Shortlist For Moodies

The best airlines to use social media!

Ever wanted to get easy access to flight times, airport delays or check-in information by just checking Facebook or Twitter? Well there’s a set of awards specified on picking the best airlines to distribute this information, The Moodies. The second annual awards have recently released their shortlist of recognition for the best airlines to use social media. The airport specific digital, mobile and social media awards have listed plenty of nominations via different social platforms and their website.

Categories such as ‘Best Facebook Page’, ‘Best Twitter’ and ‘Best Single Social Media Marketing Campaign’ and 11 others are filled with a shortlist of 82 individual entries. These entries come from a mixture of self-nominations, judges’ nominations and a call for submissions from around the industry.

Obviously, the need for instant information is fairly crucial in an airport environment. Where changes and updates are constantly going on, information isn’t always passed on to the public in the first instance. Social media is the perfect way to get that information effectively, and with little effort. In a field such as travel/flying where different airlines are often competing with one another, what better way to judge them than on social media where everyone can see what they’re doing?

Nominees are judged under six different headings to make up the ‘Moodie 100’ scoring system. These six headings are; Quantifiable Impact, Customer Engagement, Visual Appeal, Quality of Content, Incentive to Spend and Impact on the Traveller Experience.

Quantifiable Impact basically looks at the glory numbers. The number of likes, views, shares, followers, etc. are used to judge but this is taken into account with the amount of traffic these airports get on a day-to-day basis. Customer engagement is there for judges to see how well the social sites interact with their fans and the level of conversation is achieved.

Visual Appeal looks at how creative the brands manage to be with their social activity because although they’re prone to receiving a lot of negative abuse, the necessity to entertain fans and followers is still there. From that, the quality of content is also judged. Although brand messages may change, the goal is still to produce a high standard of content that is viewed as such by the followers. Extra praise is given to those that choose to more than just push a product.

Saying that, however, the product is extremely important. What are the companies doing to get their fans to spend within their business? The ability to find a balance between pushing a product and engaging with the audience is a tricky one, but once found, it’s like gold dust! Finally, how have these companies impacted on the traveller’s experience as a whole? Have they made things easier and more enjoyable? Or just caused more aggression and are just provoking further frustration?

Now that mobile phones are becoming the main access to social media, and mobile phones are one of the main things for people to pass the time in the departure lounge, social media and airports go hand in hand. The Moodies seem perfect simply as a way to encourage more brands to up their game on social media, despite having a strange name.

Dan Barr

I'm a Social Media Executive (Global Community Manager). Previous work includes writing for Social Media Frontiers and working for a major DIY retail company as part of their social media strategy team I have an MA in Sports Journalism and especially love the combination of social media and sport.

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