Followers: West Jet 68,836 Air Canada 15,530 #justsayin

May 19, 2011 | Posted by Craig LePan

You probably won't be surprised to hear that West Jet has almost 5 times the followers on Twitter than Canada's largest airline, Air Canada. If anything, you'd be surprised that AC was able to find 15,000 followers at all. With less followers than employees, it shows how interested Air Canada is in entering a conversation with their customers.

Look south of the border and you will see the same imbalance. Southwest Airlines (West Jet's Role Model) sits at over 1.2 million followers. More than United, Delta, American Airlines and US Airways combined. 

What are Southwest and West Jet doing that the others are not? They're listening to their customers. But this isn't something that they are only doing on social media, it's something they are injecting into their business and taking action on consistently. Their brands have soul, where the others are cold, heartless running machines. These brands are having fun while the others are being corporate.

Visit Southwest.com or Jet Blue and compare that to the feeling of the interface design at Air Canada. One feels like you're about to go on vacation and the other makes you feel like you're about to file your taxes.

Looking at the number of followers on Twitter may seem like a trivial exercise, but it offers a true reflection into the rest of the experience these airlines are offering.

We're off to the airport in the morning and yes we're flying West Jet.

Some details on the stats mentioned above:

Twitter Followers:

Jet Blue: 1.6M

SouthWest Airlines: 1.2 M

American Airlines: 201,738

Delta Airlines: 179,333

US Airways 125,602

West Jet 68,836

Air Canada 15,530

United 6,400