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A year ago, the mobile photo social network Instagram had less than ten million users.  Yet it was growing faster than Facebook or Twitter were at comparable periods.

As a result, it attracted a fair amount of attention, and a few early adopter airline brands signed up, recognising the obvious link between travel and people taking and sharing pictures with their mobile phones. Fast-forward and the now Facebook-owned network has over fifty million users.   However, most airlines still don’t have a presence and many that do are using it sporadically and inconsistently.

We scanned through Instagram to look for 20 airline feeds so we could put together a comparative report.  In fact, even coming up with 20 airlines on Instagram wasn’t as straight-forward as we thought, as a number of major players are notable by their absence.

The infographic we’ve commissioned (see below) shows Air Asia leads in followers, bmibaby on activity and British Airways in likes.  It also throws up a few questions about how most airlines use Instagram and how they could use it more effectively.

To take a few feeds as examples:

• British Airways (@british_airways).   BA recently generated a fair amount of excitement on Instagram due to showing off the 787 Dreamliner.  In general, it uses it as a visual news feed.  Events, staff, planes, souvenirs and so on, which seems to be well received. The average number of likes is very high (an average of 250+ per post for the last ten), despite the feed having posted a little over 50x.  Clearly this is something BA could take advantage of, and make more of.
• Air Asia (@airasia) seems to use Instagram to try and get across the essence of the brand, via shots of the people who work there, including Airline boss Tony Fernandes.  It works – their Instagram account is very large (almost 15,000 followers) and they are extensively posted about on the network.
• Air France (@airfrance).  Air France’s Instagram account is a mix of everything – new routes, retro gear and destination pics.   At the end of last year, Air France also ran a #spotairfrance competition in the UK, France and Switzerland.   This was a competition for people to upload posts of their Air France experience, and tag them #spotairfrance. With 377 posts being submitted around the competition, Air France is still one of the few airlines to have used Instagram to encourage actual interaction from its followers via a competition or promotion.
• American Airlines (@americanair).   American Airlines posted sporadically until earlier this year, when it started uploading pictures of its new seats.   Since 7 March the feed has been quiet though.   Has there really been nothing to say at an airline as large as American for two months?

You’d be hard pressed to find Lufthansa, Alitalia or Iberia on Instagram, but you can find Russian airline Aeroflot (@aeroflot).  By and large the feed is made up of plane shots, but the fact that it posts fairly consistently already puts Aeroflot ahead of most other airlines on Instagram, and it deserves more than its 87 followers.

At Rabbit we’ve worked with both bmi and bmibaby, and this is what we did with their accounts:

We took on the bmi (@flybmi) feed earlier in the year with a brief to grow followers (at the time 200) and engagement and also to showcase destinations in line with the bmi Spring sale.   Edit challenges (take a master image and enhance it) are part of Instagram culture, and so we set up a weekly #bmieditchallenge around different destinations from Amman to Vienna.   We received almost 1000 posts in response, and grew the account five-fold to over 1000 followers.

bmibaby.  bmibaby may be the smallest airline on the list, but it is also the most active, having posted 228 times.

Our strategy was to use Instagram to showcase bmibaby destinations and also to build up relationships with influencers on the network.  As a result, we rolled out a six month campaign called My Europe, which resulted in over 35,000 destination photos being submitted, supplemented by Instagram inspired online destination guides and “insta-meets” (real world Instagram exchanges).

So what should airlines be doing?   A few things in particular:

1 – Make Instagram feeds dynamic rather than static.  With exceptions such as Air France, bmi and bmibaby, most airline Instagram feeds are one-way and don’t encourage fans to post their own images.   Encouraging engagement doesn’t always have to involve competitions or promotions.   A very simple thing airlines could do is to use the ‘repost’ function on Statigram (a web service linked to Instagram) to showcase a fan photo of the week – this is something we do for Gatwick Airport.

2 – Give the feed a theme.   What’s your Instagram feed for?   Most airline accounts are a mixed bagged and are a bit of everything.

Air Asia’s account works (and has amassed 15k followers) because a decision has clearly been taken to show the human side of the business – the staff.   Similarly, Aeroflot uses its feed to show off its planes and could probably quickly increase its following by tapping into the active ‘AV Geek’ community on social media.  Like with other social media channels, there needs to be a content strategy and plan.

3 – Look out for the quality of images. We noticed that a lot of airlines use their Instagram feeds a little like they would Twitpic – the photo service that allows you to attach images to tweets.   In fact, Instagram and other photo-sharing networks like Tadaa and Streamzoo have sold themselves on their in-app filters, which significantly enhance ordinary photos.   Again, a number of airlines seem to take care and attention with what they post, one example is SAS (@flysas)

4 – Be consistent.   Once you have created your Instagram account, have a content timetable and be consistent.   A few feeds we looked at had obviously created their Instagram account and then done nothing with it – in one high profile case since Christmas.   As with other social channels, you build engagement and follower by being visible and showing you are committed to the network and community.

