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Social Media BenchmarkTravel

Issue 1

January 2014

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eDigitalResearch ContentsIntroduction

Methodology

Key Findings

ResultsFacebook

Followers

Engagement Levels

Best Practice

TwitterFollowers

Engagement Levels

Best Practice

Google+Followers

Best Practice

PinterestFollowers

Best practice

ConclusionsKey areas for Consideration

Social Media and Customer Service

Social Media solutions

About eDigitalResearch

Contacts

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eDigitalResearch Introduction2013 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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eDigitalResearch Methodology

Between the 9th December and the 15th December 2013, our specialist travelresearchers and dedicated social media team studied over 80 top travel brands,covering multiple sectors including airlines, hotels, travel agencies. We looked attravel brands’ presence (or lack of) on the most influential and popular social mediasites, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest and monitored the numberof followers and fans.

Alongside this, our team also looked at the quality of output and productivity in anattempt 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 downour findings to highlight successful brands across each social platform, as well asdrawing attention to those brands that integrate consumer conversation throughoutall social media sites.

In order to establish which travel sectors are using social mediato the best of their advantage, we compared the topperforming brands from travel agencies, airlines, hotels,cruises, in an attempt to understand social media best practice.

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eDigitalResearch

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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Key Findings

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RESULTS

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eDigitalResearch

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 Franceand 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

Social Media Benchmark from the week commencing 17th

June 2013)

Facebook Followers: Top 20Position 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 531,449

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*During the week commencing 9th December 2013

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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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0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5

Etihad

Expedia

Low Cost Holidays

American Airlines

Best Western

Booking.com

Delta

Holiday Inn Express

British Airways

Emirates

Royal Caribbean

KLM

Air France

Hotels.com

Princess Cruises

Trivago

Lufthansa

Singapore Airlines

Hilton

Cathay Pacific

Engagement Levels

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.

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Average number of posts per day

Top 3 Travel Social Media Facebook Benchmark league table

*During the week commencing 9th December 2013

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0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Engagement levelsAverage number of posts per day across the week

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*During the week commencing 9th December 2013

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.

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eDigitalResearch

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Royal Caribbean

British Airways

Best Western

Expedia

Hilton

Emirates

Low Cost Holidays

KLM

Air France

Holiday Inn Express

Delta

Lufthansa

American Airlines

Cathay Pacific

Hotels.com

Trivago

Booking.com

Princess Cruises

Etihad

Singapore Airlines

Engagement Levels

Number of page apps (excluding notes, photos and events)

All of the top performers have at least 2 page apps in an effort to engage with users.

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Top 3 Travel Social Media Facebook Benchmark league table

*During the week commencing 9th December 2013

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0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 120,000 140,000 160,000 180,000 200,000

Emirates

KLM

Air France

Royal Caribbean

Princess Cruises

Delta

Lufthansa

Booking.com

Holiday Inn Express

American Airlines

Etihad

Singapore Airlines

Hotels.com

Hilton

Cathay Pacific

British Airways

Trivago

Expedia

Low Cost Holidays

Best Western

Engagement Levels: ‘Talking about’ numbers

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*During the week commencing 9th December 2013

Top 3 Travel Social Media Facebook Benchmark league table

‘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.

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eDigitalResearch Best Practice: Etihad Airways

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Although ranked 18th in the overall Facebook league table, Etihad Airways’ Facebook page has the highest average number of posts.

By posting images with their posts they have created an engaging and aesthetically pleasing Facebook page which encourages to get involved.

Etihad Airways actively engages their customers in quizzes, sales, and pointing them towards their website, driving traffic and sales.

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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eDigitalResearch Best Practice: KLM

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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.

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.

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eDigitalResearch Twitter Followers: The Top 20

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

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.

Position Retailer No. of Followers (Issue 1)*

1 American Airlines 684,694

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 47,495

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*During the week commencing 9th December 2013

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0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Four Seasons

Expedia

STA Travel

Monarch

Thomson

Travelocity

Thomas Cook

KLM

Delta

British Airways

Princess Cruises

American Airlines

Best Western

Royal Caribbean

Virgin Atlantic

Hilton

Qantas

Singapore Airlines

EasyJet

Air France

Engagement levels

Four Seasons have the highest number of average posts, with a huge average of over 27 per day. Four Seasonsseem 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.

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Average number of posts per day

Top 3 Travel Social Media Twitter Benchmark league table

*During the week commencing 9th December 2013

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0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Engagement Levels

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Average number of posts per day across the week

Similar to their Facebook pages, travel brands are failing to interact with Twitter users at the weekend and outside traditional office hours.

*During the week commencing 9th December 2013

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eDigitalResearch Best Practice: KLM

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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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eDigitalResearch Google+ Followers: The Top 20Position 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 84,556

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.

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*During the week commencing 9th December 2013

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eDigitalResearch Google+ Best Practice: British Airways

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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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eDigitalResearch Pinterest Followers: Top 20

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Position Retailer No. of Followers (Issue 1)*

1 Four Seasons 31,383

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

18First 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

Benchmark from the week commencing 17th June 2013).

*During the week commencing 9th Dec 2013

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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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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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eDigitalResearch Social Media and Customer Services

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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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eDigitalResearch Social Media Solutions

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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.

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.

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Who we are and what we doeDigitalResearch

Company Partners

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

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

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Product overview

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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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For a bespoke insight programme designed specifically to gain insight and understandinginto 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