Social Media Guarantees … put up or shut up

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Fish

Many companies offer guarantees. Your pizza will arrive in 30 minutes or less, your checked baggage will be at the carousel within 20 minutes, you will be satisfied … but KLM offers a different type of guarantee.

KLM‘s social media team guarantees that all contact with them will be replied to in one-hour or less, 24/7/365.   Having actually worked as the person behind KLM’s twitter voice for a while I was ecstatic to see this guarantee.   KLM’s customer service in my (slightly biased) opinion is excellent, however when tested KLM’s one-hour or less social media response guarantee seems hollow.

 

Brett Snyder, of CrankyFlier, sought clarification from KLM on what Tweets and Facebook messages would be replied to and received this answer from the airline’s public relations spokesperson, “Anyone in the world can send a tweet or leave a message on Facebook and there will be a response personally within one hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week . . . As for sarcastic questions and complaints, KLM responds with apologies and tries to remedy the error,” and “it doesn’t even have to be a question to get a response! If KLM is in the tweet KLM will respond if they can help.”

 

So … that given, in tracking @KLM’s tweets, it seems only a small fraction of tweets are replied to.  Brett went so far as to set up a new Twitter account to test KLM’s one-hour guarantee, Tweeting a legitimate customer service problem, but was never replied to.   Brett and I Tweeted back and forth in public about KLM’s one-hour social media response guarantee and got a response more than an hour later.   In the time in took for KLM to reply there had been just over 40 tweets mentioning “@KLM” directly, in that same time @KLM Tweeted only four times, addressing Twitter mentions only three times.

 

So … as much as KLM’s one-hour social media guarantee is fantastic, the airline needs to ensure it’s guarantee is executed.

 

In social media things move quickly and failure to put-up or shut-up when it comes to social media customer service, especially when a guarantee is offered, the value of a customer service reputation can spiral downwards quickly.

 

Should KLM offer a one-hour guarantee?  I think it is a great idea.   Should KLM put some restrictions on what will get a response in an hour? Probably.  Should KLM ensure it has the manpower and proper tools to ensure it can execute its one-hour guarantee?  Absolutely.

 

KLM has been a leader in social media in the past, it has the opportunity to do so again right now … or it can drop the ball and undo the excellence it is striving for.

 

Happy Flying!

 

@flyingwithfish

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The Social Media Term To Learn – CAM (Customer Attraction Management)

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Fish

Anyone in business is familiar with CRM as Customer Retention Management and ROI as Return On Investment … but within social media before a company can retain customers or get a return on their investment they need to attract their customers … enter CAM … Customer Attraction Management.

The customers are out there, how will you attract them?  Many companies simply say “We’ll use Facebook, Twitter and a blog,” but have no long term strategy to effectively deploy their social media. Like anything in business, a strategy that works for one company may not work for another.  The strategy an airline uses may not work for an airport, a strategy used by a rental car company may not work for a hotel. These businesses all target the same customers, but they cannot attract travelers the same way … so what is the hook?

 

The first key to any CAM is knowing not only how to attract your market but how to engage your market. Social media is at its core … social. What do your customer want to hear? What haven’t your customers heard? This simple first step is where many companies fail before they even get out of the gate.

 

Building effective Customer Attraction Management requires that every person involved in direct engagement with customers via social media understand the fundamentals of engagement and that every department that interacts with social media be part of the content process.  The social media attraction process never ends, it is always evolving and solutions are always changing … there is always a customer that can be attracted, don’t ignore them once you have other customers to retain.

 

Remember this … before you can retain your customers, you must first attract them and you must do this day in and day out, day after day, week after week, consistently.

 

Happy Flying!

 

@flyingwithfish

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The Travel Strategist Returns

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Fish

 

After a break of many months due to the potential conflict of interest with a client’s project The Travel Strategist blog returns … and it is good to be back!

 

I didn’t like putting The Travel Strategist on hold, however a client’s needs came first.  I can’t wait to dig in and get the blog back on track.   So sit back, grab a Cherry Coke and new content should begin to appear over the next few days.

