In the past few weeks, I’ve interacted with senior executives leading Marketing/Digital Marketing at a number of legacy airlines. Most of these have hardly made baby steps into social media branding. The biggest hurdle they seem to face is not achieving success in their new initiatives, but proving themselves internally.

And that’s only natural, since most monolithic organizations have more naysayers than doers. And the doers seldom have more clout than the naysayers. So, how to overcome this challenge?

Look within – start from the inside
My suggestion to these executives was to look at the upcoming marketing plans/campaigns. Something that’s already been budgeted for, and would be rolled out in the next three months. Then, work with the marketing team to “social media-fy” that plan. Basically, you’d want to add wings to the campaign through social media. And make sure there’s a way to measure the results (even if qualitative) so that you can measure the before-and-after effect of social media on the initiatives.

This allows you to achieve a few things:

You prove that social media adds value
There’s no need for substantial additional budget to run the SM activities
Working from …

So we all know that airlines need to be on social media, and are doing much better than previously. But ultimately, it’s all about making money. Especially so for Low Cost Carriers.

This presentation shares insights on how airlines can really use social media tools like Facebook, blogs and Twitter to drive revenue. This was originally presented as a keynote in Al Ain, UAE on October 13, 2009, at the Low Cost World Middle East Conference.

View more documents from Shashank Nigam.

What do you think? Is social media just about engagement? Is trying to drive revenue from it equivalent to “populating” it? Let’s discuss in the comments or over on Twitter (@simpliflying)

…

Three airlines, three rockstars
Heard of Morgan Johnston? On Google, “Morgan Johnston Jetblue” produces over 37,000 results, as compared to “Dave Barger jetblue”, which returns 26,800 results. Dave Barger is the CEO of the airline, and Morgan Johnston leads JetBlue’s social media branding strategy. Morgan was into video production, before he joined JetBlue’s Corporate Communications department in early 2007.

Heard of Christi Day? She was voted the Employee of the Quarter earlier this year at Southwest Airlines, because of her tremendous efforts in leading the airline’s brand on various social networks. It’s not very often that a personin the PR dept. of an airline gets such a prestigious award.

Heard of Elliott Pesut? He was featured as the Geek of the Week, in one of Seattle’s leading daily this summer. Why? Because he is the “Head Twit” for Alaska Airlines. Elliot is a trained pilot, who was earlier at Flight Operations in Alaska Airlines. He volunteered for this new role, when the opportunity arose.
Why should YOU lead social media branding for your airline?
See a common thread in the stories above? All these people have no background in IT or new web technologies, yet have created an …

Dear SimpliFlyers,

Yesterday, in Sydney, at the Australia Pacific Aviation Summit, I gave my keynote on airline branding and social media a different touch. I emphasized on the fact that airlines and airports need start moving from broadcasting messages to their customers, to having conversations about their brands with their “cult”.

Featuring case studies of over 25 airlines on social media, this was the presentation that I used for my keynote on 6 Aug 2009. It was very well received by an audience of experienced senior aviation executives. And I’d love to have your feedback on it. What do you like most? What’s the biggest challenge?

Keep Flying, SimpliFlying,
Shashank

Continuing this week’s Cathay Pacific Special on SimpliFlying, I’d like to share some of my own ideas on how the forward-thinking legacy airline based out of Hong Kong can add wings to their People micro-site through social media.

As mentioned in my review of the website earlier this week, the site not only features informal bios written in first person, but also formal and informal shots of everyone from flight attendants to baggage handlers. It’s good for getting acquainted with the faces behind the scenes at one of the world’s best airlines. But as I browsed through the profiles, I felt I wanted to do more…I felt like literally getting in touch with some of these people, with whom I could relate to. So here are three proposed next steps for the Cathay Pacific people micro-site.

Allow active interactions among visitors: One of the key enablers of engagement in social media is that anyone can share his or her thoughts about anything, in public, and garner responses. On the People site, visitors can currently share the URL on …

Think about this. You’re being helped by a very courteous flight attendant on your flight from New York to Mumbai, via Hong Kong. But there’s no way that you’re ever going to meet her again. You want to know her better, but there’s just no way. Or how about that Customer Service Rep who was so helpful over the phone in helping you change your flights? Again, he was no more than just a voice.

That’s partly because airlines have acted like faceless organizations all this while. You seldom get to interact with the people behind the brand. And that’s exactly what Cathay Pacific has tried to overcome, with their micro-site showcasing its people.

Meet the people – in a different light
On the people site, you can get to know better not only Cathay’s customer-facing staff like the Pursers or the Customer Service officer at the airport, you can learn just as much about the cargo handlers and the aircraft dispatchers. The flash-based interactive website literally has people “flying around” and once you click on them, you encounter two …

Dear SimpliFliers,

As most of you are aware, a couple of weeks back, I delivered an expert address in Miami, Florida at the Low Cost Carriers Americas Summit, at the intersections of three topics – airline branding + social media + budget airlines. My ideas were very well received by the audience of key executives from LCCs in North America and South America. And I thought I’d share a video recording of my speech with all of you as well.

I’m keen to hear your feedback on my ideas, whether you find them feasible and how we can help airlines adopt these well. You may go through just the slides here.

Regards,
Shashank

It’s always good to speak with people who lead execution, rather than just build strategy. Especially when it comes to social media branding, it’s the person Tweeting or Facebook-ing with individuals who often makes all the difference. One such person is Elliot Pesut (@elliottp) who leads the Twittering efforts of Seattle-based Alaska Airlines.

In this exclusive interview with SimpliFlying.com, Elliot details the airline’s Twitter strategy, and talks about the unique challenges of his job, as well as Alaska Airlines’ forays into social media and how it’s all about connections, online and offline.
Volcanic rise of @alaskaair on Twitter

Alaska Airlines’ social media efforts got a real boost after a volcanic eruption a couple of months ago, near Ancourage, one of their hubs. The eruption caused unpredictable delays to flights and the airline needed to inform its customers about changes in real-time, as well as sooth nerves. And they turned to Twitter, calming nerves online while updating passengers of their flight status. Don’t you think that is so much better than receiving an insensitive SMS telling you that your flight is cancelled?

Today, Elliot updates followers of which planes each day are wi-fi equipped and seeks their feedback on everything from new destinations …

I came across a profound article on MSNBC Travel by Chris Elliot (of the elliot.org fame) about social media and travel, and I couldn’t help but re-post it here. Chris mentions six ways in which travel will change thanks to social media. And to me, it seems inevitable, as you’d have realized if you’d seen the slides from my recent keynote on the topic in Miami. I’m sure you’d enjoy this read.

P.S: Yours truly is quoted in the article as well (point 3).
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By Christopher Elliott
Travel columnist
msnbc.com contributor
updated 10:32 a.m. ET, Mon., July 6, 2009
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31727411/ns/travel-tips/

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Christopher Elliott
Travel columnist

• Profile
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Before the latest social media revolution, Jessica Gottlieb would have probably watched helplessly when her kids, Jane and Alexander, were trapped on the tarmac, waiting for their Virgin America flight to take off.

But that’s so 2008. When it …

I delivered an Expert Keynote address yesterday to a room full of senior airline executives on how they can us social media to enhance their brands. This was at the at the LCC World Americas Summit in Miami, FL.

The presentation details why social media is important to LCCs and how they can use it immediately for customer service, sales and more. I’m sharing the slides here and would love to have your feedback on this!