Monday, September 17, 2012

Micro-Blogging Strategies That Work!

So this week, we will be talking about Enterprise 2.0 strategies, what social platforms can be use to perform these strategies, and tactics for implementing them. To help get the point across, we'll be using American Airlines as an example.

Founded in 1930, American Airlines has now become a major U.S. airline. With a fleet of 605 aircrafts, this world-renown airline operates a wide international and domestic network, flying an average of 275,000 customers daily to over 250 destinations.

With Twitter gaining over 500 million active users which generates over 340 million tweets daily, American Airlines decided to take this opportunity and use it to their advantage. Currently, American Airlines has over 429,000 fans, fifth among all other airlines (as of today). The secret behind their success is the implementation of the following strategies:

  1. Solving Customer Service Issues
  2. Posing Fun Questions to Fans
  3. Showing "Behind the Scenes" Information
  4. Empowering the Brand’s Most Loyal Followers

As a team, Adrian, Blake and I will each be going into details of a particular strategy. So I'll go on to discuss how showing "Behind the Scenes" information can attract and engage customers. Meanwhile, if you are interested in the other strategies, you can check out their posts later.


Showing Behind the Scenes Information

Revealing behind the scenes information has always been a well known strategy which shows the public how things are done or what is happening in an organization . This widely-used strategy is often successful because it helps engage customers, giving them and in-depth and genuine view of the organization. There are a few tactics one can follow when implementing this strategy.

American Airlines giving the public a sneak peek


#1 Know your fans' interests

The most important thing when trying to engage fans would be to know their interests. Upon finding out what they like, it will give you an idea of what to post and how successful it will be. One of the most common interests these days are technology. And when American Airlines tweeted about their pilots using iPads during all phases of flight, they received a massive 193 retweets!

Everyone getting excited for iPads!


#2 Post images and videos

Besides that, images and videos often attract more attention compared to lines of text. Showing fans pictures or videoclips of what goes on behind the scenes will motivate them to retweet and favorite these posts. In the example below, American Airlines included a "Behind the Scenes" video in their tweet about their new aircraft. By doing so, they managed to get 49 retweets and 17 favourites!

Many getting excited to see what's involved in taking delivery of a new plane


#3 Use Hashtags

On top of including pictures and videos, another good tactic is to use several hashtags while posting these "Behind the Scenes" information. By using a hashtag in a tweet, those who search those hashtags would also be able to see the tweet. This results in your tweet being seen by an even larger audience, others who are not "following" you.

This post got American Airlines 71 retweets!


Final thoughts: In the end, it is never enough to just settle for one strategy. Leveraging a combination of micro-blogging strategies such as the strategies mentioned abone will greatly enhance an organisation’s digital presence and further increase their fanbase. What do you think of this post? Share your thoughts in the comment section. :)

4 comments:

  1. I like your blog information.. it give me more idea about these company and how they use micro blogging to market themselves, good luck bro, keep it on..

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    1. Thanks Rickl, glad you liked it. What other strategies do you think can be implemented?

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  2. Hello Zeng!

    Great post regarding American Airlines and Twitter. All companies use social media but American Airlines does it spectacularly well, obviously there will be a few little things that can be improved. The only thing I can think off to improve American Airline's online presence is by them utilizing more Web 2.0 tools.

    Great post, keep up the good work. Feel free to check out my blog at http://vatsalqutinb346.wordpress.com/

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    1. Yup, American Airlines really knows how to utilize enterprise tools well. On top of that, they can also use Wikis and blogs.

      Glad you enjoyed my post. :)

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