The fact is Instagram and other up and coming photo sharing networks like Tadaa, Streamzoo and EyeEm can be powerful tools in an airline’s social media arsenal.   They can be very effective in sourcing good  user generated content, they can showcase destinations, they are good for visualising major news events and they are good for engaging a community that very often won’t be found on other social channels.

To end with, some more stats:  In the US and UK most mobile phones are now smartphones, with cameras as good as some entry level digital cameras.   In the USA, more smartphones (150 million) will sell than all cameras combined.   In the US, the % of pictures taken with a smartphone jumped from 17% in 2010 to 27% in 2011.   The most popular camera on Flickr has for a while now been the iPhone.   As an airline, your business is inherently visual.  Isn’t this a trend you should be taking advantage of?

• How BmiBaby Used Instagram to Visually Engage Travelers and Locals
• How airlines and airports can dramatically increase engagement on their Facebook Pages through one simple action
• Vote for the SimpliFlying Hero of April 2012: bmibaby vs JetBlue vs Virgin Atlantic
• What will bring Russian airline brands out of their slumber? In conversation with industry expert Stuart Barwood
• Airline brands must understand that social media is like a BBQ cookout party

She’s little, she’s a miss, and she’s red… care to guess who she is?

She’s Lil’ Miss Red, and she’s Air Asia’s Customer Service “ambassador” as well as the core element of the AskAirAsia customer service website.  From now on she will also increasingly become the Air Asia customer service agent as the airline has announced that it will close two of its customer service hotlines in a move towards what it calls its “on-going mission… to utilize technology and practice cost efficiency as well as promoting full automation and self service via the airline’s online channels”.

Although it might seem as just another cost-cutting measure, the shift from a telephone-based to a social media and internet-based model will most likely be an inevitable one for most airlines (and even airports). The speed and extent to which airlines will embrace the new model will obviously vary depending on business models, but a deep rooted shift in customer expectations is undoubtedly underway, and it all began with…

Eyjafjallajökull, of course!

If there ever was a perfect wake up call for airlines to engage in social media the ash-filled roar of the famous (and unpronounceable) Icelandic volcano was it, at least for Europe. The disruption caused by airspace closures and its unpredictable behavior proved to both airline and airports that traditional channels were simply unfit to handle large crises in an increasingly social world.

It became evident that, while traditional call centers were collapsed, users on Twitter and Facebook were helping each other and the European Air Traffic Control Agency (Eurocontrol) was providing them with up to date information in an efficient and relatively effortless manner.

New Rules of Engagement

As our CEO Shashank Nigam noted in a recent webinar, with the rise of social media, consumers now expect to receive answers and immediate attention 24/7 on their online platform of choice. In this new environment social media is becoming a must for airlines, and while some are still struggling, others, like Delta, are already managing to answer over 4000 queries a month with an average response times of as little as 11 minutes.

Furthermore, as our latest SimpliFlying Hero explained, airlines have found out that by using social media for customer service they not only gain in terms of response speed and customer engagement, but they are also able to listen to what is being said about them, and react accordingly.

Not only airlines

According to data from an infographic that SimpliFlying developed with ACI Europe a staggering 77% of all passengers that travelled through Europe did so in a “social media enabled” airport, a clear sign that airlines are not the only ones engaging in social customer service.

This was also confirmed during the research for our crisis management top 10 where we found several cases of airports taking a hands-on approach on social media to assist passengers during a crisis.

Given how travelers increasingly go online to seek solutions to their problems, it’s only fair that airlines and airports live up to their expectations. If expectations from travelers aren’t enough incentive, competitors should be sufficient reason to sit up and take note. There’s no looking back now!

Are you an airline or airport wondering how you can keep up with competitors and offer 24×7 customer-service on social media? SimpliFlying, along with its partner InterGlobe Technologies, offers scalable social customer-service solutions that will take care of all your concerns. Get in touch with us at engage@simpliflying.com to learn more!

• Is your Airport Customer Services Delivery Under Pressure?
• Top 10 Crisis Management Case Studies: How Social Media Can Help Airlines Deal With Their Worst Nightmares
• [Presentation] How airports can use social media to drive retail
• [Infographic] Airports in social media – ACI Europe Study reveals startling data
• Top 10 Airports on Social Media – case studies of the airports best at driving engagement

What’s the biggest obstacle to implementing customer experience successfully?

‘Lack of strategy’ according to Forrester’s annual State of Customer Experience report 2011.

We agree, but strategy in itself – even if it is bold, differentiated and customer-centric – won’t guarantee success. Where we see most companies fail is in the execution.

