Twitter user complains about British Airways via Promoted Tweet

This takes the righteous anger cake. Rather than merely complain on Twitter about horrible airline service, Hasan Syed did one better and bought a promoted tweet.

This pretty much guaranteed a lot of eyeballs (25,000 according to Simpliflying ) would see it. I'm willing to bet the number is a lot higher now.

It makes sense though. If Syed had jump complained, at best it would have gotten a few retweets and then maybe a few hours later a "social listener," who works for British Airways would have shown up. Oh, did I say a few hours? I meant a full day after the fact. From the Telegraph:

BA responded to Syed's complaint on Twitter this morning, apologising for the delayed response and asking for Syed to direct message (DM) his baggage reference

In the couple of times I've complained about services via twitter, the "social listener" always defaults to the same answer: "So sorry to hear that. DM us your email so we can discuss further." In other words: take it out of social as quickly as possible to remove the public negativity. So Syed won on that account.

By the way, I hate that phrase "social listener." I want a "social responder," thank you very much.
Speaking of social responders, Jet Blue Marketer Marty St. George was quick to jump on it and earn some good PR for the brand, too.

Interesting; a disgruntled customer is buying a promoted tweet slamming a brand where they had a bad experience. That's a new trend itself!

— Marty St. George (@martysg) September 3, 2013

Mr. Syed, I'm sorry about your ordeal. I hope they find the lost luggage. But damn dude, you are owning Twitter right now. Good one.

.@British_Airways To Fly. To Serve. pic.twitter.com/BMuuJLFXLV

—  (@HVSVN) September 3, 2013

I refuse to stop running Twitter Ads until @British_Airways finds the lost luggage

—  (@HVSVN) September 3, 2013