More airlines now have Twitter accounts than they have loyalty programs. As of July 2011, 191 airlines were on Twitter, while only 179 carriers offered loyalty programs. The number of airline tweets increased 51% between March 2011 and July 2011, according to a new report by Simpliflying.
Delta was the first airline to create a Twitter account while @JetBlue now has over 1.5 million followers. Like Delta and JetBlue, most airlines use the social media platform to advertise cheap flights and respond to customer service inquiries.
I believe that this trend is in direct correlation with people's shorter attention spans. Most of us, especially the younger generation, are looking for instant gratification and feedback, yet with lessened attention span.
This is the beauty of Twitter. There is an engagement level from the person Tweeting which fits in the short attention span model and stimulates areas of the brain that are the 'pleasure centers' for short -term gratification.
Airlines are trying to influence behavior, create engagement and provide an active channel for communication and feedback.
Twitter allows this to happen because the short tweets are being shown to be an effective communication tool -- airlines can tweet updates and respond in real-time to passenger feedback. The immediacy and simplicity of getting the information from the "source" versus the latency of other media or feedback mechanism (call centers, etc.) are a true value-add to the airlines without the hassles of engaging through an IVR or call center.
Loyalty programs that have twitter feeds and other voice of the customer-based interactions would be even more successful. Tweets are additional behavioral touch points that can help brands better understand the customer and what their interests, attitudes and potential next behavior may be.