——

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

So, if you had one tenth the resources that KLM has and no budget, what can you learn from them to drive insane engagement? Play destination hangman with your Facebook fans! It’s similar to what you played as a kid in school, just featuring your airline’s destinations. Simple!

We had recently shared that one of the best Facebook Engagement strategies is “Fill in the blank”. Destination hangman is like putting this strategy on steroids!

How does it work? Let’s see how KLM does it. It’s a simple three step process:

1. Put up a nice photo of one of your destinations on your Facebook wall
2. In the caption, ask people to guess the city
3. Fill in the blanks every 1000 fans you gain!

Simple. KLM has been doing it on their Facebook page for some time, and they’re getting tremendous amount of engagement through it. See it for yourself in the screenshots below!

So, your airline or airport is on Facebook and Twitter too? But just when you got comfortable with conversations on Twitter and Facebook, along come a few new kids to the social media block – welcome FourSquare, Pinterest and Google+, to name a few. What are they and how can you use them to engage, expand reach and add value to the conversation? Also, are you under pressure to justify your social media efforts or need data to expand into these new channels? SimpliFlying can help! Just like how we’ve helped over 25 airlines and airports around the world drive results by engaging customers. Just drop us a note at engage@simpliflying.com.

• The most successful engagement strategy on Facebook is _____.
• American Airlines’ AAdvantage Facebook Fans grow 84 fold in 54 hours. The most successful campaign ever by an airline?
• How COPA Airlines drove 50X return on investment from a Facebook app
• Top 10 Route Launches: How Airlines and Airports engage customers in new destinations through social media
• How BMI SimpliEngaged Customers with a Pinterest Visual Lottery

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.

Loved this list? Think it could be better? Tell us in the comments. If you’re an airline or airport looking to fine-tune your Facebook strategy, drop us a line at contact@simpliflying to know more about how you can use Facebook to drive business goals.

• Eight steps to driving results for travel brands from the new Facebook timeline
• Love airlines just as much as branding and social media? Would you like to write a guest post for SimpliFlying?
• Top 10 Airports on Social Media – case studies of the airports best at driving engagement
• [Infographic] The first-ever insights into how airlines are using Google Plus
• Engaging the captive customer – Airlines and airports sitting on a gold mine of engagement opportunities

We recently recorded a podcast with Martijn in which he shares some exclusive tidbits about KLM’s secrets to social media success: you can buy it at a special price of $19 here.

Late last year, a group of executives gathered for a social media presentation at a conference held in the Netherlands. Among the attendees was Martijn van der Zee, senior vice president of e-commerce at Air France KLM, who had with him a slide from a new initiative they were experimenting with. Little did he know how popular it would be at the conference – and on the Internet. Shortly after his presentation, the slide found its way online and became a viral hit, attracting millions of viewers worldwide.

The name of the initiative? Meet and Seat, a service that lets you use either Facebook or LinkedIn to view the profiles of other passengers on the same flight and choose your seat partner. The service is currently available on flights from Amsterdam to New York, San Francisco and Sao Paulo.

To safeguard passengers’ privacy, only those who have a confirmed flight reservation are allowed to take part in this programme (you can also choose not to do so) and they can view only the profiles of those who have chosen to participate in it. In addition, passengers also have the choice of deciding how much information they want to share. Finally, just in case you were wondering, the airline does not share your profile information with other companies. “The offer we want to make to our customers is that [this service is something] they can use only to their advantage,” assures van der Zee.

Feedback so far has been “very comforting” for the airline, with users split evenly between the business and economy classes, men and women, and Facebook and LinkedIn users. While he declines to reveal any further details, he says that passengers can expect their flights to get a lot more interesting in the future as KLM introduces more integrated social services.

“No fancy stuff. Just make it work.”

No stranger to social media, KLM has been distinguishing itself from the competition with its innovative campaigns such as KLM Surprise. What will probably come as a surprise to most is that they are all conceived in-house by the airline’s social media team, which comprises 35 to 40 people across different departments.

