WHITEPAPER

The State of Social BusinessThe Airline Industry 2012

10 July 2012

Deb Wiseman and Anne Bartlett-Bragg

Ripple Effect Group Pty Ltd (ABN: 28 135 533 514)P.O. Box 1227, Woollahra, N.S.W. 1350Suite 1, 50 Stanley Street, Darlinghurst, N.S.W. 2010

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Overview“…in the coming years digital channels will reshape more than just marketing and public relations. These channels are set to impact all aspects of business. Today we can see increased use of digital channels for customer service and employee engagement as two obvious examples. But companies are also increasingly adopting enterprise communications to increase speed and efficiency of operations. Social networks are being leveraged to make companies innovate and shorten the time it takes to bring a new product or service to market.”1

The rapid developments in Social technologies over the last few years, the airline industry has seen opportunities for Social Media and has increasingly pursued presences across various platforms. These presences cover a wide variety of content strategies that simultaneously experience differing levels of customer interaction and engagement.

In this study, we reviewed a cross sample of 24 airlines across a spectrum of short-haul, long-haul, low cost and full service airlines from around the world with a focus on the Asia Pacific region, the world’s biggest economic growth market2, to give an assessment of the industry’s use of the most relevant social networks from a traveller’s perspective.

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1 Asia-Pacific Corporate Social Media Study 2011, Burson Marstellerhttp://www.slideshare.net/bmasia/burson-marsteller-asiapacific-corporate-social-media-study-2011

2 ATA Vision 2050 Report, February 2011http://www.iata.org/pressroom/facts_figures/Documents/vision-2050.pdf

In an industry based on service and experience, it is not enough to create a social presence to only push content. The study assessed savvy content management as well as engagement across each platform. The more consistently an airline engaged with the consumer to reach resolution or simply responded to comment, the higher they scored.

The study uncovered the most successful airline brands, the weakest and the reasons behind those placements. The most important finding was that all airlines seem to be failing in meeting basic consumer expectation within social. When consumers interact with social technologies there are expectations on service and experience that can be viewed as an extension of offering. We call this shortfall “The Consumer Gap” and believe there is massive opportunity for airlines to shift social to more than a communications channel and into a viable extension of the business, to become socially optimised businesses.

Key !ndings

• Airlines predominantly use three social platforms- Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

• Airline activity ranges from mere presence, to sales drive, to considered engagement.

• The airlines which are more successful, tend to score highly across all the channels they activate in, indicating more confident understanding and with a potentially dedicated social team and strategy.

• The number of Facebook likes does not impact on success within the platform.

• Multiple Twitter accounts across region and communications purpose (e.g. Customer Service versus Brand) seems to cause confusion amongst consumers, with consumers choosing to approach the most popular accounts when they engage.

• YouTube usage is dwindling with increased activity on Facebook. Many videos do still see high viewership figures and these successful videos explore inflight and service experience. These are most likely found via search.

• Content sharing across Pinterest and Instagram is left to the most brave of the airlines, which are still finding the best way to use these platforms. Flickr activity may have been quite prevalent at one point, but with the rise of other more widespread channels, activity here has dropped off.

• LinkedIn is a tricky medium to balance between recruitment of staff and engaging corporates to fly on a particular airline. Even the airlines which have the recruitment angle right, struggle to find engagement with corporates as potential travellers.

• A handful of blogs are still heavily active and include customer submissions in addition to in-house created content. The main purpose of blogs has become to capture any potential searches. Outside of that blogs are not seeing much interaction.

• Mobile applications are the future, with travel and mobility going hand in hand. Some airlines are providing booking capabilities and flight information through mobile, a handful more focus on promotion and less on the passenger needs. There is significant potential for airlines to activate successfully within this channel to extend the service and engagement experience.

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Assessment criteriaFor this study, we have created specific scales of measurement for each platform to correctly reflect airline proficiency within the channel. For example, relevant customisation on Facebook is important in demonstrating that a brand is making serious effort to develop additional tools that resonate with their customer. A brand knowing how to engage on Twitter with the relevant conventions and displaying clear YouTube content strategies are all vital in determining the scores for these airlines.

The platforms assessed included:

• Facebook;

• Twitter;

• YouTube;

• Content sharing across Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr and Flickr;

• LinkedIn;

• Blogs; and

• Mobile Applications for smart phones.We did not measure Google+ as actual consumer activity is weak in comparison to Facebook.

In general, scores reflected the following on a scale on 1 to 10:

• 1 to 3: reflects little use of the platform and presence as a placeholder only.

• 4 to 6: indicates some more frequent use but no real understanding of how to use the platform to the airline’s advantage.

• 7 to 8: indicates more regular postings, engagement and appearance of a considered strategy.

