WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT.

TBTA /17 March 2011

Social Media in Business Travel:Why give a tweet?

17 March 2011 / Virginia Business Travel Association

P. 1

By: Rana Walker / AirPlus International, Inc.

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

The Social Media phenomenom

P. 2

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

Teens today do not know life without the Internet or mobile phones

P. 3

96% of Millennials have joined a social media platform (Source: socialenomics.com)

Only 11% of teenagers today use e-mail – they SMS/text & use social media instead (Source: Insights Consulting Study, 2010)

In Q4 2010, more smart phones were shipped than PCs – a jump 87% year-over-year and a historical first (Source: Associated Press, Feb. 2011)

Social media connections build your sphere of trusted influence – the most important factor for buying decisions in the future!

New technologies provide virtual, robust info accessible in real-time:

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 4

Social Media is not simply fun and games - it’s smart business!

Two-sided

conversations bring

insight, clarity &

understanding

Web 2.0 platforms

allow for better

collaboration &

knowledge-sharing

Receive customer feedback without delay …and before it’s too late!

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 5

Social Media Prism

Content

Conver

sation

Experie

nce

Relatio

nship

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

Mapping the Social Internet– Harvard Business Review, July-Aug. 2010

P. 6

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 7

The Wire…from AirPlus

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 8

Business Travel & Social Media - The Wire…from AirPlus

TBTA /17 March 2011AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. P. 9

Social Media is evolving and changing the way we communicate and conduct business.

It’s benefits are external, internal and beyond our imaginations.

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 10

If Facebook were a

country, it would be

the 3rd most

populated in the world!

Only China & India are more populated – the

USA is 4th

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 11

End of 2010:

585 MillionA growth of +74%

Beginning 2010:

337 Million

Facebook Profiles

Source: Facebook

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

Why Facebook?

P. 12

Utilize pictures of staff and events to show your company culture

Highlight CRS activities to show your company philosophy

Share research and knowledge – link to additional resources

Promote upcoming events to gain attention and attendance

Highlight partner activities to enhance relationships

Promote industry news, blog & comment to show your company as a thought-leader or with an opinion

Provide a place for employees to feel connected online. Inter-company relations provide a global virtual forum for staff

Utilize security settings to vary your communications to specific groups

Project a more human face to your company to 585+ million users:

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

Business Travel Suppliers on Facebook

P. 13

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

Social Commitment & Online Gaming

P. 14

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 15

The amount of video uploaded

to YouTube every minute!

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

YouTube statistics

P. 16

Today, YouTube alone uses the same amount of bandwidth as the entire Internet used in year 2000

YouTube receives more than 2 billion viewers per day

YouTube is available in 19 countries and 12 languages

Half of YouTube’s users are 20 years old or younger - (the future generation)

You would need to live for approx. 1,000 years to watch all the videos currently on YouTube

Source: YouTube

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

Why YouTube?

P. 17

Customer testimonials are quite effective in video

Video blogs from your executives on:

the company activities/events

company financial results

industry topics

User tips/guides to your products – showcase products and tips for best in class use

Highlight events and philanthropic activities in an inspiring way

Marketing campaigns can go viral & obtain reach like never before

For the visual learners – seeing is believing:

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

One YouTube example: Virgin Atlantic airline

P. 18

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 19

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

USA: 52%

CAN: 4%

BRZ:2%

EU: 22%

IND: 8%

AUS: 2%

90M+ members in over 200 countries

Source: LinkedIn

LinkedIn Worldwide

P. 20

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

LinkedIn Stats

P. 21

Management-level executives from all Fortune 500 companies have a profile on LinkedIn

LinkedIn receives almost 12 million unique visitors per day

+3M new members per month = over 1 new member per second

LinkedIn is available in 6 native languages – English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish

80% of companies also use LinkedIn as a recruitment tool - Oracle’s CFO, Jeff Epstein, was headhunted for the position via his LinkedIn profile

Source: LinkedIn

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 22

LinkedIn Pages

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 23

GBTA LinkedIn Group

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

Why LinkedIn?