The Meet and Seat programme is the result of what van der Zee calls “co-creation” – a collaboration between KLM and its customers. The airline had been toying around with ideas to integrate the medium into more of its services and had decided to include its customers in the process because what better way to find out what they want than by asking them directly? “What they shared with us was very clear,” recalls van der Zee. “No fancy stuff. Just make it work.”

For the airline, taking on this initiative themselves means also that they have complete control over its development and the ability to “to keep it close to the KLM brand”. “Given the attention and acceptance it’s received, it might grow into a very important tool for us so that’s why we want to do it ourselves and have the option of adapting it to customers’ needs.”

The New Face of Marketing

For van der Zee, the response that the Meet and Seat programme has attracted is indicative of the radical change that the landscape of marketing is undergoing. Engaging customers “in a modern way” doesn’t have to involve a lot of money. In fact, having too polished and showy a campaign more often than not turns customers off. “People don’t like that,” he says. “We see that increasingly the effectiveness of push marketing channels is being reduced and the importance of viral or pull marketing channels is increasing. What we’re seeing is that people want real experiences, genuine messages and real actions from companies, which by definition do not cost a lot of money but require more effort.”

Dare to Fail

While this might sound like music to the ears of finance directors in most organizations, executing a social media campaign that works is a process that requires not only time but a healthy attitude to failure.  Embrace it, says van der Zee, and treat it as part of the learning process: “We’re open to failures and mistakes for the simple reason that if you don’t dare, you will never be able to create things that customers want.”

For this airline veteran, the key to carving out a “more than proportionate market share” lies in understanding how people behave online. And if the jump in online sales outside the Netherlands is any indication, it looks like the airline is doing something right in the social media realm. For the first time in five years, KLM has been posting double-digit growth figures in terms of online bookings,. If there’s one thing this proves, it’s that price is not always the determining factor when it comes to making a decision to fly with an airline. “We have many people who literally say to us, ‘We buy tickets with you because of your actions in the social space,’” says van der Zee.

Clearly, the way people are interacting with companies has changed though the same cannot be said of the latter themselves. “One clear trend is that people themselves are determining which companies they want to do business with,” he observes, adding that there are plenty of opportunities for companies to learn about customer behavior by observing the way they use social media. “[But] many companies are still underestimating this effect.”

For those companies that are able to understand and adapt to this new behavior, the benefits of doing so far outweigh what they can achieve through conventional means of marketing alone. “If you are able to do this the right way, you can reach millions of people and they’ll promote the airline for you,” says van der Zee.

“It’s the strongest marketing message you can have.”

• Episode 3 of SimpliFlying Podcasts: Industry news roundup and exclusive interview with KLM’s VP for eCommerce
• KLM Meet and Seat – social seating for airlines: Live and Exclusive from Amsterdam #meetseat
• KLM reaffirms its social media leadership with its innovative Stewardess Yourself app
• So you work for an airline? Here are Eleven steps to lead the social media branding initiative, and become a rockstar!
• Vote for the SimpliFlying Hero of February 2011 – Finnair vs Delta Air Lines vs Malaysia Airlines

The interview is preceded, as usual, by a free industry insights section where SimpliFlying’s CEO Shashank Nigam and Community Engagement Manager Marco Serusi discuss the latest industry news, focusing on the Singapore air show and the marked shift in power from Europe to Asia.

You can listen to the free version below (industry insights) or subscribe to it on our iTunes channel:

Interview with KLM’s VP of eCommerce (Premium podcast only)

While the industry insights section of our podcast is free to listen to and download, you can purchase our extended premium podcast for only $19 if you wish to listen to both the insights and interview section.

Here are some highlights from our interview with KLM:

• How the idea of the “meet and seat” was conceived and the role of crowdsourcing in the process (11:30)
• How one slide in a presentation started the viral buzz that anticipated the launch of the campaign (12:20)
• How the social media team at KLM works (13:30)
• How KLM assesses ROI on social media (14:25)
• Privacy concerns on the Meet and Seat campaign (16:45)
• The demographics of the Meet and Seat users (19:05)
• Why KLM thinks social media marketing matters (21:30)

Purchase the premium podcast below:

(Clicking on the link above will take you to Paypal where you can securely make your one-time purchase of $19. Please do not hesitate to contact us at podcasts@simpliflying.com if you face any difficulties in making the purchase.)

