Airlines are often vaunted as top performers on social media. One recent study placed airlines at the top for the most active, answering the most questions the quickest across industries.
That very same study also placed Dutch airline KLM at the top, awarding it the number one position for answering the most customer-posed questions.
Of course, there's many ways to judge an airline's social performance. The most recent analysis, brought to us from DachisGroup, has actually given KLM the bottom spot in the Top Airlines in Social.
Number One in this particular study goes to American Airlines. So why the difference?
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Most significantly, this latest batch of data was taken from Dachis Group's proprietary brand leaderboard software, and looks at a specific point in time: January 9-15 2014, which means that various externalities come into play related to period-specific marketing campaigns and promotions skewing results.
The metrics here are noteworthy, as this analysis considers actual social performance in the placement of airlines, as the company explains in their blog post:
Dachis Group leaderboards look at five metrics when calculating social performance: audience count, post count, impressions, participation, and engagement. We also look at engagement numbers per audience size (engagement ratio), and the average social actions per post (content engagement ratio).While a brand might be great at attracting a large audience, they might not be as good at engaging with that audience or frequently posting content. On the other hand, a brand could have a small audience, but be committed to engaging with that targeted group of people.
By actually considering visible engagement numbers, this round of analysis provides a different viewpoint than a response-driven one, such as the SocialBakers data, or something emotionally-driven, such as the Top 10 airlines driving social media emotion.
Here's the leaderboard with scores:
American Airlines is on top, mainly due to highly engaging content
American Airlines is crowned king in this analysis,
with a score of 64 out of 69 total points, with the most impressions per post (impressions ratio) by far. They also earn the most engagement for each piece of content they post (content engagement ratio), and a strong showing in terms of of engagement per follower (engagement ratio).These scores demonstrate that American is not just relying on its large audience, but is also producing content that effectively triggers a consumer response.
There's also certainly a halo effect from the beginning steps in the US Airways merger, as many travelers are seeking information about the merger's impact on their travels. Initial loyalty program movement has already started, likely also increasing engagement across channels as travelers express their like and dislike of the first integrations.
American Airlines performed well in the overall impressions game, winning in the "impressions per post (impressions ratio), which measures the awareness that has been generated for a brand based on the propagation of a brand’s content through owned and earned media."
The overall follower count is factored out here, so the largest audience doesn't necessarily win out.
Full version here.
Consistently top-ranked KLM is ranked last
In perhaps the most surprising placement, KLM is bringing up the rear.
As the infographic notes, the airline has 66 social media accounts - which might be one of the primary reasons that it ranks lower in this particular dataset.
Posting across so many account might be strategic to curate content that appeals more specifically to certain demographics; however, if the lower engagement performance is meaningful, it could point to the limits of this strategy.
This theory holds some weight after eyeing the overall airline performance, according to Dachis' leaderboard metrics:
Full version here.
KLM had many more posts than any other airline - over four times the number of posts shared by top-ranked American. And yet the total impressions and participation were lower, while the actual level of engagement was higher.
This means that there were fewer folks involved, but they were much more highly engaged - up to twice as engaged as American Airlines and only barely edged out by Emirates Airlines. So perhaps the multiple social accounts works, insofar as curating a rabid set of loyal fans that can push KLM content out to their networks - and ideally purchase flights on their next trip.
Notably absent: Southwest
Southwest Airlines does not show up in this particular top ten - a curious development that signals how variable selection truly matters in these types of rankings. The company is very active on Facebook, with over 4 million likes; however just having the audience is no guarantee for impressions or engagement, the core metrics here.
Nonetheless, Southwest has 24,710 talking about the brand - close to the 25,594 people talking about American Airlines - but a smaller percentage, with only .006% of their audience talking about the brand compared to American Airlines' 1.8%. So these metrics matter - percentage-wise, this is a much more significant buzz for American.
Social loyalty considerations
The continued conversation around social loyalty has revealed significant opportunities for airlines to engage and land connected travelers.
The idea behind social loyalty is to leverage some of these social interactions into airline loyalty programs, so that the most active travelers can also be rewarded for being active engagers, and vice versa. Some folks are fantastic brand evangelists online in ways that they may not be otherwise; so the concept behind social loyalty is to extend the mileage loyalty program to include this no-longer-emerging medium.
One graphic, as linked in the above social loyalty story, that shows how the full ecosystem good look:
By actually linking in the social data, airlines could rapidly iterate on various offers depending on each individual user's travel and social histories. This would not only make for a more engaging traveler experience, but would also forge a deeper emotional connection with the active customer - a sophisticated double-hit of loyalty-inducing endorphins.
More specifics, including the breakout of above images, can be found on the Dachis Group blog.
NB: Runway plane image courtesy Shutterstock.