Estonian Air begins Social media Loyalty Program

Estonian Air begins Social media Loyalty Program

Estonian Air has launched a new social loyalty programme for its customers and fans, aiming to reward customers for not only flying the airline but also for being strong advocates online. This way Estonian Air creates history in loyalty marketing, being the first airline in the world launching social loyalty programme.

Estonian Air is the first airline in the world to launch a social media loyalty programme fully-powered by social media and using the underlying Facebook platform. Estonian Air customers and fans can be rewarded for a variety of advocacy actions, like sharing their reviews of the airline on Facebook and tweeting a deal about the airline.

 This is the first time in the world where customers will be rewarded for advocacy without even having to fly the airline.


This is a bold and ground breaking move, as a heavy social media user who likes discussing airlines, I always wonder at times whether am creating any value for myself in discussing an airline and its various offers; here's an airline that understands the value of positive social media vibe in improving an airline's brand image and rewards users for enhancing its brand image. People still use social media, especially Twitter to get information about an airline and determine whether they will buy a ticket based on that information. While many of my choices in air travel this year have been determined by necessity rather than social media, constant vibe about some airlines' quality services make me wish when I could fly with those airlines. An airline's brand image is enhanced when users find positive vibe in their timeline every time they log in to Twitter. It's something that's eventually embedded in the psyche of the traveler. I wonder whether on the contrary, this promotion might lead to numerous fake reviews by social media users just to earn a few points!

Airlines are trying to find ways to make air travel more attractive and rewarding for even those who aren’t frequent flyers. The future of airline loyalty is now a pressing question given to the growth of social technologies. In this field Estonian Air is working together with SimpliFlying, the world leaders in helping airlines engage customer profitably.

“Today 88% of frequent flyers use Facebook and they are twice as active as ordinary Facebook users. Over 70% of them would like to be part of a social loyalty programme too. Estonian Air’s pioneering effort in this field will intensify a pool of advocates for engaging with the airline online. The lessons learned from this can potentially change the course of airline loyalty programmes globally,” says Shashank Nigam, CEO of SimpliFlying.

“In addition to rewarding and sharing recognition to our fans and customers, we also see it is an innovative way to bring Estonian Air and Estonia to the world map. Estonia is a small market and in order to provide good connections at reasonable price for Estonians, the airline needs to also attract connecting traffic from outside Estonia. Social Media is one of the most effective ways to market and promote brands across the borders,” said Tero Taskila, the CEO of Estonian Air.

Foursquare recently announced a growth of 3,400%, signed up its 6 millionth user, and that nearly 381.6 million people checked in worldwide – all in 2010. A study conducted by social networking site myYearbook reported that 81% of respondents said they received advice from friends and followers relating to a product purchase through a social site and 74% of those who received such advice found it to be influential in their own decisions. These are the trends Estonian Air aims to capitalize upon.


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African Airlines and Social Media Revisited

African Airlines and Social Media Revisited

The last time I wrote about African Airlines and social media was in 2009 when social media was still an alien tool to many African airlines and passengers alike; only Kenya Airways had an active social media campaign in 2009 with an active Twitter account, Facebook page, Youtube channel, Flicker account and a dedicated social media development team.

Kenya Airways has therefore reaped the benefits of joining the race early and the airline has the largest social media following across various social media platforms. The channels, especially the Twitter feed is fresh, helpful and engaging. The Kenya Airways Corporate Communications Manager is also on Twitter, so users are only a Tweet away from engaging the airline in a more meaningful way.

