Business Blog: Hoover’s Business Insight Zone

You may recall that a while back I offered some communications pointers to American Airlines chief Gerard Arpey. He’s a smart guy — at least if this Fortune article is any indicator — and I think that overall he’s doing pretty well for the company, considering the financial struggles created for it by the high price of fuel.

And before I go further in criticizing AA, let me say two positive things:

• I flew American to and from Seattle last week, and everything went off without a hitch. The flight-attendant crew on the way back, particularly, was as good as you’ll ever meet.
• A Hoover’s colleague recently had an American flight cancelled that would have seriously delayed the start of her family’s vacation. But as soon as she called American, the folks there “bent over backwards,” she says, to make things work for her — ultimately going so far as to book her onto another airline’s flight so that her family could start its vacation on time.

Okay, that’s enough for Mr. Nice Guy.

My pal David Parmet pointed to American’s blog, “AA Conversation,” and noted that its most recent entry was posted on April 28, and, irony of ironies, that the post’s title is “Let’s Keep Talking . . .” The sad thing is, much of what the AA blogger says there is on point:

Truth be told, American has been working with the idea of getting into social media for some time now. And while we’ve ever so lightly dipped our toe in these waters with Facebook and some of our AAdvantage sites, including Milestones and MileFinder with success, we know it’s not enough. [. . .]

And I have to say, the feedback on this blog has been great. Okay, not all of it has been good, but it’s all been very helpful. And what we know from it is this:

We NEED to continue the conversation, and we need to keep it going permanently. There’s a lot to talk about, and it’s clear there’s a real interest in us having a blog with an honest voice that discusses our airline and our industry, and the many things taking place with travel these days. And we need to keep things conversational – I know!

It’s time for us to officially join the mighty blogosphere, and that’s just what we have done. We’re going to take this “starter” blog and beef it up. [. . .]

But while we get things rolling, we want to keep the dialogue moving. So, we’ll make some changes to spruce up the look of this space. In the meantime, keep checking in as I work to develop my voice on this blog and find others within American that can give new insight to our company.

All of these sentiments reflect a right-minded approach correct . . . and all of this talk inadvertently becomes hilarious when weeks intervene with no further comment from the blogger or anyone else at the company.

Unfortunately, instances like this one leave themselves open to many interpretations that aren’t favorable to American, e.g.:

• American, in its cluelessness, clamped down on the blogger because of his openness;
• The blogger hasn’t been given the resources to follow through on the good words he posted in April;
• American is not at all serious about using social media to engage customers (This conclusion is almost inescapable);
• No one’s minding the switch at American.

Please believe me when I tell you that I’m painfully aware of how far I have to go as a blogger. And even though Hoover’s has made its bread and butter online for nearly 15 years, we’re still finding our own way in social media. That’s fine — it’s a big new world of possibilities, and it’s hard to know how to balance opportunities and costs.

But if, heaven forbid, I was hit by a truck tomorrow — or fired, or reassigned, or whatever — this blog wouldn’t just go dark. We have plenty of other folks involved, including other writers who could step in and contribute content.

I have to believe that a company headed by someone as able as Mr. Arpey — heck, a company of American’s size, period — must have plenty of bright lights who are ready to grit their teeth and engage with even the bad news that comes in over the blog transom.

But to start down that path — five blog entries’ worth, anyway — and then abandon the effort? It makes the company look worse, and even more clueless, than if the blog had never appeared in the first place.