AIRPORTS 2.

0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

Contents:

Introduction Whos Using Social Media? Breakdown of Main Social Media Usage Absolute Results Relative Results Controlling for Geography What Are They Doing? Who Are They Reaching? What If People Talk Back? What Are The Risks?

ACI EUROPE,
Copyright ACI EUROPE 2011

6 Square de Mees, 1000, Brussels, Belgium

This document is published by ACI EUROPE for information purposes. It may copied in whole or in part, provided that ACI EUROPE is mentioned as the source and it is not used for commercial purposes (i.e. for financial gain). The information in this document may not be modified without prior written permission from ACI EUROPE.

ACI EUROPE is the European region of Airports Council International (ACI), the only worldwide professional association of airport operators. ACI EUROPE represents over 400 airports in 46 European countries. Member airports handle 90% of commercial air traffic in Europe. In 2008, they welcomed more than 1.4 billion passengers.

AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

Introduction
Social media has been embraced in recent years as a means of communication and social interaction by people across the globe. Given the sheer numbers producing and consuming social media, and the depths to which these people have become immersed into the various platforms compared to more traditional media, the opportunities for businesses are huge. Yet, a lot of uncertainty remains as to how to make best use of this new technology, and for what exact purpose. Indeed, there is a burgeoning mountain of literature online attempting to grasp this issue, and plenty of examples of businesses whose forays into social media have led to either great success or ignominious failure. While a list of What Not to Dos can be easily assembled from a quick online search, the matter of What to Do is more elusive (i.e. how to successfully integrate social media into a wider business strategy). Like many businesses, European airports have also begun to embrace social media. In undertaking this survey, ACI EUROPE has attempted to get a broad overview of what exactly our members are doing with this new medium. We have focused on Facebook and Twitter, which are by far the most popular social media being used by our members. And while the emphasis is on Facebook and Twitter, it should not be overlooked that airports are engaging on a wider range of social media beyond these platforms. YouTube content and channels are also popular for example. Some Polish airports are using Blip.pl. Many airport employees are on Linked In, with their respective airports registered as companies, although there seems little sign of any specifically airport-driven activity at this point. Any airport which has links to social media channels on its home page has been included, and a basic analysis of the numbers has been undertaken. Please see the end annex for the methodology employed in the survey. Alongside the survey, ACI EUROPE has also conducted interviews with a number of our members on their use of social media.

The aim of this report is provide some initial insight into the current state of play of airports use of social media in Europe, as well as to share some of the lessons which have come out of our members experiences.

We hope you find the report useful!

AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

Whos Using Social Media?

The following data is based on ACI EUROPE member airports which had links to either Facebook or Twitter accounts on the main page of their websites on 19 April 2011. This covered 60 individual social media presences, representing both airports and airport groups, in a range of European countries, but with the UK and Germany particularly represented, closely followed by France and Portugal. The below results seek to give some insight into whos using what, which medium is most popular, and whos getting the highest response from the public. We also had a look at whether a countrys social media usage might impact an airports success with social media.

Of all ACI EUROPE regular member airports, 40% were represented online with a social media presence, although this figure was inflated by the presence of social media profiles for large airport groups such as Aena. On a per-passenger basis, 64% of passenger traffic in 2010 was through airports which are engaging in social media activity.

Figure 1a: Social Media Presence in European Airports

Breakdown of Main Social Media Usage

The surveyed airports use both Facebook and Twitter pretty evenly, with a very small majority of airports using both simultaneously. Facebook has a slight edge over Twitter, with 82% of airports having a Facebook page, compared to 70% using Twitter.

In spite of airports preferences for Facebook, Twitter accounts for the larger share of airport social media consumers. Twitter feeds have almost 1.75 times the average number of followers compared to equivalent Facebook likes, and 60% of airport social media consumers are Twitter followers.

This may be at least in part due to the sheer strength of airport Twitter feeds in the UK, where Heathrow Airports Twitter feed has over 47,000 followers (almost a third of all Twitter followers of the surveyed airports).
Figure 1b: Breakdown of Airports Social Media Presence by Medium

AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

Airports preferences for Facebook, despite its lower participation rate, may reflect the fact that Twitter does not offer the same opportunities to directly present varied content to consumers such as videos, photos, and so on.

Figure 1c: Average Number of Users Per Medium

Absolute Figures
Below charts the overall numbers of likes and followers of European airports respective Facebook and Twitter feeds. Airports are categorised according to their size, based on the ACI EUROPE Airport Traffic Report groupings. As can be seen below, the popularity of social media varies widely, not only between airports, but also between the different social media platforms used by individual airports.

