Last spring SimpliFlying published an article on the Top 10 ways airlines are using location-based tools followed by a listing of Top 10 airports on social media; now we are taking it a step further to share four (fun and effective) ways airports can drive engagement through Foursquare. Consider this your definitive guide if you’re an airport marketer!

 
1. Check-ins to drive non-aeronautical revenue
Think of a large airport, with thousands of passengers connecting through each day, many with nothing to do after clearing security. Now think of the airport’s non-aeronautical revenue options (retailers, concessions). This is a prime opportunity to influence purchase decisions through a bit of social engagement.

Here’s your Airport “Non-aeronautical Revenue” Challenge: Set up Foursquare check-in venues at participating airport retailers to create a challenge for passengers, aimed at driving non-aeronautical revenues for the airport. The value of the check-in is that each time someone does it, they announce to their friends on Facebook, Twitter or other connected networks that they are at that particular retailer – it’s announcing brand choice, which is better than even net promoter score!

Informative and Fun: Creation of a scavenger-hunt-like game, complete with signage throughout the terminal and at each participating retailer to encourage …

“It is much harder to acquire a new customer, than it is to retain one.” That’s an age-old loyalty marketing fact that is just as applicable to airlines as it is to other industries.

This becomes even more relevant on the 30th anniversary of loyalty programs – since American Airlines launched AAdvantage in1981. The irony is that today there are more airlines on Twitter, 191 in July 2011, than the number of airlines that have loyalty programs – approximately 179.

This reflects that not only are travelers taking to social media rapidly, airlines are responding by proactively engaging them through this medium. So what does this mean for loyalty programs, since airlines have traditionally been only good at driving buzz through social media.

Monetizing social media through loyalty
One of the readers at SimpliFlying wrote to me, “How can airlines monetise social media? Things like brand advocates are all well and nice but how do they add to the bottom line?”

I see a clear monetization. On average, 85% of frequent fliers program (FFP) members have …

Social technologies are gaining huge traction among airlines. There’s simply no denying it. A couple of months ago, we released an infographic that showed how airlines are dedicating resources to social media. Most major airlines, according to the infographic, already have social media teams in place – most are managing cross-departmental strategies. Some even have plans to expand their teams later this year. That infographic was deemed to be a truly important one as far as the topic of airlines in social media was concerned: it received over 100,000 views and was featured in a number of publications including twice on Mashable itself!
Make sense of the chaos
Now, to add to all the hullaballoo, it really doesn’t help that social technologies are not just adding newer features regularly, but new social technologies themselves are being launched a dime a dozen (any takers for Google+ in airlines?).

So if you’re an airline marketer and thinking really hard about which social technologies to adopt apart from the usual suspects, we have the perfect remedy for your troubles. In fact, even if you’ve figured out which social platforms to adopt, you might still be wondering how best to use them or …

Editor’s Note: A day before I spoke about putting the joy back into the airport experience at the Annual ACI Conference in Lisbon, Philippe Scheimann from SOSTravelers.com suggested that he wanted to write a guest article as a follow up to his earlier ‘How to empower stranded travelers‘. We decided that that the next article could be on how to help airports turn stranded travelers into happy consumers. Hence, here is the guest article by Philippe.

This is a very challenging question since, by definition, stranded travelers are in a difficult situation, often far away from home, in a difficult environment where uncertainty is high. Stranded travelers are usually left on their own, airport and airline officials have often no answer to provide because of the inherent uncertain nature of the event and are limited in what they can do to help travelers at a loss for helping the travelers.

The following items may not work for everyone, everywhere. However, they show various directions that will need to be customized and modified according to the specifications of the location, the needs of the travelers and various other parameters.

Let us assume several assumptions to start with:

We are talking about stranded …

There seem to be two types of people in the world: Those who think check-ins using location-based services matter, and those who think they don’t. Much to the dismay of the latter, at the moment, location-based services are gaining traction. Fast! What seemed initially to be a frivolous plaything of over-zealous travelers and socializers is fast being leveraged by businesses (especially airlines and airports) to build their brands and provide more value to their customers while driving engagement and loyalty.

It is clear that not only are location-based services here to stay, but they are also fast becoming the next big rage in driving brand engagement. What started with services such as FourSquare, Loopt and Gowalla is now a playground where the big daddies have entered: namely, Facebook Places and Google Latitude. If nothing else, Facebook and Google’s interest in making their services location-based should offer ample proof to businesses that “check-ins” are here to stay.

But, businesses must also keep in mind that it’s not the check-ins themselves that matter. It’s what happens after the check-in that’s important. SimpliFlying has in the past written a number of articles discussing how location-based …

I have received an enthusiastic response to my article written late last week, about why the social “we”b is about the real-world relationships, just as much as it is about online interaction. In that, I recollected how the best side-effect of Twitter has been the number of highly talented individuals I’ve been able to meet around the world.

I’ve got a bunch of emails, tweets and comments over the last couple of days asking me how this observation applies to airlines. Firstly, let me address why airlines need to have real-world interaction with their online “fans”.

Why is real-world interaction needed to complement social media engagement?
Online interaction is good, because it allows the airline to connect with a lot of people across geographies, and allows those people to connect among themselves too.

Where online engagement falls short is often the creation of a long-lasting emotional bond, which comes only through real-life meetings. Imagine a Facebook fan of an airline, who has never flown them before, but has always taken part in online contests or discussions. Wouldn’t the relationship be cemented only if he flies that …