Online Travel Company Journeys Forward With Social Media

I discovered this ingenious site when I was working and living in Japan last year. For me, it was the perfect tool. The site promised to help me plan my multi-stop trip around Asia and would automatically search for flights that matched my ideal itinerary. It meant I could go to Korea for a week, then head right to Micronesia without coming back to Japan in between—perfect!

Here’s an excerpt from the site:

“AirTreks.com is the worldwide leader in providing affordable, customized and efficient international air tickets through advanced technologies for complex multi-stop international journeys.

AirTreks.com enables travelers and travel agents to create customized itineraries -- with an unlimited number of destinations -- and receive instant online price estimates with one click.”

Today was the first day in a long time that I’d visited AirTreks.com and it had undergone some major changes. The company has been keeping up with the time and within the last year, embraced social media tactics. They now have a travel blog and an e-newsletter that people can subscribe to.

While these are good initial efforts to incorporate social media into every day business, I think the company could benefit from a higher dose of social media. Let me elaborate.

I was reading a travel blog by Edward Hasbrouck called The Practical Nomad and he writes that advertisers use social media as a vehicle to push a company’s marketing message. While I agree with this, I think that social media benefits the communications department and the company as a whole. How? It pushes messages to the widest audience and, on the positive side, it’s budget-friendly for companies during this economic downturn. Additionally, it helps companies with their public relations and marketing efforts by increasing awareness and leveraging their brand(s). Take the example of the Disney World Moms Panel in one of my previous posts.

Social media may appear to be great, but where’s the proof?

There’s a great post about social media statistics on a blog called Social Media Today. Author and WebProNews Blog partner Michael Stelzner surveyed approximately 900 marketers and developed a report about social media use. Here are some interesting statistics from the report (taken from the blog post):

• 88 per cent indicated they were employing social media for marketing purposes
• 72 per cent have only been using social media marketing for a few months
• 64 per cent of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week
• 39 per cent are using it for 10 hours a week
• 81 per cent say the number-one benefit is generating exposure, followed by increasing traffic and building new business relationships
• Over half saw a rise in search engine rankings
• Out of social media tools marketers most wanted to learn about, social bookmarking sites, such as Delicious ranked highest followed by Twitter

His post also examines what business owners want to know about social media and marketing. Most of them expressed an interest in measuring social media’s effectiveness and what tactics are the most successful.

The travel industry is definitely jumping on the social media bandwagon. Travel USA 2009 dedicated a whole conference to social media. The conference promises to give companies the tools to develop a social media strategy, generate leads, drive traffic and boost sales.

Social media is obviously still evolving and AirTreks.com has taken some preliminary efforts to incorporate it (the blog and e-newsletter). The blog discusses common travel topics such as airline travel, documenting your trip, etc. and website visitors can comment and engage in an active online discussion. While this is a great first step, I think they should sign up for a Twitter account to make the company’s online presence even more apparent. An online discussion board would also help them with customer service, as they could listen to and learn from their customers and make appropriate changes. The company could also benefit from social bookmarking.

While social has appeared to work for AirTreks.com thus far, it’s important to realize that not every company is going to find success through social media. As blogger Michael Stelzner writes, “That's one of the greatest appeals of the medium though. There are so many possibilities.”

Do you think AirTreks.com is taking the right approach to social media? What are some other companies that have been successful in their social media efforts?

Airline Woes

As I prepare to leave for Las Vegas tonight, I can't help thinking about actually getting there. What I’m talking about is air travel.

In my past travels, American and Canadian airlines have proven that their public relations strategies need some serious attention. Let me start with my flight back to Canada from Japan after being away for nine months.

To make a long story short, my two large suitcases (containing pretty much my whole life) were delayed and never made it to Toronto. I had transferred planes in San Francisco and had to recheck my baggage and it must have missed the flight to Toronto by a minute.

Dealing with United Airlines was a very unpleasant experience, to say the least. They requested that I fill out a luggage report so I could get my bags back the next day. They never came and it became a huge ordeal. When I followed up by phone, I was transferred to agent after agent and no one could provide me with any answers about the whereabouts of my luggage. It felt like I was in grade school playing telephone tag instead of dealing with an established company.

Days later, I took matters into my own hands, drove down to the airport and physically tracked down my luggage. It had been hiding in a back room behind the United check-in counter. After this experience, I drafted a letter to the director of customer relations explaining my situation and requested a refund for the trouble I went to. Websites like this, reaffirmed my belief that dealing with United was lengthy and time-consuming. It was, but in the end I received $150.

Here’s another great one:

On my way to Nassau, Bahamas on a WestJet flight in December 2008, passengers were delayed for over eight hours on the tarmac. A series of events unfolded that were not entirely related to the weather. A woman was sick and was rushed off the plane in an ambulance and then two women decided they didn't want to fly anymore because they were nervous. The remaining passengers were enraged by the end of the day, were provided with no food. What's more, WestJet did not offer its “valued customers” any form of compensation.

WestJet's lack of accountability seriously made me question whether I will fly with them again. As a result, I wrote another letter and haven't heard anything yet. Are they proving my above point? Yep. I mailed the letter over a month ago and still haven't heard anything. Not a quick e-mail, telephone call, or letter. Their communication is not timely, which goes again everything a successful PR department should value and practise.

Communications practitioners at airlines have to juggle angry customers on a daily basis and it must be challenging. The way I have been dealt with in the past as a “valued customer” really makes me think there is a bigger problem at stake and perhaps communications plans should be revamped to minimize these common occurrences.

Let’s hope I make it to Las Vegas tonight. I know once I step out into the desert heat it will be worth it.

Back to Blogging

Social media. Like one of my classmates, Sarah, I didn’t really know too much about the wonderful world of Twitter, Digg, Delicious and Stumble Upon it until I entered Centennial College’s Corporate Communications and Public Relations program in September 2008—a program that focuses largely on social media.

Four months later, I’m going social media crazy—swimming in a sea of Tweets, Facebook status updates, blogging and being somewhat antisocial. In fact, I was joking with one of my classmates that I’ll be chained to my computer until I graduate in May. I guess that’s what social media has done to us, eh?

My latest social media experiment is to create a blog. It’s one of the requirements for my online public relations course taught by Jessica McLaughlin.

Blogging isn’t entirely new to me. Last year I was living and working in Japan and thought blogging would be a brilliant way to keep my friends and family back home up-to-date about my latest escapades. Although I was a newbie, I was apparently doing the right things, according to what I’ve learned from Jessica so far. I made regular posts, uploaded pictures and made it as interactive as possible. However, there was one blogging act of sin that I committed. I suddenly neglected it.

Although that blog is still floating around in cyberspace, I haven’t made a new post in months—and I don’t plan to. The last post sadly reads: April 13, 2008. My Japanese adventures are a past chapter in my life. I’ve moved on. I have many great memories and the blog documents it all in a perfect package, much like an online scrapbook. I contemplated hitting "delete" many times but decided against it. With one click of a button it could vanish, but I just can’t do it. I invested so much time tapping away on my keyboard last year creating stories that I’ll remember for years to come.

Traveling has always been one of my greatest passions and in the past year, I’ve explored more ground than I have in my entire life. This blog is going to be dedicated to my passion for travel and PR. Social media experiment number two? With lots of trips under my belt and many more planned this year, I say: bring on the blogging!