• 9 to 10: indicates that an airline is strategically using the platform in a way where both consumer and airline derived value from the exchange. Creating a more social business operation not just social communications messaging platform. This exchange is relevant to each particular platform and appears to close the consumer gap.

This data was captured in May 2012.

The LandscapeThe nature of the aviation industry calls for high levels of customer service across the traveller’s spectrum of airline experience, yielding a variety of negative and positive sentiment. On the negative, delays or issues happen often and consumer dissatisfaction is voiced across the social sphere, not always being handled well and sometimes not at all. On the positive side, most people love to travel and engage with airlines to find the best cheap flights or an even overall travel experience for booked travel arrangements.

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For the 24 airlines we examined on Social most activities are self-serving. Self-promotion is rampant and the airlines that are the most successful are those that choose to combine their marketing efforts with strong customer service. We see these airlines offering a combination of:

• The deals and promotions that customers want to take advantage of;

• Creating fun campaign elements to keep followers interested; and

• Handling customer service queries that are both positive and negative.From a snapshot view, there appears to be an overall lack of effort by airlines to meet the social consumer needs of engagement vs. broadcast or promotion.

The 6 airlines below provide a snapshot of the highest to the lowest scoring performers within the report.

Airline Facebook Twitter YouTube Content Sharing

LinkedIn Blogs Mobile Apps

Total

/10 /10 /10 /10 /10 /10 /10 /70

8 7 8 7 8 8 7 53

8 7 7 5 4 9 6 46

6 7 7 0 6 0 0 26

7 6 4 3 1 3 0 24

2 5 2 1 2 0 4 16

1 1 0 0 1 0 0 3

Top performer overview: KLM

KLM is well ahead of any other airline. Their strength lies in the ability to incorporate their brand and offering into socialised components. This implies that different elements of the business work together to create a cohesive experience for the traveller across the selected social channels.

Furthermore, their ability to customise tools to meet a consumer and traveller’s needs reflects their focus on trying to enrich the traveller experience to build the brand image, over too frequent a push on repetitive marketing messages. This is further demonstrated by the airline’s skill in navigating between brand marketing push, handling customer enquiries and engaging campaigns. These campaigns are strategically developed to both reinforce the brand message and to benefit the traveller’s experience.

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Their mobile app is one of the most sophisticated in the industry. KLM begins to meet the shift in expectation that mobile technology provides to consumers by implementing service extensions that reshape the business socially. However, there is still opportunity to revolutionise this offering and provide a more complete service experience through this channel.

Mid performer overview: Jetstar

Jetstar places in the middle of the pack because of their level of navigation between promotional elements and customer service enquiries on Facebok and Twitter. It is a fairly basic engagement without much customisation to Facebook providing a one-note experience to the consumer.

The remaining activity across channels is poor with activity established as a placeholder and without strategy. A blog sits inactive for over a year and YouTube videos market the brand over experience, reflecting an overall focus that is communications oriented instead of one which embraces a more social business to benefit customer experience.

Jetstar could improve by adding more customisable features to Facebook which support the brand image and benefit the community. Other platforms, which have little or no activity, should be hidden from public view until a more robust strategy is established. Development of a useful mobile app would see their score rise further.

Low performer overview: United

United is a large airline and to see their performance at the bottom of the pack is surprising, especially when their key competitors head towards the top of the scale.

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United offers no customised features on Facebook and leaves customer queries unanswered. Their Twitter account is more customer service friendly, yet they Tweet out a lot of marketing messages and news. They have instigated a hashtag “UnitedPlaneChat” which is a novel idea and should see more success, but reveals more unanswered customer service queries.

All other platforms are virtually non-existent aside from a useful mobile app which provides functionality for check in, flight status and bookings. This is at a similar level to KLM. If United improved their service levels on Facebook, understood customer needs on Twitter correctly and bolstered their social business offering, they could easily be one of the leaders in the aviation industry.

ConclusionIt’s good to see a large number of airlines increasingly participating in the Social world and prepared to experiment with the vast array of Social technologies on offer. These technologies present significant opportunities for airlines who understand that Social channels are not simply a one-way communication or promotional channel.

In a recent CEO C-Suite Study from IBM, more than 70 percent of CEOs expect a change in the use of social media. Over half of the CEOs interviewed expect social channels to be a primary way of engaging customers within five years3. However these CEOs also understand that long term value is derived when organisations begin to help individual customers achieve their own desired outcomes4.

Airlines wishing to benefit and profit from the Social world need to develop an integrated and strategic social business plan. A real opportunity presents itself to drastically shift each airline according to the needs of their traveller, which will deliver strong returns on investment as seen in other sectors embracing holistic social business practices (see our Whitepaper on The State of Social Business in Australia 2012: who is achieving strategic results by design). This is the shift to become a socially optimised business.

