Westjet and its sky level social media

Westjet is a proudly Western Canada company, founded in 1996 by Clive Beddoe and his team. What “started with 220 employees (a.k.a. WestJetters), three Boeing 737 aircraft and five destinations in Western Canada has grown into more than 120 aircraft flying throughout a network of more than 90 destinations in Canada, USA, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and Europe. Sure, it’s our aircraft that will take you to your destination, but it is WestJet’s caring owners and award-winning corporate culture that sets us apart from the other airlines.”

Westjet has connected all the dots of social media to make us as the participant and viewer enjoy the ride. You are searching for a flight? All of a sudden your Instagram and facebook feeds are showing ways to book quickly with WestJet. If you are considering which company to support with your hard earned money, you will see all of the social responsibility efforts that Westjet does through their YouTube channel. They started with Christmas videos of giving that made even the toughest shed a tear. We look forward to these every year and they do not ever disappoint. They also make us laugh every April fool’s with some well elaborated product or new service that actually takes us a bit sometimes (I confess) to realize it could not possible be! They also have many foundations and programs to support kids which are made viral by the proud westjetters that participate.

Westjet is also quick to act when natural disasters affect westjetters like the Fort McMurray fires. Hundreds of people were affected and Westjet helped many that needed to evacuate by flying them for free. They even focused on helping many of the animals that were affected! They did not increase their pricing to profit from the event, unlike other airlines, they also provided different resources to support. They also made their Christmas campaign a give back opportunity for some of those terribly affected.

Within the organization, Westjet uses Facebook and Instagram groups to break the ice between new flight attendants and also as a more casual resource for team members to share stories and even switch shifts.

Lessons for Others

I believe Westjet is a great example of a company that makes you feel proud to be canadian. They have successfully merged their identity with that of their customers and employees. Creating this new identity of a Westjetter. Something that helps them to unite people that would otherwise not have anything in common outside of their loyalty to the company brand for different reasons.

Westjet’s ability to be active at all times by being in all different social media forums, and by enabling (and encouraging) their employees and customers to share their feelings and experiences makes it so that it is difficult to think of another airline before them. I know that we have paid more to fly westjet many times because of who they are.

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

---

References