Which UK Airport is best at engaging on Twitter? (Answer: Manchester)
18th September 2011, 07:20 pm by Matt Rhodes
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
Airports play an important role in many travel plans. Few people will feel that they are choosing and buying services from airports as they probably travel through an airport because the cheapest or most convenient flight goes through there. In fact in many cases the best airports are either those that make your experience so fast and efficient that you don’t need to spend much time there, or those that make you feel that you aren’t just waiting for a plane whilst you are there.
For any airport using social media it is important to have a very clear understanding of what they are trying to achieve and who they are communicating with, and what they want to talk about. Bad use of Twitter would be trying to engage too many different types of stakeholder about too many different types of topic with no clear benefit or reason for the airport to be using Twitter at all. Good is a clear, focused strategy. Perhaps engaging those who are en route to the airport or who are already there – making their journeys simpler and easier. Or maybe engaging those who are planning trips to help them with information about the area as well as about passing through the airport.
To analyse the success of UK airports on Twitter we have created a ranking of UK airports on Twitter using PeerIndex – which ranks how effective Twitter accounts are at engaging and influencing people in a meaningful way. There is one clear winner in this ranking: Manchester Airport. And taking a look at their Twitter account it is easy to see why. They are focused on engaging travellers and helping them to navigate their way through the airport as efficiently as possible. They answer questions on arrivals and departures, on how to get help at the airport and on what you will find when you are there. It serves, in effect, as a customer service and FAQ tool helping people to make the most of the time they spend at Manchester airport before and after their flight. It is perhaps this focus and real engagement that makes them so successful and (currently) the leader in our ranking.
UK Airports on Twitter: Ranking
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Dirk Singer:
Hi Matt,
Thanks for a really interesting piece. I have a vested interested through our (Rabbit’s) work with Gatwick and so would make a few comments in response.
First of all, fair play to Manchester, which obviously does a lot of excellent work.
MAN’s Peerindex and Klout scores are especially noteworthy when you consider that Heathrow dwarfs everyone else (LGW included). Dealing with many more passengers every day of course gives LHR a head start, all things being equal.
From personal experience though, Gatwick’s social media operations come into play when it counts. LGW runs its own feeds and we help during peak / crisis times. One of those was Christmas (http://www.therabbitagency.com/post/3401824029).
Being on the evening shift during the Dec snow disruptions, I saw other airport feeds signing off during the night.
Gatwick was easily the one live the longest – for around 20-22 hours a day. Related to that, Gatwick has trained operations staff to handle emergency Twitter enquiries out of hours as airports are clearly not 9-5 operations.
Secondly, Twitter is a large part of the story but not the only one. Gatwick’s social media strategy ties together a variety of different networks from location based, to review sites like Qype to the likes of Instagram.
All work in tandem in informing passengers about some of the changes taking place and crucially to give them an opportunity for feedback.
The way Gatwick has embraced social media has been recognised in the industry, having won or been-short listed for five awards this year.
In fact, over the weekend, Simpliflying published its short-list of the three top airports for the use of social media worldwide, with the winner due to be announced in Amsterdam in a few weeks (http://is.gd/OHQbmQ). The three top airports worldwide? Singapore, Copenhagen and representing the UK, Gatwick.
18 September 2011, 10:09 pmCharlotte:
Great idea. Have started one for British insurance firms: http://www.peerindex.com/charlotteclark/group/insurance
20 September 2011, 12:41 pmusefulsocialmedia.com » Blog Archive » regulated industries and social media, Facebook’s (negative) new changes, and an introduction to gamification:
[...] team have put together a ranking system to investigate the best engagement from all UK airports. Read on to find out which KPIs they have used to judge, why social media is particularly important for [...]
23 September 2011, 9:48 am