A Case of Mistaken Identity - Saved by Delta Assist

Dear Social Media @ Delta,

I teach social media at Olayan School of Business - American University of Beirut.  Earlier this year, I taught the module on Social CRM noting with some skepticism that most companies haven't figured out that social media channels have to be integrated into the other apps in their call centers.  I'm not a fan of service provided by (US) domestic airlines but your engagement this morning (1AM your time) with @k2kaloha (me) deserves mention.

I'm telling my students that I probably got help faster by Twitter than by calling (even if I was able to which is very difficult for me internationally).  What impressed me was the integration of apps (or at least availability to information) so that Twitter was used like chat while I emailed crucial information to your dedicated email channel which the rep saw come in very quickly.

Perhaps it was time of day (1am your time) so there wasn't much SM traffic.  Nevertheless that Delta had someone monitoring the channel at 1am (in US) and empowered its employees to get things done at that hour was impressive.  I got a response within minutes of sending my initial email.




I'm not sure if the situation (reservation booked in my name by phone without my knowledge) has been resolved but I'm praising Delta and the rep for getting it to the right department so quickly.  I shudder to think how I would have been bounced around if I had called especially since I'm overseas at the moment.  Your taking Twitter seriously for an international traveler made a huge difference on my stress levels when I saw the email this morning.

We (at business schools) talk about United's guitar fiasco but "taking care of business" in the trenches is rarely talked about.  Please let the rep know the service was appreciated.  Please let the SM strategy folks that they "get it".

Update: On the other hand ... given that by catching Delta's mistake and saving Delta from a very unhappy customer doubly inconvenienced (using a voucher for being overbooked) - you'd think I'd be praised by the Fraud Department or Customer Service or someone at Delta.  Just think if I had happened to live in the same city of the mistaken identity (thankfully not stolen identity) customer,

So the social media experience would have been much better if the non-social media experience had been just as positive.  We teach that social media requires a transformation of the company and its processes to respond at the speed of a Tweet.  Sorry Delta - you aren't there yet ... but Delta Assist is worthy of a blog post.

Does anyone care about LinkedIn password breach?

The tagline of this blog is "shaping your online identity to balance community with privacy".  The report that 6.5 million SHA-1 unsalted password hashes claimed to be from LinkedIn hasn't "lit up the phone lines" so far.  Yes there are hundreds of Tweets reposting the news with some cynicism.  It is too early to tell why the reaction of the community has been so limited.   But with over 160 million LinkedIn members (end of Q1 2012), everyone should be aware how your online identity could be altered where it matters most - your business network.  You could be one of the 1 in 25 members whose password has been exposed.  We should be on the lookout for unexpected invitations.

A social media network thrives upon a community knowing that the host protects them from unwanted relationships.  I am a bit surprised that a social media company has had a decidedly unsocial response.  Here are the four (yes only four tweets) in the first 17 hours from @LinkedIn since the news broke.



It is late at night as I write this so one probably doesn't expect much.  However, I would like to believe that the company is working hard at the problem.  Perhaps there hasn't been much outcry from LinkedIn members yet.  This is partly because the LinkedIn website has no mention of a problem.

Interestingly, security researchers seem to be ahead of the game.  @SophosLabs suggested changing your password four hours ahead of LinkedIn.


Why the low key response?  cnbc.com suggests LinkedIn stock is teflon so despite 1 in 25 of its customers at potential risk, such a security problem isn't being taken seriously.  Sophos Labs has a blog post explaining what LinkedIn meant by "passwords that are reset will now be stored in salted hashed format".  LinkedIn closes its blog post announcing the breach with "We take the security of our members very seriously" but apparently not enough to salt its hash until being breached.
What about us? It seems we need our social communities these days so one either protects oneself as much as you can (you did change your LinkedIn password?) within the network or pay the opportunity cost of loss connections by leaving the network.  Either way there is a price to pay.