UNITED AIRLINES - #United in Chicago

In a similar event to one hosted by Virgin Atlantic a few months ago in Boston, United Airlines ran a twitter treasure hunt in the streets of Chicago on the 27th June of this year.

After posting a series of clues on twitter using the hashtag “#unitedinchicago” to their 280,000 following, Chicago based followers of @united were able to guess the location and try to hunt down a team of United employees in order to win a host of prizes, from sporting event tickets and free tickets on United through to model planes and retro United satchels, as described in an online promotional video .

The driving concept of this social interaction was to get customers in front of the new United uniforms, which were launched a few weeks earlier and to allow them to interact with both United staff and fellow travellers in a positive atmosphere.

Many airline companies are becoming increasingly social media-minded and United like other brands, wants to use Twitter and Instagram and other social media tools to develop a closer dialogue with customers and get feedback about how United is doing and what it can do to be better.

After a few issues with the merger between themselves and Continental United has stated it is entirely focused on improving their customer service experience.