Airlines on Facebook?

Hi there,

What do you think about airlines and other travel industry players being on Facebook? I’m thinking of creating a free page that brings together the entire travel industry! Am I allowed to do that? Would you follow me?

Thanks!

Of course, I'm a "fan" of the official Swiss, Air Canada, and Air France pages on Facebook.

If you look around, you'll find plenty of others.

A really great communication tool for them these days.

Aaah, social media...

EDIT: Oops, I misread "do you think airlines are on Facebook"

Anyway, like I was saying, I think it's an excellent way for them to communicate and stay close to their passengers.

I think the power of social media shouldn't be underestimated in the future. It's even said that social-network-style interactions will tend to replace email in its classic form. The future is steering us toward a communication mode based on short but instant exchanges.

All airlines are now on Facebook and Twitter, which serve as showcases for important/urgent or promotional announcements.

Real-life example from the snowy events of December 2010: * My British Airways LHR-AMS flight was canceled. British Airways communicated a customer service number on their site for refunds. Of course, the hotline was swamped, and so was the web page with refund info. I tried calling them without success for a week... The following week, BA announced an additional hotline number on Twitter that didn't appear on the ba.com website. I called that number. An agent answered in 30 seconds, and two days later, my account was credited. * Same for a friend who was supposed to fly to Cape Town during the same period with Virgin—the most recent updates on flight resumptions were always available on Twitter first.

Coincidence or communication strategy?

Absolutely, Twitter is really great for that! All airlines should get on board and share info in advance! Social media is definitely the future!

As for Facebook, I’m not sure if it works the same way!

True, Twitter isn't bad... but I'm still skeptical!

It'd be great if Facebook turned into some kind of comparison tool! That’s the idea I got reading all the discussions on this forum!

But who has the best Facebook page and the best Twitter account?! 😉

Air Canada and Swiss update their pages frequently and share really interesting info. Especially some great tips! :)

Hey Banb73, we meet in all the discussions 🙂

I’m now a "Fan" of Air Corsica’s and Iberia’s Facebook pages 😉

Personally, I think airlines still haven’t quite mastered social media yet. It’s still "new" for them, but you can feel the tide starting to turn.

Like a lot of companies that got sold a bill of goods by PR agencies, Facebook was first used as a sales channel—except the conversion rate is laughable (and understandably so: you don’t buy a 900 € flight ticket the same way you impulsively buy a t-shirt).

Facebook and Twitter, though, are two fantastic tools for staying in touch with customers: branding, loyalty, feedback, product testing, etc. I think KLM does a great job with both. Air France still has some catching up to do, but they’ve been stepping up their game these past few weeks.

I use Cathay Pacific’s page regularly—it’s not bad at all: special offers, flight cancellations (not on a small scale), company-related events, ...

Personally, I don’t like pages that are too commercial! Several companies have put their search engines online. I’d never think of buying my flight ticket through a social network! But I do like the idea of chatting with the airline in a less formal way than through a call center.