This year has been loaded with mishaps relating to social mediathat I've been more than happy to sound off about: from GilbertGottlieb's Twitter disaster (“DuckingSocial Media Disaster“) to the Anthony Weiner debacle(“BurntWeiner and the Rethinking of Social Media“), culminating in theeyes-wide-shut nightmare of Penn State and Jerry Sandusky.

But finally, as we hit the waning days of 2011, we find anexample of a corporation that does something right in the socialmedia arena: to wit, the case of American Airlines versusAlec Baldwin.

If you're not glued to the Twittersphere, you might have missedthe story: The puffy actor was ejected from an American Airlines flight (not midair, mindyou) for failing to turn off his mobile device when instructed todo so by flight attendants.

The reaction in the Twitter universe was hot and immediate, andmostly in favor of Baldwin, after the actor tweeted a snottymessage on the situation: “Flight attendant on American reamed meout 4 playing WORDS W FRIENDS while we sat at the gate, not moving.#nowonderamericaairisbankrupt.” Later, he tweeted that American was“where retired Catholic school gym teachers from the 1950's findjobs as flight attendants.”

American could have very well let the matter lie, hoping itwould die a natural death in the constantly churning “news” cycleof cyberspace. Instead, after Baldwin fired the firstshot, the airline took to its Facebook page totell its side of the story.

Without naming names, American wrote that an “extremely vocalcustomer” not only declined to turn off his phone, but was“extremely rude to the crew, calling them inappropriate names andusing offensive language…Given the facts above, the passenger wasremoved from the flight and denied boarding.”

On Twitter, American said its flight attendants followed federalsafety regulations regarding electronic devices, and left it atthat.

Flying today is a far cry from the halcyon “Mad Men” days ofyore; the experience is more like moving livestock thantransporting jet-setters, which is probably why it brings out theworst in many travelers. Still, I doubt that Baldwin wascrammed between a screaming baby and a fat man in the economysection, so his stress level couldn't have been that high. Perhapshe had hit a snag in the vitally important activity ofplaying one of those cloying, ubiquitous Zynga games–you know, the ones yourfriends annoy the hell out of you with updates on Facebook(“Fred just lost 100,000 head of cattle to hoof-and-mouthdisease on Farmville!”)–and that alone could have caused himto react badly.

Still, rules are rules, and if you and I have to turn off ourcell phones on a plane, then so should Baldwin. Don't like it?Complain to the FCC, which has banned the use of mobile phonesand similar devices on airplanes.

According to Wikipedia (the modern font of all knowledge!),“There is evidence showing various degrees of correlation betweenuse of mobile phones in flight and various instrument problems. Onestudy concluded that mobile phones used in the cabin could exceedthe rated allowable interference levels for some avionics installedin aircraft. On the other hand, links between device use and actualsystem failures have not been proven, nor have the reportedincidents been reproduced in ground tests.”

Like most of these kinds of stories, there is probably more herethan meets the eye. I find it entirely believable that Baldwinwas abusive to the flight attendants who, 1950s gym teachers ornot, are just trying to make a living and don't need his guff.

American's decision to promptly get the story out into thesocial media realm instead of playing ostrich and hoping it wouldjust go away was exactly what businesses need to do in potentiallyexplosive situations. Your business clients can learn a lot fromthe way this was handled.