I’m very much looking forward to attending my first EyeforTravel Mobile conference next month in San Francisco.  Mobile is playing and increasingly central role in the travel sector and while we’ve seen amazing impact so far, I think the best is yet to come. I can’t wait to see what people are doing and hear how they’re looking to further integrate mobile into their business. There’s so much potential to reduce transactional friction, enhance traveler’s experiences and change business processes — it’s very exciting.

Even more so I’m looking forward to my role as one of the judges of the Mobile Innovation in Travel awards at the event, alongside execs from AT&T and the Mobile Marketing Association. Should be fun.

Voting is currently taking place online to decide who the lucky 9 finalists who will present at the event to the panel of judges will be.  Don’t forget to cast your vote for your favorite mobile initiative. Vote early and vote often!

If you see me there, please stop by and say hi. Or better yet, give me a shout and let’s make sure we meet.

In the world of social media Google Plus is currently the youngest and least understood (albeit, fast rising in popularity) kid on the block. Over its relatively short life it has earned its fair share of both lovers and haters, generating an interesting debate on what it will become when it grows up, and whether it is worth investing in it.

When Google Plus was finally opened to businesses with the launch of its business pages there was a rush from companies all over the world to get a G+ page, but as our CEO Shashank Nigam warned in an article about the potential pitfalls for airlines using Google Plus, few of these companies seemed to have a clear idea of what to do with this new platform.

Let’s get some hard data

To get some clarity and hard data SimpliFlying did what it does best: walk the talk! We got ourselves a brand page on Google Plus and sent one of our team-members on a data-finding mission. While signs of progress on this particular social network is admittedly slow, after a week of relentless searching, we have come up with the first ever snapshot of the airline industry on Google Plus.

The main finding were:

• There are now 70 airlines with brand pages on G+.
• The vast majority of the pages are in English – about 78.5%. But on average, pages in Spanish are “liked” more often.
• The airline with the highest number of “likes” (known as “+1″s) was Mexican low cost carrier Volaris with almost 3000, double that of the second most popular page.
• The most common type of content on G+ pages is brand-related.

If you are an airline executive eager to know more, please do contact us and we’ll offer you a customized consulting or training solution to suit your needs.

Download a larger version of this infographic here.

What are your thoughts about how airlines should use Google Plus? Where do you see Google Plus headed? Tell us in the comments below or tweet us @simpliflying. Or, better still, join us on Google Plus.

• Airlines rush to get brand pages on Google+, but why? 7 questions to ask before you join a new social media platform
• [Infographic] Airlines on Twitter – April 2011 data reveals the need to focus on Customer Service
• Spain air traffic control strike: social media comes to the rescue, once again
• The essence of SimpliFlying, in an infographic. Introducing the coolest About Us page in the industry!
• Eezeer and SimpliFlying launch airline monthly twitter report – Delta leads Twitter use, and customer service is in!

The Yin and Yang of Social Media was the theme of my luncheon keynote presentation at the 2012 Receptive Services Association of America Summit conference held February 7, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans. Many thanks go to Best Western International for their sponsorship of the event.

For most, few topics are as confusing as social media, so I decided to incorporate an even more baffling subject - Taoist metaphysics...

Receptive Operators are the organizations responsible for bridging the gap between tour operators located throughout the world and the travel suppliers and destination management organizations serving as hosts to international travelers visiting the United States.

With the renewed focus on inbound tourism by the Obama Administration and the United States Travel & Tourism Brand USA initiative, receptive operators in the US can expect to be increasingly busy over the coming years.

Below is a copy of the presentation. It may be downloaded by selecting the Slideshare link.

It occurred to me that many complementary forces are at play in social media, and like Yin and Yang, one force cannot exist without being described in relation to its opposing force.

Since I was speaking in the home of New Orleans Voodoo, it seemed appropriate to discuss social media given the impassioned hyperbole professed by self-proclaimed “Experts, Gurus, Ninjas and/or Jedi” of social media as a panacea for virtually anything and the serious social scientists struggling to statistically prove causation.

The result was somewhat a good news & bad news story, with the moral being:

1. A primary focus should be on business objectives and operational excellence
2. To succeed at social media, management resources must subscribe to the Golden Rule
3. There are simply too many social media platforms and channels to manage, so participation must be be highly prioritized

Several hat tips are due to Edelman, Altimeter Group & Brian Solis for some great stats and content to help frame the issues.

