***UPDATE***

Smith updates his blog tonight after more words with Southwest.  Seems like he really just wants them to tell everyone that there was more to him getting kicked off then his weight nad that he wasn't too fat to fly.  I've gotta go with him on this one.  He really just wants to save face and for Southwest to say that he isn't so obese that he would need two seats.  Personally, I've sat next to people way larger than him on Southwet flights, but that is neither here or there.  This adds some perspective to the story.

Kevin Smith gets kicked off of a Southwest Airlines flight after being seated due to being too big for his seat and uses Twitter as a Machine gun to let loose his anger on the Southwest brand.  Southwest catches the message fast and offers Smith a $100 voucher and an apology and even writes a blog on the subject.  Smith doesn't take the apology very well.  If you want more details check out a couple of my friends articles on the story.  One by Jason Harper at Locker Parnter and then my buddy Will Gregory's take on it.  I'm going to break it down a bit and then give you my take.

Kevin Smith

I've followed him through his entire career and follow him now mostly through twitter and his podcast.  He has a very loyal and savvy following and is known to be very blunt and honest about all aspects of his life.  Smith was embarrased for being a celebrity that had to walk off a plane in front of the other passangers for being too fat (this is granted).  His embarrasment soon turns to anger and he flexes his very large social media muscle by reaching out to his over 1.6million followers.  This catches the attention of every news provider on the wire and this thing quickly becomes a very large story for Kevin Smith and Southwest's brand.

Southwest Airlines

Southwest is absolutely no stranger to social media.  In fact, I would put them on a very short list of companies that "get it".  Catch an interview with Paula Berg, emerging media manager at Soutwest on a recent, "The Brand Show"  podcast.  I'm a big fan of Southwest's brand and their simple message to give people the best price on airline travel.  Great leadership and a breath of fresh air in the struggling industry.  Southwest acted as if it would for anyone that has a valid complaint, catches the KS tweets and offers an apology as well as a $100 voucher to boot. 

So what happened?  I thought social media fixes everything???

We're all still learning here and what's most refreshing is that even the smartest of people using these new tactics to listen and and interact with their customer are learning too.  Southwest followed all the rules and did everything they were supposed too and I still think they got burnt on this one. 

What could they have done differently?

I think they actually acted too fast on this.  They treated it like they would a normal customer and not Kevin Smith.   A very upset celebrity customer that's directly connected to 1.6 million potential customers is important to me as a marketing manager!  It's actually so damn important that I would have a special red phone installed in my house that would wake me up anytime something like this happened.  I think that they missed a huge opportunity here.  I'm not saying that they kiss Kevin's ass or give him a golden ticket, but if they new his personality and brand better, they could have easily made this an outcome where everyone was happy.  I'm sure Smith wouldn't have minded the opportunity for some extra publicity with his new movie coming out this week!

The blog wasn't really cool either.  This story brings a lot of attention to Southwest's very shadowy policies on whether someone is too fat to sit on a plane.  It's also a very embarrasing ordeal to one of their customers.  I may have taken it a little more seriously.

Hindsight is 20/20 folks and what's done is done!  I'm still a fan of both KS & SW and hope that they can figure their differences out, but if they don't, I'm sure I'll enjoy that just as much.