Social media becomes critical for airlines

Mumbai: Zafar Rais, founder & CEO of MindShift Interactive, a digital outreach firm, predicts, “The airlines present on social media are beginning to understand their consumers better while those airlines that have low or no presence will start investing and integrating social media strategies to communicate better and faster with their consumers.” According to MindShift, Jet Airways had the biggest footprint in social media, followed by SpiceJet and Kingfisher. “Air India and GoAir are at the bottom, showing their need to get onto the bandwagon and make their presence felt,” points Rais.
Around 56 per cent of conversations by Indians online involve the airline industry, with Facebook and Twitter emerging as the most interactive and consumer friendly platforms. According to industry data, Twitter has nearly five million Indian users and Facebook has about 40 million Indians.
The report underlines that for the airline industry, Twitter plays a vital role in customer relations and engagement while their customers are at the airport as well as while offering specific deals to targeted users. Similarly, platforms like YouTube play a role in showing consumers an experience visually, prior to experiencing it live, satisfying an important channel of decision making.
Another reason why airlines are watching the social media closely is the fact that 75 per cent of frequent flyers would fly an airline if it is recommended by a friend, rather than flying the cheapest one, as per MindShift data.
YouTube, however, is the least leveraged social media platform by airlines. “While looking at conversations for each sector on each platform, we can see that more than 90 per cent of the online conversations are on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter due to engaging activities and quick response,” says Rais.
In 2012, Mindshift estimates that airlines will further explore social media by first understanding the needs of the consumer and accordingly create strategies to reach out and engage with them.
28/02/12 Priyanka Joshi/Business Standard

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Feb 2012