• 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
• Episode 5 of SimpliFlying Podcasts: Interview with Vueling’s CEO Alex Cruz and Industry Updates
• Can AirAsiaX make the low-cost long-haul model work with focus on Asia-Pacific? Interview with CEO Azran Osman-Rani
• High Flying Tweets: 11 of the best airline or aviation bloggers / journalists to follow on Twitter

———–

Two months into the year and we’ve already had a venerable roster of social-media stars from airlines fight it out for our monthly Heroes award. Last month’s SimpliFlying Hero – Mohd Hisham from Malaysia Airlines – had many wonderful tidbits about how his team at MAS functions and how they “do” social media at MAS. You can read it here if you haven’t done so already.

Let’s cut to the chase, then. We’re ready for another round of voting – and I’m assuming you’re all familiar with this year’s revamped SimpliFlying Heroes initiative. We’re nominating three distinguished people from three airlines that have gained a formidable reputation as social media stars. Voting is open to all – and will close in 7 days from now (ie, Tuesday 13th March, 12 pm Pacific Time). Winners, as usual, will get a Certificate of Appreciation from SimpliFlying, an extended profile on our site and a shot at a wildcard entry into this year’s SimpliFlying Social Media Awards.

This time around you’ll notice that SAS has received a re-nomination. This is in keeping with what we promised previously – those who do not win for a particular month will get another shot at the title in subsequent months. SAS was chosen randomly in a ballot that had the 4 second- and third-best airlines (two each) from the previous months. Let’s hope they make this round count.

Here are this month’s nominees. May the best airline win!

Tero Taskila, Estonian Air

It might not be an overstatement to say that Estonian Air has been one of social media’s great success stories. A small airline (less than 10 planes), they really punch above their weight. Last year, their social media loyalty program – the first of its kind in the world! – was launched to great success and has won numerous awards, including one in which it defeated Southwest. What’s impressive is that for an airline that flies about 800,000 passengers a year, its loyalty program received over a million impressions in the first 10 days of its launch. And what’s more, they’re not resting on their laurels. As Tero revealed in an exclusive interview with SimpliFlying earlier this year, their airline has grand plans for the future!

Jan van Helden & Chris van Erp, KLM

For the first time ever, we have two nominees. KLM is becoming something of an unbeatable on social media, spouting campaign after great campaign, each of which does an excellent job of driving engagement and loyalty. However, their latest Meet and Seat social-seating initiative is truly revolutionary and potentially game-changing in terms of how it could change people’s plane travel experience.For leading Meet and Seat from its inception to development and now implementation, we’re nominating Jan and Chris because of their equally inestimable contribution to it.

Christian Kamhaug, SAS Scandinavian

SAS is one of the most active airlines in social media and has distinguished itself for initiatives like the crowdsourcing of new routes, their excellent customer service on Facebook and for being one of the most active airlines on the latest big boy in the social arena: Google Plus. And Christian has not only personally led the social media team at SAS, but also has a tattoo to prove it!

• A revamped SimpliFlying Heroes initiative – Vote for the Jan 2012 Hero now!
• Estonian Air crowdsourcing ideas to engage travelers as Tero Taskila takes over as new CEO
• SimpliFlying launches fortnightly Marketing Strategy podcasts for airline and airport marketers
• Results announced: The SimpliFlying Hero for January 2012 is Pooja Dua of SpiceJet!
• Estonian Air drives revenue from Facebook through a reverse auction, by simply posting on the wall

With interesting posts, quirky social media campaigns, more fans, higher fan growth rates and a whole lot of social media love, KLM are the undisputed European kings of social media for airlines. Their latest campaign, encouraging people to ‘stewardess’ themselves (Ryan Air take note: you can use stewardesses, get huge publicity and not have to resort to innuendo) and in the process got well over 55,000 new fans in just 7 days, encouraged people to share their snaps and invite their friends to try it out for themselves.