Figure 2a: Group 1 Airports > 25 million passengers per annum (mppa)

AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

Figure 2b: Group 2 Airports 10-25 mppa

Figure 2b: Group 2 Airports 10-25 mppa

AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

Figure 2d: Group 4 Airports <5mppa

AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

Relative Results
An attempt to control for airport size, by looking at results relative to annual passenger throughput. The results show that Twitter seems to be, to date, quite an Anglo-Saxon preserve, with the 9 of the 10 Twitter feeds with the highest relative number of followers hailing from the Ireland and the UK, although the strong performance of Rostock Airport shows that geography need not be a barrier to popularity.

Figure 3: Twitter Followers per Million Passenger Per Annum (mppa)

AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

Conversely, geography seems to count less for Facebook success, with a strong performances across a range of European countries. This result also indicates that social media need not just be the preserve of the larger hub airports, with regional airports being extremely well represented on a per-passenger basis.

Figure 4: Facebook Likes per mppa - ordered by country

AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

And if we attempt control for the level of engagement from airports? Here we use the number of Tweets as a proxy for the level of engagement, and again compare airports on their ratio of followers to Tweets. Again, Englishspeaking airports heavily lead the way on this front, but below the three front runners (Stansted, Aberdeen and Dublin) airports from a range of other European countries all perform well against their Irish and UK counterparts.

Figure 5: Twitter Followers per Tweet - ordered by country

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AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

Caution must be exercised with these Twitter figures howeverif an airport is using Twitter as a customer service tool, and is tweeting frequently, then inevitably its ratio will be lower than that of an airport of equivalent size which uses Twitter for more irregular corporate communications, for example.

Controlling for Geography

The above graphs all seem heavily influenced by country, and in particular Twitter uptake seems to be very much focused within the English-speaking Ireland and the UK. To examine this further we compare the airports relative rankings in this survey against their countrys national usage of social media. We would expect airports in countries with higher usage of social media to be ranked higher relative to their contemporaries. While usage figures for Twitter on a country-by-country basis proved extremely difficult to come by, a comparison can be made between our survey and a separate Top 20 study of countries ranked by Twitter penetration. Only 4 of the surveyed airports are based in countries which made the Top 20 by Twitter penetration, and of these, Irish and British airports take up 9 of the top 10 spots with the highest number of Twitter followers per million passengers. The lack of data means that this result does not prove that airports Twitter feeds are significantly helped if they are located in countries with high Twitter penetration in general, but it certainly seems to be the case for Ireland and the UK.

Table 1: Airports Rankings versus Twitter Rankings

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AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

More information was available to perform the equivalent exercise for Facebook. The below scatter diagram produces a very rough trend, suggesting that while there is some correlation between a countrys Facebook usage and its airports success on Facebook, the connection is not strong. Polish airports, for example, perform much stronger than their countrys usage of Facebook would suggest, while Turkish airports had fewer relative likes than Facebooks Turkish penetration rate would suggest.

Figure 6: Country Ranking versus Airport Ranking

While the data doesnt yield anything conclusive, it seems that geography has a role to play in the publics response to airports use of social media. But while a general trend might be visible, the examples of individual airports show that this need not be a barrier to success in attracting engagement with the public.

What Are They Doing?

The observation study yielded 5 Main Uses of Social Media by European airports. 1. Customer Service This involves using social media as a virtual customer service desk. Social media users post their question (where can I charge my phone?, Is there a particular shop in the terminal?, etc.) and the airport responds with either the answer or a point in the right direction. In the airports surveyed, Twitter seemed to be most used for this purpose, particularly in the UK. London-Gatwicks terminal monitors encourage passengers to tweet in their comments, questions and feedback. Manchester Airport has connected its Twitter account to its flight information system, which allows its Twitter followers to receive live updates on individual flights. 12

AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

During the exceptionally severe winter weather last December, Brussels Airport used both Facebook and Twitter to alert stranded passengers to facilities and entertainment it has set up in the terminal.

Although there are cost implications associated with this kind of usage, the payoff is two-fold. Firstly passengers can receive the information they need speedily. Secondly, unlike traditional customer service, the airports efforts to help passengers are very much in the public eye. If the service is handled correctly, it offers a real opportunity to boost an airports customer service profile and ultimately, its reputation. 2. Informal Relationship Building One key element of social media, cited by all airport representatives interviewed, was the opportunity it offered to engage directly with passengers. Oftentimes the only opportunity airports get to have direct contact with their passengers is when something goes wrong. With social media, an airport can engage with its customer base in a positive manner, allowing a corporate personality to emerge, that passengers can relate to.

