5 Ways Airlines and Hotels Can Drive Revenue with Social Media

5 WAYS AIRLINES AND HOTELS CAN DRIVE REVENUE WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

February 9th, 2010 | Tags: 5 Million, Airlines Companies, Airlines Travel, Cheap Fares, Cheeps, Cold Hard Cash, Dell, Distressed Inventory, Followers, Jetblue, Lufthansa, Media Efforts, Revenue Management System, Room Availability, Seat Room, Time Features, Travel Companies, Twitter, United Airlines, Unsold Seats

twitter airlines image Shashank Nigam is the CEO of SimpliFlying.com, an award-winning blog on airline branding. He tweets at @simpliflying.

Social media is no longer the “new” thing, especially for airlines. JetBlue has over one an a half million followers on Twitter. Lufthansa allows passengers to update their Twitter or Facebook status about where they are in the sky. AirAsia drives buzz about its new destinations through custom micro-sites. However, most airlines (and airports and hotels) are still struggling to earn direct revenue from their social media efforts.

Yet if Dell can make $6.5 million from Twitter, why can’t airlines? Here are five ways that social media can directly drive dollars for airlines (and other travel companies, like hotels).

1. Clear Distressed Inventory on Twitter

twitter airlines image Running an airline or hotel is much like running a cinema. It costs about the same to operate the hall (and the plane/hotel) no matter how many seats or rooms are filled up. Any unsold seats or rooms at the last minute are called “distressed inventory.” Combine the last-minute nature of such seat/room availability with the real-time features of tools like Twitter and you create the opportunity for airlines and hotels to generate cold, hard cash.