Contenu connexe Similaire à Travel social media benchmark wave 1 (20) Plus de Chafik YAHOU (20) Travel social media benchmark wave 11. Social Media Benchmark
Travel
Issue 1
January 2014
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3. eDigitalResearch
Introduction
2013 saw huge leaps in social media technology and the uptake by consumers. The
continued growth of social media platforms and concepts, such as Pinterest and Instagram,
have fundamentally changed the ways that brands are now using and investing in social
media channels.
Over the past four years, eDigitalResearch have tracked, monitored and benchmarked the
fundamental rise of the eCommerce industry here in the UK, and internationally, with our
invaluable eTravelBenchmark reports. The industry has evolved from basic transactional
travel sites, through to today’s innovative, engaging and user friendly travel websites. Since
then we’ve introduced our study across international markets, as well as emerging customer
touchpoints, including mCommerce, as multichannel and global expansion become more
instrumental to retailers.
eDigitalResearch have now taken our years of experience and expertise benchmarking sites
across sectors and are now adapting this toward social media use, examining for the first
time how travel brands are using the platform to benefit both the business and the
consumer.
The following report contains the key findings from our
first wave, including highlighting those travel brands
that are getting it right, the current social media trends as
innovations, as well as our thoughts on how to run a successful
social media campaign and what the future may hold.
Our influential benchmarking reports Sign up for the
benchmarking area here
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4. eDigitalResearch
Methodology
Between the 9th December and the 15th December 2013, our specialist travel
researchers and dedicated social media team studied over 80 top travel brands,
covering multiple sectors including airlines, hotels, travel agencies. We looked at
travel brands’ presence (or lack of) on the most influential and popular social media
sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest and monitored the number
of followers and fans.
Alongside this, our team also looked at the quality of output and productivity in an
attempt to measure the levels of innovative customer engagement by brands,
studying messages by subject and topic.
Using HUB, our powerful insight and analysis tool, we were then able to drill down
our findings to highlight successful brands across each social platform, as well as
drawing attention to those brands that integrate consumer conversation throughout
all social media sites.
In order to establish which travel sectors are using social media
to the best of their advantage, we compared the top
performing brands from travel agencies, airlines, hotels,
cruises, in an attempt to understand social media best practice.
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5. eDigitalResearch
Key Findings
From our previous research in to retailers’ social media activity in our Retail Social
Media benchmark, we found that the top performing travel brands had a similar
amount of followers on their social media sites.
KLM were most consistent brand across the board coming first, second, third and
fourth on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest respectively and the only travel
company to feature in each top 10.
On Facebook KLM are ahead by 1.7 million (1,740,138) likes over second placed
AirFrance.
British Airways top the Google+ table with over half a million (501,485) more
followers than second placed Expedia.
Google+ continues to attract a high number of new followers and is starting to
make a real impact on social media campaigns. For example, KLM have more than
three times the number of Twitter followers engaged with their Google+ account.
Hotel brands performed particularly well on Pinterest with Four Seasons taking the
top spot followed by Mr and Mrs Smith and Hotels.com.
The study also highlights that travel brands are posting a lot less across social media
platforms during weekend periods compared to weekdays. On average, most
travel brands are posting less than half on Saturdays and Sundays than they are
during the week.
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6. RESULTS
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7. Facebook Followers: Top 20
eDigitalResearch
Position
Travel brand
No. of Followers
(Issue 1)*
1
KLM
4,593,518
2
Air France
2,853,380
3
Emirates
2,304,623
4
Hotels.com
2,027,388
5
Expedia
1,897,334
6
Trivago
1,476,397
7
Royal Caribbean
1,470,718
8
Lufthansa
1,425,636
9
Booking.com
1,337,532
10
Princess Cruises
1,237,759
11
American Airlines
1,169,864
12
Hilton
1,162,854
13
Delta
1,136,973
14
British Airways
1,083,784
15
Best Western
838,670
16
Holiday Inn Express
654,448
17
Cathay Pacific
645,848
18
Etihad
563,448
19
Low Cost Holidays
544,291
20
Singapore Airlines
Dutch airline KLM have taken the
first travel social media top spot,
having reached just over an
impressive 4.5 million likes.
Airlines have performed particularly
well in the very first travel Facebook
league table with KLM, Air France
and Emirates completing the top
3. However, their success is most
probably due to their large
international customer base.
