Blog 
As we enter 2013, the expectations from airlines and airports to live up to the new realities of an increasingly connected world are ever more. Passengers are more vocal and connected to their friends and family. They have higher expectations in terms of online engagement and interaction, and are not hesitant to instantly share a negative opinion online when displeased. On the other hand, rapidly evolving social technologies are enabling airlines and airports to reach and engage their customers in more innovative ways than before. As such, the potential for better customer service, speedier crisis management, building loyal online brand advocates and driving revenues has increased manifold.
Hence, while planning your social engagement strategy for 2013, you need a head-start. The 25 resources presented below, categorized for your easy reference, will give you ample inspiration and information to start swimming from the deep end of the pool itself!
Engagement
- What your audience expects and what you should be doing to engage them. Or risk falling behind your competition (read here).
- Creating an immersive brand experience for your airline (read here).
- How airlines and aiports can use Pinterest to engage customers through visual cues (read here).
- How COPA Airlines drove 50x ROI via a Facebook app (read here).
Strategy Planning and Research Reports
- Presentation – Driving results from Customer Engagement. The road ahead for airlines on social media (get the presentation here).
- Airline Social Media Outlook 2012-13: Research based on a survey conducted with the 30 most social-savvy airlines on issues such as staffing, budgets and ROI (get the report here).
- Monthly Airline Marketing Benchmark Reports – Produced every month by SimpliFlying in partnership with airlinetrends.com, this report has 15 fresh case-studies covering the most innovative marketing campaigns by airlines across the world (get the latest report here).
Case-Studies
- Top 30 Airline Social Media Case-Studies featured on SimpliFlying in 2012 (read here).
- Re-branding Royal Brunei Airlines – the journey behind-the-scenes (read here).
- Ryanair learns the power of social media. Profits dip 29% despite a 600% increase in marketing budget (read here)!
- Local pages and hyper-localization on Facebook (read here).
Social Customer Service
- Q and A – How brands can perform real time customer-service on social media (read here).
- Lessons from customer service in social media (read here).
- Statistics and Charts – How US Airlines are providing customer support on Facebook (read here).
- Two tales of customer experience – AirAsia X vs Kingfisher Airlines (read here).
Crisis Management and Handling Bloopers
- Why Korean Air’s #primitiveenergy campaign angered Africans and how they could have managed the crisis better (read here).
- How Royal Brunei Airlines handled the emergency landing of their plane superbly on social media (read here).
- Southwest Airlines finds out whether a campaign can be too successful for its own good – A cautionary tale for those looking to run competitions (read here).
Social Loyalty
- A New Era in Airline Loyalty – The Rise of Social Loyalty Programs and Social Advocacy (read here).
- Free eBook – How Airlines Can Drive Loyalty on Social Media (read here).
Expert Insights
- Interview – Jonathan Pierce, Director of Social Communications at American Airlines sheds light on how social media drives results for American Airlines (read here).
- Interview – Azran Osma-Rani, CEO of AirAsiaX talks about how the low-cost, long-haul modeal can be made to work in Asia Pacific (read here).
- Podcast – Mary Kirby, Editor-in-Chief of APEX Magazine sheds light on a industry in flux (click here).
- Interview – Heidi Brauer, Kulula’s Marketing Head tells us why Kulula is the world’s funniest airline (read here).
- Interview – Gary Wicks of Boeing shares how Boeing’s commercial airplanes division takes the social media bull by the horns (read here).
Revenue
- Mango Airlines CEO attributes 50% growth in revenues to social media (read here).
Airports
- Airport Social Media Outlook 2012-13: Research based on a survey with over 50 of the most social-savvy airports on issues such as staffing, budgets and ROI (read more).
- Presentation – How Airports can Engage the Connected Traveler (read here).
- A 4-part special series on how Airports are engaging the Connected Traveler in a number of ways – from crowdsourcing to social customer service (read here).
- The Road Ahead for Airports in 2013: Why Real-time customer service and non-aeronautical revenues will be the keys to success (read here).
[Write to us at engage@simpliflying.com if you wish to learn more about how your airline can profitably engage the Connected Traveler in 2013.]