Boy, have things changed. In the wake of full body scans and pat downs, the TSA has seemingly become more hated than BP in the eyes of the Internet. They've inspired numerous parodies on Twitter and lots of scathing blog posts.
Is the social media hate justified? For the most it is, because many of the things we've all been hearing since these new security procedures have been implemented show egregious lapses in judgment by the individual TSA agents.
But that's the thing; it's been individuals showing the lack of professionalism behind these horror stories.
This is why companies and organizations have (or should have) a solid PR team behind them, because it's the PR team's job to assure the public that the actions and immaturity shown by several of their agents is not indicative of the organization as a whole. More importantly, the TSA PR team needs to let us all know that they are taking steps to solve these issues.
The TSA's response? A Twitter account...that spams links from its TSA blog to users who tweet out negative comments about the new scanners and pat down procedures. A Twitter account can be a useful weapon in the crisis management arsenal if its used effectively, which it isn't in this case.
But this post isn't about full body scanners or pat downs, because I still believe that it's been a lack of professionalism by the TSA's individual agents that the root cause of most of the controversy. However, the oversights made by the TSA on the PR front are making things worse by not taking advantage of social media to influence their image or public perception.
And until that happens, I'm afraid the TSA may be securing their place at the top of the Internet's no-fly list.