In March, when the first list of “Airports Using Twitter” was posted, we certainly generated a lot of interest in the topic by airports and others in our industry. The current list of airports using social has now grown to 143, which represents a 26% increase from the previous post of the list. The list includes many of the Top 30 International airports by size, as listed by ACI (shown below in capitals).

The rankings are straight-forward: the ratio of the number of Twitter followers to total passengers using the airport. But we  recognized that it may be more relevant to categorize airports by their relative size, i.e. by total passenger count. By ranking airports within their own category, we feel that this may better represent the airport’s effort to engage with customers through Twitter social media programs. It is felt that if airports have a higher ratio (followers to total passengers (PAX), it suggests that those airports may be more engaged with their traveling customers. More on this topic to be discussed in another post.

The Top 10 Airports Using Twitter by Category

Top 10 Twitter Airports:  …

[caption id="attachment_3004" align="alignleft" width="210" caption="Passenger Experience Index"][/caption]

Introducing the Passenger Experience IndexSM

Airport ROI is a good metric for airports. But in order to extend the opportunity of engaging with passengers as customers, we must focus on them as part of the metric. In so doing, a new measurement paradigm is needed, one which we call a “Passenger Experience Index” (PEI). This Index considers new opportunities of customer engagement that Social Media and new technologies bring to the equation.

The Passenger Experience Index (PEI) must include many new complex objectives and metrics. The passenger focuses on their entire travel experience, whereas current ASQ surveys only deal with airport physical aspects in airports. This should not be confused with the PEI. If we are looking for new opportunities to increase value to passengers while increasing revenue for the airport, then the PEI is the our focus point.

When the PEI is put into an application framework, it becomes what we call “Destination Marketing”. This is a perfect storm of continuous contact, opt in services, geo-location + itinerary, flight data and …

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 …

In our previous blog on social media metrics, we briefly touched on organizational issues as it applies to airports. First was, what changes may need to be considered in terms of people, skills, methods of deployment and KPI measurement. We want to ensure that initiatives of value are properly aligned with desired outcomes – if mishandled, they could  lead to mismanagement of messaging and perhaps alienate passengers or violate some federal aviation / communications regulations in your particular jurisdiction.

We would suggest that social media be focused on passenger usage primarily. If such, we should ask then “Who should own Social Media in the airport organization?” When we reviewed our Top 10 Airports Using Twitter and Top 10 Airports Using Facebook, we found many major international airports did not have a social media presence. This may demonstrate the dilemma currently facing these airport and their internal organization.

Traditionally, we see the following breakdown of social media usage;
Marketing  54%
Department creep  18% ( other departments who are dabbling unspecified)
Public Relations  14%

Few organizations utilize a centralized group for social media responsibility for the reason that it is a cross …

Now that we’ve posted our Top Twitter Airports and Top Facebook Airports, it’s appropriate to state the caveat. As one comment suggested, “we need to be careful with this type of analysis”. We agree completely. The lists were compiled with the purpose to determine which airports were using social media as part of their marketing programs. Now the hard part begins.

Airport social media marketing, to have the proper business impact, is a process of well defined strategy, tactics and execution. It must be applied appropriately and in the proper mix, using several key principles:

Core strategy development
Corporate blogging
Social media PR
Communities for feedback and research
Twitter and Facebook channels
Video as a strategic SM platform
Brand monitoring
Metrics measurement and data insights
Viral campaigns
SM 2.0 architectures

Many airports ‘deploy’ elements of social media marketing, such as, blogs, Twitter, Facebook. They do so because they feel that they are applying newest marketing techniques. But many do not fully understand the implications required to turn it into a measurable and meaningful result.

Social media is no longer an optional element in your airport’s marketing plan. It’s integral to effectively managing your brand, your airport and your reputation. As Chris Anderson, author or ‘The Long Tail’, said, “It’s …

[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 …