CREATIVE IDEAS FOR DRIVING SOCIAL MEDIA

ENGAGEMENT

Mandie Armstrong, Digital Communications Manager

Caroline Thorpe, Airport Communications Manager

Award winning users of social media

Seven awards for excellence in social media

Why invest in social media?

To engage instantly and directly with our customers in a way and a time that is convenient to them – customer service

Allows us to create a distinct tone of voice and personality now we’re independent

Tells the story of new Gatwick

Is used to support our products and services and is an integral part of our marketing campaigns

It’s integrated with our commercial strategy

Deliver the best passenger experience

Twitter – our top social channel

• Talk to passengers in real time, including crisis

communications

• Engage in meaningful two-way dialogue

• Support commercial activities but not in an overtly sales

way

Two way engagement - Twitter Q & As

• One hour of live Q & As via our Twitter feed

• Four held in total – CEO x 2, Head of Terminals about

PRM service, HR director

• Cross channel engagement in advance – FB, Twitter,

Tumblr. Targetted comms to specific bloggers/interest

groups to increase interest

• Posters and business cards to promote off-line

Delivering the best passenger experience:

Sound Cloud – a case study

• Family friendly Gatwick

• Family assistance/security lanes

• Children’s play areas

• How can we use online media to support offline activity

in an innovative way?

Supporting airlines & commercial

activities

Using social media internally

• Creating brand ambassadors of our staff, so our brand

starts from inside out

• Creating the same buzz for our people that we want

passengers to feel

• Tracking issues and trends from passengers - via our

people

• Listening and fixing the issues that distract our people

from delivering a great service

• Empowering our people to suggest fixes and tell their

own stories

The London 2012 Games

• An award winning example

• Most popular topic, participation from CEO through to frontline

• Over 1,000 comments and 650 photographs shared from our

community

• A real buzz and sense of pride about our business

• Our people told us what was going on – dynamic, real time

reporting, faster than other corporate channels

• A more efficient way of sharing information with airport

partners, helping us deliver a faultless Games process

What next for Gatwick?

• Explore how to grow existing channels

• We will continue to try emerging applications – as long as

they support our business strategy

• We won’t wait for the next big thing, but will keep

evolving and experimenting

• Continue to engage our offline community with our online

activity