Social media marketing lessons from KLM

Case study: KLM's 'Meet & Seat' initiative

 In the latter part of 2011, international airline KLM Royal Dutch Airlines announced its new 'Meet & Seat' programme. Participating passengers could view each other’s Facebook or LinkedIn profiles and use this information to choose who to sit next to during a flight. I always find it interesting to review how KLM are using social media since they're definitely an innovator rather than a laggard. These often aren't just campaigns, but integrate with  KLM services.

Source: Wikipedia

This idea might be good for KLM's PR, but can it succeed? And what lessons can you take back to your business?

KLM's previous use of social media to personalise service

KLM is no stranger to social media. In November 2010 it launched 'KLM Surprise'. This test involved flight attendants searching passengers' social media profiles and meeting these passengers at the gate with a personalized gift. Although I think this programme fell a little flat in implementation, it was still intriguing enought for KLM to continue for a time. And, it then redeployed social media information in 'Meet & Seat'.

'Meet & Seat' - a potential networking gold mine?

There’s no question 'Meet & Seat' has great potential as a networking and lead generation tool.

Let’s say you’re booking a flight for a conference. Meet & Seat makes it easy to scope out other passengers’ profiles and see who else is going. You can find people who work in your industry and talk business, or meet people in your company’s target market(s) and make a potentially valuable connection.

'Meet & Seat' means you might finally get a chance to do something productive on that red-eye flight!

On the other hand...

Have you ever been to a networking lunch where you were pinned in a corner by someone who was determined to give you a sales pitch? Imagine the same scenario, only this time you're stuck in your window seat for 4 - 6 hours.

Perhaps your neighbour doesn't just have business on their mind? KLM’s programme might be treated by some as a personal matchmaking service. At this point I’d rather just drive to my destination.

The good news is that the program is opt-in only; you can only see others’ profiles if you opt in to show yours first. Here's a great backgrounder:

Marketing lessons from KLM's customer-led approach

The biggest takeaway from KLM’s social experiment is something that’s often discussed here at Smart Insights - social media marketing needs a strategic purpose.

KLM recognized its customers had a need and created a way for them to make better use of time spent on long flights. Customers are happy and KLM gets some good publicity — everyone wins.

Are you paying attention to your customers’ needs? You may be addressing their complaints, but are you also proactively thinking of ways to improve their customer experience?

If you decide your company’s next marketing experiment should be a social one, keep these questions in mind:

• Does my audience engage in social media? Which platforms?
• What are my customers’ needs? What would make them happier (and make them share their happiness with others)?
• What is my experiment’s goal? Is it measurable?
• What should I do if the experiment fails or backfires? What should I do if it succeeds?

Knowing the answers to these questions before diving in to implementation will lead to more tightly controlled experiments and better marketing results.

What do you think of KLM’s social experiment?

Do you think it will be successful?

Would you take advantage of a programme like Meet & Seat?

Thanks to Amy Peveto for sharing their advice and opinions in this post.Amy Peveto is the resident SEO wizard, copywriter, and Inbound Marketing Specialist at Digett a web design and Internet marketing firm in San Antonio, Texas, USA. We got to meet by Twitter. You can follow Diggett on Twitter, check out the Digett blog or sign-upfor the Digett newsletter for the latest in marketing news and ideas.