United Airlines' Leggings-gate Controversy

Over the weekend, United Airlines’ PR team scrambled to rectify a highly-publicized controversy on Twitter regarding one of their gate agents turning away girls wearing leggings from boarding the flight.

After witnessing the gate agent deny boarding privileges to two young girls due to their improper attire, Shannon Watts, a well-known influencer and founder of Moms Demand Action, tweeted to United questioning why the girls were not allowed on the flight and added that maybe it was because they did not allow spandex.

Naturally, this opened a can of worms on Twitter and gained even more attention when public figures Patricia Arquette and Chrissy Teigan learned of the situation and shared their opinions.

Once United learned of the situation, they replied to Watts informing her that in United’s Contract of Carriage, Rule 21, they have the right to refuse transport for passengers who are not properly dressed.

Well, that reply put fuel on the fire. Twitter erupted with accusations that United was sexist and “leggings-gate” was born. The hashtag #BoycottUnited was even formed.

What United failed to mention from the very start of this situation was that the passengers who were denied entry were United Pass Travelers. These passengers are on an employee standby status that is subject to a separate set of rules and guidelines, including the dress code. Therefore, they are representing United because they are using an employee benefit.

So where did United go wrong? Their team did not address the issue until people dubbed this controversy as “Leggings-gate”. The immediate reply that United sent Watts did not explain that the denied passengers were subject to separate rules and guidelines due to their United Pass Traveler status.

I don’t know why they didn’t address that from the very start, perhaps they were busy investigating who these passengers were? If that was the case, they should have let users know that they were considering the situation instead of feeding them a vanilla blanket statement that sounds like all passengers are subject to this rule.

Needless to say, United will be working on damage control for a while after this controversy, because they did not communicate information timely.

YouTube Under Fire: Social Media Blog

One of the most amazing channels on the Internet that many companies fail to recognize in their social media strategies is YouTube. The impact of the content on YouTube was brought to attention this past week when their most popular personality, Felix Kjellberg, known as his screenname PewDiePie, was dropped from the site because of his content that included crude anti-Semitic jokes and references to Hitler. Kjellberg’s sponsors also stated that they would not work with him again because of his crude comedy.

This situation has raised many questions about the level of vetting and oversight that advertisers and media companies should have for social media influencers and the content they are creating. Many companies choose to work with social media influencers rather than well-known regular celebrities because they are cheaper to work with. However, I believe that the standards need to be the same for both groups of people.

If a brand chooses to work with a person it is important to conduct full audits, background checks and understand risks associated with them. In the instance of Kjellberg’s association, his sponsors and YouTube should have been paying more attention to the content he was posting for the world to see, because their name is attached to everything he publishes.

The internet is a great place to advertise one’s brand however, because it’s such a big place it is important to be frequently checking who you’re associating with and what image they are sending out. 

Learning the importance of social media audits

In the past two weeks, I have completed two full social media audits. I had never heard of a social media audit until my social media class and I learned that it is the process of reviewing what’s working, what’s failing and what can be improved upon across your social media channels. I conducted a content and user analysis audit on Magnolia Market’s social media platforms.

Conducting social media audits are necessary because it’s important to ensure that the content that is being posted has a positive impact on the business objectives. The main objective in an audit is to ensure that all platforms are on brand and the content being shared is reaching the target market and is engaging users. In conducting the audit of Magnolia Market’s social media I found that their image branding was not consistent and that they needed to update their profile photos to more professional images and ensure that all platforms were the same.

One of the main findings that the audit showed was that there were tons of users engaging with the Magnolia Market Facebook page by posting photos or comments on their page. However, Magnolia was not answering user’s questions or engaging with the users who took time to write them a note. My suggested future action for Magnolia Market was to increase engagement on all social media platforms so that users feel important. Through this assignment, I learned the importance of the content that companies choose to post.