How the surveyed airports did this, and what sort of response they got varied widely, although a common and perhaps inevitable characteristic was the willingness of aviation enthusiasts to engage in particular. Although the content is not always strictly relevant to airport operations, and can be very informal, the resulting engagement improves the airports image as a friendly, positive, enthusiastic business within the wider community.

Manchester Airport offers a good example. With an informal conversational style, its social media platforms comment on local issues, airport incidences, celebrity airport visits and more. It has a separate Facebook page for Olly Cat the airports unofficial representative, who boasts over 1950 likes at the time of writing. Recently, after using the Facebook page to generate sufficient public support in a competition, the authors of this Facebook profile have succeeded in having one of the Manchester Airport incumbent airlines name their new aircraft after the cat. At the same time Manchester Airport uses social media for other more focused purposes, such as commercial promotion, information dissemination and corporate communications. 13

AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

3. Crisis Handling

This first came into its own in a real way after the volcanic ash crisis of last year. The severe weather before Christmas also boosted uptake. As a communication tool, social media allows airports to get information out to the public quickly and directly. Twitter in particular, allows followers to retweet an airports message, further spreading the information. With more and more people using mobile appliances to access social media, as a direct communications tool social media is only going to become more powerful. Dublin Airport opened its Twitter feed in late October 2010. After some severe snow in late November/early December, the number of followers shot up to over 4000, with an average of almost 50 followers for every Tweet by Dublin Airport. While Dublin offers a good example of how quickly the public can respond to these initiatives, many other airports of various sizes provided this service extremely succesfully, during last winters weather disruption. 4. Corporate Communications Social media offers the chance for more traditional corporate communications to be spread to a wider audience. Airport operators are usually involved in activities outside of the airport, often with local communities, and if this could be of even passing interest to the general public, then social media can be the tool to raise awareness. Similarly, good news stories, concerning innovation, good customer service, airport developments, etc. can be spread via social media. In our survey Facebook seems to the dominant medium used for this, perhaps as it is more content rich, allowing videos and photos to be published, alongside links. There seemed to be an effort amongst airports surveyed to ensure that the content produced was tailored to be of interest to users, rather than simply pushing the airport official line. Katowice Airports Facebook profile contains details on charity auctions, airport infrastructural developments and connections to destinations which the airport is facilitating. Much of the material is complimented by photos and video.

Aeroporto do Porto recently posted a photo album of the range of events it hosted in 2010, its recent ASQ Best Airport award, its environmental achievements for the year, and its positive traffic figures for the previous month. 5. Commercial While most airports used social media to promote commercial services and products to users, the airports surveyed seemed careful to do this only in moderation. With a general consensus that social media cannot be used too aggressively or too directly for commercial marketing, it may be that these airports were mindful of the potential pitfalls.

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AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

One airport representative interviewed explained that content on social media must be of genuine interest to users, and so his airport was always careful to ensure that any commercial marketing on social media was always of genuine benefit to users, e.g. discount vouchers, competitions, free offers, etc. Nevertheless commercial activities are highlighted. For example, Aroports de Lyon has a separate tab on its Facebook page, specifically devoted to its EUROSHOPPING concept. Alongside this, many airports use social media to promote their catchment areas as tourist destinations, sometimes teaming up with local authorities an extension of the traditional campaigns in this regard. Aroports de Pariss Facebook profile is specifically dedicated to showcasing Paris,

Who Are They Reaching?

Unsurprisingly, the main consumers of the surveyed airports social media efforts are passengers. Passengers have the most to gain from interacting with airports, and based on the approaches used above, it is the attention of passengers which is of most interest to airports too. But beyond passengers, like more traditional communication efforts, the wider public image of the airport is impacted. Passengers may like or follow an airport when they are travelling, but that connection remains once the passenger returns to his or her community. They will still be consuming information on an airports charity projects, its customer service efforts and its commercial offerings. A quality presence on social media will carry on into the wider public. One airport representative interviewed explained that media contacts were connecting to the airports social media presence specifically to keep abreast of news stories which could be covered.

There is also some scope to use social media to support relations with other stakeholders, in particular airlines. Many of the airports surveyed use social media to promote routes and destinations which airlines are serving. Brussels Airport and Brussels Airlines often reference each others social media efforts.

In addition, other non-airline commercial partners can also reach out, via social media. Concessionaires can be worked with to offer specific promotions, customer service tweets can advise stranded passengers where the nearest coffee shop is, and so on.

