Understanding the Value of Social Media at Airports for Customer Engagement (2014)

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5 Many of the most popular social media platforms or channels are less than 10 years old, as shown on Figure 2, and continue to incorporate new features and capabilities. SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS The airport operators and non-aviation businesses interviewed for this Synthesis together use 16 social media platforms, as shown in Table 1. Twitter and Facebook Twitter and Facebook are the primary social media platforms used by the airport operators and non- aviation businesses interviewed for this Synthesis, because of their ease of use and large established audience using those platforms. Although there is considerable overlap in the information posted on both platforms, Twitter is typically used for “up to the minute” communication with customers and the media, whereas Facebook is less immediate and more of a community and brand building tool. A second key difference is Twitter’s 140 character limit, while Facebook provides interactive content to foster customer engagement. YouTube YouTube is also widely used and can be a powerful social media tool. Although all of the airport operators and non-aviation businesses interviewed have YouTube accounts, their frequency of use depends on the target audience and the availability of resources to develop videos. For airport opera- tors, YouTube videos are valuable in terms of educating the public about ongoing airport projects such as the construction and opening of the new Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) at Los Angeles International Airport or the Green Build project at San Diego International Airport, as discussed in chapter six. Other airport operators, such as Dublin Airport and Tucson International Airport, use YouTube for contests and promotions. The Staples Center 2012 YouTube video, “Call Me Maybe,” featuring the Center’s employees, generated 720,770 views and is an example of the influence and reach that videos can have. Foursquare Foursquare is a location-based social networking website for mobile devices that has a significant following at large-hub airports such as Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport (MSP), and San Francisco International Airport (SFO), but is less frequently used by social media fans at small airports in Akron–Canton (Ohio), Charleston (West Virginia), and Eugene (Oregon). Foursquare users “check- in” at airport concessions using a mobile website or by text messaging and receive points for each check-in. Airport operators such as DFW and SFO have used Foursquare for contests and promo- tions, typically involving the concessions located at the airport. chapter two SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS AND MANAGEMENT TOOLS

6 Instagram, Pinterest, and Flickr Instagram, Pinterest, and Flickr are photo-sharing social media platforms that allow users to post and share photos across other social media platforms. Instagram and Flickr also facilitate video sharing. Each photo-sharing platform has distinctive features, as shown in Table 1. Airport operators use Social Media Number of Synthesis Airports and Businesses (out of 17 total) Description 17 Online social networking service 17 Online social networking and microblogging service that enables users to send and read “tweets,” which are text messages limited to 140 characters 17 Video-sharing website 16 Location-based social networking website for mobile devices, such as smartphones 12 Online photo-sharing, video-sharing, and social networking service 12 Local search website with a focus on user reviews 11 Social networking and identity service that associates webcontent directly with the owner/author 8 Pinboard-style photo-sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections 8 Social networking website for people in professional occupations 7 Online photo management and sharing application Blogs 4 Web-based interactive discussions 3 Twitter mobile app enabling users to post 6-second videos 2 Online audio distribution platform Live Chats 2 Real-time interactions on social media platforms 1 Microblogging platform and social networking website allowing users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog Kitsu 1 Web and mobile app designed for the Mall of America Listed by the total number of Synthesis airports and businesses. Note: Qype, based in Europe, was acquired by Yelp in October 2012. Qype reviews were merged into the Yelp site by October 2013. Source: LeighFisher, May through August 2013, based on interviews with Synthesis participants. TABLE 1 SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FIGURE 2 Establishment of selected social media platforms and management tools. (Source: LeighFisher, based on the websites for individual social media platforms and management tools.)

