Lack of a Better Word

The following is reposted (with some modification) from SimpliFlying with permission. While this is mostly about the airline industry, it gives a good snapshot on how one market segment is allocating resources when it comes to social media spending efforts. I feel that the comparison of dedicated to integrated models is however not really a comparison, but a breakdown. Not all of the brands are the same. Only a true comparison could be made between two airlines with similar customer base, customer issues and equality of service. Jet Blue has hit social media because of bad service. SouthWest is doing well because of good service. Other airlines are smaller and therefore are not going to garner the same amount of likes. Links are to more info are the bottom of the infographic. Thanks to SimpliFlying for permission.

SimpliFlying presented a new infographic, in partnership with Eyefortravel that airlines and travel marketers in general will be looking to tackle over the next twelve months. Two questions in particular are addressed in this infographic:

1. In what direction does the industry see social media evolving?
2. What business goals travelers are driving and if they’re calculating ROI

While we do seem to have a consensus on the answer to the first question – the future is certainly mobile – uncertainty remains about how to measure ROI on social media. The uncertainty looms large primarily because while there are divergent ways in which people do measure ROI, there is also a section that questions the need to measure ROI when the benefits are so obvious.

Here are some interesting findings we’d like to highlight:

1. Location-based services such as Foursquare will be huge this year. Almost half of all the airlines surveyed wish to increase their presence in location-based social networks in 2012 (they’re going to get you while you travel!)
2. Over 70% of travel marketers are using social media to “build their brands” – a typically “fluffy” or qualitative goal which often can’t be measured in concrete terms
3. More marketers (56% vs 45%) are confident of having unlocked useful data to measure ROI on their mobile strategies vs general social media strategies.
4. Almost 60% of marketers are either sure of the conversions to booking rate via Facebook or have a fair idea, which is rather impressive.

Note: All findings are sourced from Eyefortravel’s “Social Media and Mobile Strategies for the Travel Industry 2011″ report.

LINKS
SimpliFlying’s ROI infographic
Original Posting