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

The Turning Tide

Undoubtedly, social media offers many benefits versus traditional forms of engagement. Some of them do bear repetition: the near-instant form of communication; two-way interaction compared to broadcast messaging; the ability to spread messages very fast across networks; the potential to identify and target “brand advocates” to drive brand awareness in cults (see Cult Relationship Management). We’ve strived to point out that a presence on social is media is not sufficient to do wonders for the brand: given that almost every airline is now on social media (our Monthly Airlines on Twitter report offers some numbers) brands must not only differentiate themselves but also focus their efforts on driving specific business goals. If they don’t, they’ll be relegated to the backwaters of social media.

It turns out that our ceaseless advice and suggestions have not gone unheeded. More airlines than ever before are now using social media as a platform to drive business goals such as crisis management (see our recent case-study on Delta Airlines), revenue (examples abound in our Top 10 series) and now, a much more challenging aim, to drive loyalty via social media.

You should create a loyalty initiative for your airline too!

The challenge in creating a social loyalty initiative is that you really need to be sure of what will click with customers. After all, the goal is to increase loyalty which requires reciprocation from the customers. The good thing is that there are potentially infinite ways (if you’re imaginative enough) of creating a successful initiative. What you need to keep in mind is that most customers will become more loyal based on two things: rewards or recognition (or both).  Our case-pack will illustrate the diverse ways in which this is being done by some of the major airline across the world.

The benefits of creating a successful social loyalty initiatives are manifold:

1. A brand advocate with a strong social network could act as a huge multiplier for your loyalty efforts by getting members from his network involved with the brand.
2. There is a huge opportunity to move away from traditional loyalty programmes and offer something disruptive and innovative.
3. Loyal customers are worth more than new customers (this is true for traditional loyalty programmes as well).
4. The biggest benefit: there is very little lag between implementation and measurement. The results can be seen very quickly indeed.

Without further ado, we present to you our list of the Top 10 Social Loyalty Initiatives by Airlines.

What did you think of this list? Felt we left out someone? Felt this was perfect and want to reward us for our efforts?

We’d love to hear your thoughts! Do join in the discussion and tweet us @simpliflying.

• Is social loyalty the next phase of development for frequent flyer programs?
• [Presentation] Why the future of loyalty programs will be social-media based
• Five Reasons for low cost airlines to take loyalty seriously
• “Crowdbranding”: The Top 10 Crowdsourcing initiatives by Airlines
• Three keys to making loyalty programs work for the airline brand of the future

Somewhere else on Twitterland, Christi Day of Southwest Airlines was dealing with an outburst from @TheKevinSmith, on Valentine’s Day eve, which finally involved Southwest’s VP calling Smith personally.

Though these may seem like normal twitter conversations, to me they reflect a paradigm shift in the way airlines have started to deal with their customers. It wasn’t too long ago, where I had to print out and post a letter to an airline for a missed-connection claim, because their email inbox was full! And the matter took over 5mths to get resolved (in the end, I didn’t get my $$).

JetBlue and Southwest have both been beacons of change in the industry, and they’ve shown a more human side of airlines – generally considered faceless corporations. Kudos to their efforts to connect with the customer directly, and truly listen. I think it shows where the future of customer service is heading.

What do you think? Has your favorite airline been listening to you lately?

• JetBlue says “sorry”. And we love them even more, for being a human brand
• Why do I regret having never flown Southwest? It’s the humor!
• A Southwest Airlines employee goes out of her way to help a distressed passenger
• Making ancillary revenue work with brand strategy – my interview
• United Airlines brand may go for a spin as customer feedback line is terminated

You do realize that it’s the in-flight experience that makes or breaks a customer relationship, right? How do you make their in-flight experience an unforgettable one using social media? And then how do you get them to talk about it? Well, here are 5 ways to do that:

1. Use a unique Hashtag for the flight

Aim: Improve customer experience

Why not include a hashtag for each flight number with the booking confirmation? It can be something simple, such as #0311JB1263 (March 11th, Jet Blue flight #1263). That way, when people send a tweet saying they just booked a flight, or are heading to the airport, they use that hashtag, and then can search for others using the same hashtag. Passengers can make their own arrangements to meet up at the gate, share a cab to the airport, or chat during the flight. They will feel much more connected to fellow travelers, if they would like to be.

2. Give freebies to those to “talk” about you

Objective: Increase word of mouth, improve customer experience

In order to encourage passengers to talk about your airline, you can run a small promotion before take-off. If they tweet or update their Facebook status and include your airline name, they will win one of 5 drinks being awarded, or pillows, or blankets – whatever you’d otherwise charge for. In order to be eligible, they must use your Twitter handle or “tag” you in their Facebook update. Winners will be selected at random before the flight takes off, so that electronics are still in use, and the drink can be awarded during flight.