KLM have also converted a higher
number of Facebook users into
followers, similar to the top retailers
in our Retail Social Media
Benchmark (using figures from our previous Retail
531,449
Social Media Benchmark from the week commencing 17th
June 2013)
*During the week commencing 9th December 2013
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8. eDigitalResearch
Engagement Levels
eDigitalResearch monitored the engagement levels of top travel brands
across key social networks to understand more about how key performing
brands are currently managing their social media campaign.
eDigitalResearch also measured the ‘Talking about’ numbers for the
top performing travel brands, comparing the data to follower numbers.
Most brands have similar ‘Talking about’ and ‘follower’ numbers,
showing how a well maintained and integrated Facebook page can have a
positive impact on social media user activity.
The average number of apps integrated into pages varies greatly and
stands at just over 5 different apps per brand (5.3). These figures,
however, do not match with the amount of fans a page has, although four
of the top five have six or more.
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9. Engagement Levels
eDigitalResearch
Average number of posts per day
Cathay Pacific
Hilton
Singapore Airlines
Lufthansa
Trivago
Princess Cruises
Hotels.com
Air France
KLM
Royal Caribbean
Emirates
British Airways
Holiday Inn Express
Delta
Booking.com
Best Western
American Airlines
Low Cost Holidays
Expedia
Etihad
Etihad have the highest number of average
posts even though they are 18th in the overall
Facebook league table with 563,448 likes.
They are actively engaging with users by
asking them questions about themselves and
for feedback as well as quizzes using their
#AVGEEK hashtag. They also post the vast
majority of posts with engaging photos.
Top 3 Travel Social Media
Facebook Benchmark league
table
0
0.5
1
1.5
*During the week commencing 9th December 2013
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2
2.5
3
3.5
10. eDigitalResearch
Engagement levels
Average number of posts per day across the week
As with the retail counterpart, the Travel
Social Media benchmark has found that
travel brands are failing to keep an
active and up to date Facebook page at
weekend periods, posting far less on
average on Saturday and Sunday to
weekdays.
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
*During the week commencing 9th December 2013
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Friday
Saturday
Sunday
11. Engagement Levels
eDigitalResearch
Number of page apps (excluding notes, photos and events)
Singapore Airlines
Etihad
Princess Cruises
Booking.com
Trivago
Hotels.com
Cathay Pacific
American Airlines
Lufthansa
Delta
Holiday Inn Express
Air France
KLM
Low Cost Holidays
Emirates
Hilton
Expedia
Best Western
British Airways
Royal Caribbean
All of the top performers have at least 2 page
apps in an effort to engage with users.
Top 3 Travel Social Media
Facebook Benchmark league
table
0
1
2
3
4
*During the week commencing 9th December 2013
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5
6
7
8
9
10
12. Engagement Levels: ‘Talking about’ numbers
eDigitalResearch
Best Western
Low Cost Holidays
‘Talking about’ measures the number of people
on Facebook talking about certain brands,
taking into account wall posts, comments and
page shares. As expected, top of the table
Emirates, KLM and Air France have a higher
‘Talking about’ number than their rivals.
Although they are lower in the table Royal
Caribbean and Princess Cruises are higher
ranked in this showing that they actively
engage their customers.
Expedia
Trivago
British Airways
Cathay Pacific
Hilton
Hotels.com
Singapore Airlines
Etihad
American Airlines
Holiday Inn Express
Top 3 Travel Social Media
Facebook Benchmark league
table
Booking.com
Lufthansa
Delta
Princess Cruises
Royal Caribbean
Air France
KLM
Emirates
0
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
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100,000 120,000 140,000 160,000 180,000 200,000
13. eDigitalResearch
Best Practice: Etihad Airways
Although ranked 18th in the overall
Facebook league table, Etihad Airways’
Facebook page has the highest average
number of posts.
Etihad Airways actively engages their
customers in quizzes, sales, and pointing
them towards their website, driving traffic
and sales.
By posting images with their posts they
have created an engaging and
aesthetically pleasing Facebook page
which encourages to get involved.
The design of the page also stands out
from others. The display and cover
images blend together showing that they
have a clear Facebook strategy.
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14. eDigitalResearch
Best Practice: KLM
With over 1.7million more
likes than 2nd placed Air
France, KLM have set the
bar for all others.
With great design and fantastic
customer engagement shown by
replying to questions in a polite and
quick manner in whatever language
the customer needs.
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KLM have a well thought out range of
Page Apps allowing customers to
engage with ease. An outstanding
example is their Flight Status app
which allows users to track flights in
real time.