The campaign itself is a lot like past social media campaigns like Yearbook Yourself where you take a photo and it digitally inserts it in to a scene and using a few basic brightness/contrast controls you can make it very nearly almost look like you as a stewardess or a pilot.

As an idea and in execution it’s not unique, but it seems to have caught the imagination of loads of people as the fan growth rate for KLM has shot up since the campaign was launched and people’s willingness to put their own face in to a KLM air stewardess uniform certainly means that there is positive engagement going on.

So does Facebook’s “Talking about This” really matter?

KLM are also leading the way when it comes to getting people really engaged. Now, if you were to look at the chart below you might disagree with this statement because clearly Lufthansa have far more people talking about them as a percentage of fans (and kudos to them!).

Further investigation reveals the limitations of the simplistic Talking About This metric because we don’t think we could find a social media expert that will claim that a like, comment and share have the same engagement value (although if you do disagree, tell us in the comments and we’ll give you a soapbox to explain your opinion). Using our Engagement Comparison chart we can see that KLM are clear winners when it comes to getting more valuable engagement from the fans.

This means that KLM are getting comments and shares on their posts than all the other airlines. We believe that a Share is super valuable because the person really wants to associate themselves with your brand and wants to let their friends know that they are positive about your brand.

It’s also apparent that Air France and Alitalia are struggling to engage people on the same level as the other three big airlines, whether this is because the local populations are not as Facebook obsessed as the other countries is unknown, but they could probably do with posting more often as the chart below indicates.

It’s interesting to note that only BA refuses to allow people to post on their wall and their engagement is quite low as a result, maybe they don’t know how to handle criticisms all that well.

Ultimately, KLM’s ability to get their fans to express themselves more wins them the crown of the undisputed champ of the social space among European airlines. Moreover, we’re pretty sure they’d give the best American and Asian airlines a run for their money too!

This article has been modified from the original that appeared here.

Find out more about how Unmetric can help your airline benchmark its social media prowess here. Or drop us a line directly at unmetric@simpliflying.com.

• How airlines and airports can dramatically increase engagement on their Facebook Pages through one simple action
• Lufthansa shares love with their 100,000 Facebook fans by giving miles
• How to drive Facebook engagement like KLM? Start playing “destination hangman”!
• KLM reaffirms its social media leadership with its innovative Stewardess Yourself app
• Three ways the Cathay Pacific brand can come alive by infusing social media into the People site

As Hisham says, it’s hard to imagine not having a social media channel nowadays, but only a few years ago, when brands were still floundering on social media, Malaysia Airlines, after cosying up in social media, set some clear objectives: to stay in touch with their customers and to understand their preferences so that MAS could enhance their journey and experience, every time they interacted with the brand.

Growing Pains

Like all good brands, even MAS chose to under-promise and over-deliver, rather than the other way round. Within the team, there was a clear focus on not chasing everything but mastering a few things so that the brand would not be diluted by low performing initiatives.

When Hisham joined MAS in 2009, the MAS communication team had already established the airline’s social media presence. However, initially, skepticism about the potential of social media had led MAS to adopt the safe, somewhat direction-less route of doing whatever other airlines were doing. Soon, however, the rudders on their social media boat slowly began functioning and MAS embarked on e-Marketing through Social Media and was rewarded with increased engagement from their customers.

Initially, and perhaps presciently, they did not jump into the race to enter all social media channels since they realised that most of their social media fans could be found on the most popular channels. Recently, however, they have tried to identify their audience at various parts of the traveller life-cycle. Today, MAS has presences on Sina Weibo as well as Foursquare.

On the road to glory

The moment that helped push MAS’s social media initiatives to the forefront was the closure of European airspace due to the Icelandic volcanic eruption in 2010. This saw a marked change in the social media landscape for the aviation industry.  Suddenly, social media was important, relevant and worthwhile. No longer was it just a channel for marketing; it was an important engagement and real-time information dissemination tool to customers.

In 2010, MAS launched their MHmobile mobile application. They partnered with with SITAlabs, and explored possible scenarios on how they could use the platform in different ways that were useful to the customer. Hisham reveals how during their brainstorming sessions he would keep returning to a scene in the movie “When Harry Met Sally”, where Harry & Sally were on a plane, talking about planning their next trip.