In our work with brands around the world we see that there is a lack of coherent thinking about how brand positioning, marketing, customer experience and employee experience fit together, and, dovetail they must if you are to be successful. Many of you will be thinking about how to execute your customer experience strategy in 2012 so let’s see what we can learn from a topical example…

A tale of two airlines…

There are two major Asian airlines that have recently posted their 4^th quarter results for 2011. They share some common features; both employ very attractive flight attendants dressed in smart red uniforms; both operate state of the art aircraft with the latest in-flight entertainments systems; both re-defined air travel in their respective markets and shook up complacent competitors; both have enthusiastic customers and are rated tops for service in their markets; each is led by a flamboyant entrepreneur each with his own Formula One racing team. And perhaps not unsurprisingly, Richard Branson and Virgin Atlantic inspired both.

However this is where the similarity ends, Air Asia operating out of Malaysia, declared a 46% increase in profits for Q4 2011 whilst Kingfisher Airlines, the Indian based carrier, reported a doubling of losses between July and September 2011. Air Asia was purchased for 25 cents 10 years ago and today has a cash balance of over half a billion dollars and is expanding rapidly. Kingfisher Airlines is currently $1.2b in debt, contracting rapidly and facing a financial crisis.

So why the difference and, most importantly, what can we learn from them about customer experience strategy?

Air Asia is one of the brands featured in our book ‘Bold-how to be brave in business and win’. In our view, Air Asia demonstrates a number of the characteristics that are shared by the ‘bold’ brands we studied. Its CEO, Tony Fernandes, had a vision of creating a low-cost airline that provides great service and then re-wrote the airline business model to achieve this and, in so doing, virtually guaranteed success. He paid enormous attention to creating a culture and employee experience that reinforced the brand values of simplicity and innovation. When the airline decided to diversify into the long-haul market he started a new brand called Air Asia X because, in Tony Fernandes view, you have to keep different brand cultures and business models separate otherwise “they contaminate each another”. Air Asia was voted best low-cost carrier in the world in 2009 and 2010 and Air Asia X recently won the ‘Best Network Performance’ award for its ability to open up new routes.

Kingfisher Airlines CEO, Vijay Mallya, took a different approach by betting on a five-star service model that went way beyond what any other airline offered. However, this required the market to grow steadily and remain relatively price-insensitive. Kingfisher got off a great start and gained plaudits for its quality product and excellent service experienced by what it calls its ‘guests’. Its cost base was high but it survived by targeting the top of the market.

But then it all started to go wrong. In an attempt to tap into the huge Indian budget market it acquired Air Deccan a low-cost domestic carrier and re-badged it Kingfisher Red. But, instead of keeping the business models and brands separate, Mallya upgraded Kingfisher Red until it started to offer similar service to the master brand but at a lower price. The result was that customers traded down and both brands were compromised- the classic ‘stuck in the middle’ strategy. In the de-regulated airline industry that exists today this is unsustainable because customers will always trade down to find better value if they can.

How to make a bad situation worse…

With costs that were too high and margins that were too low, Kingfisher started cutting and one of the first places it looked to do so was its employees. Over the past months the brand has from suffered low morale, damaging in-flight announcements given by disgruntled employees complaining to passengers that they have not been paid and a reported high-turnover of aircrew and top-talent.

Kingfisher is in a stall from which it may be difficult, if not impossible, to recover.

So what can we learn?

There are a number of principles that we can see reflected in this case study:

1. Don’t gold plate your customer experience

Customer experience is a neutral term and does not imply gold-plated service. Ritz-Carlton offers a great customer experience but so too does Premier Inn. Yet their business models and price points are very different and delivered in distinctive ways. Be careful not to upgrade your customer experience beyond the point that target customers want and are willing to pay for simply because it is what you value.

2. Treat your customer experience and employee experience as one and the same

It follows then that if your strategy is to be low-cost, innovative and simple, your culture and values must reflect that. If your strategy is to offer premium service then you need the very best people who are highly motivated and who want to stay with you. If you start de-valuing them they will leave and that will damage your reputation.

3. Be clear about what you stand for and stick to it

Be clear what you stand for as a brand. You cannot be all things to all people; that way lies mediocrity. So be clear about what you promise and stick to it. The reason that so many acquisitions fail is that organisations merge two strategically separate and distinct brands and then confuse customers and employees by ramming them together.

This also applies if you are growing and seek to expand through launching new products or propositions; make sure that they adhere to your core brand promise and values otherwise they will undermine what your brand stands for and create confusion in the minds of customers and employees. If you do wish to explore a new business model or market then do so by creating a separate brand and culture as HSBC did do successfully with First Direct.

3. Take a holistic view of the business

What you stand for, the operational choices you make, the culture you foster, the experience you deliver, and how you deliver it through your people and processes have to work in harmony to mutually support and reinforce the brand. Each element must work with every other in order for the strategy to work and when you change one element it can have a serious effect on the rest. This means that the business needs to be viewed holistically and strategy executed in the same way. In the words of Ronan Dunne, CEO of O2 “It only works when it all works”.

