By Anika Robertson
Senior Editor/Assistant Public Relations Manager
The Airport recently celebrated its most successful social media post ever thanks to the ingenuity of two Department of Aviation employees, Amany Fanous and Devin Pascoe. Timed closely to the release of Marvel Studios blockbuster “Black Panther,” the post about a “flight” to Wakanda went viral, amassing 4,472,096 impressions in days and gaining thousands of ATL followers. Fanous and Pascoe share insight into the Twitter and Instagram posts that got celebrities talking and made national headlines.
Wakanda, a fictitious place, drew very real numbers. How did the post come about? Was it planned or spontaneous?
Pascoe: We [began instituting] weekly Monday meetings with our social media team. And at a meeting, Amany shared a post by a famous Atlanta chef Darius Cooks (@darriuscooks). He pulled a prank that day and called an actual travel agent to try to book a flight to Wakanda, and the airport he tried to get that flight from was ATL. So, we shared that post and [then] someone commented with an elementary version of Photoshopping the sign. I told Amany, ‘We can do better.’ So, we did better.
Fanous: Devin took the idea and created the graphic and post. She put it out on Twitter. We didn’t imagine that this would happen.
Pascoe: Timing is everything.
Fanous: When we started, it had 250,000 views. When we shared on our Facebook, now it has over a million.
Pascoe: That kind of initiated the whole idea that ATL could do something like this. Cooks’ post had already been gaining traction.
Fanous: We thought it was funny, so [we posted it]. When we see that people are mentioning us, or they are sharing stuff, [we respond]. We are following social media all the time.
Pascoe: He didn’t actually tag us. Other people commenting were tagging us.
How long did it take from the moment you were notified about the chef’s video to posting the Wakanda flight graphic?
Pascoe: That post was only on Facebook, so we needed something for Twitter and Instagram. It was 10:30 a.m., and I made the graphic at 6 o’clock at my house.
Fanous: And then I didn’t sleep!
Pascoe: I didn’t, either. But we had to do it that day. The movie came out Friday [Feb. 16]. It had already been a few days.
Fanous: When I saw the post, I didn’t know what Wakanda [was] because [I] didn’t see the movie. Then I saw it was not a real place and it was related to the movie. I thought, ‘This is fun.’
What was the celebrity engagement like?
Pascoe: That’s when it went viral. Lupita Nyong’o [Academy Award-winning actress in ‘Black Panther’] replied. First, she retweeted our post to her account. Then, she replied with in-flight entertainment, which was this hilarious, punny list of movies. We replied with our own list of in-flight entertainment songs. And she is what sparked it. It was locally viral before she responded, but then it took on a life of its own. Then Forest Whitaker [Academy Award-winning actor in ‘Black Panther’] retweeted it, and then Marvel Studios replied. And this was over the course of days. It didn’t really die down until Friday [Feb. 23].
Fanous: Yesterday, people were responding.
Pascoe: The peak of it was Wednesday [Feb. 21]. Twitter was where all the celebrities were [posting], but … some of the big reposts by The Shade Room and other viral celebrity accounts were on Instagram.
Fanous: 181,000 likes on The Shade Room.
You talked about Lupita Nyong’o’s posts. What were some of your favorites from other users?
Fanous: Someone wanted to go to Genovia [depicted in ‘The Princess Diaries’]. I told him to keep monitoring our website for updated flights.
Pascoe: Some of Amany’s responses were great. One of them got on The Shade Room. Someone asked, ‘Do you take SkyMiles or nah?’ All Amany said was, ‘Nah.’
Fanous: We were professionally responding as well. For example, someone mentioned the WiFi and I told them, ‘Of course we have the fastest WiFi [at an airport] in the nation now.’
Why do you think the post resonated so well?
Pascoe: It was perfectly on time and it was perfectly unexpected. No one thought the Airport would ever post that, which is what made it so delightful for people.
Fanous: I think this movie has a high volume of engagement.
Pascoe: The hashtag was already trending, #wakandaforever, so we fell in. But then also, there’s another layer where Atlanta is Wakanda because most of the movie was filmed here. It was so relevant that we, of all the airports, would do it specifically. It’s ironic since we’re already in Wakanda.
Fanous: And we were able to create a new hashtag for Atlanta, #ATLforever.
What is your process for managing/catapulting trending topics?
Fanous: We are always [searching]. If I find something, I go back to Devin because marketing is responsible for creating content.
Pascoe: Amany is listening to everything.
Fanous: I’m interacting more with the customers through the platforms, responding to complaints, reviews, mentions. Even when people are checking in to the Airport, we tell them, ‘Welcome to Atlanta.’ So, we are much more engaging with the customer on a daily basis. Marketing is creating content, campaigns, captions – the creative.
This sounds like a 24/7 job. What are the hours like?
Fanous: Unfortunately, we have smartphones so everything is one touch.
Pascoe: At a different brand, it might be different if you left it alone overnight, and you don’t respond until the next day. But at an airport, the volume of posts … is unreal. If we miss a night, then we’re behind.
Fanous: If you are at the Airport at 3 in the morning and you don’t find anyone, the first thing [many] will do is go on Twitter or Facebook and start to communicate [with] the Airport. Social media is the easiest way now for people to communicate, and they know there [are] people behind it. The customer service model in social media is growing because people found out [they] can speak with the Airport on social media, and the [response time] is shorter than trying to call. Sometimes if I’m awake, you will find me responding to them at 3 in the morning.
Pascoe: The volume is so great that I’d rather check it on the weekend and stay abreast, then try to come in on Monday and be so stressed out. For instance, on Instagram, a way to gain a new following is [through] our location tag and like other people’s user photos of our location … If I wait a whole weekend to do that, then I’ve miss two days of people I could be culling to like our account. I’d rather do it every day than get behind.
Do you see any upcoming trends? What should we be paying attention to?
Pascoe: We need to use Twitter and Instagram more and more. The way Facebook is changing and has been changing … Facebook is governed by its algorithm. The way to stay engaged and keep our numbers up month over month is to use Twitter and Instagram like we did. Facebook is too controlled by [itself] to have these types of things happen like they do on Twitter and Instagram. We need to use every available platform.
Fanous: In technology, everything is moving so fast. We can utilize each tool we are using on social media to serve something. We have different audiences. It’s important to have different visions because it’s not me. At the end of the day, I’m a user but it’s not me; it’s whatever is happening in the market.
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