15. Twitter Followers: The Top 20
eDigitalResearch
Position
Retailer
No. of Followers
(Issue 1)*
1
American Airlines
2
KLM
669,012
3
Delta
558,433
4
British Airways
363,152
5
Virgin Atlantic
207,995
6
Expedia
179,221
7
Qantas
146,260
8
EasyJet
145,847
9
Hilton
113,385
10
Travelocity
101,500
11
Four Seasons
95,347
12
Royal Caribbean
79,880
13
STA Travel
70,022
14
Thomson
68,216
15
Singapore Airlines
62,369
16
Thomas Cook
58,608
17
Best western
57,347
18
Princess Cruises
52,803
19
Monarch
51,438
20
Air France
Airlines once again top the overall Twitter
league table with all of the top 5 spots.
KLM doing well across Facebook and
Twitter and are the only company to appear
in the top three of both tables.
American Airlines have a similar number
of Twitter followers in comparison to
retailers in our Retail Benchmark (using figures from
684,694
47,495
our previous Retail Social Media Benchmark from the week commencing 17th
June 2013).
However, like retailers, travel brands have a
far less number of followers on Twitter than
on other social media platforms. This
perhaps suggests a consumer behavioural
trend emerging where customers would
rather keep up to date with their favourite
brands via more visually engaging
platforms (such as Facebook and Google+)
and use more text based sites (such as
Twitter) as a means of contact.
*During the week commencing 9th December 2013
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16. Engagement levels
eDigitalResearch
Average number of posts per day
Air France
EasyJet
Singapore Airlines
Qantas
Hilton
Virgin Atlantic
Royal Caribbean
Best Western
American Airlines
Princess Cruises
British Airways
Delta
KLM
Thomas Cook
Travelocity
Thomson
Monarch
STA Travel
Expedia
Four Seasons
Four Seasons have the highest number of average posts,
with a huge average of over 27 per day. Four Seasons
seem more active on their Twitter account than others by
retweeting and replying a lot within a post rather than
opting for the conversation option that other brands use.
Top 3 Travel Social Media
Twitter Benchmark league table
0
5
10
15
*During the week commencing 9th December 2013
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20
25
30
17. eDigitalResearch
Engagement Levels
Average number of posts per day across the week
9
Similar to their Facebook pages,
travel brands are failing to
interact with Twitter users at the
weekend and outside traditional
office hours.
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
*During the week commencing 9th December 2013
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Friday
Saturday
Sunday
18. eDigitalResearch
Best Practice: KLM
KLM are the only company to feature in
both the Facebook and Twitter league
tables
KLM are actively using their Twitter
account for customer service, updating
their page regularly with expected reply
times. This helps to better manage
customer expectations.
Offering replies in ten languages, KLM
are easily accessible to all international
followers.
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19. eDigitalResearch
Position
Google+ Followers: The Top 20
Retailer
No. of
Followers
(Issue 10)*
1
British Airways
2,421,797
2
Expedia
1,920,312
3
KLM
1,901,717
4
Delta
1,839,434
5
Travel Republic
1,692,698
6
American Airlines
1,684,815
7
Travelocity
1,661,517
8
Booking.com
1,516,877
9
Emirates
1,443,344
10
Destinology
834,395
11
Hilton
796,739
12
laterooms.com
745,475
13
Mr and Mrs Smith
612,952
14
Hotels.com
486,909
15
Thomson
195,443
16
Thomas Cook
186,795
17
First Choice
156,460
18
Low Cost Holidays
134,231
19
Etihad
118,253
20
Royal Caribbean
Google+ allows people to “+1” as well as “follow”
pages. For this study we have used the number of
followers each page has as a reflection of those that
are actually interacting with the page.
British Airways top the Google+ Overall table
with just shy of 2.5 million followers.
KLM is once again in the top five.
The popularity of Google+ is starting to show
with travel brands increasingly attracting a high
number of new followers on the site.
14 of the top 20 Facebook pages have over 1
million likes and 9 of the top 20 Google+ pages
have over 1 million likes.
There is a large gap of 600,000+ followers
between ninth and tenth position, proving that
some brands still have a lot to do to move
further up the table.
84,556
*During the week commencing 9th December 2013
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20. eDigitalResearch
Google+ Best Practice: British Airways
British Airways top the Google+
overall table. They have the most
followers with over 2.4 million and
have over 2.6 million plus ones.
Keeping your social media pages up
to date is the key to keeping
consumers engaged and British
Airways are a prime example of this
practice posting at least once a day
on average.
.