A differentiating customer experience starts with having a big idea and clear strategy but it lies even more in executing it well so that you can sustain it long term.

• Five ways to get brand value out of Airline Mergers
• Kingfisher Airlines and the Power of Influencer Outreach Marketing
• Vijay Mallya of Kingfisher – BBC interview
• Passenger Experience, Satisfaction & Concessions @ PTExpo11
• How Singapore Changi Airport has created the most lovable airport brand in the world

Listen to the exclusive podcast below.

(c) 2012 SimpliFlying Podcasts

Note: The HTML5 player above should work with most modern browsers including those in mobile devices such as the iPad and iPhone. However, if you’re having trouble playing the file, please use the flash player at the bottom of this post. Please also note that the podcast above has only a snippet of the interview with Azran. To delve deeper into the mind of an industry stalwart and gain some exciting secrets to the success of AirAsia and its future plans, click the Buy button above and get our premium podcast at an introductory price of only $19. You can get the free, significantly abridged, SimpliFlying Podcasts on iTunes as well!

When AirAsia X began its operations in 2007, you could practically hear the skeptics sharpening their knives as they waited – and waited – for the long-haul budget carrier to fold.

No doubt those knives were whipped out once again when the airline recently announced that it would be terminating its services to London, Paris, New Delhi and Mumbai – flights to Europe and New Delhi will cease in March while operations to Mumbai ended in January.  Despite all the I-told-you-so’s, chief executive Azran Osman-Rani remains unflustered. In fact, he maintains that the long-haul, low-cast business model is one that can work – if done right.

Of Scale and Profitability

While Europe’s weak economy, high fuel prices and taxes, as well as the visa restrictions imposed by the Indian and Malaysian governments ultimately prompted the airline to halt services to those destinations, Osman-Rani says that markets such as Australia and China are proof that AirAsia X’s model is one that can, with the right scalability and economization, turn a profit.

“The model can definitely work but the ingredients to build that success require scale. What we have proven is that in markets [where we] have built sufficient scale, they have been very profitable. In fact, [our] profit margins are higher than even some of the disclosed profit margins of the leading full-service airlines in Asia.”

Indeed, despite the disruptions caused by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year, the airline’s performance remained steady, netting it an on-site performance rating of 88 percent, which according to Osman-Rani “is much higher than some of the leading full-service airlines in the world.”

“Our engineering reliability rates [are] just about higher than everyone else…and if you go to the Skytrax website and look at the customer satisfaction scores for AirAsia X, we’re the highest among any Asian LCC and comparable to some of the top so-called 5-star airlines in Asia,” he continues. “We’ve developed a product that is very popular. It’s operation-sound and we can make it work and deliver profitability when we have scale and market.”

The Art of Strategizing

If there’s anything that the airline’s European and Indian sojourns have taught it, it’s that one has to prioritize. “If we want to compete, we have to let go of markets that are weak,” says Osman-Rani, adding that the airline will not be entering any new markets for the next two years but will instead focus on building up its brand and customer engagement platforms in Australia as well as Japan, Korea and China either by adding new cities to its network or increasing flight frequencies within its existing markets. “We’ve deliberately chosen the markets where we have a [strong] market leadership position and scale, by which we mean having multiple destinations in the market and strong frequencies that will connect well.”

However for many observers, it will be interesting to see if AirAsia X can maintain that position, especially when Singapore Airlines’s new low-frills carrier Scoot takes to the skies in June. The latter’s announcement that it would be operating direct Singapore-Sydney flights certainly played a significant role in putting pressure on the Malaysian government, which had been safeguarding Malaysian Airlines’ (MAS) interests up till then, to relax its restrictions on the Sydney route so that AirAsia X could be the first Asian LLC to operate to and from the Australian city starting April 1.

But what does he make of the competition? “The best way [of viewing the situation] is to look at what happened in 2004-2005,” says Osman-Rani philosophically. “Air Asia was a much smaller airline then and the entry of Jetstar and Tiger Airways into Southeast Asia made us wonder what’s going to happen to AirAsia with more competition and choice.” Fast forward seven years and it’s clear that those fears were largely unfounded.

That said, what’s going to determine which airline dominates the market isn’t a matter of who has the strongest network leadership. “The strength of the brand’s reach to customers is going to be the defining factor and it’s ours to lose if we can’t maintain that leadership position.”

In addition, there’s also the question of how fierce a rival budget airlines such as Scoot and Jetstar will turn out to be in the long run, given that much of the focus of AirAsia X’s growth will be on the north and south of Southeast Asia, which puts it in competition with larger full-service carriers such as Etihad Airways.

