Smart Marketing from JetBlue

It started with a tweet from JetBlue.

DC area Twitterers: Get some great Happy Jetting Happy Hour Fares tomorrow 3:30-6:30 at the Reston Town Center Pavilion (11900 Market St)

The folks at JetBlue are well known for their use of social media. When they found themselves with angry customers stranded during a 2007 Valentine’s Day ice storm, their CEO went on Youtube and apologized directly to customers. From what I’ve read, this experience prompted the company to embrace social media as way of bypassing the media and communicating straight with customers.

The JetBlue crew at yesterday's Happy Hour fare sale in Reston Town Center, Reston, Va.

Since their CEO’s apology, they’ve built up an entertaining Youtube channel, they’ve started a Facebook page and they have become one of savviest companies on Twitter. (Interestingly, they are also using social media inside their company to help train employees.)

But back to Twitter. I really was intrigued at getting a chance to meet their team in person here in Reston and see how many customers they were able to attract using twitter and other new media.

For the event, they flew in reservations folks from Salt Lake City, marketing & PR people from New York and at least one IT guy from Florida. All in all, a really fun bunch.

While I didn’t snap up any of the free snacks they normally pass out on their flights, (other airlines charge, you know), I did score a round trip ticket from Washington to West Palm Beach, Fla. later in January for $69, including tax.

That’s my kind of happy hour. It seems the JetBlue crew is dropping hints that the next happy hour sale is coming soon.