Airlines are finding their feet in handling service enquiries across the primary platforms of Facebook and Twitter. Other platforms become support. However, this “Consumer Gap” presents the biggest opportunity within aviation. There are expectations on service and experience that are not being used as an extension of offering, particularly when the consumer is mobile. Airlines instead are still focused on the marketing viewpoint that social has to offer instead of the bigger picture.

For airlines to shift the experience, they need to align internal teams to provide a consolidated social offering to consumers. From the analysis and our own experience to date, this would provide consumers with:

• A more holistic experience with the consumer’s airline of choice;

• An easier combined data access point for airline staff when assisting consumers with their queries; and

• More simplified management systems across a business.

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3 CEO C-Suite Studies. Leading Through Connections. Insights from the Global Chief Executive Officer Study. IBM, 2012http://www-935.ibm.com/services/uk/en/ceostudy.html

4 Ibid.

The full report, Social Landscape Review - Airline Industry 2012, with 480 pages of detailed analysis of social media assets of the 24 airlines listed in the whitepaper, is available for purchase at A$495.

Please email your order to: hello@rippleffectgroup.com

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About the Authors Deb Wiseman - Senior Manager Social Business

Deb has seven years of experience globally, including time in New York and now back in Sydney with several media, advertising and conversational agencies. She has been responsible for developing new social communications tactics and methodologies for clients across a range of categories. Her approach values simplicity to deliver solid business results through stronger communication plans and more efficient business strategies that are sustainable and outcome focused.

Deb’s ability to comprehend a business need paired with consumer outlook informs her capability to develop viable recommendations using current trends and technologies. Her previous work includes global and US brands such as PayPal, KMart, Mentos, Panasonic, American Airlines, Kraft, EMI, Audi, Canadian Club and local brands that include SBS and Telstra. She has guided and managed projects that take businesses in to new territories that incorporate the understanding that company, consumer and platform must come together in a way where all derive value.

Deb has a Bachelor of Science from UNSW, a Diploma in Design and the arduous AWARD School Diploma to shape her strong analytical and creative thinking.

Anne Bartlett-Bragg - Managing DirectorMEd (Adult Ed), BEd (Adult Ed), Dip HRM, Dip e-Learning, Cert IV TAA, PhD candidate 

Anne specialises in the creation of innovative communication networks with social media. Her designs are award winners: MentorNet, the first national mentoring program for young women entrepreneurs in 2007 was a finalist in the Forrester Groundswell awards in 2008 and won the LearnX Asia Pacific 2010 Best Mentoring Program. Her design for the Institute of Executive Coaching's learning communities won the LearnX Asia Pacific 2010 award for Best use of Social Learning Tools.

Anne has an extensive early career background in the travel and hospitality industry and held management positions including National Reservations Manager, Qantas Jetabout Holidays, Executive Assistant Manager, ANA Hotel Sydney, Concierge for the Hyatt on Collins Melbourne, and National Marketing Manager for National World Travel franchise group.

Anne is also a sessional academic at UTS in the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences where she researches, develops and lectures in organisational learning. She is a recognised keynote speaker at academic conferences, both nationally and internationally. Her papers are published in several textbooks and international journals. In addition, Anne is a sought after reviewer of academic journals that specialise in social software and communication technologies. She uses her research and studies into the communication aspects of social media to provide an informed back drop to understanding how people are using new tools and changing traditional models of communication. She constantly challenges organisations to reframe their models of communication, service design, and workforce engagement. 

Anne is currently in the final stages of completing her PhD which has explored the adult learners experiences of developing learning networks through self-publishing technologies such as weblogs. 

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About Ripple E!ect Ripple Effect is a specialist social consulting and development company. We bridge the gap between existing IT, marketing, and operations to engage both employees and customers more effectively, and help create the kind of network effects and energy that characterise successful businesses and government agencies. We help organisations use smarter, simpler, social technologies to improve business performance, communication and customer engagement. Our services include:

• Strategic consulting and program management;• Social intelligence - monitoring, audit and analysis;• User experience design;• Software design and development; and• On-going editorial, marketing and user engagement support.

We work with clients, many of them household names, across a wide range of industries, from blue chip multi-nationals and internationally renowned media brands to non-profit organisations and government bodies.

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• Introduction to Social Business seminar Demystify social business, including examples and insights, opportunities, barriers and risks, while highlighting the benefits of engaging with customers, staff or business partners online.

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Press enquiries: Consulting enquiries:

Anne Bartlett-Bragg Deb Wiseman

Managing Director Senior Manager | Social Business

M: +61 418 852 581 M: +61 412 405 201

annebb@rippleffectgroup.com deb.wiseman@rippleffectgroup.com

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