Social Media and Primary Commercial Service Airports

Throughout the past decade, the aviation industry in the United States has continually encountered significant socioeconomic burdens. Most notably, the tragic events of September 11, 2001, left the industry highly susceptible to economic turmoil, such as the global recession accentuated by record-high fuel prices, as well as sociological events like the world pandemic in the form of severe acute respiratory syndrome. The nation’s airports, the infrastructure supporting this industry, are no exception. In conjunction with these onerous events, continuing cuts in intergovernmental funding sources, as well as weakened revenue streams, have forced airports to use contemporary tools, strategies, and techniques to reinforce traditional management functions. The use of social media platforms, such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Foursquare, is a growing trend throughout various public and private industries to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and overall yield in relation to marketing and communication strategies. Consistent with new public management techniques and the reinvention of government in the 1980s, conducive to cost-efficiency and customer-centric approaches, airports use social media to increase self-sufficiency by reducing expenditures associated with traditional marketing and communication modes. In addition, social media technologies enable airports to target, engage, and foster two-way communication more effectively with a multitude of audiences. This study provides an overview of these popular social media services and empirically examines, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the current usage of social media throughout primary commercial service airports. Statistics on airport usage and best practices are provided to support preliminary guidance on the use of social media at airports.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.3141/2325-08
• Summary URL:
  http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=Social+Media+and+Primary+Commercial+Service+Airports&author=C.+Stambaugh&publication_year=2013
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/169159.aspx
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This is Paper #13-0436 in the Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers.
• Authors:
  • Stambaugh, Clayton Lee
• Publication Date: 2013

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 76-86
• Monograph Title: Public-Sector Aviation: Graduate Research Award Papers, 2011-2012
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
  • Issue Number: 2325
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Airports; Internet; Marketing; Social media; Traveler information and communication systems
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Data and Information Technology; Terminals and Facilities; I70: Traffic and Transport;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01484788
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780309263252
• Report/Paper Numbers: AGRA13-08
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jun 24 2013 10:47AM