Related posts:

1. What a Skull Fracture Can Teach Us About Social Media
2. What Las Vegas Casino Hotel Does Social Media Best?
3. Say Anything… Fast Times at Social Media High School

The Yin and Yang of Social Media

JetBlue is late to the game, but it has rolled out an app with high functionality despite its clean design. The airline developed its new digital strategy with the help of digital agency Rokkan, app developer DoubleEncore and the input of more than 15,000 customers.

The new app, available for download at the iTunes store, offers all the basics—booking, check-in and flight-status monitoring. Other features include weather reports for destination cities, and easy organization of past and upcoming trips. It also includes a virtual postcard tool and connectivity to social networks so users can share their travel experiences. In addition, travelers can scout in-flight amenities like snacks, beverages, movies and DIRECTV schedules.

JetBlue aimed for more personalization in designing its new platforms—what a user sees will depend on geo-targeting, booking history and any preferences they have entered into the TrueBlue rewards program. The website also includes a feature called “Pick Me Up” that allows users to not only share their itinerary with a friend in their destination city, but also to send that friend maps and traffic reports.

Travelers can expect to see better apps soon from other airlines, predicts Colleen Taylor writing at Gigaom.com. She points to a CNN story from last fall highlighting an Airline IT Trends Survey that found that more than 90 percent of carriers plan to increase their investment in mobile.

Photo: JetBlue

Related posts:

Slope Sleuth: iPhone App for Snow Condition Reports and Lift Ticket Deals

Fly to the U.S. Virgin Islands Direct With New Flight From JetBlue

Airline Industry Getting in on Travel Apps

1. Gadgets in-flight – personal and those supplied by the airlines
2. The connected traveler – and how to drive engagement and revenue
3. Learning from other retail models – in this case Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Tesco in Korea

Sharing here my Prezi presentation. The recorded video will be available soon too, so please do check back!

• Airports in social media – driving results and the road ahead. Presentation from ACI Airport Exchange, Abu Dhabi
• Low cost airline brands get creative with ancillary revenues – lounges, shops and cargo!
• The buzz from #socialindia about our presentation on how airlines drive results from social media
• Top 10 Airports on Social Media – case studies of the airports best at driving engagement
• The evolving traveler lifecycle, and how airlines are engaging customers through the journey #smtravel11

Each month we nominate three rockstars from the aviation industry who’ve led their airlines to dazzling heights on the social web through their innovations and cutting-edge initiatives. As usual, voting will automatically close in exactly 7 days from now (Monday 11.59 pm Pacific Time). The winner gets multiple goodies: an extended profile on SimpliFlying, a Certificate of Appreciation as well as the chance to gain a wildcard entry to this year’s SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence.

Without further ado, we present this month’s nominees:

Aku Varamäki, Finnair

You can’t deny that Finnair has a penchant for the unusual and innovative. Whatever they do makes you sit up and take notice of them. The recent Republic Day dance coupled with the Angry Birds route-launch competition and the Quality Hunters initiative have secured them this month’s nomination. Aku has been personally leading a number of these initiatives and forms a critical part of the Finnair marketing machine.

Jerry Fletcher, Delta Air Lines

By now, Delta is firmly established as one of the Big Daddies of airlines on social media. Their Delta Assist initiative which offers real-time customer service over social media has set the benchmark for other airlines to follow. Not only is it known for its legendarily short response-time, but Delta makes sure to reply to every mention they get, all within 9 minutes!

Jerry has been the one leading the charge to revolutionize customer service at Delta through social media and this nomination proof that his hard work is paying off.

Mohd Hisham Saleh, Malaysia Airlines

After Delta got the buzz going with their Facebook booking engine, Malaysia went one step further and kick of the social seating game. Their MHBuddy Facebook app, launched last year, allows passengers to select seats alongside their Facebook friends if they’re flying the same flight. Hisham has also been leading a number of eCommerce-led social media initiatives at Malaysia Airlines that have almost always driven revenues for the airline. (It’s worth noting that KLM launched the first “pure” social-seating initiative, Meet and Seat, last week in Amsterdam.)

So, what’re you waiting for? Vote for your favourite now!