3. Seating Charts with Twitter IDs

Objective: Increase word of mouth, improve customer experience

Why not give passengers the ability to see fellow passengers’ Twitter IDs when selecting their seats when booking or during checkin?  They may choose to sit near (or avoid!) someone based on their profile or tweets.  For those who like to network, this will increase their opportunity to do so.  And, most assuredly, they will tweet about the experience, giving you more word of mouth.

Note: Obviously this would need to be an opt-in service, which could be accomplished easily using Twitter’s OAuth system. Or if you want to avoid the trouble, just add in a field in the booking path, asking the passenger for his Twitter id

4. In-flight chat rooms if you have wi-fi on-board

Objective: Improve customer experience

Why not set up a chat room for Twitter users using TweetChat so they can chat during flight.  Not only will this give them something to do, and interact with other passengers, but you will undoubtedly get some marketing research at the same time.  They’ll talk about the food, the seats, the flight attendants, etc.  You can also set up a private chat room through Facebook, but that will take more technical expertise.

5. “Check-in” on FourSquare, not just onto the flight

Objective: Increase word of mouth, improve customer experience

Location based services, such as FourSquare, Gowalla and MyTown are the latest craze in social media.  Users “check-in” at stores, buildings, offices when they arrive.  Why not offer a bonus for checking in at your airline with one of these services?  Maybe advanced seating, a free drink free headphones or wireless access.

What other ideas do you have to improve customer experience using social media? Let’s hear them out

• Malaysia Airlines takes booking and check-in to Facebook. And now, you can sit next to your friend too!
• Customer Service 2.0: Top 10 Airlines and Airports performing Customer Service through Social Media
• Social CRM for Airlines – Managing the Cult and driving true value (Plus: upcoming webinar)
• Socializing the airline booking process – Germanwings follows Alaska Airlines’ lead
• The Point (or Secret) of Social Media for airlines

How can airlines tame Twitter?

Twitter is different when it comes to branding and connecting with your customers. Twitter is all about earning the right to be heard, as opposed to putting a list of people together and sending them an email. And this is why a number of brands struggle with it.

When I met Jesse at the Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston last month, I thought he’d be the best person to talk about how airlines can get on-board this latest craze and actually master it. And he sure obliged to my request.

Watch the full interview (8:30 mins) to hear Jesse explain:

• How airlines with little money or resources can get started on Twitter (1:07)
• How to set up an initial team to handle Twitter (1:30)
• How to listen well on Twitter (1:50)
• How many minimum hours per week are needed for managing Twitter (2:10)
• How to deal with irrelevant “noise” on Twitter (3:05)
• Should an airline’s Twitter profile be personal or corporate? (4:20)
• How to scale up Twitter “operations” once they start going well? (5:20)
• Why we should talk to Morgan Johnston from JetBlue =p (5:31)
• What does a successful Twitter strategy look like? (6:25)
• What’re the future opportunities on Twitter (7:28)
• If airlines can manage frequent fliers through Twitter (7:57)

So, what do you think about airlines’ efforts on Twitter branding? Do you think Jesse’s suggestions make sense? Let’s discuss in the comments or over on Twitter (@simpliflying)

• JetBlue’s all you can fly offer used for a good cause: a human billboard for students in Zambia
• Engaging the customer through Web 2.0: lessons from JetBlue Airways
• Perfect storm: JetBlue versus Southwest on Twitter – real incident
• Three lessons in customer service for airline brands, from Ron Kaufman
• Here is why JetBlue is the most loved airline brand on Twitter

Emirates Airlines – which pitches itself as one of the best in the world, joined Twitter at the start of the year, and posted 19 updates about their destinations – all on the same day (see pic below). And at the other end of the spectrum, JetBlue does quite a good job of engaging over half a million of its followers with a mix of witty remarks, contests and deals. But all of them seem to be figuring out what to do. So here’s an analogy that might explain things a little.

Why Social Media = BBQ Cookout Party

At a BBQ cookout party, people are with those they trust, with those they consider friends. They give advice, seek advice (often on BBQ cooking), share thoughts and stories, laugh a little and have fun. What they DO NOT do is only talk about their company’s product updates or swipe a credit card an buy products.

Much of social media is like a cookout. People hangout with many they know on Facebook – hence their ability to open up so easily. On Twitter, people are either imparting knowledge, gaining knowledge or sharing quick thoughts with their “followers”.  And mixing direct selling is not good in such a situation.

So how did Dell make $1 million off Twitter?

But then, Dell announced recently that they had made $1 million by selling their products on Twitter. How did they do it? They have a dedicated channel (@delloutlet) which clearly tells its followers that it will only have offers. Once the expectations are set, then people expect the same and even the followers are those looking for deals, not for help setting up their computer! And that’s where airlines are failing.