 

Thanks for sticking around during this long unexpected break!

 

Happy Flying!

 

@flyingwithfish.com

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Is Your Lack Of A Social Media Engagement Platform Holding You Back?

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Fish

Social media never rests, much like the airline and travel industry. No matter the day of the year, or the time of day, the motion continues on, good, bad or indifferent.

 

With the non-stop flow of conversations, comments and potential for interaction, the platform social media executors’ use is crucial to their success and effectiveness.   In a random sampling of 100 airline and airport Twitter accounts, 21 of these accounts almost exclusively use Twitter’s website as their platform for their Twitter usage.

 

These 21 airline and airport Twittersteams are all missing vital basic tools for monitoring and engaging in conversations as they occur because they have chosen to use an inferior platform … a platform that is actually counterproductive to effectively utilizing Twitter.

 

Twitter’s web platform is not only slow to update new tweets, but it also requires users to click to different pages to view basic content, such as mentions and direct messages.  Adding to the Twitter webpage platform’s inferiority is its inability to simultaneously searching keywords, or hash tags, while viewing other Twitter interactions and its inability to save search terms.

 

Forgetting more complex, and complete, social media engagement consoles, such as Radian 6, there are multiple free and effective tools to utilize basic social media channels, such as Twitter and Facebook. Effective social media platforms are essential for reducing the work required to find relevant conversations, increase engagement and reduce the time elapsing between customer interaction and corporate response. Social media occurs in real time, monitoring and interacting should occur in real time as well.

 

Stand-alone platforms such as Tweetdeck, and web-based platforms such as Hootsuite, allow users to consistently monitor Twitter and Facebook, as well as other social media channels, in an easy to use interface, as well as sync content columns across multiple computers and mobile devices for multiple users.    The interface of these social media platforms not only allow for enhanced engagement potential, but enhanced keyword search to more effectively monitor both corporate interests and competitor interests.

 

Social Media is about being social … failure to use even the most basic correct tools inhibits the ability to be social.

 

For those looking at social media from a purely business standpoint keep this in mind … everything in business is about a Return On Investment. ROI is messured in a number of ways, customer attraction, customer retention, public relations, brand management and of course … financial returns. If you’re not using the right tools, you’re negatively impacting your ROI.

 

Happy Flying!

 

@flyingwithfish

 

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Dear Social Media Executor, You Must Be Social To Succeed In Social Media

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Fish

The driving concept behind “social media” seems so obvious … it requires is being “social.”

As an airline, hotel, airport … or really any entity … the most effective way to attract followers, retain followers, build loyalty and further the message you’re conveying through social media channels is engagement, interaction, conversation, and chatting (yes they all mean the same thing).   Not all engagement is equal, and not everyone must engage the same way, but failure to interact and converse with those who are communicating with your business, and interacting with your social media channels, is a complete failure of utilizing social media.

The failure to engage directly through social media channels is unfortunately a common problem, one surprisingly seen in many travel businesses or all sizes.

Social media is a conversation, and those executing social media must remember that no one likes to be talked at; everyone prefers to be talked to. Being talked to allows for inclusion, while being talked at is an act of exclusion. Airlines and airports that have a consistent social media stream that merely talks at its audience does little to further its brand image and even less to drive consistency and loyalty.

For those who need to frequently distribute straightforward and matter-of-fact information consistently, there is a challenging balance between creating bland content and creating content that encourages conversation, or sharing. A social media message needs to be heard to be effective, placing social media content into a vacuum, especially while talking at an audience, rather than with an audience, often ensures a message is ignored rather than given the attention it may require.

Before sending messages out via conversation based social media channels, such as Facebook and Twitter take a moment to reread your message and see if your message is one that people will pay attention to. As you send your messages, that are designed to foster interaction,  determine a course of action for replying to those who engage your social media directly.

