Such social media technologies as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Plaxo have garnered headlines for usage surges and banter. But how can travel buyers or suppliers harness the technology for business purposes? What are the risks of using, or allowing travelers to use, such sites?
In a crash course on social media for business travel at the Chicago Business Travel Association's education day this month, AirPlus International public relations, marketing and communications director Rana Walker, Caldwell Associates attorney John Caldwell, and Google associate account planner Jessica Hoenes detailed how to get started and ways to control and protect your information while using such applications.
Twitter is the "fastest-growing site on the Internet at over 1,300 percent year over year," Walker said, citing a 2008 Cone Business study. To highlight the growth of the social media revolution, Hoenes said a recent Harvard Business Reviewreport stated, "In 2009, more data will be generated by individuals than in the entire history of mankind through 2008."
But to get started, many have to lose their misconceptions about just who is using social media tools. It's not just teens. Facebook showed a 276 percent year-over-year growth among 35-to-54-year-olds, Walker said. Demographics pointing to widespread and increased use among older groups were among the data points that Google's Jessica Hoenes said she frequently highlights as she encourages travel suppliers to trial social media.
Among corporate travel buyers, 58 percent of 200 recently surveyed by AirPlus about social media usage said they used LinkedIn, 45 percent said they used Facebook, 28 percent used "none," nearly 16 percent used Twitter and nearly 13 percent used blogs.
Within travel, panelists pointed to uses of Twitter and LinkedIn at conferences to promote presentations or to ask questions of colleagues. For news updates, Hoenes said, Twitter users knew 30 minutes before anyone else that a plane had landed in the Hudson River earlier this year.
Suppliers also are using the technology, said Acquis Consulting strategy development director Greeley Koch, session moderator, who noted that Virgin America earlier this month reached out via a social networking platform to a disgruntled traveler who had problems at the gate.
"As Twitter grows, it will become more common for brands to harness" this functionality, Koch said.
Marriott also used social media in response to a YouTube video about a dirty hotel room, Hoenes added. They said they had cleaned the room and offered the poster a free room night.
To monitor talk about AirPlus, business travel, payment trends and other topics of interest to her, Walker said she relies on a free application, called Tweetdeck. Walker said she usually keeps the application open on her desktop to quickly see and read any topics of interest.
Panelist Caldwell raised questions about the risks of such technologies for employees, employers and corporate travel programs. The lawyer said there are "three levels of interest in networking: as an individual you have social interest; as an employee you have an employee interest in exchange of information, feedback and policies; and employers have interest in their data and their employees' data. In addition to having legal duty to protect the safety of employees, [employers] also have a duty to protect their employees' privacy. These three different levels of interest can be separate or they can be merged together in the sense that you can use the various social media tools for business, social or combination. It's in the combination area where there are some risks."
One of the risks, Caldwell said, is in forfeiting rights to any information posted on such sites as Facebook. The terms of service are "about 12 pages, single space." The poster continues to own the content, but grants Facebook a license to use it until individuals delete it. But "where it's particularly risky are when the 400,000 application providers," access the data and the privacy controls go away, he added.
Both Walker and Hoenes noted that LinkedIn, Facebook and other applications provide privacy controls to allow users to control who may access their pictures and contacts. For example, users can grant access to beach photos to friends in their network, but not work colleagues or the public.
But another area of risk, according to Caldwell, is in the release of competitive secrets. Travelers or buyers might "be talking to someone about what they paid for travel" on a specific airline. Within most airline contracts is a provision, Caldwell said, that allows the carrier to cancel the contract if the corporation divulges such details.
Some companies also prohibit employees from accessing social networking sites from company computers, said Caldwell.
"The best thing to do is balance and make sure there is a reasonable balance. Really think twice about who is going to use information, and you really need to use the privacy controls," Caldwell warned. Also remember to log out when using a computer other than your own and delete information, he added. "There are advantages and disadvantages. Adaptation to travel makes a lot of sense, but it's in its infancy. At the end of the day, there has to be a fair amount of trust of employees, but as the saying goes, trust, but verify."
Walker acknowledged the risk, but noted that social media "is a way to further the industry," and for users to connect, especially when business travel has been reduced due to the economy.
To get started, Hoenes said, users should "identify your needs" and find sites that best match them. In addition to the widely used social networking sites, there are numerous "niche interest" sites that range from one that helps "couch surfers" find a free place to crash on a sofa to business topics. But users "really won't get a lot out of these tools unless you commit to using them. Create a goal to spend 20 minutes a day or an hour a week," Hoenes said.
In response to an audience question, Hoenes acknowledged that about "60 percent of people who sign up for a Twitter account don't return after the first 30 days. A lot of people are just curious, they just don't get it and they leave." And, a recent Harvard Business School study reported that "10 percent of the Twitter population produces 90 percent of content," she said.
Hoenes encourages travel supplier clients to use Twitter's search function to "search their brands and see what the chatter is about. In advanced search, you can find negative and positive comments." She mentioned another application, called Twist, which aggregates the top trends on Twitter for the day.