P. 24

Keep track of contacts throughout their career & job moves

Build trust and rapport – therefore, influence for you & your company

Excellent for recruiting/qualifying a candidate

Share research, take polls and glean knowledge

Join Groups for collaboration with your industry’s like-minded individuals – share your knowledge and ask for others’ input

Gain transparency through insights into connections, partners, competitors, staff

Professional networking platform to supplement to the face-to-face events:

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 25

Source: Twitter

That’s approximately 600 tweets

per second!

50 MILLION.The number of tweets per day on Twitter.

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

A few Twitter Stats

P. 26

Over 60% of Twitter use is outside the U.S.

Twitter has more than 300,000 new users join every day

There are currently over 110 million users of Twitter’s services

Twitter receives 180 million unique visits each month

There are more than 600 million searches on Twitter every day

There are more than 50,000 third-party apps for Twitter

More than a third of users access Twitter via their mobile phone

Source: Twitter

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

Why Twitter?

P. 27

Straight to the point, 140 characters only means no room for fluff

Detect industry trends and take polls/surveys in real-time

Terrific for customer service – make contact with end-user (not often possible in B2B environment)

Disseminate insightful information quickly and effectively

Share knowledge readily – while it’s still relevant

Glean and pass along other interesting industry news to show depth

Promotion of partner activities for enhanced relationships

Fast, efficient, economical and viral:

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

Examples of partner and industry interactions

P. 28

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

Recruitment & staff interaction!

P. 29

TBTA /17 March 2011AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. P. 30

Allow your staff to be your online brand ambassadors!

Establish social media guidelines & teach them how to share your already published public information!

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 31

Staff promotion through Facebook!

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 32

Staff promotion through LinkedIn!

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 33

Staff promotion through Twitter!

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 34

Social Media for use in business travel

Viral

Mobile

Global

Crisis Communication

Customer Service

Collaboration

TBTA /17 March 2011AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. P. 35

What we lose in control – we gain in transparency!

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 36

Twitter per minute- within an hour after the Japan earthquake

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 37

US Embassy encourages social media in wake of quake!

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 38

Google reacts to Crises with Person Finder pages

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 39

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 40

Twitter for crisis communication – customer service interactions

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 41

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 42

Eurocontrol responds rapidly to the Ash Cloud chaos

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

Tweetdeck – track & update all sites in one place

P. 43

TBTA /17 March 2011AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. P. 44

Ignoring it won’t make it go away….

If we want to know what’s ahead (future) – we must watch the generation behind us.

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 45

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011 P. 46

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

Future Themes for Social Media

P. 47

Mobile technology & development of apps will continue at time-warp speed

Location-based marketing gains traction

Increased “personalization” & the “one log-in” concept

“Trusted” networking gains importance

Web-conferencing & telepresence technology will improve & advance

More Security, new laws & regulations will bring clarity

TBTA /17 March 2011AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT.

Social MEdia

Share your personality, NOT your personal information!

Share your company’s philosophy, NOT proprietary information!

P. 48

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. TBTA /17 March 2011

Links to interesting online articles, other industry resources

Observations on travel industry trends & pain points for business travelers

Share your personality & always be genuine- a fraud is easy to spot online!

Ask questions, answer questions – share your expertise & knowledge!

Invitations to events & activities where you/your company will be present

Share your promotional activities, online contests, employee recognition

Highlight your CSR efforts

Link to your partner’s social media pages when they post something valuable

Suggestions for Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook include:

Ideas for posts on Social Media platforms

P. 49

TBTA /17 March 2011AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT.

Many thanks & let’s connect!

Rana Walker

AirPlus International, Inc.

rwalker@airplus.com

www.linkedin.com/in/ranawalker

P. 50