On 23 March I posted the results of the Top 100 Social Brands of 2008 by VIRTUE. Using their online gadget that measures the Social Media Index score (i.e. how many times the brand is mentioned in Social Media and in what of them) on daily basis I tested the "Social Power" of a number of European, American and Asian airlines.
According to the results I got for the 12th of June 2009 Jet Blue is the most social airline brand with a score of 1500, almost five times higher than the following brand( Air France).
The list:
Airline Social Score on 12 June 2009
Jet Blue 1500
Air France 326
Southwest Airlines 101
American Airlines 93
Air Canada 90
United Airlines 74
Air Japan 62
Air China 42
Air India 38
Ryanair 33
Air Asia 33
BA 31
Delta Airlines 28
Lufthansa 28
Finnair 28
KLM 28
Korean Air 21
Air Berlin 17
Iberia 16
Easy Jet 15
Air Norway 15
Austrian Airlines 12
Virgin 12
Singapore Airlines 12
Continental Airlines 10
Alitalia 8
Gulf air 6
Aer Lingus 4
Open Skies 3
Thai airlines 3
I would not dare to draw any conclusions, considering the limitations of the method, this but could be the subject of future research. But the tool is simple to use and it can help marketers to see how their brands perform in the social media space. I must however warn that these scores can change every day.
In my case I compared them all with one and the same airline in the right slot. One thing is sure, there is a lot of discussion about Jet Blue in the social media. Among other things they have their own YouTube Channel, a Flickr page and many YouTube films. Some are useful for their image but some are not . Conclusion: No conclusion if such a high score is necessary always a good thing
