Page 11 - AAA MAY - JUNE 2014 Online Magazine

STUDY SOCIAL MEDIA

Virtual Connect

Low cost carriers and social media By Chen Chuanren

the hIGhly connected sInGApore now connecting all the dots, therefore amongst each other; Tigerair’s recent
has one of the most active users of social it is not surprising that low-cost carriers price promotion gathered 153 ‘Shares’,
media in the world. (LCC) based in Singapore, in this case, and Scoot’s Tuesday’s Morning Glory
According to a study conducted by ‘We Scoot, Tigerair and Jetstar participate offers are always in the hundreds in
Are Social’, Singapore has an average aggressively in the social media realm. ‘Shares’. Sharing allows a greater reach
social media penetration rate of 59%, and The advent of Facebook in 2004 and amongst the passengers’ peers, and it
smartphones are at 87%. Twitter two years later had changed the is sometimes these pressure that will
Of the multitude of platforms, way airlines especially low-cost airlines spur and inspire each other to take the
Facebook and Twitter are the most budget themselves. motivation to purchase an airline ticket.
popular, with about 3.22 million and 2.56 For the first time, customers’ feedback
million Singaporean users respectively, Top down bottom up and the and questions are visible to the greater
and these numbers are set to rise. fifth estate public on social media. At a whip of a
At the same time, Singaporeans Unlike the one-way top down approach of smartphone, passengers can quickly
from the island state love to travel, in traditional media of television and print, snap a photo, comment on service and
2012 alone, they made 8.03 million trips new media has an active audience, whom complain on crashing servers from
both by air and sea, up 4% from the will respond to the news source. overwhelming responses of promotions.
previous year. Bangkok, Hong Kong, In low-cost airline operations, regular This ‘fifth estate’ is a double-edged
Taipei and Seoul are the top cities that promotions are a common in these sword. Tigerair and Jetstar Asia, whom
Singaporeans prefer. airline’s pages. Promotions are “shared” has both Facebook and Twitter pages,
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