As the world gradually changes with much new technological advancement, organisations are also looking at how they can quickly send their messages about services and products to the desired audience.
As a result of this, many businesses have turned to the social media to make customers aware of their services.
Airlines alike are not left out.
The ultimate aim for airlines is to up the ante, increase passenger traffic and sometimes and ultimately exceed the bottom-line.
The power of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook in reaching global audience is phenomenon. No wonder top brands are now making use of the platform not only for business marketing and promotion, but also for customer service and support.
Top brands are now spending a large chunk of their budget on social media marketing as it is potentially one of the most effective and efficient advertising strategies.
Airlines now know where to look to find out how an airline is doing, and they know what to do if an airline doesn’t come up to scratch.
According to a travel expert, ‘The social media age is here to stay and airlines are embracing that to positive effect to keep their brand perceptions flying high.
From delayed flights to rude staff to food that tastes like plastic – if an airline commits a faux pas, social media is sure to be buzzing within minutes.
Social media has now become a favored platform for airlines’ customer service.
For instance, KLM has staff members who monitor different social-media platforms.
The airline has become world’s most responsive brand through its activities on the social media channel, the KLM Royal Dutch airline, has brought life into many parts of its operations as customers now prefer to visit its pages on face-book and follow it on twitter.
Joachem van Drimmelen, online reputation manager for KLM explained recently that ‘KLM has become the largest airline with over 90 million followers on Facebook’’ adding that the airline has made it mandatory to be available to customers online 24hours.
“Our social media strategy is built on three pillars: customer service; brands and reputation and commerce, customer service is of utmost importance to us so we initiated the KLM surprise campaign, we show KLM from different angles, we introduce several products online such as the trip planner where you can invite your friend to travel.
“We offer destinations for sale such that the more a traveler share and click on ‘like’ on the destination, the lower the fares, the social medium is a new reality because these days, people no longer call, they tweets, therefore we have an effective way of being with as many people as possible online”, he said.
Reflecting how attuned the company is to their online followers and customers, their suggestions help KLM create new products and services, including one introduced last week that allows non-passengers to purchase upgrades and gifts for friends and family traveling with the airline.
Other ideas developed from social media are destination guides based on cabin-crew favorite spots, and a service that allows staff members sweep planes for forgotten wallets, tablets and mobile phones, and contact the customers (sometimes before they realize their item is missing).
Lufthansa German airline showed their social media credentials by incorporating planking (the practice of lying flat in various locations) into their commercial for their adjustable business class seats.
Viewers were treated to a montage of people lying flat on parking lots, escalators and even windows to showcase Lufthansa’s lie flat business class seats.
With the tagline “because people like lying down”, Lufthansa provided an inspiring example of how an airline can mesh business class luxury with a definite sense of having their finger on the pulse.
These airlines show how well thought out use of social media can boost their image as modern, caring, accessible companies who care about each and every one of their customers.
Just like every other top brands, British Airways also uses social media platforms such as Twitter to reach out to a global audience.
In 2013, British Airways warmed our hearts with their Youtube campaign, Visit Mum, which went viral. The campaign was a success for British Airways and it attracted a huge response from users on social media.
Also, Nigeria’s Arik Air now has over 8,000 followers on facebook as many of its products and services are posted for customers to see on a daily basis.
Virgin Atlantic, a global London-based airlines, is a leader in social media with over 200K Facebook fans, 115,000 Twitter followers, and 1.2 million followers on its Virgin Google+ Page. Virgin Atlantic’s interactive “Looking for Linda” social campaign attracted new customers by offering exclusive rewards, garnering 15,000 entries and growing its social audience by 8,000 people. Because of the initiative’s success, Virgin Atlantic continues to use Wildfire’s Social Marketing Suite for other campaigns.
The airline succeeded in engaging social users and encouraging participation by providing meaningful and tangible rewards that tie to company’s products.
It attracted new followers across social networks, and give them incentive to revisit Virgin Atlantic’s social pages. It also advertised the company’s most popular destinations by using Wildfire’s Social Marketing Suite to create the “Looking for Linda” sweepstakes.
It also promoted the sweepstakes across social networks and collected entrant information into its marketing database (via the form on the sweepstakes page) for follow-up campaigns.
The result was that the campaign fueled extensive consumer interaction and generated over 15,000 entries and 8,000 new users in addition to successfully promoting travel destinations.
Because of the success of this campaign, Virgin Atlantic continued to partner with Wildfire on other social initiatives.
Low cost JetBlue airline which had successfully linked most popular domestic destinations and flight routes within the United States, has always relied on word of mouth to deliver its message to customers.
With the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, JetBlue can reuse and repurpose marketing assets to enable scalability with its social marketing promotions and engage customers across social media and the web.
Using Buddy Media, JetBlue is able to produce, launch, and measure microsites, landing pages, and customized content efficiently.
Sade Williams
