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On a recent flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a personal response from the airline when I posted details of my trip on Twitter. I say “pleasantly surprised” because many brands rarely interact with their followers on social media. I noticed that Cathay Pacific was different, engaging with nearly everyone who used @cathaypacific in their posts. I decided to test the airline’s social media team. I requested an interview with the head of social media. By the end of the day I was having an email exchange with Dennis Owen, the group manager for social media at Cathay Pacific Airways. Again, a timely response that I rarely get with many “thought leaders” or brands.
As an author and a contributor to Forbes.com, I’m on Twitter every day to aggregate information and contact potential interviews for my column. What I have found—to my growing frustration—is that very few leaders and brands use social media to interact with their fans and customers. “Social,” by definition, means two-way dialogue and yet most brands use social media as a one-way tool to broadcast promotions or ads. But from time to time I find brands that truly engage customers on social media and—this should come as no surprise— brands that are responsive on social media are often the ones that win awards for customer service .
Since Cathay Pacific has often been named one of the world’s top airline by Skytrax (Cathay Pacific ranked first in 2014 and third in 2015), and the brand is very active on social media, I decided to ask Owen for some tips I can share with you.
Create a position 100% dedicated to social media.
“The world of social media has dramatically changed over the past few years,” says Cathay Pacific’s Dennis Owen. “No longer is social media just about clever marketing campaigns or gathering as many fans as you can on Facebook.” Social media touches nearly every department at Cathay Pacific: marketing communications, brand storytelling, employee recruitment, reservations, customer service. Social media is not a part-time position. It’s a full-time commitment. And the job description goes well beyond hiring a person who simply knows how to open and maintain a social media account. It requires hiring people who are skilled in business, communication, storytelling, marketing, writing, service, and who have strong interpersonal skills.
Provide great customer service offline and online.
Cathay Pacific considers everything a customer touch point: website, reservations, phone, and social media. Each touch point should be considered as an opportunity to provide exceptional service. As a premium brand, Cathay Pacific must reflect its status in look, feel, and tone across each touch point. “As a quality carrier we look at every single touch point from the customer perspective,” says Owen. If you are going to pay the extra money for a premium airline you should get more in terms of service, and that includes social media.”
Play to the channel’s strengths.
“Each social media channel has its own characteristics,” says Owen. “On Facebook, these are our true fans. They know us, like us, and enjoy interacting on Facebook.” Cathay Pacific’s Facebook page includes deals, promotions, limited time specials, and photos/videos/articles about its aircraft or clubs—the type of content that resonates with loyal customers.
The Twitter audience is broader, according to Owen, “The Twitter audience can be our fans, but it also includes people who are generally interested in international travel, be it leisure or corporate.” Twitter posts should appeal to loyal customers, as well as people who are simply interested in travel. LinkedIn, on the other hand, is more business focused and so Cathay Pacific posts content for people who are interested in the aviation industry or those looking for a premium business travel experience. Meanwhile, “Instagram and Pinterest would be our newer platforms and those tend to skew a bit younger in age,” says Owen. “These are the sites where people come to be inspired. Perhaps they are planning a trip in the future and want to get more of a visual feel for what that could look like, whether it is looking at destination images, product or lounge images or even modern airplane images.” Since Instagram is a channel where people like to post travel photos, Cathay Pacific started a campaign inviting people to share their pictures and use the hashtag #lifewelltraveled. Today the campaign has generated over 100,000 images. “The future is leaning toward the visual, around images and videos, so we see great opportunity with Instagram and Pinterest,” says Owen.
Above all, establishing and growing a strong social media presence requires a commitment from an organization’s top leaders, a dedication to interact with a brands’ fans, potential customers, and employees. “We see social media as a way to build relationships with our customers through two way dialogues,” says Owen. “We will always strive to be better at what we do and relationships via social media allow us to do just that.”
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