A few weeks ago we published an article reviewing the new Facebook Timeline for brands and taking a look at how its new features could be used by airlines.  When that article was published 27 of the 30 days of the facebook adjustment period had already passed, and few airlines had made the switch.

Now that the adjustment period is over, we’ve decided to take a look at how airlines and airports have adjusted to the new layout and we’ve created this Top 10 deck featuring the Top 5 examples of Airline pages followed by the Top 5 Airport Pages.

During our research we were positively surprised by the quality of the work done by both airline and airport Facebook teams. However, sometimes we were disappointed to see how some companies appeared to be unaware of the change and had not adapted their Pages. Furthermore, especially on the airport side, we noticed that many companies had created beautiful cover images but had not filled their Timelines, leaving the very useful “milestone” feature almost unused.

Note: The airlines portion of this Top 10 was created adapting a guest post we wrote for Tnooz.

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Today, I delivered a speech in London, at the Travel Distribution Summit by EyeforTravel, on how airlines can drive better results on social media by keeping their focus on specific groups of travelers, rather than blanket-marketing to all of them.

The two key points I raised were:

Airlines need to dissect their customers on social media, just like they do on their CRM, to be able to better target them and drive more efficient results. Remember my Cult Relationship Management presentation?
Airlines also need to decide which social media platform should be driving specific business goals – like Twitter for customer service, versus Facebook for new route launch awareness. I shared some statistics from the recently released monthly Airline Twitter report too.

Below is the actual presentation done in Prezi (click here if you can’t see it). I’d love your comments and feedback!
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Continuing our coverage and analysis of the dynamic social media landscape for airlines, we’ve released the April 2011 Airlines on Twitter report with Eezeer. Data around airlines on Twitter this month reveals a few stark facts:

99.8% of all tweets are about service item issues – like flight delays, baggage inquiries and other customer service issues that’d typically go to the call center
While the number of airlines on Twitter has increased 10% to 184, 27 of all airlines make up 80% of the tweets (this number stood at 30 last month)
While Delta still remains the airline receiving and sending most tweets, it only replied to 11% of the tweets it received, as compared to 18.2% last month
While there’s a 250% increase in tweets about Timeliness, it is also the worst rated item in terms of satisfaction, with a score of -81.6
Air New Zealand has the highest global satisfaction score of 107.6 this month, unseating Cathay Pacific, which scored 107.7 last month

More interesting data and facts in the infographic below. Enjoy!
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Over the last year or so, one of the fastest growing aspect of SimpliFlying has been our training services – from MasterClasses to webinars. So this year, in addition to clubbing these services under SimpliFlying University, we have also partnered with IATA to offer advanced training and certification courses for airline executives looking to get hands-on experience in social media tools and platforms and advance their airlines’ brand strategy.

IATA Training and Development Institute trains more than 35,000 air transport professionals each year. And the “Airline Social Media Strategy” courses will be offered across IATA’s six training centers in Montreal, Geneva, Miami, Delhi, Beijing and Singapore, in addition to other locations like Sao Paolo and Sydney.

These case-study based courses will offer interactive sessions conducted by a SimpliFlying Certified Trainer and offer in-depth analysis into the latest trends in social media while stimulating participants to come up with solutions of their own to pertinent questions. The courses will typically run for three full-days, which makes them very complementary to SimpliFlying’s own MasterClasses, which are offered in 1/2 day, 1 day …

The Backstory
These are very exciting times in the airline industry. Last month, I shared a number of vital statistics about airlines’ twitter usage at a keynote in San Francisco [view presentation]. While those gave a good overview of how the industry is using the platform, one key aspect was lacking – the social media landscape for is constantly evolving, and a report produced once doesn’t do it justice. While we felt we should produce an ongoing report on that, we didn’t really have a data source for all the latest and greatest statistics.

That’s when Arnaud from Eezeer got in touch [remember? Eezeer = real-time airline reviews], and mentioned that they’re looking to produce a monthly twitter report from all the data they’ve been gathering from travelers. One thing led to another, and the end result was this first infographic that you see below – full of startling data about how airlines (and travelers) use Twitter. The best part is that this report will be released monthly – so look out for this every month in our infographics section (latest by the 5th of each month).
Airlines on Twitter – Oh…the stories data tells
While you drool …

Airlines around the world are making great progress in engaging their customers through social media these days, as we highlighted in our six airline case studies published last month. Now, it’s time to recognize the best airlines in social media.

As part of the inaugural ‘Social media for the aviation industry‘ conference being held in London on Oct 1, 2010, we are launching an awards scheme to recognise and reward those innovating in the field.

We are inviting everyone involved in social media strategies to sumbit their entries in one of three categories:

Best social media marketing campaign
Best use of social media to drive revenue
Best use of social media in a crisis situation

Please use the form below for nomination. The last date of submission of entries is Sept 20, 2010. After which public voting on SimpliFlying.com will form part of the decision process to determine the winners, who will be announced on Oct 1, in London.

Additionally, SimpliFlying will be giving away the award for SimpliFlying Hero of the Year, who will be chosen from one of the SimpliFlying Heroes selected over the past year.

All the best!

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So you’ve got a sizeable social media presence for your airline over the past year. And now, the employees are starting to participate too. But there’s a constant tug of war, between Legal, Corp. Comms and Marketing – on how employees should and shouldn’t participate in social media. The solution? An airline-wide social media policy. What is a social media policy, you ask?  Basically, it addresses the concerns that many airlines have when getting started in social media… What if an employee says something they shouldn’t?  How do we respond to passenger complaints and compliments?  How can we possibly control what our employees are doing online?  If you’ve been up and running on social media for a few months, it’s time you formalize your thoughts in this area, and ensure everyone at the airline is on the same page.  Here are five key imperatives for your social media policy:   1. Explain the Scope in User-Friendly Terms When you say “social media policy” to many of your employees, they may think “that doesn’t apply to me because I’m not in Marketing.”  So, it’s important for your policy to explain what types of activities it covers, possibly including their personal Facebook …

Dear SimpliFlyers,

Yesterday, in Sydney, at the Australia Pacific Aviation Summit, I gave my keynote on airline branding and social media a different touch. I emphasized on the fact that airlines and airports need start moving from broadcasting messages to their customers, to having conversations about their brands with their “cult”.

Featuring case studies of over 25 airlines on social media, this was the presentation that I used for my keynote on 6 Aug 2009. It was very well received by an audience of experienced senior aviation executives. And I’d love to have your feedback on it. What do you like most? What’s the biggest challenge?

Keep Flying, SimpliFlying,
Shashank