Another dynamic that has changed in the last few years in Africa is access. More Africans have had greater access to broadband and hence millions more have signed up on social media channels and are running blogs. Many African travelers have utilized this new “voice” in loudly expressing their satisfaction/displeasure at airline services. A case in point might the incident when Ugandan Opposition leader Kizza Besigye was taken off a KQ flight destined for Entebbe after the airline received a warning from Ugandan aviation authorities that the flight might be prevented from landing at Entebbe with the opposition leader onboard. Many Ugandan sympathizers descended on KQ Facebook page to express their displeasure and even declared their intention to “boycott” Kenya Airways flights. Today, unlike two years ago, a simple Twitter search for any major African carrier will yield lots of conversation, presenting a golden opportunity for airline social media managers to jump in and manage the conversation. Increased internet access has empowered consumers and given many a direct way to get in touch with the top management on issues of concern.

Sheer numbers aside, there have been some quality too in the deployment of social  media marketing tools  through innovative techniques as can be seen amongst South African airlines like Kulula. Some of the top African airlines on Twitter include the following:

Kenya Airways                     14,495 Followers
South African Airways            8299 Followers
Kulula                                     6012 Followers
Arik Air                                  3084 Followers
Air Nigeria                                712 Followers

Kulula engages its clients in more conversation and has the highest number of mentions on Twitter, meaning Kulula is getting social media right. In the next post, I will analyse these stats in detail using some three social media tracking tools to determine which airlines generate more negative vibe and which are more influential.                          
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How Mango Airlines has Succeeded in Customer Engagement

How Mango Airlines has Succeeded in Customer Engagement

A reblog: Simpliflying interviews Mango Airlines CEO Nico Bezuidenhout

Almost everyone reading this blog books most of their airline tickets online. Without question, it is the easiest and most cost-effective way (for all parties involved) to make a booking. So it makes sense that a start-up airline would focus its distribution strategy around direct online sales. However, imagine if you were tasked with launching an airline in a market where only 10 percent of the people have reliable Internet access. And of those, a small percentage trusted online payment systems. What would that do to your customer engagement and distribution strategies?

I had the great opportunity to interview Nico Bezuidenhout, the CEO of South Africa’s Mango Airlines who faced the exact challenge described above, at Aviation Outlook Africa Summit in Johannesburg. I have highlighted different topics we discussed below, with the full video interview available at the end of this post. Read More

Social Media and the MENA Airlines

Social Media and the MENA Airlines

Social Media amongst Middle Eastern and North African Airlines. Interesting read courtesy of Oussama's Take blog. This inspires me to do a follow up on African airlines and social media, which, my friends, will be coming soon

 The Arab Spring was attributed to the use of Social Media by the Arab younger generations. Social Media has galvanized opinions and coordinated marches and sit ins that changed regimes. Yet, MENA airlines have not tapped this resource.

It appears that most of these airlines have Info pages with no interaction with passengers or potential passengers and it is sometimes hard to figure out if the page is the airlines official page. Of the twenty one (21) airlines, that I have looked at both legacy and LCC that have Facebook pages; only four (4) have flight booking and other facilities on their pages; Royal Jordanian, Gulf Air, Bahrain Air and Etihad.  

The most liked so to speak page is Qatar Airways (161200 fans) but it is not growing and that maybe attributed to their successful promotion celebrating its 100th destination. 

The fastest growing is Royal Jordanian's page (53500 fans) which adds around a 1000 fans a day and is probably the most balanced page among the region's airlines. It has a lot of traffic directed from the airline which prompts comments and likes but not much customer service content that the airline should encourage.

The most interactive page with customer service issues is Air Arabia's but only has 5500 fans.

Interestingly Emirates (43000 fans) has an info page only but is not growing, Etihad (31000 fans) is not very interactive same as Gulf Air (15500 fans) even though both airlines provide booking and other facilities on their pages. 

It appears the MENA airlines are not very serious about social media yet, a few of them have advanced Facebook Pages but are not very successful in promoting them to the public probably due to lack of resources..

Of all the airlines Royal Jordanian seems to take the effort seriously, they launched their efforts with an aircraft on ground tweet up with the 20 most popular bloggers in Jordan and have allocated resources to maintain the effort and it seems to be successful; around a 1000 fans per day for an airline the size of Royal Jordanian and a country the size of Jordan is no mean feat.