Crew Selfies: To Take or Not to Take?
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- Published on Wednesday, 29 October 2014 13:36
Today
there are millions of photos posted on various social networks every
second. For instance, on Facebook alone we upload 300 million photos
daily. Meanwhile, if one was to print all of the pictures currently
posted on Instagram, it would reach 6 351 kilometres from the Earth.
When it comes to the themes of these photos, the most popular trend is a
selfie! It has spread so widely, that only the most
entertaining/shocking pics receive significant public attention or cause
any controversy. However, prior to taking a seemingly innocent selfie,
certain professionals should think twice, and airline crew members are
amongst the ones on the list of employees that should maintain a clean
reputation at all times.
The
fact that back in 2013 the Oxford Dictionary named “selfie” the word of
the year raised few eyebrows amongst social networkers. After all, more
than 88 million photos were hash-tagged #selfie that year. Industry wise
the statistics were no less impressive with over 1,000 airline crew
members from all over the world introducing their own hashtags for
images labeled #crewlife, #milehighselfie, #flywithme, #airhostess,
#flightattendant, etc.
Most airlines
encourage the spread of such photos (especially when these pics are
captured/posted by clients), as they consider the practice to be a cheap
yet very effective supplement to the more traditional means of
marketing. For instance, in 2013 Turkish Airlines reached about 100
million traveller prospects with selfies. It largely contributed to the
tripled YouTube brand searches and helped to secure a 16% increase in
Google global brand searches. Inspired by the success story, a
Russian-based carrier S7 Airlines has recently launched a campaign
called the Right to do a Selfie, stating that from now on no airline
passenger shall be refused the right to take a self-portrait at any time
during the flight. However, far from many airlines are univocal about
the aforementioned right when it comes to their own employees.
“When on duty and in their official
attire crew members not only provide the air carrier‘s customers with
services, but are also directly and indirectly responsible for its
public representation. And airlines take their reputation very
seriously, meaning that they track every step of their employees’ online
activities. For instance, last year a flight attendant of Aeroflot was
fired after posting a photo of giving the middle finger on one of her
social media accounts. The same thing happened to one other Aeroflot
flight attendant. In May 2012 a Russian Superjet slammed into the side
of a volcanic mountain while on a demonstration tour near Jakarta. The
flight attendant was fired after joking about the crash on her social
media profile,” shares Skaiste Knyzaite, the CEO of AviationCV.com.
While an ordinary user might be amused
by such bad boy attitude of certain airline employees, most carriers are
not thrilled about their provocative photos receiving hundreds of likes
on Facebook. The limits do vary, however. For instance, while Delta
Airlines does allow its employees to take (and share) selfies freely,
their flight attendants are prohibited from posting any photographs with
celebrities. What is ridiculous is that despite knowing the rule well,
crew members are still breaking it aboard. For instance, not so long ago
the crew members of Vietnam Airlines were in breach of the official regulations
twice. They posed for a photo with a celebrity in the cockpit during
the flight and then posted it on internet. This comes to show that 15
minutes of fame is sometimes just too strong.
“When posting a selfie not every
employee can assess its potential impact on the company’s reputation,
which is why all crew members should maintain a serious approach to the
difference between the daily and work functions. While some of the shots
may be funny, the crew members posting them may not be the ones having
the last laugh” says Skaiste Knyzaite, the CEO of AviationCV.com.
“However, it must be stressed that despite all the pitfalls, social
media remains a powerful and useful source of new career opportunities.
Taking into account a wide range of advantages many HR-resourcing
platforms hold for flight attendants and other industry representatives,
the importance of online tools in the contemporary labour market is
hard to overestimate."
Source and image: Aviation.CV
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