When Flight Centre Brand (FCB) Global Head of Marketing Megan Henderson was asked for her thoughts on social media policy for individuals and entities within the brand at the Flight Centre Global Leaders conference, she gave a frank response (and a refreshing one, given her role as marketing lead for a multi-billion dollar global organisation).
“Full transparency. You can imagine there is a hell of a lot of risk in having all of our people in stores have social media accounts,” she said, referring to the potential of rogue players and posts emerging.
However, Henderson was quick to point out the positive possibilities.
“On the other hand, wouldn’t that be cool? You are our most important media channel,” she said.
“Do the benefits offset the risks? They probably do, but we need to give you guys really clear guidelines.”
To this end, FCB has made changes to how its travel agents can utilise social media.
Significantly, for the first time since 2018, Flight Centre is now allowing stores to have their own FC-branded social media accounts, enabling them to share content from the main FCB account and vice versa.
While FCB will give individual agencies more autonomy, it will also provide them with training to enhance their skills.
For starters, in-house learning and development facilitators will conduct in-person (and potentially online) training workshops for new recruits and novices, covering topics such as personal branding and the mechanics of social media posting.
Flight Centre has also launched the FC Creators Club to help store teams create fresh, authentic and shareable content. This could include behind-the-scenes looks at being a travel expert or content that taps into staff stories and personalities – the stuff customers love most. Ultimately, it aims to teach teams how to utilise social media to connect with their local community.
“We’re here to make [it] go faster, not slower. What we would give you is approved content that you may wish to choose to use,” Megan said.
According to Henderson, the new guidelines won’t be there to control what its team members do, but to empower them.
But they will also help protect the brand when a socially active team member moves on – a real challenge during the pandemic, when “hundreds of rogue accounts” emerged.
By enabling its teams to set up and run accounts “really professionally” – and independently – Megan said Flight Centre would become a unique proposition in the retail space.
“We would be the only mass retailer that would allow stores… empower stores to do this,” she remarked.
“The only person who would do this is a franchisee. People also think we’re franchisees a lot of the time because of how we operate. So let’s give it a try.”
Aligning values
When it comes to individual Flighties’ presence on social media, James Kavanagh, CEO of Flight Centre Travel Group Global Leisure, says it is essential to ensure there’s a distinction between the opinions of individuals and of the brand.
“When you show up on social media, you have your own values and belief system, and when you show up as a brand, you’re representing the brand’s beliefs and how the brand wants to be perceived,” he tells Karryon in an interview.
“If somebody is standing up on social media and telling a story, but they’re representing the brand, they have to try to challenge and disconnect themselves – am I speaking on behalf of the brand, or am I speaking on behalf of myself?”
“Some people walk a fine line in that space. But ultimately, customers, if you look at it, want authenticity and they want to deal with people.”
Check out our full interview with Kavanagh here. And read more about Flight Centre’s “superpower” and soaring NPS score here.
For more info on Flight Centre, visit www.flightcentre.com.au.