Entertaining Global Ambitions

Apart from strengthening the airline’s network and brand platform, Osman-Rani has grander ambitions as well and these include ideas for what he considers to be a truly global airline network hub. “The only model today is the global alliances – Skyteam, One World et cetera – and it isn’t a very strong consumer one because no one is going to say they’re going to fly SkyTeam. Everything’s still associated with the individual airline brand,” he explains. “In our model, what we’ve seen is the opportunity to create a global model anchored on one single brand – the Air Asia brand – and one single platform – AirAsia.com.”

Apart from AirAsia’s landmark tie-up with MAS, which will see both airlines capitalizing on each other’s resources in areas such as catering, ground handling and maintenance, Osman-Rani also points to AirAsia X’s collaboration with Japan’s ANA as an example, he points to how an airline can build on the same common brand platform rather than just having a loose alliance and code-sharing. “In this respect, one of the unique things that AirAsia is pioneering is how to roll this out globally. LCC is pretty much regional whereas the difference with AirAsia is AirAsia X. It is the trunk that can provide the link between the regions. For example, if AirAsia Japan establishes a very strong short-haul network, it provides AirAsia X the opportunity to come in to provide long-haul routes from Japan.”

Keeping His Eye on the Bigger Picture

For AirAsia X, 2012 is going to be a crucial one in terms of strengthening the foundations for its network, and that according to Osman-Rani means completing the task of reassigning the 30,000 passengers affected by the European and Indian flight cancellations, adding frequencies to “a couple of other existing routes” and making sure that the Sydney service goes off without a hitch.

More importantly, he is also hopeful that if everything goes according to plan, the airline won’t have to wait too long to file for an IPO. “I think if we succeed in [what we’ve set out to do] and hopefully with global equities picking up, we’d love to carry on with our plan for an IPO hopefully later in the year.”

When that happens, you can be sure the critics will be eating their words yet again.

In case you weren’t able to listen to the HTML5 version above, or if you wanted to listen to the podcast after you read the article, here it is for your listening pleasure in Flash.

(c) 2012 SimpliFlying Podcasts

Note: This is the free version of the podcast and contains the latest industry updates followed by a small snippet of the interview with Azran. If you want to listen to the full interview with Azran and gain some exciting insights as well as secrets to the success of AirAsia get our premium podcast at an introductory price of only $19. Just click the button below and you’ll be listening to it in minutes! The premium podcast also entitles you to a free copy of the complete podcast transcript. Just email us at podcasts@simpliflying.com to get it.

• AirAsia X: a brand with a huge potential, but remember, “you’re only buying the flying”
• Episode 3 of SimpliFlying Podcasts: Industry news roundup and exclusive interview with KLM’s VP for eCommerce
• Episode 4 of Simpliflying Podcasts: Exclusive insights into the world of airline loyalty & Interview with Gabi Kool, the CEO of Baltic Miles
• SimpliFlying launches fortnightly Marketing Strategy podcasts for airline and airport marketers
• CAPA’s Airlines in Transition conference, and what I learnt from five airline CEOs about the future

With about a day still to go for voting (and trust us, a lot of votes come in on the last day), the total number of votes has already crossed 30,000. Moreover, votes have come in from 4500+ cities across the world. How incredibly awesome is that?

1. Freshness and innovativeness are the keywords you need to keep in mind if you wish to drive a really successful social media campaign.
2. If you’re able to engage the interest of the customer, it’s possible to overcome certain price-point barriers. e.g. KLM’s new Economy Comfort option was a hit due to the viral video of a levitating magician.
3. People are looking for instant engagement online – if you’re looking to provide customer service online, don’t do it half-heartedly. Throw everything you’ve got into it and your customers will appreciate you for it. eg. AirAsia’s AskAirAsia.
4. To a certain extent, building emotional bonds with customers will drive long-term loyalty and revenue. eg. KLM Surprises and JetBlue’s glass half-full video.
5. Being “controversial” or disruptive is also a great way of driving buzz, receiving eyeballs and getting new customers as long as it is done right. eg. Air New Zealand have been brilliant in their “provocative” social media endeavours such as “Nothing to hide” etc.
6. Leverage the latest technology as and when it becomes available to engage more customers and to appear to be at the cutting-edge of innovativeness. eg. the Chrome web app by Virgin America, Groupon route-launches etc.

With that said, here’s the case-pack. We hope you enjoy going through it!

• The Best Airlines Driving Revenue Through Social Media – Introducing the Top 5 nominees for the 2nd SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence
• Best Airports in Social Media: Top 5 Airports nominated for the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2011
• The Best Airlines Driving Customer Service & Crisis Management Through Social Media: Top 5 SimpliFlying Awards nominees
• SimpliFlying-Airline Business Awards for Social Media Excellence for Airlines – Vote now!
• 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence – Vote NOW for best airlines, airports, hotels

To acquaint you better with the nominees in each category of the awards, we’ll be posting case-packs on our SlideShare channel for each of the 5 categories of awards detailing what makes each nominee so special and why they’re in the final list of nominees (the initial list had over 60 candidates!). The campaigns that clinched each airline its position of prestige will be illustrated in detail. We hope you enjoy going through them and revelling in the reflected brilliance of their innovativeness, cleverness and sheer chutzpah.

