My friend-blogger Marta Eichstaedt found some interesting information regarding airlines on Twitter.
According to Willis Wee* on Penn Olson site there are 180 airlines using Twitter for marketing/service purposes and:
I should say that there are thousands of airlines all around the world but maybe 2 dozens counts.
When comes down to Twitter and airlines – Jetblue (which is NOT the biggest airlines) is so far the most popular on Twitter with 1.6 million LOYAL fans following its account. One of it’s interesting Twitter campaigns was giving out about a thousand free round-trip tickets at three undisclosed locations in Manhattan (more about the campaign you can find here.
ok so Jetblue so far is doing the best on Twitter but what about those who are not doing that good. According to Willis Wee’s article United Airlines are not so hot on Twitter. 57% of the tweets were negative and 33% positive. Approximately 164 tweets/per day were directed to @UnitedArilines but only an average of 3.3 tweets were sent out by the airline each day. What does it mean? that the two-way communication is not so good.
I can say that Jetblue come up with way much better Twitter strategy so far. Lets wait and watch what next.
go to Penn-Olson site to read more info regrading that topic.
—-
*Willis Wee is a co-founder of Penn Olson.
Hello Klaudia,
Last year I had an interesting exchange on Twitter – not with an airline but with the Milwaukee airport. I was impressed with their recombobulation area (right next to security, where we all get discombobulated) so I tweeted about it to my Twitter followers. The airport picked up on it and tweeted right back. Following that I tweeted about each airport I went through for the next 2 months (note: noone else had a recombobulation area) and this started one of the most unusual Twitter relationships I have.
It’s odd — I now feel that I “know” that airport. That’s not a goal I can say I ever contemplated. What a great marketing move on their part.
Susan
Hello Susan,
thank you for your comment.
I have to admit I haven’t heard about recombobulation area – just never saw that sign 🙂
I am surprised (in a very positive way) that Milwaukee airport respond to your tweet – and that you not even posted the tweet on their account but yours! what does it mean? that companies (including airports as well) are checking Tweeter. I think it’s a good sign — that they are actually interested what people need or they just know that they need to listen what people (customers) are talking about them.
Hi Klaudia,
To me, the Milwaukee airport gives us a perfect example of Web 2.0. It’s no longer enough to make your brand known online through a web site – which is at best a one way conversation. Today we have to be ready to hear what the cyber world is saying about us and then join that conversation and have real two-way interactions.
Susan
I absolutely agree with you Susan.
the time of ‘just having a website’ was enough – it’s all gone. I would even say that nowadays you don’t even need some excellent website – but the thing is how to provide the great content and start-and-keep conversation with people (not only your customer but potential customer as well). Unfortunately some companies don’t understand that this is the only way (so far) to get closer to their customers and somehow control what’s going on or where the customer needs are.
At the same time I think that it’s (in many cases) a full-time job to reply to all those comments and be up-to-date on Twitter/Facebook/blog/etc. – but again some companies don’t think it’s working that way and communication with customers from time to time will be enough.