Sometimes just replying and saying “Thank You” is enough to have someone continue to follow you and refer others to your social media channels.

Happy Flying!

@flyingwithfish

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Why Aren’t Airline & Travel CMOs & CCOs On The Same Social Media Page?

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Fish
In recent conversations with a few airlines and hotels it has become apparent that in some companies a divide exists between the Chief Commercial Officers (CCO) and Chief Marketing Officers (CMO)  on not only who has the say over the direction of social media, but how the social media strategy will be executed.
Social media is in a unique position when it comes to corporate development because the channel doesn’t really belong to anyone … it belongs to everyone.
Yes, social media may fall under corporate communications, or marketing, or ecommerce, or even IT, but an effective social media program for any airline or hotel business requires that everyone have their hand in the cookie jar.  The old saying of ‘too many cooks in the kitchen’ isn’t necessarily true, or a bad things, when it comes to social media, provided each cook knows the other cook’s recipe book.
Not long ago many CMOs and CCOs viewed as an experiment, one not worthy of their attention. Social media can no longerbe largely overlooked by upper tier executives, it is now a driving source or revenue, a major factor in marketing and plays a massive role in brand recognition and customer relations … so how can CMOs and CCOs get on the same page?
The most effective way for CMOs and CCOs to get on the same page is surprisingly simple … sit down with the internal experts on social media, or bring in external social media experts, to lay out all the options. With all the options laid out, review all the stake holders, and establish a single strategy and vision for social media.  Once everyone is laid out, decide who has the largest stake in the execution of social media and who controls the largest portion of the budget and assets being implemented within  social media.
Creating a single strategy and vision for corporate social media is not something that will be created it in a day, especially in corporations that have multiple subsidiaries.  Creating a long term strategy and vision requires a full understanding of all aspects of social media … and even having CMOs and CCOs bring in other top tier executives who handle customer service and IT.
Once everyone is at the table everyone needs an equal voice. If CMOs and CCOs cannot agree on the direction of social media and how it is to executed, resulting in a power struggle, the entire social media program is at risk for floundering aimlessly and doing more harm than good.
So how can Chief Marketing Officers and Chief Commercial Officers get on the page about social media?   By realizing it’s not about them and that all departments must work in unison to be effective.
Obviously every company is different … but keep this in mind … when engaging in social media, the whole world car see you!
Happy Flying!
@flyingwithfish
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Dear Social Media Executor, Don’t Send Followers Away From Your Site

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Fish
The sheer number of social media channels available to airline, hotel and travel social media executors is staggering.  There are dozens of sites to send followers for photos, videos, and promotions. While these websites may offer enhanced search engine optimization they offer one critical flaw … by linking to these sites, you’re sending your followers away from your company’s website and portals.
When creating social media content, always try and keep your followers looped back into your company’s website or portals. If your company uses Flickr or Youtube (or other similar services), embed content into the site whenever possible, then send people back into your company control social media and online channels.
Utilizing a cyclical pattern ensures social media followers don’t get distracted and not return to where you want to send them. Additionally, sending people back to company controlled social media and online channels through a cyclical pattern allows for more effective tracking of visitors throughout their entire experience with your brand.
If your company places its content on third party sites, then sends its Twitter and Facebook followers to these external sites rather than to its own site, it is like meeting people at the door of your store and sending them away with a poster depicting an ad for your store rather than inviting them in.
Happy Flying!
@flyingwithfish
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In Social Media As In Life … More Isn’t Always Better

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Fish

The more I delve into the social media tactics of the more than 400+ airline, travel, aerospace and airport I follow on Twitter (through a hidden account that never tweets, it just follows), and the dozens of accounts I follow on Facebook, I am increasingly struck by increase in “we want more tactics” being implemented by social media executors.

 

No one will argue that it is not important to have as many eyes as possible viewing your message, but equally important … if not more so … is having “qualified eyes” viewing your message.