The first case-pack has 5 case-studies, each illumninating the campaigns of Top 5 nominees in the category “Best use of Social Media to drive Revenue”. As you’ll see, some, like Virgin America jumped onto the latest trends and technologies to make a killing, while others such as Estonian Air were just plain clever in employing social media to drive revenue. Similar flattering things can be said of the other nominees: Air Asia, airBaltic and Malaysian Airlines. But it would be best if you experienced them yourselves. Enjoy!

You can see the current poll results below. Hurry! Voting closes on 15th September.

• Best Airports in Social Media: Top 5 Airports nominated for the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2011
• 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence – Nominations now open for airlines, airports and hotels
• SimpliFlying-Airline Business Awards for Social Media Excellence for Airlines – Vote now!
• The Best Airlines Driving Customer Service & Crisis Management Through Social Media: Top 5 SimpliFlying Awards nominees
• 2nd Annual SimpliFlying Awards in Social Media Excellence – Vote NOW for best airlines, airports, hotels

SimpliFlying is back with the Monthly Twitter Report (in partnership with Eezeer) for July 2011 in continuation with our coverage and analysis of the dynamic social media landscape for airlines.

A number of facts are immediately clear from this report:

1. Airlines are using Twitter more than ever before. The number of tweets increased by 51% from March 2011 to July 2011.
2. However, most of the tweets are being sent out by a small number of the airlines on Twitter. To be precise, 30 airlines account for 84% of the tweets, which is up from 26 providing 80% of the tweets in the May report.
3. Delta Air Lines still sends and receives the most number of tweets, which has been the trend since the first report. However, while the response rate to public tweets may seem like a paltry 20% of the tweets, we’ve confirmation from Delta Air Lines that when we include Direct Messages, the airline responds to over 50% of the messages!
4. Over a hundred airlines still don’t seem to have a strategy for Twitter, as only 82 out of the 191 airlines tweet actively
5. In South America, TAM Brazil is the most followed airline, with over 225,000 people following the airline’s tweets.

For more insights, check out the infographic and let us know what you thought about it. Is there something you agree with? Disagree? Are there any figures that you’d like to see in next month’s infographic? Tweet us @simpliflying and let us know. You can also view our previous Monthly Reports for June ’11 here and May ’11 here.

The airlines on Twitter report is produced by eezeerdatalab in association with SimpliFlying.

• Airlines on Twitter Monthly Report for August 2011: Cebu Pacific joins the big league and scores high!
• Airlines on Twitter Monthly Report for November 2011: increasing engagement but 30 airlines produce over 80% of tweets
• Airlines on Twitter in June 2011: Delta Airlines is the breakaway “listening and talking champion”
• Eezeer and SimpliFlying launch airline monthly twitter report – Delta leads Twitter use, and customer service is in!
• [Infographic] How mobile is re-shaping travel distribution (gasp!)

For her efforts in leading AirAsia up the ladder of success in social media, and setting an example for other airlines in the region to follow, we’re proud to award Karen the SimpliFlying Hero award for June 2011.

The AirAsia team. From left: Karen Chan, Derik Chew, Swee Ping, Vilon

Tentative beginnings for an Asian upstart

AirAsia’s beginnings in social media were modest. The journey started with a blog that aimed to provide an open platform for AirAsia Allstars and AirAsia customers to share travel stories and feedback, regardless of whether it was good or bad.

At the time, the main fear for the team was the potential for negative backlash. Since social media is real-time, instant and can make opinions go viral, the stakes were high. Quite simply, anything negative would reflect poorly on not only the team but AirAsia’s brand as well.

What Karen learnt over time was that the best way to counter this potential problem was to form a team with the “right” kind of people. For her, a passion for AirAsia and its brand is just as important as social media expertise.

“A lot of people claim to be social media experts but when it comes to integrating social media with the brand, it can become a real challenge. To be successful in social media requires a lot of hard work, a lot of thinking; strategizing needs to be done to ensure that you are building something that is relevant and useful for the brand and the fans in the long run.”

Indeed, Karen believes that the main factor behind AirAsia’s significant lead over competitors in the social media space has been the excellent team she works with. Not only are its members social media savvy, they are also passionate about AirAsia and its brand, and therefore make an extra effort to keep all social media campaigns relevant to consumers and, as a result, beneficial to the brand as well.

The road to success

These qualities in the team members allowed AirAsia to emerge as a leading regional player on Facebook and Twitter. When the team first approached these platforms two years ago, they did not have much prior experience or knowledge to count on. They mostly relied on lessons learnt from trial and error, and slowly figured out what worked and what did not. The passion and dedication displayed by members of the team, and the “blood, sweat, and tears” that they put in, is what has made AirAsia’s present success possible.