7 photo-sharing platforms to organize pictures into albums, including pictures of airport and commu- nity events, airport and aviation memorabilia, and vintage airline posters. Yelp and Qype Yelp and Qype are local search websites that allow users to comment on the quality of services provided at businesses and airports. Qype, based in Europe, was acquired by Yelp in October 2012. Qype reviews were merged into the Yelp site by October 2013. London Gatwick Airport evaluates airport concession performance based on customer reviews on Qype. Google+ Google+ was established in 2011 and is estimated to be the second largest social media platform in terms of users, after Facebook. Although 11 of the 17 airports and businesses interviewed have Google+ pages, Google+ is not as popular or regularly used as Twitter and Facebook. LinkedIn About half of the airports and businesses interviewed (8 of 17) have LinkedIn accounts for profes- sional networking and job postings. The remaining airport operators interviewed post airport job openings on other social media platforms or their websites. Vine Vine is a mobile app owned by Twitter that enables users to create and post 6-second looping videos on social media platforms such as Twitter. SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform that enables its users to upload, record, pro- mote, and share originally created sounds. SoundCloud is not currently used by any of the U.S. airports interviewed for this Synthesis. As discussed in chapter six, Dublin Airport uses SoundCloud to promote its sponsorship of the Dublin Theater Festival and as part of its social media campaign for the festival. London Gatwick Airport also uses SoundCloud to provide access to audio books for children while at the airport. Tumblr London Gatwick Airport is the only airport of those surveyed that uses Tumblr, primarily as a landing page for information and an extension of its website. Photos and videos can be quickly uploaded and cross linked to all of the airport’s social media channels. SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT TOOLS The airport operators and non-aviation businesses interviewed for this Synthesis together use 14 social media management tools, as shown in Table 2. There is general agreement that many of these tools have limitations and that more than one tool must be used to accurately evaluate social media data and conversations. Hootsuite vs. TweetDeck Hootsuite and TweetDeck are the most popular social media management tools in the social space and by the airport operators and non-aviation businesses interviewed for this Synthesis, as shown

8 in Table 2. Both tools have similar functionality and are used to monitor social conversations and schedule posts. The key differences are: • Cost. Hootsuite offers both a free and a paid version ($10 per month), with the free version hav- ing a limit of five accounts. Hootsuite offers a 30-day free trial of the paid version. TweetDeck is entirely free. • Managing multiple social media platforms. Hootsuite can be integrated with multiple plat- forms; for example, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Foursquare, WordPress, and Myspace. In addition, Hootsuite has an extensive App directory to connect to YouTube, Tumblr, Flickr, and Instagram. TweetDeck used to support multiple platforms but, as of May 7, 2013, can only be used to manage Twitter accounts. • Team accounts. Hootsuite supports multiple users under one account so that several people can monitor and manage a single account. TweetDeck does not support team accounts; a new TweetDeck account must be created for each new user. Social Media Number of Synthesis Airports and Businesses (out of 17 total) Description 9 Social media management system that allows users to manage multiple social networks in one dashboard 4 Twitter account management system 2 Provides performance measurements for Facebook pages of individual users 2 Twitter analytics for Twitter accounts 2 Tracking and analysis of user-generated content 1 Foursquare analytics provides information about check-ins, including most recent, frequent, and unique visitors 1 Twitter search monitoring tool that provides regular e-mail alerts of chosen key words 1 Evaluation tool that measures and compares influence of social media users Enhanced Service Portal 1 Integrates all communication channels into a unified service 1 Provides social brand monitoring, engagement connections with customers, and social analytics 1 Facilitates engagement for large enterprises across multiple divisions, countries, accounts, and channels 1 Searches Twitter content by relevance and date 1 Software suite that integrates data from social spaces 1 URL shortening and redirection service with real-time tracking Source: LeighFisher, May through August 2013, based on interviews with Synthesis participants. Listed by the total number of Synthesis airports and businesses. TABLE 2 SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT TOOLS