 

Over the past year I have been consistently following the follies of one major Middle East airline that sees consumed with boasting about how many followers they have in their social media channels, despite these numbers not being very high, and the vast majority of these followers not being in any of the airline’s target market or demographics.   This airline presently has just over 12,000 Twitter followers, of which it seems more than 10,000 of those followers come from the auto-follow application WeFollow.com.

 

In a random sample of 100 of this airline’s Twitter followers, 83 Twitterstreams were of Spam accounts or Spamesque (is that a word?) in content.  Of the 17 accounts that didn’t fall into the Spam category, 9 were from users who were either not in any of the airline’s demographics or target audience, or were accounts that were ‘collectors’ of followers.

 

This left 11 viable followers, out of a random sample of 100 followers, that the airline was likely to appeal to, engage with or have engage with them.

 

While some airlines have more than 1,000,000 followers, in random samples of their followers, generally more than 65% of those are in the airline’s target market or demographics because they sought out the airline to follow them, rather than being auto-followed through a site dedicated to bloating accounts.

 

Remember this … do you want 33 customers in your store who either have money to buy or who are likely to return to your story and buy, or do you want 267 customers in your store that either have no more or have no interest in what you’re selling?

 

Happy Flying!

 

@flyingwithfish

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Twitter Keywords … They Can’t Be Ignored

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Fish
The power of words is enormous, it is the corner stone of marketing and customer attraction, it is so important that many corporations have search engine optimization experts on staff or through consulting firms … so why is it many airlines ignore the importance of keywords when Tweeting?
While hash-tags are an important of component to crafting and executing successful tweets to reach specific target audiences, keywords are equally important, yet often overlooked.
Having recently spent a considerable amount of time reading and analyzing more than 1,600 tweets from a major international legacy airline I was surprised to find that the word “Travel” appeared only 79 times and more shockingly that the word “Vacation” appeared only 48 times throughout all of their tweets.   One of the largest segments of this airline’s marketing is its vacation destinations and vacation packages, in fact nearly 20% of this airline’s social media content caters to leisure travelers … yet the actual keyword “vacation” appeared only 48 times, or in less than 3% of  all its tweets.
Social media content and Twitter have a massive global reach; failure to properly embed vital keywords into messages as they are crafted leaves money on the table and ignores the potential passengers that airlines are desperately seeking the attention of.
Embedding keywords into tweets may seem uncomfortable to some people, others just don’t think about these vital words when focusing on the limited space constraints of Twitter’s 140 characters, however working to increase tweet visibility is important to the marketing message being conveyed to a global audience and the return-on-investment for the execution of social media.
Happy Flying!
@flyingwithfish
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Dear Social Media Executor, Missing Opportunities To Directly Connect Is Not “Using A Targeted Response”

Posted on June 11, 2011 by Fish

Direct engagement with customers and potential customers is one of the most effective aspects to building a successful and sustainable social media strategy.  Social media direct engagement enables airlines, hotels and travel companies to build personal relationships with their customers.

 

Recently while researching an airline’s effectiveness in engaging those who were directly seeking to be in contact with the airline through real time channels, I discovered the airline had missed an astounding 73 opportunities to directly connect with passengers and potential passengers within a 24 hour period.   When I questioned the airline’s social media team leader about missing 73 opportunities to directly connect during a 24 hour period, the response was that the company was “using a targeted response” and responding “in clusters.”

 

Obviously not every comment, mention and Tweet must be responded to, and not all contact is time sensitive, however when 73 people are seeking information on flight status, routes, frequent flyer program partners, in-flight service, airport information … and all these questions are from people indicating they are flying with the airline, in transit with the airline or seeking to purchase a ticket from an airline, the failure to respond to these people is missing the “targeted” audience they’ve already captured.

 

Social media interaction in the travel industry, especially for those already in transit, is time sensitive. A simple reply with flight status, airport information, or in-flight services should be a high priority.

 

Social media can just as easily cause passengers and potential passengers to turn against you rather than be a champion for you.

 

Happy Flying!

 

@flyingwithfish

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