Travel brings out the best in people. We get very excited and count down the days to take off, we take photos of our latest outfits we have just bought for the beach, we look up the weather weeks in advance and we do all of this on social media (via our smartphones of course).
76 per cent of UK holidaymakers have admitted they take more than one holiday or break abroad each year. With approximately 60 million people estimated to be going on holiday in 2013 we certainly love a good holiday.
Neil Walker Digital was very surprised to learn that it’s not tweets or Facebook shares that is dominating the industry, it’s Google +1s.
The social network that’s often a butt of jokes tops the flight industry’s social media activity and it’s all thanks to Thomson.
Frankly, in the air travel industry there isn’t anyone that comes close to the 159,486 social shares that Thomson have accumulated. The data from the Neil Walker Digital air travel report points to Ryanair being second with 31,881 social shares, with just 1474 +1’s making up the numbers. That’s more than 127,000 social shares between the most social air travel company and the second most social air travel company.
Of course, this is based on flights, although Thomson do make genuine attempts to interact with the active travel community in general on Google+ and get reasonable levels of engagement.
Why does Google+ work so well for the air travel industry?
Google+ isn’t just about the status updates or the photos you share, it’s about the wealth of services that Google offers to you.
Remember when I said you were very excited for your holiday? How many of you out there have done this?
Gone to Google Maps and looked for photos of the surrounding areas to your hotel.
How about checking out the recommendations for restaurants and bars?
All whilst you were doing that, the Google+ button was there all that time. Making it easy for you to share with your friends what you were up to.
In fact, I liked the idea of tying up the services so much that I did a video about going to Madrid… I may have used inspiration from Google themselves for it.
Whoever invested the time in doing Google+ had a very clever long-term plan. It has future proofed Thomson’s social media presence for when Google+ becomes a more integral experience for search users. Roll your eyes all you like, Google+ isn’t going anywhere.
As the next generation of holiday goers get used to sharing their information on Google+, Thomson will be at the forefront of capitalising on their desire to seek out the latest travel information and prices.
The excitement around the soon to be released Google Glass is sure to impact massively on the Google+ social network as it will make sharing your online activity almost as natural as breathing. We are sure Thomson will be one of the first to adopt the Google Glass concept and drive it to the forefront of its customer base and their strong social presence.
Glass will make taking photos of your food and giving it a +1 easy. Just look at that face.
The air travel industry data report threw up some other surprises too.
For such prestigious brands as Virgin Atlantic and British Airways, their social presence is dwarfed by that of RyanAir and Thomson.
Virgin Atlantic in particular have gone with a very bold approach for their latest advertising campaign and don’t forget they still have the association with the nice guy of business Richard Branson. It doesn’t appear to have translated into social mentions.
What appears to be true from the data report is this, if you are in the air travel industry and not using Google+ then you are missing out on a trick.
Of course, I’m waxing lyrically about Thomson’s social activity, but there are search statistics that prove they are also top of the class, particularly when it comes to their keyword reach.
This summary shows that the prestigious brands that we mentioned are doing better in other areas with their internet marketing campaigns.
For many years, search specialists have championed the effect of social media activity on search rankings. We are entering into an age where branded activity is rated higher than ever by Google, making social media a large part of the marketing puzzle.
Having a huge social media presence can improve your marketing campaign massively and can easily drive traffic to your website through social media websites such as Google+ and Twitter. To enhance your understanding of any part of a campaign you will need to have data to analyse and assist the improvement stage.
The full report we used to create this article includes 65 pages of data about the air travel industry, including keyword reach, referring traffic, links and social media activity. The report goes into great depth and can be created for any industry.
If you like the report and want to see it to its full capacity in your industry then it is available on request from [email protected]