Qantas Case Study: Analysis of Twitter Contest and Recommendations

This case study analyzes Qantas's failed Twitter contest, which aimed to improve customer perception but backfired due to poor planning, lack of monitoring, and unclear objectives. The analysis identifies key issues, such as the lack of clear guidelines for participation and the use of a platform that rapidly disseminated negative feedback. The assignment recommends enhanced monitoring, clear communication of contest goals, and the use of alternative platforms like Facebook for managing complaints. It further discusses factors to consider when using social media, including goal identification, audience targeting, and choosing the right social media approach. The study proposes a course of action, outlining timing, target audience, key messaging, and desired outcomes to improve future social media campaigns. The recommendations emphasize the importance of separate platforms for positive experiences and complaints, along with consistent monitoring to ensure customer satisfaction.

QANTAS CASE ANALYSIS 1
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Qantas Case Analysis
Introduction
Qantas organization tried to use the Twitter contest to change the customer perception on the
airline but it showed a great setback on the use of social media. From the case, it was clear that
people were meant to post to positive experiences with the airline but it turned that thousands of
people were sharing their negative experiences which painted a bad image for the firm. The main
reason that led to such turn out may have resulted from lack of close monitoring, lack of clear
specifications on the intention of the project, use a social media platform that spread the
information faster and poor planning of the management (Araujo, Neijens & Vliegenthart, 2017,
p. 500). From the reasons attributed to the failure the contest, it gives recommendations for the
future plan that can be adopted by the Airline (Araujo, Neijens & Vliegenthart 2017, p. 500).
Recommendations
Enhancing monitoring of information in the social media is very crucial to ensure that customer
complaints are listened to and actions taken (Tuten & Solomon, 2017, p.4). In the case of Qantas
Airline, it was a good strategy to use Twitter which would have spread the positive information
about the firm and build a better image. But on the contrary, since there was no monitoring of the
information from the customers they were not sure of what was going on. They could have

noticed such problems early enough and determine the course of action to take before the
negative information about the firm was widespread across the nations. They thanked people
with messages such as "some creative tweets out there. Keep the entries coming" (Ivey 2012,
p.1), regardless the type of the message. From the company's reply, it would have acted as a
provocation for more people to continue tweeting their disappointment with Qantas Airline while
others would have commented what they heard not really what they had ever experienced. The
platform was purposely meant for those who had better experiences or a luxurious experience
with Qantas flights which would have been communicated clearly by those responsible for
monitoring the project.
The second recommendation is to outline clearly those to participate in the Contest (Serrat, 2017,
n.p). The main intention was to communicate that they offer luxurious experience to their
customers. So, those with complaints would have been directed to contact the management using
a different platform or use of customer care services to give each group a room to complement or
to complain (Dijkmans, Kerkhof & Beukeboom, 2015, p. 58). Despite the fact that the airline
has suffered a series of problems like strikes, the explosion of engines and others, the intention of
the Twitter project was to show that there were people who experienced better services and fun
with the company’s flights.
From the reasons that could have resulted in the hijacking of the Twitter Contest with negative
comments, the management should consider another platform like Facebook to channel the
complaints. Use of Twitter was fast to spread the information and it would have been hard to
monitor all the messages from the people. So in future, the management should consider a
platform like Facebook that can be monitored or provide a complaining platform.

Factors to Consider When Using Social Media
From the analysis and the past problem faced by Qantas, the three major factors to consider in
use of social media include identification of the goal, determining the audience, and determining
the organization social media approach. Identification of the goals of using social media is
crucial and important in this process (Ainin et al., p.575). In most cases it can be used since it
can help spread information fast when creating brand awareness, creating a better image for a
business or convincing customers. So for that reason, the goals should be clear on what the
organization wants to achieve (Parveen, Jaafar and Ainin, 2015, p. 70). In our case, Qantas main
intention is to create a favourable perception to the customers and show its revival from the
previous problems it had experienced. Also the need to create a better image as well as convince
customers to use the airline and experience what others do is the main goal.
The second factor that should be considered is the audience to whom the message is sent. All
social media messages are targeted to a group of people as well as Twitter (Parveen, Jaafar and
Ainin, 2015, p. 71). Lack of proper targeting or being insensitive to the customer can lead to
great controversy. Most of the companies do not consider what the message would appear on the
customers or clear enough as intended to avoid misinterpretation. For Qantas, the message was
targeted on those who had a positive experience but the Twitter Users misinterpreted it as a way
to pass their disappointments and grievances to the organization on various issues.
The third factor to consider is the social media approach the organization can use. There are four
main approaches that can be considered in the use of social media in organizations which include
predictive approach, creative, social media champion, and social media transformer (Rodgers
and Thorson, 2018, n.p). Predictive approach holds that certain departments should use the social
media to interact with external customers for easy monitoring. Creative approach use

experiments with social media to get to their goals. Social media champion select a team to be in
charge while the rest of the employees concentrate on their departmental duties. Lastly, social
media transformer is effective when launching large projects that involve a lot of departments
and stakeholders. From Qantas case, it would be effective to consider predictive or social media
champion approach to help in monitoring the Tweets.
Course of Action
Timing: The third quarter of this year the message should be communicated so that the actions to
be taken can be funded using the second quarter profits.
Audience: The audience of the course of action will be the customers and in particular those who
have used the Qantas Airline services before.
Sender: The marketing department.
Key Message: Consider developing two separate interactive platform to share luxurious
experiences and the other one to share disappointments and complains.
Desired Outcome: The main intention is to ensure that every channel is used for the right
purpose.
Medium: Social Media.
Materials: It is right to leave the behavior of ignoring those with complaints and try to win them
back as customers.
Frequency: The message should be sent every quarter to ensure that when the company is doing
its quarterly financial report they report on the customers' satisfaction each period.

References
Ainin, S., Parveen, F., Moghavvemi, S., Jaafar, N.I. and Mohd Shuib, N.L., 2015. Factors
influencing the use of social media by SMEs and its performance outcomes. Industrial
Management & Data Systems, 115(3), pp.570-588.
Araujo, T., Neijens, P. and Vliegenthart, R., 2017. Getting the word out on Twitter: The role of
influentials, information brokers and strong ties in building word-of-mouth for brands.
International Journal of Advertising, 36(3), pp.496-513.
Dijkmans, C., Kerkhof, P. and Beukeboom, C.J., 2015. A stage to engage: Social media use and
corporate reputation. Tourism Management, 47, pp.58-67.
Parveen, F., Jaafar, N.I. and Ainin, S., 2015. Social media usage and organizational performance:
Reflections of Malaysian social media managers. Telematics and Informatics, 32(1), pp.67-78.
Rodgers, S. and Thorson, E., 2018. Special Issue Introduction: Digital Engagement with
Advertising.
Serrat, O., 2017. Social network analysis. In Knowledge solutions (pp. 39-43). Springer,
Singapore.
Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R., 2017. Social media marketing. Sage.