United Airlines has recently faced a problem where videos taken by the passengers, showing a passenger forcefully dragged outside the plan, went viral in the social media. The given incident would negatively impact the image of the company’s customer service if not effectively addressed through public relations. United Airlines will stop the reputational and financial damages the incident would bring when it utilizes debating tactic and social media in its public relations plan. United Airlines is among the leading airlines in the United States. It controls about 4,500 flights daily to 338 airports in five continents. It is also a member of Star Alliance, which serves over 190 nations through 28 airlines managed by its members (United Airlines, n.d.). The passengers took videos of an unidentified man being forced out of a United Airline’s plane after he refused to accept the request to leave and posted online. The security guards physically confronted the man and dragged out of the airplane (Victor & Stevens, 2017). The airplane was overbooked, and four passengers were required to free their seats for four employees of the company. The man’s plea to continue his flight, as he was a doctor who was to attend to a patient the following day, was not granted. Moreover, the workers of the company did not meet the Chicago Department of Aviation’s operational standards in the incident. The company boasts of its strong brand and operating network but its overall income might be negatively affected by the negative publicity the situation discussed herein might bring. While the company is famous for its strength of providing great customer experience ensuring effective customer service and entertainment in flight (Hincks, 2017; United Airlines, n.d.), the security officers’ approach to the clients might negatively influence its image as their approach is not customer friendly. The company’s weakness of deteriorating financial performance, which results from the constant losses, is an evidence of clients’ dissatisfaction by its services. The use of other companies to provide customer service to its client is also a weakness, which leads to low quality customer service (Chemuturi, 2017). The company can use the opportunity of technological development and expansion to redeem its image and reach global population. It should use social media to interact with the clients, attract them, explain the events that happened during the incident in details, and if possible, communicate plans to prevent recurrence of such incidents. The company faces a threat of high competition from the airlines that charge low prices for its services and those that offer discounts. Therefore, devolving deeply into the problem and issuing appropriate response would help clarify any possible doubts of the clients and the public. Considering the threat of rising fuel prices, the Airline would be obliged to charge high levels of fare, which would need trust and loyalty among the patients (Baker, 2013). Without solving the afore-mentioned issues, the company may face the risk of losing loyal and clients to competitors. United Airlines is dealing with a crisis. The crisis in public relations is an attempt to decrease harm to the reputation of a firm by the third-party entities. The incident at United Airlines could cause damage to the firm’s reputation since the clients and the public would not be willing to be subjected to similar treatments under similar circumstances. Therefore, they would opt to avoid using the firm’s services. The publics in the scenario are current and potential customers since they are the mostly affected by the incident considering the fact one of them was forced to leave a plane. Customer public is of great importance as it generates income to the organization. It is also reachable through the social media, such as Twitter and Facebook. Objectives · Precisely explain the incident to potential and current clients · Improve the attitudes of clients who may have been negatively affected by the incident towards the company’s brand · Increase its current client base Planning and Implementation The message of the public relations plan is “United Airlines values all clients”. Public relations and communications manager will lead a plan with the help of communication officers of the organization. The manager will implement the plan by defining and instilling the rules of the company to all the stakeholders, building positive relationships among them, communicating the plan to the customers and other stakeholders, as well as building relationship of trust. The manager will continuously evaluate the performance of the plan and make adjustments where necessary, especially in instances where the plan will not effectively meet the set objectives. Tactics The tactic employed in this campaign raises corresponding debates regarding the issue. The PR manager will use social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, to controvert the issue and make people discuss it. He will thereafter tone down in each response while condemning the act and promising that the issue will not happen again. The strength of the research, strategy, and tactics lies in the fact that they are easy and cheap to implement. The weakness is that they are difficult to monitor and evaluate. The opportunity of the research, strategy and tactics is that they utilize information technology, which is readily available and can reach larger audience. The threat is negative damage to the company’s reputation and image if the plan does not swiftly and timely respond to the incident. In summary, United Airline’s public relations plan would greatly succeed by implementing debating tactic via social media communication. The plan aims at eliminating the great damage the incident could bring to the company’s image, reputation, and financial performance. About the author: Fiona Wilson is a master in Literature at New York University. She is currently working as one of the best writers at the place where you canfnd analysis paper example https://essays-writer.net/analysis-paper.html She also studies male psychology. She adores sport and her favorite activities are volleyball and swimming.