British Airways keep their Google+
page interesting with current and
engaging content including inspiring
photographs and videos.
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21. Pinterest Followers: Top 20
eDigitalResearch
Position
Retailer
No. of
Followers
(Issue 1)*
1
Four Seasons
2
Mr and Mrs Smith
13,212
3
Hotels.com
6,559
4
KLM
5,739
5
Royal Caribbean
5,644
6
Travelocity
3,595
7
Princess Cruises
2,673
8
Hilton
2,523
9
American Airlines
2,272
10
Booking.com
2,127
11
Destinology
2,081
12
Directline Holidays
2,040
13
Delta
1,787
14
Kuoni
1,779
15
BA
1,742
16
Best western
1,700
17
Holiday Inn
1,547
First Choice
1,461
19
STA Travel
1,383
20
Super Break
1,072
Four Seasons are top of the Pinterest
table with over 31,000 followers – over
18,000 more than anyone else in the
benchmark.
Unlike other social media platforms where
airlines dominate the top of the table, hotel
brands are doing surprisingly well on
Pinterest.
KLM are once again in the top 5 – the only
company to be in the top 5 of the 4 social
media websites we have looked at.
In comparison to our Retail Social Media
benchmark, retail brands have a lot more
followers than travel brands (Topman has
103,208) (using figures from our previous Retail Social Media
31,383
18
Benchmark from the week commencing 17th June 2013).
*During the week commencing 9th Dec 2013
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22. eDigitalResearch
Best Practice: FourSeasons
Four Seasons dominate the table with 18,000 more followers than any of their
competitors. They have 51 boards with over 3,400 pins tapping in to key areas of
interest on Pinterest including food and drink.
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23. eDigitalResearch
Key Areas for consideration
Stay active. Content should be updated on a regular basis with at least
several posts a day and in line with other marketing channels. This in turn will
help to encourage followers to get involved and help create a sense of
community around your brand
Encourage engagement with a variety of page features. The more there
is to do, the more likely a user is to spend time on your page, interacting with
the brand and avid brand advocates
Involve followers. Ask your followers to get involved with games, forms, polls
or competitions and use the data gleaned to improve strategic development
Integrate channels. Support your Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest
following by encouraging online and in-store customers to engage and ‘like’
your page, chances are they’re already actively using the channel
Make the experience worthwhile. The modern consumer is demanding,
make sure you give them what they want and a little bit extra
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24. eDigitalResearch
Social Media and Customer Services
Over the various social media benchmarking studies, we’ve noticed more and more
customers reaching out to brands on their Social Media pages with brands also
reaching back and using this medium as a method of customer service.
In October 2013 we
conducted a study into
how consumers contact
brands. 0.7% of people
would use Social Media
to contact travel brands
but it seems brands are
ready for this to
increase by inviting
consumers to contact
them, some even giving
wait times
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25. eDigitalResearch
Social Media Solutions
Use social media platforms to survey your
followers and involve your followers in your
business.
Integrate social media links into your existing insight programme to help
increase awareness and turn brand advocates into social followers.
Understand and gauge the success of your social media presence to help better
engage with your customers. Learn how far your social media influence reaches
and turn your followers into active brand advocates, or vice versa.
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26. eDigitalResearch
Who we are and what we do
We are one of the leading providers of digital market research
•
•
•
•
established in 1999 by current directors/owners
self funded, financially secure, clear ethics
own system with outstanding technical support
team of research professionals
We have migrated traditional market research to digital methodologies
• reducing costs – fixed pricing model
• faster results – real time results
• improving accuracy – no response or panel limits
We are developing and introducing innovative research solutions
•
•
•
•
•
•
real time feedback
maximising respondent engagement
industry norms/benchmarking
mCommerce/mResearch
social networking (digital communities)
Fully integrated customisable Customer Experience Management
Company Partners
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28. Vanbrugh House, Grange Drive
Hedge End
Hampshire SO30 2AF
Tel: 01489 772920
www.edigitalresearch.com
@eDRtweet
For a bespoke insight
programme designed specifically to
gain insight and understanding
into your social media audience,
please contact Lynda Baker, Business
Development Manager,
lynda.baker@edigitalresearch.com.
Similarly, if you would like more
information on the results then
please contact eDigitalResearch by
emailing info@edigitalresearch.com
eDigitalResearch
Key Contacts:
Lisa Bonczyk – Associate Director, Sales and Marketing – lisa.bonczyk@edigitalresearch.com
Liana Vickery – Marketing Manager - liana.vickery@edigitalresearch.com
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