• A revamped SimpliFlying Heroes initiative – Vote for the Jan 2012 Hero now!
• Airlines on Twitter in May 2011: AirAsia and TAM Brazil hot on the heels of Delta Airlines
• [Infographic] Airlines on Twitter – April 2011 data reveals the need to focus on Customer Service
• Malaysia Airlines takes booking and check-in to Facebook. And now, you can sit next to your friend too!
• Eezeer and SimpliFlying launch airline monthly twitter report – Delta leads Twitter use, and customer service is in!

Then, last year, there were significant indications of things to come with Malaysia Airlines allowing customers to sit next to their Facebook friends. However, a couple of months ago KLM announced that they would launch the first “truly” social seating system for airlines matching customer’s social profiles with those having similar profiles or interests.

So far, given the lack of details about how the system would exactly work, the announcement was both welcomed as well as met with trepidation by the online community. Some claimed they’d love to try this new system, saying that it would spare them long hours of boredom on their flights, to  the outraged reactions of people who thought it would be an unjustifiable invasion of privacy and could lead to in-flight harassment to unwilling seat-mates.

Today’s the real deal!  At KLM`s headquarters in Amsterdam, the world will witness the announcement of something different, radically innovative but also, controversial: allowing passengers to choose seat mates based on information about their shared interest taken from their Facebook profiles!

Let’s move on now to what’s really happening at Amsterdam.

Click here to view the embedded video.

KLM’s Meet and Seat – Live!

Follow the live-blog below to get blow-by-blow updates as the new product is unveiled (the blog will be updated as soon as the press conference starts)

Photo credit: @polledemaagt

[1.30pm] Social Seating will be launched on flights between Amsterdam and San Francisco, Sao Paolo and New York City.

[1.40 pm] We’ve learnt that passengers will be able to share information from their Facebook or LinkedIn account and will be to see who else is traveling on a particular flight and has shared relevant data. Everyone can decide which data they want to link with their flight. This information can be used by passengers to choose a seat-mate.

[1.45 pm] KLM President & CEO Erik Varwijk said that KLM has always strived to be cutting edge in social media and it’s latest revolutionary initiative will be fun and useful for people with similar interests to connect.

[1.50 pm] Meet & Seat will be can be reserved 90 days to 48 hours before departure on all intercontinental KLM flights via ‘Manage My Booking’.

[2.00 pm] We’ve managed to secure the very first look of what Meet and Seat will be like.

[2.15 pm] Essentially, after booking your KLM flight, choose what Facebook or LinkedIn profile details you want to share. Subsequently, view the profile details of fellow-passengers to find like-minded people or business partners. After evaluating such details you can choose to sit beside a person whose profile you find interesting. Of course, once you’re tuned into the social seating game, the potential is limitless as you could later choose to have a coffee at the airport or even share a taxi with the person you sit next to.

Here’s the Live video of the unveiling…

Click here to view the embedded video.

• How an intelligent seating system can bring ancillary revenues, and is great for the airline brand
• 5 Ways to Incorporate Social Media Into the Flying Experience, and leverage on your “followers”
• Three ways the Cathay Pacific brand can come alive by infusing social media into the People site
• Vote for the SimpliFlying Hero of February 2011 – Finnair vs Delta Air Lines vs Malaysia Airlines
• Malaysia Airlines takes booking and check-in to Facebook. And now, you can sit next to your friend too!

The TripButler wifi device is a small pill shaped unit that fits in your hand or pocket and uses local mobile carrier partners to provide data at a fraction of the cost of a roaming mobile phone.  The device can support up to five devices at a time so it is perfect for a family travelling together or a small group of friends.  Imagine paying for roaming charges on 5 different iPhone or Android devices.  For a one week trip, the unit including 300 MB of data is only 36 Euros or about$50 US.  Considering that a 5MB week long International data pass from Rogers.com costs $75, the savings and value of a device like the TripButler is pretty clear.

Here is a nice little promo video explaining how it works…

Tripbutler Demo Video from Michael Hirschbrich on Vimeo.

You can order a device in advance of your trip and have it delivered to you or your hotel so it is ready to use once you arrive.  The cost of delivery is about $14.  The website does mention a 75 Euro deposit that is refunded if the unit is returned undamaged.

TripButler is providing a 10% discount exclusive to T4 readers who use promo code “BUZA2012“.  For more information about the TripButler and to rent a device, visit their website at http://www.tripbutler.com.

If you have rented the device or plan to, let us know what you think of the service by leaving a comment.