We have had quite a few requests to update our Twitter and Facebook tables from airports. Yo simplify the process, we’ve created a tool that allows airports to update their own data. The SMI Index Tool is an entry level ranking tool that enables airports to gauge their relative usage of social media.

To Update Your Airport’s # Followers/#Fans:
The SMI Index Tool requires you to input your 3 letter IATA airport code, number of passengers and aircraft movements. If you have a Twitter account, just enter your @airportname and press get count, which retrieves the current # Followers. The process is the same for Facebook and # Fans. To enter the data, you’ll need to enter the Captcha words (spam protection) and then press “Get Your Ranking”. This will update the information on file and provide a relative social media index ranking for your airport.

To Enter Your Airport’s Data as a New Entry:
The SMI Index Tool requires you to input your 3 letter IATA airport code, airport name, the total number of passengers and aircraft movements. If you have …

From our recent survey and analysis with many airports using social media to date, we are able to categorize the organizational adoption of social media in airports- in terms of how it is being adopted, which departments and for what purposes.

Some background into the situation is warranted as many airports have not begun the journey into using social media-we can suggest that they will fall into one of the following categories:

Skeptical -nothing tried because not convinced of benefits to any stakeholders.
Experimenting – brought in tools to begin to understand their use to a segment of use.
Practicing- have made some investment in tools and personnel and see the benefits so far.
Thriving- have made social media part of the fabric in terms of culture, objectives and are seeing impacts.

In previous posts, we suggested that the adoption of social media and it’s related technolgies be supporting various airport objectives. We can now take a look at what organizational changes may be required in terms of people, skills and methods.

We should consider the governance of social media as a communications issue and ensure that we don’t …

[caption id="attachment_2944" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Reaching and engaging with passengers in real time!"][/caption]

Gaining Attention – Reaching Passengers Actively:

The use of metrics in social media can be misleading, as was the use of Internet Marketing metrics before them. A case in point would be the total number of page views – which may sound exciting, but we learned that if the bounce rates were high and leads were not captured and acted upon with a planned process – the page views to conversions or sales were a total disconnect.

In airport social media metrics it’s clearly not solely about the numbers either. If messages are going “unopened” or “unseen”, what difference does it make if how many Facebook Fans or Followers on Twitter there are?

There is another key to metrics that really opens up opportunity tracking, and that is that the medium is multi-channel and multi-dimensional. If your airport’s messaging (any type of value in the message) is relevant and timely to passengers, then the velocity of the message and its reach grows exponentially. This growth happens when messages get commented on, forwarded, Re-Tweeted and most …

Before applying Social Media Marketing metrics and analytics to the  streams of social messaging types coming in and going out of airports, it is important to decide on the Top Level Strategic Objectives these metrics will support. In terms of ROI, Social Media can be mapped to business and marketing values as in classical methods – that is, measuring awareness, reach and frequency of messaging. Although these metrics are usually quantifiable, Social Media brings an exciting and new exponential upside to the mix.

We attempt to lay out in a series of short Blogs, the steps required to develop a meaningful, measureable program for implementing Social Media Marketing programs in airports complete with sample metrics and methods as a guide to gauge success.

Our series will bring into play marketing best practices and tools where applicable, in support of both airport Customer Services and airport Retail. We will also share data and concepts that are working with the airlines as well.

Post 1- Mapping Airport Goals to Social Media Models

If we make the assumption that there are only 3 real measurable goals in airports in terms of REAL ROI, we can get past the “promised land” approach of Social Media.
1)    Increase Revenue (s) …