Along the way, Karen has learnt much about what it takes to launch (and keep afloat) a social media campaign.

First, knowing what fans want, and giving them what they want, and getting them to spread the word, is paramount. In Karen’s words:

“Social media is like having a housewarming party. First you create the most innovative, creative invite so that the recipients will want to share it with their friends to attend the party. Once you have all your guests at the party, you will need to know what you’ll be serving on the table, the kind of music you are going to spin, and the activities at the party so that everyone will go back happy and rave about what a great time they had at your party.”

Second, having a clear objective is essential. An objective is precisely what differentiates an individual who gathers a fan-following by uploading videos on Youtube, and a company that uses it for its benefit. One has a clear objective, and therefore a clear strategy, while the other does not. That is why only one can maximize the potential of the medium and all real, measurable value to the brand and business.

Last, social media is not a billboard, but rather an engagement platform. While it might be tempting to announce everything over Facebook or Twitter in order to market the airline, there is a fine line that shouldn’t be crossed. Social media is a unique two-way channel and therefore fan feedback should be given equal priority.

Sky is the limit, even online!

In the future, Karen sees social media expanding and taking more of a hold on consumers’ lives: first, in terms of technological advancement in mobile, handheld devices; second, in the form of growing popularity amongst people to participate on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. This is advantageous for any organization looking to build its brand and it provides greater opportunities to increase brand awareness and to drive customer engagement.

Karen feels that ultimately having such a huge fan base is a double-edged sword. While it means that more interest, trust, and revenue will be generated for the airline in the long run, it also means that negative news can spread faster and further. Hence, the achievement of hitting one million fans also comes with the increased responsibility to engage them in a positive way.

Nevertheless, SimpliFlying is certain that Karen and her team will continue to reach new heights and we wish her all the best as she continues to lead AirAsia to even greater heights on the social media mountain.

Know someone who’s worthy of being a SimpliFlying Hero?

Simpliflying Heroes are individuals recognized for outstanding social media use in the world of aviation. Do you know of somebody who uses social media effectively in their airline or airport to achieve specific business results? Or do you think you fit the bill?

Then go ahead and fill up the SimpliFlying Heroes nomination form. By filling out the nomination form, you bring them a step closer to being recognized by SimpliFlying for their efforts.

• AirAsia takes customer service to social media with AskAirAsia
• For leading KLM into social media, Lonneke Verbiezen is the SimpliFlying Hero for Feb 2011
• AirAsia X: a brand with a huge potential, but remember, “you’re only buying the flying”
• [PRESENTATION] How Airlines Dedicate Resources to Social Media – delivered at #omtravel in Miami (June 2011)
• AirAsia X taking branding tips from Virgin Atlantic?

Yes, Singapore Airlines is no longer the most profitable airline in the world (Cathay Pacific took over that title), and yes they’re losing market share to the likes of Emirates and AirAsiaX (to a lesser extent), but to go with a business model that’s hardly proven was a surprise move for a brand that’s been risk-averse of late.

While the initial reports stated that a good amount of analysis has gone into the decision and a “largely untapped market” exists, it’s safe to say that SIA is playing catch up in a market carved out in its backyard by AirAsia X and Jetstar. While the key success factor for SIA till date has been its endearing Singapore Girl brand, that’s exactly the dilemma they need to address – whether to extend the brand to the low cost airline or not.

Will the Singapore Girl fly budget? Probably not.

One big question everyone is wondering about is whether the Singapore Girl would fly this new airline. For those who’re familiar with SIA, they know that the airline is very protective of its brand icon. And multiple questions will be raised if the same Singapore Girls walk the aisle of the new airline.

1. How to ensure that people know SIA and the new LCC are different, yet have the same flight attendants?
2. Will service failures like flight delays or cancellations be dealt in an SIA manner, or Tiger Airways manner?
3. Will SIA Economy Class passengers transferring on to the LCC be offered free meals and amenity kits?
4. What baggage allowances will people get if they are transferring from one airline to another?

Close brand association between the two airlines might prove to be too risky for both brands. Hence, it’s likely that SIA will dis-associate itself completely from the new brand. For example, when things went bad for Tiger Airways in Australia, no one boycotted SIA – the latter still holds its reputation for impeccable service. SIA’s greatest leverage will be that they’ve run a long haul airline successfully, with a very low cost base.

Learn from the competition, then fight on your own turf

While SIA’s track record is an asset, it is also a reason for concern. The airline already has a very low cost base – how would they reduce it further, if operations are to be based in Singapore? One of the reasons for the success of AirAsia X and Jetstar have been the feed from their short haul operations. Interestingly, SIA is a purely-long haul airline, hence feeding the network for this new long-haul airline would depend on SilkAir and Tiger Airways. These and other factors will require SIA to re-think its commercial strategies for the new airline, learning from the competition.

