Attracting User Social Media Engagement: A Study of Three Budget Airlines Facebook Pages

The role of social media has changed from information delivery to distribution channels. Budget airlines have used their Facebook pages to delivery promotional materials connect new customers, invite user engagement, and information distribution. One of the main purposes of wall posts is to invite user involvement. The results in this study indicated users interested on commenting wall posts which were “fresh”, that means posts published within two days. In order to increase user engagement, airlines should keep publishing new wall posts so as to encourage users to “like” or “share” these information with their network. The company responses were not significant, only five, 14 and 17 responses were found for Air Asia, Easy Jet and Jet Blue respectively. The outcome of the study questions the role and suitability of social media tools for marketing purpose in the airline business especially in relation to other segments within tourism industry.

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