What if People Talk Back?

The level of interaction between users and airports varied significantly in the survey, but all airport representatives agreed that engagement was a central component if not the most important element of their airports social media efforts. Some airports had occasional competitions on their Facebook pages, and found that the response to these was very positive. 15

AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

Indeed, one airport representative explained how the prize on offer was often of secondary importance to users, compared to the chance offered to engage directly with their airport. While engagement was mostly positive, there were naturally examples of more negative and quite visible - feedback from users. While this risk is often cited as a concern which companies have before getting involved in social media, none of the airport representatives considered it a major issue. In fact negative feedback was seen more as an opportunity than a threat, with the general consensus being that these negative opinions were in circulation regardless, and that a social media presence allowed airports to address peoples concerns in a constructive and public manner.

What are the Risks?

Most of the airports surveyed agreed that there had been initial internal hesitancy and caution which had to be overcome before the airport could embark on any social media strategy. Despite this, none of the airports voiced any regret about using social media, with senior management coming on board upon seeing the actual application of this medium in practice. Indeed, two airports interviewed reflected that they had been too cautious, and believed that they should have moved forward with social media at an earlier point. Nevertheless, risks remain. There have been high profile incidences of (non-airport) companies misusing social media and suffering as a result. Nestle gained notoriety for interacting in a sarcastic, threatening and negative manner when it disagreed with the online reaction to its social media presence. Home furnishing retailer Habitats use of Twitter drew widespread condemnation when it linked its online adverts to popular topics on the medium, such as the violence in Iran in 2009, effectively spamming users. Therefore it makes sense to ensure that any forays into social media are well planned, and that the correct personnel are involved in the initiative. This may be why several of the interviewed airports used communications or digital consultants. One thing to bear in mind is that an airports social media presence WILL be truly reflective of that airports corporate personality. Different airports interviewed used social media in different ways, but the common denominator was that social media usage was definitely influenced by that airports own corporate culture. One airport representative interviewed explained how there was little internal opposition to the use of social media, as it was seen as a necessary step in providing a good feeling to passengers one of the airports key business objectives. In line with this, the airports social media presence was very much focused on providing content that passengers would want to consume, rather than content the airport wanted the passenger to consume. As a result the airport has a policy of no commercially-oriented content on their social media profiles.

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AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

Proponents of social media at another airport faced internal opposition from the team which managed their existing website. As the website generated advertising revenues, digital communications were seen more so as a commercial activity, and its team was consequently based in the marketing department rather than the communications department. As a more directly commercially oriented company, social media was viewed in a different light to the first airport referenced, and this influenced how it was used as a tool by the company. Social media can definitely provide airports with a personality or voice, but thought needs to go into what sort of voice the airport will ultimately have, and how that might be achieved. One point which seems clear is that social media success requires a flexibility and an immediacy which doesnt necessarily exist in more traditional corporate communications.

What Sort of Resources Does it Need?

In terms of allocating resources to social media, the interviews indicated that the costs of a social media presence differed from airport to airport. This reflected the different ways in which social media was being used, and when considered in conjunction with strong performance of smaller airports, particularly in terms of Facebook likes, suggests that social media efforts can be scaled to suit specific objectives and resources.

None of the airport representatives interviewed had hired additional staff for their social media communications, although one airport employed an external agency to provide circa 5 hours per week input to their social media efforts (out of circa 7 hours per week in total). For airports which used social media specifically as a customer service tool, more resources were put into the service, with responsibility for updating & responding generally lying within existing customer service departments, alongside their other day to day functions.

Whats Next?
Social media is particularly dynamic, and it is very difficult to say with any certainty where it is going, nor how it might best be used in the future. However it does seem likely that Facebook and Twitter are likely to remain popular for some time. This social media survey lasted 3 months. A snapshop of a cross-section of the airports surveyed found that the number of likes of airport Facebook profiles doubled and the Twitter equivalent figure was not far behind, growing by 1.65 times. One trend which has emerged in very recent times is the phenomenon whereby people can check in to an airports Facebook page. This takes advantage of GPS-enabled mobile devices, and allows the user to log their arrival at specific places. Another provider which offers this service is foursquare. To date, a handful of the airports surveyed use the Check In function, but the response has been big. At time of writing 24,781 people had checked into Manchester Airports Facebook profile, and over 37,000 people had checked into Frankfurt Airports profile, two of the earliest adopters of this function. With the pace of this trend gaining momentum, these figures are likely to be well out of date by the time you read this. As well as raising its online profile, the attraction of this feature to businesses is that it can be bundled with offers and discounts on goods or services. This remains an area to watch. 17

AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

Also taking advantage of the proliferation of mobile devices is the tendency of airports to develop Apps. These are miniature programmes which run on iPhones, Blackberrys and other smart phones with the Android operating system. These programmes are generally made freely available, and allow customers access to airport maps, flight and terminal information, and specific discounts on commercial offerings.

