I've been doing some research and guess what? There are still people who only use their device (I am not calling it a phone) to make phone calls, even road warriors. The more you move from the baby boomers (born before 1964) via Generation X (born between 1965 and 1979) and tune in on the millennials (born as from 1980 onwards), the less they use the device to make calls.
According to Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research , nearly 50% of millennials use their devices for instant messaging/chat compared to 30% of those in Gen X and only 10% for boomers. Looking at the usage of social media, the figures for millennials and Gen X are more or less the same around 40%, whereas boomers come in around 25%.
It is also important to realise that brands, which could be translated to mean your company as well, are better liked when using social media. Also, and this should not come as a surprise, the generation that lives online, likes to buy online.
So it becomes crucially important to address the aforementioned facts while developing your social media and communications strategy.
Another important fact is to realise which types of social media exist and would best fit your company, culture as well as employees.
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We all know the social networks (eg Facebook and LinkedIn) which are basically used to connect with other people of similar interest and background. Other social media are bookmarking sites, social news, media sharing (YouTube), micro-blogging (Twitter) and blog comments and forums. Some of the social media do have overlap between the various services, eg Facebook's status updates are like the microblogging tweets of Twitter.
Case study: KLM's social strategy
Before starting to answer the question of 'how travel managers can use social media to interact with its travellers', I would like to zoom in on KLM, which is providing one of the best social customer care programmes in the world.
During 2014, the airline received about 80,000 questions on Facebook, which equals nine questions per hour including non-working hours and weekends. KLM ranks as the highest brand when it comes to social care demand on Facebook. The airline responds quickly, at an average of 1.35 hours compared to an airline industry average of 4.22 hours. Furthermore, KLM is striving to reduce the average response time as client indications show that a 'response within an hour' is already too long. The carrier also responds in 14 languages and in real-time 24/7.
According to Karlijn Vogel, social media manager at KLM, more than 60,000 customer questions are answered weekly via all social media channels, by a team of 150 support agents. But it is also clear that both Facebook and Twitter (as well as other channels) are some decent money makers for the airline, about €25 million per annum. KLM is also using Instagram and Pinterest as part of its overall social media strategy.
Other successful examples of KLM's social media strategy are the Meet & Seat programme – which lets passengers see which of their Facebook and LinkedIn connections are travelling on the same KLM flight - and the Lost and Found Service with Beagle dog Sherlock.
From the KLM example we can, among others, learn that 'knowing your audience, language and responsiveness' are all crucial factors for a successful social media programme.
Now let's tune into a corporate travel programme and see how travel managers can use social media to interact with travellers.
At many corporations, the induction is part of the process for all new employees who join a company. The travel programme is often referenced during this and the travel and expense policies are explained. But how many people do really read all of these, sometimes extensive, documents? Front-runner HR departments (often in co-operation with finance, procurement and/or travel) have developed short videos which can be viewed on an 'internal' YouTube channel. This approach can also be used to educate travellers of a policy change or an annual training of the employee on travel and expense related topics. Based on the content of the video, staff will have to answer questions and receive a certificate if they pass, which will also become a part of the employee file.
So YouTube is a more or less static source to communicate with your travellers, although they may be allowed to, for instance, leave comments. The more active way to interact with your travellers on a regular basis will be through sources like Twitter, Facebook but maybe also Pinterest or Instagram.
But what is it that you want to communicate? Pre-, mid- or post-travel or a combination? Will you as a company manage the content or will you involve your TMC to do so? Social media is inevitably 24/7 - are you able to adopt the 'follow the sun' principle? Can social media sources be used in case of emergency? How about access to traveller profiles? There are many more questions to answer...
Furthermore, you can use them to market your corporate travel programme, to educate as well as to create awareness to trigger reactions.
Examples of messages you could send to travellers include
- An upcoming change in your corporate travel policy
- Encouraging to book well in advance and save company money
- Do you really need to travel or can you use the onsite video conferencing facilities to conduct your meetings?
- Changes in ancillary fees of an airline
- Different modes of transport Your corporate hotel programme
One size will certainly not fit all. For the next, let's say, 10 to 15 years baby boomers will still actively be involved in business, so no matter what you develop or implement, you will have to ensure you reach all staff of your company. You may have to offer alternatives and focus on multiple streams, of which the simplest could be email or even picking up a phone.
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So let's have a final look at the future...what will it bring?
It is clear that it is challenging to provide a complete answer on how travel managers can use social media, but you cannot afford not to use social media in today's business environment. The mix of challenges, differences, goals, global vs. regional vs. local, (privacy) laws, technology available, culture and management style of your company combined will all define what the best fit will be for your social media programme.
I want to leave you with a final thought from the automotive industry.
On average it takes eight years to develop a new car model. Once introduced to the market, it will be on sale for the next six to eight years, mostly pending competition. The two combined shows that we are looking at a life cycle of an average 15 years for a specific model.
Recently we have seen the launch of the Apple watch and we have seen pictures of the Google driverless car. I would really be very interested to receive a glimpse of what these companies have on their drawing boards and the effect these new products will have on social media as well as its impact on the corporate travel arena...by 2030.
One thing is for sure, we haven't seen anything yet.