9 Facebook Insights Facebook Insights is free and provides Facebook page owners with metrics around their content, includ- ing the demographics of their audience and how people are discovering and responding to their posts. A Facebook page must have 30 likes to access Insights. Some limitations of Facebook Insights include the availability of only 3 months of data and the inability to make comparisons with other Facebook pages. Twitter Analytics In June 2013, the Twitter Analytics platform became free for all Twitter users through the ads section of the Twitter website. Twitter Analytics provides a one month timeline of a user’s Twitter activity, including mentions, follows, and unfollows by date, as well as a user’s recent tweets and the number of times they were favorited, retweeted, or replied to. Data for up to 500 tweets can be downloaded via the download Comma Separated Values link at the top of the page. Meltwater Buzz Meltwater Buzz is a social media measurement tool for tracking and analysis of user-generated con- tent on the web and supports multiple users. The tool provides built-in link tracking (eliminating the need for a link shortener such as bitly), monitoring in 27 different languages, iPhone availability, and categorizes mentions based on your targeted audiences and builds a database of resources for future research. Current pricing options are for annual subscriptions only, with the full year fees payable upfront (approximately $15,000 per year) for the starting package. Foursquare Analytics Foursquare offers free analytics that allow businesses to track how many customers are checking in, the number of first-time versus repeat visitors, and whether customers are sharing their check-ins across other social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Foursquare users can choose to publish their check-ins to their Facebook and/or Twitter accounts. Twilert Twilert is a search monitoring tool that tracks all mentions of one’s chosen keywords on Twitter and sends e-mail alerts containing search results for every Twilert created. Twilert monitors all words within a tweet. Twitter offers a free trial of Twilert. Current pricing options range from basic plans with five Twitter searches ($9 per month), to Pro plans with 50 Twitter searches ($19 per month), to agency plans with 300 Twitter searches ($97 per month). Kred Kred measures influence in online communities connected by interest. Kred values audience quality and engagement over audience size. It assesses the ability to inspire action (Influence) and propensity to engage with others (Outreach). Influence measures a user’s relative ability to inspire action from others such as retweeting, replies, or new follows. Outreach measures generosity and rewards actions such as engagement with others and willingness to spread the message. Kred provides a free plan with limited access and paid plans with an application programming interface to access Kred’s meta- data. Current pricing options are for 60 days ($500 per month) and 1,200 days ($1,500 per month) plus additional costs per call for action analytics, deep analytics, and influencers. Enhanced Service Portal An Enhanced Service Portal (ESP) integrates all communication channels into a unified service. The Mall of America launched its ESP in November 2013 to handle all requests and questions received

10 through primary communication channels available to Mall of America customers. ESP brings together the Mall of America website; social media channels; telephone, text, and dispatch teams; guest services; and security into a newly designed space that will allow the ESP team members to actively listen to customers and retailers and promptly respond to them. Since the Mall of America’s ESP is customized pricing information is not readily available. Salesforce Radian6 Radian6, acquired by Salesforce in 2010, provides social brand monitoring with complete coverage of conversations happening anywhere on the web, community engagement by providing connections with customers on service issues and to share expertise, and social analytics to provide context and facilitate data-driven decisions. Current pricing for a Radian6 basic plan is estimated at $1,000 per month. Sprinklr Sprinklr is an enterprise-grade social media management platform designed to help global compa- nies engage across multiple divisions, countries, accounts, and channels, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Foursquare, Slideshare, and blogs. Sprinklr’s features include the ability to assign and track workflow and content management; syndication; suggestion across business units and regions; audience management tools, including influence and engagement scoring; custom pro- file properties; and tagging. It also provides analytics for specific channels and campaigns, plus operational key performance indicators. Currently, the average initial price ranges from $60,000 to $100,000 per year. TOPSY TOPSY searches content published on Twitter and the web by relevance or date. Topsy is one of the few firms to have access to Twitter’s entire data stream and created a searchable database of all tweets sent—more than 400 billion—since Twitter’s launch in 2006. The current price for Topsy Pro is estimated at $12,000 per named user for an annual subscription, including unlimited data and standard e-mail support. 3M GTG ICS 3M GTG ICS is a software suite that integrates data from social spaces in three layers: data integration, content manager, and content surface. The Data Integration module connects multiple data sources including internal sources such as Customer Relationship Management or Business Intelligence sys- tems and external sources such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, relevant websites with content such as user reviews, or content from web syndications. The Content Manager module creates a continuous flow of information, provides several search possibilities for the user to retrieve specific search results, and manages user profiles and is thus capable of creating personalized recommendations. The content surface module provides the software for the physical front-end customized. Since the 3M GTG ICS software is customized, pricing information is not readily available. bitly bitly is an URL shortening and redirection service with real-time link tracking. bitly is available at its website, browser extensions, mobile web, and numerous third-party tools integrated with its open public application programming interface. bitly powers more than 10,000 custom short URLs and offers an enterprise analytics platform. Pricing varies depending on the client.