements from airlines.

Not all that exciting really. It’s no wonder it took a while to get a few followers on board.

In an effort to ramp things up, I presented an update internally on how we were using Twitter and the potential for social media in service-based businesses like our Airport. Specifically, how we could engage with our stakeholders and provide a better flow of information.  I’m fairly sure I heard the sound of crickets mid-way through my presentation.  I've since found the value in social media is best proven in real-life situations.

Not to be deterred, I revisited our earlier research about complaints and image problems (see Part 1 of story): “because when flights are late we have to wait around, we can never get through to anyone on the phone, the website is never updated, they (the Airport) are faceless.”

By just Tweeting media releases and retweeting other content, we weren't addressing these issues.

In September 2010, Virgin Blue (now Virgin Australia) had some issues with their check-in system in Sydney which led to a myriad of flight delays and cancellations around Australia. Because they were following news services and Virgin Blue on Twitter, our Airport Duty Managers were instantly alerted to this issue that in normal operational circumstances might have taken an hour or more to filter through.

This heads up gave the Airport operational team some vital time to prepare. We were able to notify the public and Darwin media via Twitter that delays might occur.

Suddently, Twitter had their attention.

September 2010 also marked an early arrival of the wet season in the Top End. As the Darwin Airport Cyclone Committee gathered for preparedness meetings, Twitter was being discussed as a legitimate tool for communicating to stakeholders about Darwin Airport operations during emergency events.

During one of these meetings, I was accessing the updated Darwin Airport website news page via my iPhone to work out if it could be a useful communication method during crisis events. Although the new site was a mobile version, it still took a few click-throughs to reach what I was trying to find.

One of my colleagues said to me, “Can’t we get one of those things like Angry Birds to download except it’s info about the airport?” And so the idea for an App was born…(more about this in the next instalment).

From January 2011, a chain of events struck that significantly affected air travel within Australia including the Queensland Floods, Bali Ash Cloud and Cyclone Yasi. Each of these events further proved the relevance of social media as a vital communication tool.

Then in February 2011 came Tropical Cyclone Carlos. It formed and beared down on the Darwin region in record breaking speed.

To be continued… Part 3 out Wednesday

Making Everyone ‘Appy – How the 4-day-old Darwin Airport app kept travellers informed through Cyclone Carlos