While video is not a particularly new form of social media, it remains very popular. After Facebook and Twitter, YouTube was by far the social medium most frequently listed on airports websites. Alongside YouTube links, a number of airports had videos embedded into their Facebook profiles. The cost of creating video content, in terms of time, money and effort, continues to decrease, and video media looks set to continue its popularity. Interesting video footage of airports to emerge online often includes amateur footage of flashmobs groups of people who assemble in public places to suddenly perform unusual acts, organised prior online. Here are examples of this at London Heathrow and Portugals Ponta Delgada airport.

Other airports are looking at more targeted social media. Aroports de Lyon has created two Facebook profiles, one in French and one in English. The English version site is aimed at visitors to the airport as oppose to regular users, and has content tailored to suit this audience. Another major platform is Linked In. A huge number of airport professionals are active on Linked In, and most airports are registered as companies. However as of yet, there has been little sign of coordinated official airport activity on this medium, nor any significant engagement with the traveling public. The question remains as to exactly just how social Linked In actually is, given its explicit and close connections to individuals professional lives. For those of you with an interest in connecting with other aviation professionals, ACI EUROPE have an everexpanding Linked In group click here to join up.

What are the Broader Implications?

In many respects the way in which European airports have embraced social media is both a reflection and a driver of the business transformation that the industry has undergone in the last number of years. With airports increasingly competing against each other, all opportunities are being seized to gain an advantage, including social media. And like wider airport competition, the advent of social media brings both opportunities and challenges. 18

AIRPORTS 2.0: How European Airports are Embracing Social Media

Airports now have the chance to engage with their customers in ways which would have been impossible a few short years ago. Yet with this opportunity comes pressures to keep up with competitor airports much like airports have had to adopt new business models to survive, they are also adopting distinct social media presences, to differentiate themselves from the competition. And in parallel, passengers expectations are everincreasing, with todays innovation quickly becoming tomorrows minimum expected service. As European airports face a range of challenges in the years ahead, the need for quality communications, to an audience beyond the immediate passenger, is only going to become more pressing. The challenges of capacity, the environment, security, and increased connectivity will increasingly require airports to engage beyond their immediate customer base and while the exact future of social media remains unknown, is likely to have a significant role to play in this.

Methodology
Survey conducted of all ACI EUROPE Member airport's websites on 19/04/2011. Where there was a link on the homepage to a Facebook or Twitter account the details were entered into the survey. Other accounts that ACI EUROPE were aware of were also included. Where there was no link to the offical airport website, inclusion of Facebook and Twitter accounts into the study was assessed on a number of critera, e.g. nature and volume of postings, statement that account was official, the display of contact details clearly linked to airport, etc. Traffic volumes are taken from 2010, where this information is publically available. In most cases the information was taken from the ACI EUROPE Airport Traffic Report December 2010, however where this data was not present it was taken from other public sources such as airport websites, 'The Route Shop' website and Wikipedia. In the case of the 4 'Acores Airports' the traffic data is from 2009.When calculating the % of ACI EUROPE passenger traffic covered by airports with social media, an estimate was made for total ACI EUROPE passenger traffic in 2010 based on the equivalent figure for 2009 and a projected year on year growth rate of 4.3% in 2010. Airport names used are based on the title given to their respective Facebook title first and foremost, or the name provided in the 'description' section of their Twitter account, where there is no Facebook account.One exception was FLughafen Munster/Osnabruck, which had 'FMO' as a Twitter name and description. Airports are ordered within the charts on the basis of country and alphabetically i.e. Albania is the first country and the Uk the last. Biarritz Airport removed from Figure 5 as at time of observation its Twitter acount had 1 follower and no tweets - this would have created an inconsistent result. Statistics for ranking of Facebook country penetration taken from http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/?orderBy=penetration on 09/05/2011. Statistics for ranking of Twitter country penetration taken from http://www.webanalyticsworld.net/2010/08/twitter-usage-by-country.html on 09/05/2011. In Figure 6 a regression of the data produced a positive but statistically insignificant relationship between the two variables. This is due to the very limited & geographically biased data being used. For further information contact donagh.cagney@aci-europe.org

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