Lufthansa also started a Twitter account recently. A friend from Switzerland wrote to me, “Lufthansa is just posting auctions. There is no added value for customers and no involvement except monetary incentive.” This is a perfect example of not setting the right expectations, and hence creating disappointment among followers. They’d have done much better, had they gone with an @lufthansaAuctions account name. Don’t you think?

I don’t think indiscrimanately selling on Twitter is going to work. It might hurt the brand even more. It’s like going to a cookout, and then trying to sell your software with a discount.

Having said that, there’s a reason why Tupperware parties exist and why @DellOutlet made dell a million bucks!

What do you think? How should airline brands utilize Twitter and other social media? What are they doing wrong? Let’s discuss.

P.S: This article was inspired by my conversations with my Italian friend, Sergio Mello, of Satisfly, and my Swiss friend, Rico Wyder.

• Here is why JetBlue is the most loved airline brand on Twitter
• 5 Ways Airlines Can Drive Revenue with Social Media (Mashable.com)
• Group-buying sites for airlines – lessons from Lufthansa Brazil’s Groupon experiment
• The Point (or Secret) of Social Media for airlines
• Does the latest social media application by Lufthansa have wings? 10 things I would do to ensure MySkyStatus flies

Did you know that JetBlue has over 507,000 followers on Twitter? (as of 13 May, 2009). Yes, that’s more than half a million “fans” of the brand who choose to be exposed to the airline’s 140 character-long short messages. And this is almost 20 times greater than the second most followed airline, Southwest, which has just over 27,000 followers. But why? What is it that JetBlue does that makes it such a loved brand on Twitter?

I did some basic analysis and here are some stats for those of you who like numbers. Of the last 62 messages JetBlue sent out,

• 42 were replies to others (68%)
• 33 contained external links (53%)
• 12 were free tips, like how to overcome jetlag (20%)
• 10 answered customer service  queries (16%)
• 9 had sales offers/promotions of some sort (14%)
• 6 were Re-tweets (including one from SimpliFlying!) (10%)

It’s NOT just about selling on Twitter

The numbers tell a story. Do you realize that the overwhelming majority of messages were interacting with individuals, as they were replies. And there were lss than 10 messages that were trying to drive sales. The key – JetBlue adds value to their “followers” through interaction, and doesn’t only see Twitter as a medium for additional sales.

I’ve seen airlines pop-up on Twitter recently that have only been releasing deals! Well, if they really want to do that, then have they should set the expectations right, like @delloutlet, which only sends out special special offers.

It’s about making each interaction count

I shall let the examples below do the talking. These are screenshots of Tweets sent out from JetBlue’s Twitter account in the last 24 hours. They’re even having fun with their competitors! See what I mean?

So, what do you think? How should airlines be making use of Twitter? Is it actually a good thing to have a fan-following as large as JetBlue’s? If so, then how to leverage it? Let’s discusss…

• Getting up, close and personal with the customer – three airline case studies
• Airline brands must understand that social media is like a BBQ cookout party
• JetBlue says “sorry”. And we love them even more, for being a human brand
• Three ways airline brands can make money from Twitter
• Airlines & Twitter : 10 Ways Airlines Can Succeed & Drive Business

Image via Wikipedia

Rohit Bhargava is the author of a recently released book called Personality Not Included and also the blogger of the very popular Influential Marketing Blog. Recently, when he was asked “what is one brand desperately in need of personality?”, his answer (unsurprisingly) was United Airlines. Here is what he had to say:

The one that stands out for me simply because I travel a lot and live in a major hub is United Airlines. The amount of money they waste on brand campaigns is just staggering. Who in America hasn’t heard of United Airlines? No one. So why spend all this money to tell them who you are? They have so much potential to reinvent the way that they train their employees and that they use social media to allow people to have a more direct relationship with them. Sometimes I dream about getting them as a client because there are so many solutions that could make such a big impact on their brand. It’s uncommon to have a brand with that much untapped potential.

I couldn’t agree with Rohit more! Just look at their latest advertisements and you know that they’re trying to put lipsick on a pig. There is a huge disconnect between the picture they’re trying to paint, and the general consumer impression about the airline, which is formed by product experience, not just advertisements.

Talk is cheap!

In June, at a BrandSmart 2008 conference in Chicago, I had the opportunity to listen to and meet Dennis Cary, United’s SVP of Marketing (who’s just been promoted to Chief Marketing Officer). Though he’s an extremely talented professional, neither his speech about the latest premium passenger previlages nor his emphasis only on inter-continental First Class and Business Class resonate with the audience. Most of these audience were probably “cattle-class” domestic travelers who had to bear with long lines and long delays on the tarmac at United’s overcrowded Chicago hub. Similarly, the advertisements being aired to the average “six-pack Joe” do not resonate as well. United Airlines becoming is fast becoming one of those brands that we tend to gloss over, when we encounter any of their marketing efforts. So, what can United do?