Eventually, building on the thought, the team came up with the idea of adding a social layer to the platform, as they saw a need for a new Facebook Commerce app that offered greater convenience to their customers. That saw the birth of MHBuddy – MAS’s then-revolutionary social-seating initiative that allows their customers on Facebook to choose seats alongside their Facebook friends if they are on the same flight. Response from customers has been heartening and Hisham firmly believes that it’s the right way ahead.

While KLM may have kicked the ball that MAS got rolling further ahead with their recently launched Meet and Seat social-seating initiative, Hisham believes that more competition is good since it ensures faster development of ideas as airlines constantly try to push forward to gain an edge over competitors.

Managing, building and measuring

Along with social media, the team managing MAS’s presence on it has evolved. Today, their social media team has 4 people including Hisham. However, other business units do have a say in what they present on social media, offering cross-functionality as well. To ensure participation, the social media team has weekly meetings – Jedi Council Meetings, as Hisham calls them – to develop and assess their social media strategy and ensure that it’s in sync with the specific end-goals that they set.

For MAS, sentiment and and traffic to the website are the two main criteria for measuring the success of their initiatives. They pay close attention to their social media presence and measure their online efforts via social sentiment analyses contained in daily (as well as monthly) listening reports which outline the main issues in the industry. Further, they also measure traffic driven to their website (web and mobile) through their social media channel through tools such as Omniture and Google Analytics. For social monitoring and engagement measurement, the MAS team uses off-the-shelf solutions but they’re keen to emphasise that the tool matters less than the actual process of managing their social media presence.

The Road Ahead

We can safely say that 2012 will be a busy year for social media as it evolves beyond its adolescence and takes flight. For Hisham, this will be an important year for Malaysia Airlines as it seeks to explore the furthest boundaries of the social space. He tells us that MAS is gearing up to exploit their social media channels to the fullest in order to attract a global audience. In his words, “we will do so by planning our conversations so that they’re customized for specific places, feature global content, and we seek to build loyalty as well as to continue building social relationships.”

Hisham signs off with some essential advice for airlines wanting to build their social media presence. First, own your end goals and be ready to improvise from time to time because social media changes in a flash. Second,  be brave enough to try new things. Ordinary voices get lost in the crowd. You will be able to discover ROI on your efforts if you strategise upfront. Last, and perhaps most importantly, know your market’s potential. Don’t be a Jack of All Trades and Master of None.

Most excellent advice from a man who has been at the forefront of the initial airline wars on social media! Congratulations once again to Hisham and the Malaysia Airlines social-media team. We look forward eagerly to what you have in store for us this year!

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.

• Vote for the SimpliFlying Hero of February 2011 – Finnair vs Delta Air Lines vs Malaysia Airlines
• [PRESENTATION] How Airlines Dedicate Resources to Social Media – delivered at #omtravel in Miami (June 2011)
• Malaysia Airlines takes booking and check-in to Facebook. And now, you can sit next to your friend too!
• Airlines and airports in social media should think about scalability of efforts, not just buzz!
• Karlis Smiltens – the man behind airBaltic’s rise in social media is the SimpliFlying Hero for August 2010

KLM is well known for its social media initiatives, but the speed and quality of their campaigns is really starting to become something unique. Just a few days ago we reported about their “Meet and Seat” social-seating initiative and now they’ve surprised us again by creating a fun, and very shareable, initiative that will surely help create new positive associations with their brand. Read on:

Ever dreamed of becoming a stewardess? Or of dressing up as one?

Well, personally I haven’t, but since it’s Carnival, I decided to accept a fun assignment by trying out KLM’s latest initiative: their “Stewardress Yourself“ Facebook app. Eventually, I ended up taking some rather embarrassing (but admittedly entertaining) pictures of me as a SimpliStewardess.

The initiative has been launched trough a dedicated tab in KLM’s facebook page that houses a unique Facebook app designed to bring customers even closer to the brand. This is how it works:

Users are first prompted to like the KLM facebook page and give permission to the app.

Next they are asked to choose picture from their facebook albums, upload one, or take one with their webcam. And then…  Well you can see for yourself in the pictures below:

You can have plenty of fun adding your face to one of seven different “vintage” pictures and portray yourself as either a stewardess or a pilot, and share the result with your friends.

But it does not end there

Users who share the campaign with at least 5 other friends can win one of 5 personalized posters portraying them as a KLM flight attendant. Furthermore for those who do not want to rely on their luck to get a personalized KLM item, the company also offers the chance to buy (remember ROI?) personalized mugs, rucksacks and mouse pads.

Ultimately, this initiative again affirms the fact that KLM is undoubtedly one of the most innovative airlines in the world and has mastered the art of creating initiatives that not just create buzz but can ultimately be tied to their business objectives as well. Kudos to the team. We can’t wait to see what they offer next!

• How BmiBaby Used Instagram to Visually Engage Travelers and Locals
• Top 50 case-studies of airlines and airports excelling in social media
• An analysis of how KLM is winning the social media battle among European Airlines
• The Big Flight: How Malaysia Airlines is using social media to launch their new A380
• Vote for the SimpliFlying Hero of April 2012: bmibaby vs JetBlue vs Virgin Atlantic

Then, last year, there were significant indications of things to come with Malaysia Airlines allowing customers to sit next to their Facebook friends. However, a couple of months ago KLM announced that they would launch the first “truly” social seating system for airlines matching customer’s social profiles with those having similar profiles or interests.

So far, given the lack of details about how the system would exactly work, the announcement was both welcomed as well as met with trepidation by the online community. Some claimed they’d love to try this new system, saying that it would spare them long hours of boredom on their flights, to  the outraged reactions of people who thought it would be an unjustifiable invasion of privacy and could lead to in-flight harassment to unwilling seat-mates.

Today’s the real deal!  At KLM`s headquarters in Amsterdam, the world will witness the announcement of something different, radically innovative but also, controversial: allowing passengers to choose seat mates based on information about their shared interest taken from their Facebook profiles!

Let’s move on now to what’s really happening at Amsterdam.

Click here to view the embedded video.

KLM’s Meet and Seat – Live!

Follow the live-blog below to get blow-by-blow updates as the new product is unveiled (the blog will be updated as soon as the press conference starts)

Photo credit: @polledemaagt

[1.30pm] Social Seating will be launched on flights between Amsterdam and San Francisco, Sao Paolo and New York City.

[1.40 pm] We’ve learnt that passengers will be able to share information from their Facebook or LinkedIn account and will be to see who else is traveling on a particular flight and has shared relevant data. Everyone can decide which data they want to link with their flight. This information can be used by passengers to choose a seat-mate.

[1.45 pm] KLM President & CEO Erik Varwijk said that KLM has always strived to be cutting edge in social media and it’s latest revolutionary initiative will be fun and useful for people with similar interests to connect.

[1.50 pm] Meet & Seat will be can be reserved 90 days to 48 hours before departure on all intercontinental KLM flights via ‘Manage My Booking’.

[2.00 pm] We’ve managed to secure the very first look of what Meet and Seat will be like.

[2.15 pm] Essentially, after booking your KLM flight, choose what Facebook or LinkedIn profile details you want to share. Subsequently, view the profile details of fellow-passengers to find like-minded people or business partners. After evaluating such details you can choose to sit beside a person whose profile you find interesting. Of course, once you’re tuned into the social seating game, the potential is limitless as you could later choose to have a coffee at the airport or even share a taxi with the person you sit next to.

Here’s the Live video of the unveiling…

Click here to view the embedded video.

• The Future is Social: Interview with KLM’s VP of eCommerce reveals how airline marketing is set for a complete overhaul
• How an intelligent seating system can bring ancillary revenues, and is great for the airline brand
• 5 Ways to Incorporate Social Media Into the Flying Experience, and leverage on your “followers”
• Vote for the SimpliFlying Hero of February 2011 – Finnair vs Delta Air Lines vs Malaysia Airlines
• Three ways the Cathay Pacific brand can come alive by infusing social media into the People site