Contribution of Facebook in Airline Sector

Facebook too has enormous and varied
popular appeal. It is increasingly a tool
for information exchange and a valuable
supplement for the airline’s own website,
where it can win new “likes” and provide a
focus for special offers. It is also potentially
(and controversially) a source of evolving
distribution capability, containing as it does,
massively detailed personal data, along with
access to more than half a billion consumers
(see for example, Professor Nawal Taneja’s
article in this issue, and below).
Many Facebook users are in the more
attractive market segments, with disposable
income and mobility. Despite a slowing in
growth, Facebook is still highly popular, with
extensive social relevance. As one Egyptian
activist, a local google marketing executive,
said on CNN in Feb-2011: “I want to meet
Mark Zuckerberg and thank him personally.
This revolution started online. This revolution started on Facebook. This revolution started in June 2010 when hundreds of thousands of Egyptians started collaborating content.”
Any self-respecting tyrant will take this to heart and block access to social media, just as Iran, Libya (and China) have. But that does not
apply for most airlines, which will have to live the foreseeable future with these forms of media, immediately a challenge – but also an opportunity to understand more about target markets first hand.