Ways and effectiveness of social media utilization by airlines

This research was motivated by growing significance of social media in airline marketing. The basic research question was to determine the role of social media in the marketing of the world\u27s top airlines. The social media selected for the analysis include Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest, Google +, LinkedIn and Sina Weibo. The criteria used for social media selection included their nature, degree of utilization in travel and tourism according to published studies, a global ranking based on a number of users, and their dynamic development in the last two years. The analyses were based on publicly accessible data published on the selected airlines\u27 websites and their official social media. Airlines\u27 social media groups were assessed by means of various quantitative metrics – total viewer ratings, number of contributions by airlines, number of responses by subscribers, the year when the group was established, the interconnectedness of the social media groups to the corresponding airline website. Management of these groups was assessed as well as the content of airline communication in its social media groups. The most significant findings, which should be verified on a more representative sample, include the fact that all the selected airlines wield groups on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn