“Pinterest?  The name sounds familiar, I must have heard it somewhere, but how exactly is it going to help our airline? ”
“I’ve heard of it too but I’m not really sure of what it is and, please, don’t tell me that we need yet another social network!”
We’re pretty sure that something similar must have gone through the minds of many airline and airport marketers over the past few weeks. According to some sources, Pinterest, the newest kid on the social block, is driving more traffic to company pages than “big” social networks like Linkedin or Google+ and people are spending more time on this addictive social network than just about any other platform except Facebook and Twitter.
 

But, what does it all mean ?

It could have simply been just another social network, or just another link sharing site that happened to be good at generating traffic while being visually appealing.  But luckily for us, it isn’t just that!

From a technical point of view Pinterest is a social-bookmarking website or, in other words, a website that allows people to highlight and share …

The past year has been an interesting and very successful one for Simpliflying with a number of new client acquisitions and tons of exciting free resources such as infographics and Top 10 case-packs posted regularly to the blog amongst other things. At the brink of the new year, we relive ten of the most popular articles on SimpliFlying in 2011:

10. Social seating: Have you read about the Malaysian Airline initiative that led the airline to create a much talked about Facebook booking engine that allowed people to sit with their friends on the airline’s flights?

9. Airports in social media: In the ninth place we have a Top 10 case-pack, an initiative helmed by our Senior Innovation Officer Shubhodeep Pal, on how airports have driven engagement trough social media.

8. Blockbuster social initiative: Next, in 8th place we find one, if not the, most successful social media campaigns of 2011, the AA Advantage “mystery miles” campaign that hit the headlines in February by achieving an 84 fold growth of its Facebook fans in 54 hours.

7. Airline Twitter initiatives: In the seventh place we find …

For creating innovative Facebook and Twitter campaigns like KLM Surprises and various crowdsourcing projects, guiding KLM during the the ashcloud crises and being a key part of a team of 16 people engaging customers on social media,  Lonneke Verbiezen is the SimpliFlying Hero for Feb 2011 (Yes! Heroes is back!)
The volcanic explosion that led to explosive growth
The ashcloud crises about a year ago was a catalyst for many airlines, especially in Europe, to start engaging their customers through means they were familiar with – often tools like Facebook and Twitter (click here to see case studies). It was also then, that social media tools became the necessity for airlines to communicate during crises with their customers.

One of the airlines that transformed its customer interaction methods after the ashcloud crisis was KLM – and Lonneke Verbiezen was in the center of all the action. And the impact of her team’s work is truly felt today. In the last year, KLM has come up with various innovative campaigns like KLM Surprises (see video below), Fly2Miami – where the first flight to Miami will transformed into a party flight on the request of a Dutch DJ, and …

On social media, it is just as important to give love, as it is to seek out favors from fans. After winning the SimpliFlying Best Social Media Campaign award last week in London, for their MySkyStatus tool, Lufthansa has now reached 100,000 Facebook fans. And to thank them for their love, Lufthansa is giving away 100,000 miles to 10 of their fans! Sweeet!
Too often, airlines get sucked into just asking more and more from their fans, without stopping to give back. And what better timing, than the Thanksgiving period (it’s the Canadian one today, US one in a couple of weeks).
I’m sure this will drive engagement not just one the social media front for Lufthansa, but also spur activity on the Miles and More program, and not just for the winners.
Bloody brilliant!

So, what do you think about Lufthansa’s effort? Serious social business, or hot air? Let’s discuss in comments, and over on Twitter

Special thanks to Khoa, one of my most respected aviation geeks, for this tip-off. …

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)…

Virgin America created a splash today, by launching its first international destination, Toronto, on Twitter! They did not spend a cent on traditional advertising for this launch, and I personally think this is one of the smarter uses of social media I’ve seen by an airline in recent times.

The sweetener is that the first 500 people to book tickets using their Twitter ID would be able to redeem a 50% discount (still valid as of 2pm EDT, 20 Feb). If they’re not “following” the airline on Twitter, they will auto-follow. Even the official press release re-directed recipients to the Twitter URL.
“The first 500 Twitter followers who receive the airline’s expansion Tweet can score a 50 percent discount on flights to Toronto for travel June 23-November 17, 2010.*  Virgin America is the only airline based in Silicon Valley, and its inventive use of technology, social media and design has made it a favorite among tech-forward flyers.  For more: www.twitter.com/virginamerica”.
The press release was followed by a single Tweet. And that’s it. That’s a very simple route-launch for you.

What …

Three continents, three encounters, same story
Story 1, Los Angeles, early March 2010: Early last month, after a 22 hour flight from Singapore to Los Angeles, I was picked up by someone who works at Boeing, has a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from Stanford, and an MBA from UC Irvine. In the six hours I had in LA, he introduced me to another very talented friend of his, who drove us to a vantage point from where we could see all of the LAX runways. We ended up spotting planes for over an hour.

Then we drove to the famous “In & Out” to spot more planes, before heading to a restaurant under the flight path of landing planes, for dinner. For a plane freak like me, this was like putting a kid in a candy store – all day long!

Story 2, Santiago de Chile, late March 2010: I had spent my first day in Santiago mostly sleeping in the hotel, as opposed to checking out the city. In the evening, I met with an airline industry veteran, who not only met me for …

I’ve been a guest writer for Mashable.com for a few months now, and my latest article was about how airlines can drive revenue from social media. Those of you who’ve attended my keynote presentation (view slides) on the topic know that I classify this as the holy grail for airlines – something not many have been able to achieve, and there are no “numbers” released from airlines on their social media efforts either.This article seeks inspiration from the likes of Dell, who made $6.4million for selling on Twitter, and applies the lessons to airlines.  Here’s a quick summary of the article and you can read the full version over at Mashable. Clear distressed inventory using real-time mediums like Twitter, e.g. JetBlue Cheeps and United TwaresIntegrate independent social media reviews in the booking path – to boost conversion Integrate with social media travel tools like TripIt – Leverage on the loads of travel information publicly available, like travel plans, to send specific deals to peopleCreate private online communities – exclusive “velvet-rope” clubs of your most …

Let me begin by clarifying that this article is not about whether Lufthansa’s MySkyStatus will take off or not. It has already taken off. Because the amount of discussion I’ve had about it with my friends from around the world, online and offline, is phenomenal. Just today, my status updates on Facebook by this app generated over 30 comments by friends from Dubai to Chicago (check out the screenshot below for a sample set). It’s thanks to these friends that I’ve been inspired to write this article.
MySkyStatus – what’s the fuss about?
For the unaware, MySkyStatus is a tool that posts your flight info (altitude, location and arrival updates) automatically to Facebook and/or Twitter while you fly. And you guessed it, it’s the real-time nature of this app that’s making it go viral. And as you can see below, the updates can generate quite a discussion.

At first glance,  MySkyStatus is true value add for the customer. But the application is not perfect – and it need not be perfect in its first release anyway. However, there are some small tweaks that can be made, as …

Twitter has a huge aviation community – from airlines and airports, to cabin crew and aviation enthusiasts. Whether you like to fly a plane or just watch planes fly, there are lots of aviation geeks on Twitter with whom you can converse about your passions or just listen.

Many of these (very interesting) Tweeps are tapping into Twitter’s real-time network to offer up travel tips, airline recommendations (or warnings), and an inside look at life in the cockpit (or cabin). Personally, I have made some amazingly talented new friends on Twitter, whom I wouldn’t have known otherwise, from Melbourne to Muscat.

This list has 11 great aviation geeks to follow on Twitter, however please feel free to suggest others in the comments (or if you tweet on things that fly, leave your own Twitter info – for individuals only, not companies). These are in no particular order.

And you can certainly start with this list if you’re looking to follow my 11 suggested steps to lead the social media strategy for your airline!

Of course, if you aren’t following us on Twitter yet, we’re @simpliflying.

11 airline Journalists/Bloggers …