Why is cattle class important? Because opinions matter.

Since United Airlines gets most of their revenues from premium passengers, it is probably logical to concentrate all their efforts (marketing or otherwise) on this customer segment. But what they don’t realize is that these passengers are small in numbers compared to those who travel in Economy Class. This means that more of these people are able to spread their opinions to others, and any marketer will tell you how important word-of-mouth is. So if a small number of pampered customers are keeping quiet (since they’re so busy anyway), and a large number of dis-satisfied customers are beating the drum about their experiences,  the overall result will be utterly negative. Hence, there’s a strong need for United Airlines to connect with their customers, premium or otherwise – as Rohit rightly points out. And how can they do that?

Get to know your customer, personally

United Airlines will only be able to communicate a brand image that is relevant and resonates with the customers if they understand their needs well. To do that, they need to interact with their customers, online and offline – as Rohit suggests. United doesn’t need to look to the likes of Singapore Airlines or Cathay Pacific to learn how to engage their customers. Right in their arena is JetBlue, which does a fantastic job of using the latest technologies to interact with their customers and engage them in a conversation.

Beyond using online social sites like Twitter and Facebook, United should also have people stationed at airport terminals to cater to customer needs. Once again, JetBlue was great at doing this by having staff stationed throughout their new Terminal 5 at JFK airport to help customers, since it’s only recently opened. Truly addressing customers’ needs exactly when they are in need would go a long way in building brand trust for United Airlines.

Employees as brand ambassadors

My only pleasant experience with United Airlines took place when I met a well-trained, fresh-on-board flight attendant. Such an experience seems to be a rarity these days, more so because of lack of training and welfare for staff, than anything else. I’ve been highlighting the importance of happy and well-trained employees often enough on this blog. When the staff if well trained, they become the ultimate spokesperson for the brand since they’re the ones who interact with the customer at every touch point – from call centers to the check-in counter. Having them believe in the brand and communicate it well can do wonders. Moreover, they can always be tapped upon for customer insights and feedback too. The essence of this lies in keeping them happy!

Rohit makes a good point that it’s “uncommon to have a brand with that much untapped potential”. I think the whole of US airline industry, with a couple of exceptions*, is full of brands with untapped potential. What do you think? Can the US airlines ever regain the former glory of the likes of PanAm? Is United really lacking a brand personality? Do you think Rohit is right? Let’s hear it in the comments section…

*I feel the couple of exceptions are Southwest, JetBlue, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines.

Related articles

• United Airlines to Customers: Screw You
• How United Airlines screwed over an entire family
• United Airlines Boosts 2nd-Bag Fee to $50
• United to require minimum stays

• Getting up, close and personal with the customer – three airline case studies
• Engaging the customer through Web 2.0: lessons from JetBlue Airways
• Southwest vs. United: Why Authenticity Wins, Even In TV Advertising
• Is Premium Economy here to stay? A brand review of All Nippon Airlines
• United Airlines brand may go for a spin as customer feedback line is terminated

These are all things airlines are doing these days to engage the customer. Advertisements can only create a certain level of awareness. But it is the active interaction with the customer, and the ability to surprise him or her like Virgin, which leads to true brand awareness, and ultimately trust and loyalty. A great example was how Singapore Airlines engaged their customers prior to launching their first A380 flights to London.

Here are three instances of how airlines around the world are delighting (or surprising) the customer by getting up, close and personal with them.

1. Popular blogger Jonathan Fields was recently “followed” by JetBlue on Twitter. He was initially surprised but soon was conversing with a real person from JetBlue’s Corporate Communications division who explained to him the purpose of the interaction. JetBlue Airways makes a concerted effort to interact with their customers using latest Web 2.0 technologies like Twitter to get real insights from them. Just recently, JetBlue reached the milestone of “2000 followers” on twitter. The 2000^th follower was sent a gift. How sweet!
2. Azul, the new Brazilian airline by former JetBlue CEO David Neelman is just starting up, but has created a lot of buzz and probably knows the preferences of their potential customers well in advance. The name, Azul, which means “blue” in Portugese—was one of 157,000 submitted and voted on by Brazilian consumers in an online competition. With the name chosen, people will now have the chance to vote on Azul’s uniforms. Next will be a blog that Neeleman will author. How is that for listening to the customer?
3. On International Women’s Day this year, Singapore Airlines held a special promotion for female travelers’ buy one Business class ticket and get a second free. Those traveling in Economy class were also treated to extremely low companion fares. In addition to that, all women traveling that day from Chennai to Singapore were honored at the airport with special tokens. Surely, such personal experiences go a long way in building brand loyalty.

Ponder that!

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• Engaging the customer through Web 2.0: lessons from JetBlue Airways