Saturday night, film director Kevin Smith had a bad experience on a Southwest Airlines flight. According to his twitter stream, he was forcibly ejected from a flight on which he was seated with bags stowed. The nature of the safety concern? His girth. Although he got a later flight and the obligatory voucher, Smith lost his dignity and then his cool.

Unfortunately for Southwest, Smith has a verified Twitter account with a following of 1.6 million people, including a number of other well-connected individuals who helped spread his anger. His initial post was retweeted by hundreds, and the 20 additional tweets over the next three hours created more artifacts to keep the fire lit. Although it is unlikely Smith’s transportation problems will rise above the Winter Olympics and Valentine’s Day comments today, this is an issue likely to move well through cyberspace.

Of course, Southwest Airlines has an active twitter account, too, with one million of their own followers. The company has a good track record on the microblogging service and often appears in blogs as a model for business engagement with customers. Once the social media manager got wind of the incident, she reached out to Kevin Smith:

This is a textbook response, but there are a few underlying dynamics that may keep it from leading to a resolution.

Time Spent is Experience

There were 13 tweets from Kevin Smith mentioning @SouthwestAir before the online representative was able to respond, an hour after the initial incident. Likely, that was because the problem occurred on a weekend evening when it is difficult to notice everything in the same way you might during regular business hours. That hour allowed Smith to not only endure being removed from his flight but also deal with airline employees and security officials trying to manage his anger. Because he still needed to get to his destination, logistics were negotiated. Smith now had a new hyper-awareness of the girth of other passengers and comfort during the next flight, feeding his anger more while his access to Twitter was disconnected. The same @SouthwestAir tweet sent immediately after the ejection would have a different potential for success.

He is Not Alone

After Smith landed, he responded to Southwest:

Hey @SouthwestAir? Fuck making it right for me just ’cause I have a platform. I sat next to a big girl who was chastised for not buyng an extra ticket because “all passengers deserve their space.” Fucking flight wasn’t even full! Fuck your size-ist policy. Rude…

An earlier tweet claimed there was a larger person on the initial flight, too, who was not asked to de-plane. Without knowing anything about how often passengers are deemed a safety risk for being overweight, nor how many Southwest customers are candidates for such scrutiny, we can look at the sizeable percentage of Americans who are considered obese to understand this is more than just a one-off incident to address.

She is Not Alone

Even in the best of scenarios, this is a difficult comeback for Southwest Airlines to make if they rely only on social media. The twitter account manager responded to others voicing their concern, turning the 1:1 dialogue with Smith into a community conversation. She indicated even before he landed that a call from the customer relations VP was forthcoming, following up later with Smith to confirm that a message was left on his answering machine. Underneath the tweets and calls, an internal network is communicating about Smith’s complaints and preparing to act. Coordinating individual responses in a timely manner goes beyond the power of a social media manager. Especially in large organizations, tweets are rarely the result of one employee acting alone. They are a reflection of the activity that goes on behind the scenes.

Twitter is Not Alone

The first option available to Smith as an outlet for negativity was Twitter. That’s just one option, though. Smith indicated that his popular internet show (SModcast) will feature an interview with a fellow overweight passenger who was belittled while buckling in for the second flight. The extended network is armed with blogs and podcasts of their own, and many are willing to comment in online forums and keep the first impressions of the situation alive. It is important for Southwest to continue to view the negative content as an opportunity to address issues in full view of the public, going wherever the conversation takes them.

This is a Policy Failure

Assuming Smith’s version of his Southwest experience is accurate, social media is neither the fix nor the cause of a policy that results in passengers not being allowed to fly. There may be federal regulations and compliance forcing the airline’s hand, or this could be an effort to be more efficient about sales or fuel efficiency. Whatever the justification, the wheels are set in motion by an organization that allows itself to make such decisions on the ground, in the moment. Social media potentially can mitigate error, soften reaction, or communicate explanations. It is also a mechanism for listening and empathy with customers. If used that way, social media can help highlight misguided decision making and reform policy from inside the organization.