1. SIA till today only sells airline tickets on its website (trying to book a hotel will take you to an external site). Whereas on AirAsia’s RedTix website, I can even buy Justin Beiber concert tickets! So the new LCC SIA sets up must re-evaluate what businesses it gets in and how best to leverage the brand
2. SIA’s frequent flyer program, Krisflyer, also currently only allows burning or miles on SIA flights. This is in stark contrast to Qantas’ Frequent Flyer program, where I can redeem and earn miles by shopping for groceries! Krisflyer will also have to evolve, just like Jetstar has been introduced into the Qantas’ program.
3. SIA’s new long-haul LCC can expect very stiff competition from AirAsia X and Jetstar. Moreover, the competition has one year to sharpen its knifes before SIA launches the new airline. While Jetstar would want to start routes Melbourne-Singapore-Athens flights sooner, the Malaysian government has even more reasons to grant AirAsia X coveted routes like Sydney. SIA needs to run two steps ahead to out-think the competition.
4. SIA also needs to learn from mistakes made in its Tiger Airways venture – running the new airline like a Ryanair may not work, especially in long-haul. They need to ensure high customer service standards, like they have with themselves.

A golden opportunity to co-create the brand with the customers

To provide exceptional customer service, SIA will also need to understand that the customers of the new airline more like those of Tiger Airways’ than its own. And they need to deal with them in a different manner. What do I mean?

Currently, SIA has no official Facebook fanpage. No official Twitter account. Or any other new medium engagement channels. All this when AirAsia, right next door, has become the first airline outside the US to reach 1 million Facebook fans. Tiger Airways’ social media interaction isn’t something to speak of either.

SIA needs to hire manager who believe that the brand is no longer about control. Rather, it’s about influencing a certain behaviour, and engaging with customers using mediums they’re familiar with (I still have to fax in certain requests to Krisflyer!). They can no longer be in a state of educated nonchalance about these new ways of building a brand, as I had mentioned earlier.

Singapore Airlines has a rare opportunity to involve the potential customers in the brand creation process of its new low-cost long haul airline brand. For starters, they can look at how the best airlines in the world are crowd sourcing ideas. And then wholeheartedly embrace the customer.

Given their track record, I think Singapore Airlines is going to do a good enough job setting up this new airline – what remains to be seen is whether they are able to sustain profitable operations in the face of changing customer realities and fierce competition. Exciting times ahead! What do you think?

(Special thanks to Khoa Huynh and Anthony Prsakasam – my two aviation geek friends who helped seed some of the ideas in this article)

• Australia’s Qantas Airways – the world’s most agile airline brand?
• AirAsia X: a brand with a huge potential, but remember, “you’re only buying the flying”
• Five reasons why budget airlines in Asia are successful
• Malaysia Airlines launches FireFly to Singapore – a community airline brand. Interview with Head of Marketing
• Is Premium Economy here to stay? A brand review of All Nippon Airlines

Airline Customer Service on Facebook and Twitter

AirAsia, which is already the airline that replies to the highest percentage of tweets in the world (>40%), has created an AskAirAsia account on Twitter, and also a “tab” on Facebook. They’ve taken a dig at travelers’ frustrations with the call-center and asked them to direct questions to the CEO, Tony Fernandes (though the photo looks a few years old!). Quite a neat way to connect with the customers – or “guest” as they call them on AirAsia.

On Twitter, you can simply tweet a question and expect a quick reply during Malaysia working hours. What will be interesting to note is that the AskAirAsia twitter account doesn’t reply to any issues publicly – every single one of them is handled using Direct Messages (DMs).

This is an intriguing trend. On one hand, the airline is obviously respecting the privacy of their guests’ issues, and avoiding the public sharing of negative comments, while on the other hand, if there is a passenger with a problem at the gate, in all likelyhood 150+ other passengers are affected by the same problem. And Twitter comes in handy at that point to calm the nerves of many such people – an aspect AskAirAsia might miss out by strictly using DMs.

Nevertheless, great effort by the AirAsia team – and I know that the impetus comes right from the top from the likes of Azran and Tony, and is executed very well by Karen and team. Hope other airlines are watching and learning!

• Airlines on Twitter in May 2011: AirAsia and TAM Brazil hot on the heels of Delta Airlines
• [Infographic] Airlines on Twitter – April 2011 data reveals the need to focus on Customer Service
• Eezeer and SimpliFlying launch airline monthly twitter report – Delta leads Twitter use, and customer service is in!
• Welcome to Branding 2.0, Singapore Airlines. Now what? Twelve tips to do social media right
• Airlines on Twitter Monthly Report for July 2011 reveals that more airlines have Twitter accounts than loyalty programs