Clickable Data: Airline Social Media All-Stars

Where is Finnair? http://www.facebook.com/Finnair?ref=ts

Finnair is currently #44 on the list.

Stephen
I see the list getting longer and more comprehensive by the day. Well done.
One comment - instead of having the last update date above the chart, could you make it behind each of the airline. That would be less work for you. I take it, that not all the numbers are updated on the day mentioned as updated date.

p.s. Thanks for the link. Unfortunately it needs a payment and cheap me did not want to invest. I have been thinking about the list and the (potential) weighting between the social channels. Ideally, one would assume a value for each channel (ie. FB could generate a penetration of 5%, whilst Twitter 3%). Looking at the stats in the list, it seems that carriers prefer different channels. Southwest and JetBlue go after twitter, American, Singapore and Virgin are more FB oriented. Some, like BA and airBaltic are reasonably balanced. Because American and JetBlue operate in same geographical area, it is wrong to assume that certain channels are more preferred in that region. One observation though - the carriers which operate in the areas where you have heavily fragmented language or cultural base (AF, airBaltic, Air Berlin) are probably finding it more difficult to generate the followers using just one language.

Jack, sorry for the late reply -- I've been busy on another part of the site. You've given me several social networking ideas that really require a formal blog post, rather than just a comment or two. For now, I'll answer you this way. Anecdotally, I already know Twitter has an immediacy factor that is much higher than Facebook's. With my own advertising, I get a click-through ratio (using Twitter) that is 15-20x higher than the static advertising on my pages. I'm guessing that jetBlue figured that out early (in their strategizing) and that's why they now have 1.2 million Twitter followers.

With regard to one venue versus another, I don't know that there is that much strategizing going on: I think it's more likely that the airlines are saying, the medium is there, it doesn't cost anything, let's do something in that space. But -- as you are figuring out, the whole thing really cries out for real strategy, based upon numbers, loyalty, (re)purchase intent, and sound offers that can be extended to "friends and followers." That's what I'll write about in my next post.

You are absolutely right about the language issue, and I'm dreading it, because it's going to make my list maintenance a bigger headache: I am seeing more airlines using multiple languages to achieve greater penetration in the social networking spaces. I've seen it with Israel's El Al, and a couple of the Asian carriers.

Finally, this whole area of social media, as you noted in your first comment, is great for any airline that wishes to "punch above its own weight." The smallest carrier can build a loyal and growing following that surpasses that of larger rivals, in very short order.

At easyJet we also use the following social media sites;

www.facebook.com/easyjet
www.myspace.com/easyjet
www.linkedin.com/in/easyjet
www.getsatisfaction.com

Thanks for the good report.

Paul

Stephen,
Is your plan to update, refresh and enrich this study? Would be nice. Keep on the good work

Yes, absolutely. I could use a little help with researching the airlines addresses, though (web, Twitter, Facebook, and blog). Particularly with Facebook, there appear to be a number of "official" airline sites that are actually fakes run by someone other than the airline. So the research is a bit more time consuming than I expected. Some airlines are also using more than one Twitter or Facebook address.

Anyone who wants to help can research and submit addresses through my 'Contact' page (see top menu). I'll keep chipping away at it, in any event --

I am happy that the study generated discussion.

I agree with Stephen, the next step would be to evaluate how these platforms generate sales and who are the most effective in doing that.

Would be nice to compare this study with others on same subject. Is there any other studies about airlines in social media?

Jack, I've had your question in the back of my mind .... There's some excellent information about the social networking strategy of Southwest Airlines (#1 on my list!) here:

http://hrmarketer.blogspot.com/2009/09/southwes...

The author provides a deeper link to more information that I frankly did not have time to sign up for, and read.

Hi, Great initiative, but I only see one Asian airline (Thai). What about Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific. It would be interesting to see how the top rated airlines in skytrax are doing.

Added Singapore and Cathay Pacific. They took over the #5 and #8 slots, respectively. Thanks for commenting --

Hi, Stephen! Thanks for including us in list. We also thank Milind for suggesting us. To be honest, Milind is not employee of airBaltic ;) Blog is idea to think about.

Interesting study. Wouldn't it more accurate reflection of the airlines true performance/penetration is social media, if these numbers would be in relation to passengers carried or size of their respective markets? airBaltic is highly innovative and certainly is punching above its weight, if you compare the size of the airline to others.

Yes, I'm sure it would. My intent is to present a quick, "back-of-the-envelope" analysis of the airlines' reach across three top social media venues, while also getting the links together in one place. Since we are talking about social media, there are a lot of interesting segmentations that could be done, such as surveying for the repurchase intent of those who are followers or fans, and then targeting them with some sort of upsell (loyalty?) offers or rewards.

I have no doubt that airBaltic is going to leverage its strength in this area to build a strong brand and customer loyalty. They were on me for inclusion on the list within 20 minutes after I posted it ... I was quite impressed!

(Now, if they would just get their blog started, to be #3 behind Southwest and jetBlue. That would get more people talking and recommending. If you know somebody there, tell them they can hire me to get things up and running! ;-) )

Thanks for commenting --

Is this from a comprehensive survery of airlines? airbaltic.com twitter 4,769 followers, facebook, 3,116 fans and growing fast with a september promotion to offer discount vouchers as the number of followers goes up.

I've added airBaltic to the list; thanks very much for the tip!