Self-congratulations all around

By N.B. | Washington, D.C.

LAST week, US Airways, which is in the midst of a merger with American Airlines, suddenly started trending on Twitter. But the surge in interest wasn't about the airlines' big deal. Rather, it was because someone on the company's social media team had made the sort of mistake that causes marketing managers to wake up screaming in the middle of the night. An unnamed employee operating the US Airways account had tweeted a pornographic image at a customer. The internet went wild, with countless news websites laughing at the mishap.

But it is how the airline dealt with the problem that is the most interesting part of this story. It is important to understand how this happened. According to carrier, the social-media employee in question had saved a link to the pornographic image (which the airline had received in another tweet) to report it as inappropriate. But when the employee tried to add the airline's customer service FAQ into a reply to a customer, he or she pasted the wrong link. It is a mistake anyone could have made, and US Airways did the right thing by saying that it will not fire the person responsible. (In almost every conceivable case, firing someone for making a mistake on Twitter is an overreaction.)

Despite its leniency, US Airways took fast and decisive action to fix the problem. Greg Miller, a company spokesman, quickly apologised, explained the situation, and took responsibility. Within a couple of days the incident was all but forgotten and US Airways circulated a self-congratulatory internal e-mail to inform its employees about what had happened. Jason Rabinowitz, who tweets as @AirlineFlyer, obtained the memo, which is well-worth reading. US Airways is right to mark this one down as a win.