The new kid on the social block
In the world of social media Google Plus is currently the youngest and least understood (albeit, fast rising in popularity) kid on the block. Over its relatively short life it has earned its fair share of both lovers and haters, generating an interesting debate on what it will become when it grows up, and whether it is worth investing in it.

When Google Plus was finally opened to businesses with the launch of its business pages there was a rush from companies all over the world to get a G+ page, but as our CEO Shashank Nigam warned in an article about the potential pitfalls for airlines using Google Plus, few of these companies seemed to have a clear idea of what to do with this new platform.
Let’s get some hard data
To get some clarity and hard data SimpliFlying did what it does best: walk the talk! We got ourselves a brand page on Google Plus and sent one of our team-members on a data-finding mission. While signs of progress on this particular social network is admittedly slow, after a week of relentless searching, we have come up with the first ever snapshot …

I just got a note from a good friend at SAS Scandinavian that they’ve become the first airline in Europe on Google+. This, just 15 hours after Google+ announced that they have launched business pages for the platform, similar to company pages on Facebook. The other airline that is already there is jetBlue, which is not unexpected.

While there’s good potential for engaging customers in a new platform like Google+, airlines and airports need to be careful before jumping in the deep end. They need to have a strategy and goals they would like to achieve on the platform. And for that, we’ve put together a checklist of questions to be answered before staring.
7 Questions to ask before launching a new social media company platform

Who is the target audience and how are they using this new platform? Many Google+ users joined due to the initial excitement, but have never logged on much once the initial hype died down.
Do you have the resources to manage the engagement on this new channel? What happens if too many people start interacting with you?
Have you set a clear expectation …

Any branding initiative that doesn’t bring in a return-on-effort is not worth doing. Because then it becomes a hindrance. “Oh, I need to upload the photos onto the Facebook album” shouldn’t end up in deferment of important business-driving efforts. But then again, if uploading photos on Facebook is linked to the business objectives itself, then it’s a different conversation altogether.

At the Online Marketing for Travel Summit in Miami, I am shared my ideas on how travel firms (not just airlines) can drive conversion in online and social marketing. These are the slides from that presentation, with three specific ideas.

Converting Youtube lookers to bookers, using the Annotation tool in YouTube videos
Driving conversion by adding third party reviews in the booking engine
Using Flip.to for driving loyalty by getting people to share their travel plans

Enjoy the presentation! I’d love to hear your comments and thoughts on this, and how you drive conversion in your organization. Let’s discuss in the comments section, and on Twitter (@simpliflying)…