154 / 396
SOCIAL MEDIA:
The Perks of Being a Social Butterfly
“Hanoi-ce to meet you, Halong you been
coming here?” – may not be the best
pick-up ruse ever, but it, along with a
compilation of other corny one-liners
we posted on our Facebook page on
Valentine’s Day, including “Baby, meeting
you was a Miri-cle” and “For a love to keep
me safe and warm Iran to you”, certainly
got some smiles, and saw us trend at
least for the day. It also got us mentioned
on local TV programme Astro Awani and
several online sites.
Facebook postings such as the Valentine’s
pick-up lines and videos depicting the
region’s interesting people and places
have contributed to our rapidly growing
Facebook following which, by end 2017,
stood at more than 11 million, the second
highest among all airlines in the world,
according to Crucial Perspective, an
Asian transport equity research house.
In one of its reports released in June
2017, AirAsia ranked among the top five of
global airlines for our overall social media
presence. For Twitter in particular, we lead
the pack with almost 8 million followers
across six language channels, more than
double that of the no. 2 Tweeting airline,
Garuda.
These numbers are reassuring, proving to
us that we have got it right in the way we
connect with our fans and followers. It has
always been our intention to use social
media as a means of creating meaningful
links with our guests, friends and fans –
allowing them to get to know us better
and vice versa. However, in Crucial
Perspective’s report, Airlines Social Media
Influence 2017 – Social Butterflies or
Media Wallflowers?, there would appear
to be even greater, more business-
oriented perks from having strong social
media presence. The report noted that
the social butterflies among airlines
“tend to be airlines that have expanded
aggressively in the past 10 years”. The top
five airlines in its survey have notched
between us an average growth rate of
19.8% over the past 10 years compared to
the industry average of 5%.
While this report did not provide an
explanation for the link, other social
media analysts have noted how social
media presence influences consumers’
behaviour. No less than 54% of Twitter
users, surveyed by Twitter, reported that
they had taken positive action in relation
to a brand after seeing it mentioned in
Tweets (including visiting their website,
searching for the brand, or retweeting
content). Brandwatch, a digital company
that helps organisations understand their
customers better through social media
analysis, notes that the average Twitter
user follows five businesses, and 77%
feel more positive about a brand when
their Tweet has been replied to. Twitter is,
moreover, an excellent platform for people
to ‘advertise’ – consciously or not –
FOLLOWERS
11
MILLION
FOLLOWERS
8
MILLION
AIRASIA AMONG
TOP 5
GLOBAL AIRLINES
FOR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE
[ ]
AirAsia Group Berhad
BUSINESS REVIEW
142