SVBTA Education Day

WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT.

Social Media in Business Travel:Why give a tweet?

May 12, 2011 / SVBTA Education Day

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By: Rana Walker / AirPlus International, Inc.

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT.

The Social Media phenomenom

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iPhone apps reached

1 BILLION users in about 9 months!

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT. P. 3SVBTA /May 2011

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12391129


“User-Generated” Content:

Rather than pushing content to the

audience – remain open and allow

them to bring it to you!


http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/11/facebook-now-allows-you-to-tag-pages-in-photos/


Social media connections allow you to

build your sphere of influence!

Trust is the most important factor for

buying decisions in the future!


The conversation is occurring whether you are listening…or not! Listen,

learn, anticipate needs, proactively solve problems and find efficiencies!

You have a voice! Strengthen relationships with partners /suppliers through

shared knowledge. This equals better communication & collaboration!

Participate in industry associations online as a supplement to the face-to-

face networking & join event pages too!

Raise your internal profile – know where to glean knowledge & how to

effectively share it!

Conduct real-time analysis & notice the industry’s trending topics!

Steer behavior, build policy compliance and gain empowerment through

positive reinforcement!

Enhance internal company relationships through virtual communication!

Crisis Communications – traveler safety can be key when the unexpected

occurs!

Why should a Corporate Travel Manager care?

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Social MEdia

Share your personality, NOT your

personal information!

Share your company’s philosophy,

NOT proprietary information!

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Social Media for use in the business travel industry

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

LinkedIn


If Facebook

were a country,

it would be the

3rd most

populated

in the

world!

Only China & India

are more populated –

4th is the USA


Facebook stats


More than 585 million active users

50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day

More than 70 translations available on the site

About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States

Average user has 130 friends

There are more than 200 million active users who access Facebook through

their mobile devices

People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

Go where they already are ready to interact:

Source: Facebook


Why Facebook?


Upload 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 sales, services and opportunities to interact

Provide a place for employees to feel connected online. Inter-company

relations provide a global virtual forum for staff

Utilize settings on personal profiles to vary your communications to

specific groups

Project a more human face of your company :


Business Travel Suppliers on Facebook



GBTA on Facebook



Allow staff to be your

online brand ambassadors!

Establish social media guidelines

& teach staff how to share your

company’s already published

public information!


Staff Promotes Content Through Facebook!


Source: Twitter

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


Twitter Stats


175 million active users worldwide

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


Why Twitter?


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

Excellent for Crisis Communication efforts as relating to business travel

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

Terrific for customer service – make contact NOW with end-user

Disseminate insightful information quickly and effectively

Share knowledge readily – while it’s still relevant

Promotion of partner activities for enhanced relationships

Fast, efficient, economical and viral:


Tweets on Twitter per minute-within an hour after the Japan earthquake


Twitter for crisis communication – customer service interactions

http://www.twitter.com/TravelGov


US Embassy encourages social media in wake of quake!


35

HOURS.The amount of video uploaded to

YouTube every minute!


YouTube Stats


More video is uploaded in 60 days than the 3 major US networks created in 60

years

Today, YouTube alone uses the same amount of bandwidth as the entire

Internet used in year 2000

The equivalent of 150,000+ full-length movies in theaters each week

YouTube receives more than 2 billion viewers per day

YouTube is available in 25 countries and 43 languages

70% of traffic comes from outside the US

YouTube mobile gets over 100 million views a day

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

Source: YouTube


Why YouTube?


Customer testimonials are quite effective in video

Video blogs from your executives on company activities/events, company

financial results and 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

To be successful, videos should be authentic, clever, witty, touching and/or

motivational

They do not always need to be flashy, expensive or polished to go viral!

For the visual learners – seeing is believing:


One YouTube example: Virgin Atlantic



GBTA on YouTube


http://www.youtube.com/user/GBTATV


LinkedIn Stats


Management-level executives from all Fortune 500 companies have a

profile on LinkedIn

LinkedIn receives almost 12 million unique visitors per day

90M+ members with over +3M new members added per month

LinkedIn is available in 6 native languages – English, German, French,

Italian, Portuguese and Spanish

LinkedIn hiring solutions were used by 69 of the Fortune 100 companies as

of December 31, 2010

80% of companies also use LinkedIn as a recruitment tool

More than one million companies have LinkedIn Company Pages

Source: LinkedIn


Why LinkedIn?


Keep track of contacts throughout their career & job moves

Build trust and rapport – therefore, your influence & your company’s

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:


GBTA LinkedIn Group


LinkedIn Pages


Search “Corporate Travel Manager” yields: 177,661!


Tweetdeck – track & update all sites in one place



Ignoring it won’t make it go away….

If we want to know what’s ahead (future) –

we must watch the generation behind us.


Many thanks & let’s connect!

Rana Walker

AirPlus International, Inc.

[email protected]

www.linkedin.com/in/ranawalker


mailto:[email protected]

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ranawalker


Back-up Slides


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


http://hbr.org/2010/07/vision-statement-mapping-the-social-internet/ar/1

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