THE SOCIAL MEDIA REVOLUTION 527If you want to find out who is taking the same flight as you, you have to fly KLM. With ‘Meet & Seat’ you can view other
passengers’ Facebook or LinkedIn profile details and see where they will be sitting – long before your flight takes off.
This new KLM Airlines’ service lets you find out about interesting people who will be on board the same KLM flight,
such as other passengers attending the same event as you at your destination. In February 2012, KLM ‘Meet & Seat’
was piloted for bookings with one passenger and for KLM flights between Amsterdam and New York, San Francisco
and Sao Paulo from 90 days until 48 hours before departure. Based on social media profiles, passengers can choose
seat partners. KLM has been experimenting with social media since the volcanic ash cloud in 2010. On Facebook,
KLM has more than 1 million followers, which makes it the third most followed airline in the world. KLM wants to
integrate social media throughout its entire flight operations so passengers can get quick answers to questions and
complaints, and so that they can easily rebook online for a later flight. At the headquarters in Amstelveen, KLM has
set up a permanent ‘Social Media Hub’, where dozens of employees are active 24 hours a day.^196BUSINESS INSIGHT
KLM launches Meet & Seat on Facebook and LinkedInpress releases got no response. Th is approach has made it quite successful. JetBlue tore down
the wall between the customer and the brand by implementing Twitter.^195 Google reported in
April 2012 that Google+ boasted over 170 million members globally vs nearly 900 million
users for Facebook.Demographics and usage
When it comes to demographics, women outnumber men on some social networks – women
make up 53% of Facebook users and 49% of MySpace users. LinkedIn and Twitter have a more
male profi le: a majority of LinkedIn members (56%) and Twitter users (55%) are men. People
link online with their offl ine friends. Social networking is a way for people to meet up with
others. On average a Facebook account has 133 friends; a Twitter account has 59 followers.
Checking the status of others, chatting and messaging are the main activities on social net-
works, all two-way communications streams. An average Facebook session lasts 37 minutes,
compared with a Twitter session of 23 minutes.^197 Dutch people spend an average of 5 to
10 minutes on LinkedIn.^198 A study conducted in Sweden revealed that an average Facebook
user spends 75 minutes a day on Facebook and logs on 6.1 times a day. Women spend more
time on Facebook, 81 minutes, versus men, 64 minutes, and write more about their relation-
ships and emotions than men do. In general, 38% share negative information on their status.^199
Although there are age restrictions on most social network sites, for instance Facebook
is for 13+, millions of pre-teens use these sites anyway. Some get permission from their
parents to create an account. Others lie about their age to get past the sign-up restrictions.
According to a study conducted by EU Kids Online, 38% of 9 to 12 year olds have a social
networking profi le. Th is percentage grows to 77% with the group of 13–16 year olds. Th e
main social network site for 9–12 year olds is Facebook with a penetration of 20%. Among
13–16 year olds, 46% use Facebook as their main social network site.^200 Facebook is planning
to abandon the restriction of 13+ by linking the kids’ pages to that of the parents. Th e parents
can keep an eye on the applications used and to give their approval on friends requests.Opportunities for brands
People join social networks to learn about their friends, but also to get information about (new)
products and brands. However, they do not like the traditional marketing messages. People
prefer people above brands. Th is implies that companies and brands should use their socialM15_PELS3221_05_SE_C15.indd 527M15_PELS3221_05_SE_C15.indd 527 6/6/13 8:55 AM6/6/13 8:55 AM