Why Airlines should adopt Private Interaction in its Social Media marketing strategy

by Demi


Private messaging on social media is gradually becoming the major form of customer interaction and response by many commercial airlines. Before now, brands are used to sending broadcasts which are not personal and are unable to impact the targeted audience.

It will be interesting to know why the sudden change and the impact this new strategy has created in the industry so far.

The desire for a new way to connect with customers

Commercial airlines have a number of reasons they are adopting this new method. Here are some of the most important reasons.

Publishing content that leads to PR disasters:

Every industry has issues with PR problems relating to posting of the wrong content. However, airlines are one of the top companies that have suffered from such unguided release of content that has caused serious damage to their brands. In order to reduce the negative effect of such blunders, Social media marketing for airlines has now adopted the use of private messages with the hope that they will be able to control unfavorable stories before they become a problem.

Improvement in private messaging tools:

In the past few months, social media apps like Facebook and Instagram have improved on their private messaging functions. With this, brands find it easier to connect with customers and the method is becoming even more popular among major brands.

Airlines have seen more competition recently:

Many more players are getting into the airline business and doing very great. This has led to increased competition in the industry, thereby necessitating the need to establish and manage a workable PR and branding that will separate them from the other companies.

Major shortcomings

Social media social media marketing for airlines is a powerful tool for connecting with customers and disseminating information. However, as good as it looks, there are shortcomings which include the following:

Lack of transparency:

One of the hallmarks of great brands is transparency. Businesses need to face challenges head-on and converse with customers in an open and simplified manner. However, the use of private messaging in social media marketing in aviation defeats all of that essence as it may portray the company has not been open enough to address serious issues in the public. When this happens, customers may find it hard to continue to trust such a brand.

Many complaints will still be available in public:

Whatever you do people will still put complaints out there in the public. Most customers feel that using private messaging deny other users the opportunity to learn from the errors of the company. To this end, there will always be an equal amount of public complaints as it has always been, which makes private messaging not so popular after all.

Social media management and response time:

With thousands of people making use of social media to connect with their favorite airlines, there is a need to invest more in social media teams. Airlines need to improve in their budgeting so they can deliver better results.

What brands in other industries can learn from the airline experience

Other businesses have so much to learn from the errors and challenges of the airline companies:

Using private messaging is beneficial:

There is no limit to what can be achieved through private messaging. Whatever the current strategy you’re using, your company can always benefit from additional strategies that will effectively work to help you reach your customers better and more intimately.

You can avoid most disasters with ease:

Incidents do occur online where comments by customers become toxic and uncontrollable. With the use of private messaging, such a message is less likely to go viral and cause any significant damage to your reputation. Using private messaging effectively will make it easy to control every piece of information, which is a vital tool especially for industries where bad stories travel fast.

Use both private and public messages:

Using private messaging is good but it shouldn’t be total. You should be able to incorporate both public and private messages just to balance things up if you want to be successful.

CONCLUSION

Every social media strategy has its good and bad sides, depending on what you’re trying to achieve. For most airlines, private messaging provides a new way for them to take advantage of exclusive communication avenue to avoid anything that could cause damage to their brand. The secret to the success of using Social media marketing in aviation is to ensure you balance its use. Also, you need to make sure every message is attended to, at a very fast response time. Build trust.

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