Hi everyone!

I chose to focus on Facebook as my social media platform for my individual project. The 3 companies that I analyzed are AirAsia, Scoot and Tigerair.

The airlines industry has rapidly expanded especially with the introduction of low-cost carriers (LCCs). The lower cost of flying via LCCs has enabled many more people to travel abroad and increased air travel globally. The value of this project is that the brand who is able to build a strong relationship with its consumers through social media, will be able to retain and foster brand loyalty amongst its consumers.

My 2 research questions for the project are:

1. How can Tigerair utilize Facebook to engage better with its customers and build a brand community.
2. What should Tigerair avoid communicating on Facebook in order to maintain a positive brand reputation on Facebook.

Analysis & Findings:

1. Use of hashtags

Hashtags are a great way for a brand to build brand community and increase brand salience for themselves. AirAsia is one of the brands that effectively uses #FlyWithAirAsia to get passengers who travel with them to post photos of their travels with this hashtag. These passengers act as brand advocates the moment they use #FlyWithAirAsia and help promote the brand in their own social networks.

2. Rules of engagement on social media

All 3 airline companies faced a common problem that could be observed easily on their Facebook pages. The problem was that they all faced disgruntled customers who had an unpleasant experience using their service. This was apparent as every other post that you see would have an angry comment from a passenger. However, the way in which the airlines companies engage with their customer care was not tactfully done. AirAsia was the only airline that attempted to redirect the issues to a separate page to prevent the overexposure of the issues.

Strategies:

1. #TigerSquad

Tigerair should develop their own personal hashtag strategy that their passengers can use for their social media post. I recommend using the #TigerSquad for passengers who travel via Tigerair. Tigerair can also utilize user-generated content by reposting amazing pictures of destinations or travels from their passengers.

2. 360° videos

Tigerair can create more engaging content by using 360° videos of the amazing travel destinations that they fly too. In this way, they are able to showcase the attractiveness of the destination and garner interest from its audience to book a flight for a vacation at these destinations. These 360° videos should showcase the landmark places of a particular destination, such as Singapore – Sentosa, Cambodia – Angkor Wat, Philippines – Boracay.

3. Dedicated customer care site

With disgruntled customers sharing their horror stories of lost baggage and other ticketing issues, it is imperative that we take these issues to a separate platform. The last strategy would be to develop a dedicated customer care site that allows the customer to fill in the details of their dissatisfied service and engage with a customer care officer. This would attempt to reduce the outbreak of angry customers posting on Facebook demanding for refunds and tarnishing the reputation of the airline.

That’s all for a summary of my individual project! Thank you for taking the time to read and enjoy your summer break!

David