It's been hard to avoid the woes of JetBlue.

After last week's snow and ice storm left passengers stranded in New York -- some stuck on planes for many hours -- the airline has been battered again and again. With each passing day, stranded passengers seemed to grow angrier, and the airline's reputation seemed to be sinking further.

Then, JetBlue posted a video on YouTube. In it, CEO David Neeleman told the world what happened and what he was doing about it. This was not a typical, highly polished corporate video. Neeleman wore an open shirt, stumbled here and there on his scripting, and seemed ... authentic.

Take a look.

This is what Web 2.0 can bring to public relations: The ability to get your message across in very human terms. It may not be perfect. It may lack polish. But it's real and it's human, and that's what counts. (Beats the heck out of a made-up quote in a press release, doesn't it?)

Now, am I saying JetBlue handled this crisis well? Not at all. Far too much time was allowed to pass before the airline began to respond effectively. Am I saying this video will solve the airline's problems? No. Not by itself.

I am simply saying that this is a good use of Web 2.0 in a crisis situation and I feel the video made some progress for the airline. The trick now is to keep it up. Neeleman needs to be extremely visible from now on, blogging, doing videos and speaking to passengers and others directly.

One video by itself won't change impressions, but it's a good start.

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