Next Tuesday I’m speaking at the Airports Council International – North American Marketing and Communications Forum. I was invited to speak by Benet Wilson of Aviation Week – someone I keep running into at various social media conferences, so she must know her stuff!
Ironically I’m making the drive – all the way from my home in Pound Ridge, NY to Pittsburgh, PA. What can I say, I love driving through Pennsylvania.
I thought long and hard about what I would tell the assembled airport marketing managers. Clearly they are in a tough spot – between the needs of passengers and the requirements of security. And if the weather shifts, guess who gets the blame?
So I’m going to forgoe my usual history of social media and get right to the point. The decision to fly into one airport or another can be just as easily impacted by convenience as it could be by something someone read on Twitter or a travellers forum. It’s very easy to find out if one airport has better parking, quicker check in, nicer dining choices or a parking garage that is a bus ride and a load of hassles away from the terminal. And it’s just as easy for airport marketing managers to read what’s being said about their properties on the Internet as it is for you or me.
The hardest part of social media is learning to listen. But it’s often the most important thing you can do.
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