Impacts of Social Media on Airlines

Literature review
Social media
Social media is defined as the technique which is the collective of online
communication channels dedicated to community-based input, collaboration and
interaction. It is a platform and marketing strategy which is used by airlines industries
for increasing their performance. It is observed that around one-fifth of the airline
industries use at least one kind of social media: 12% use Facebook, 6% use link din,
5% involve YouTube and 10% use Twitter for improving their customers and overall
performance (Albers, Bühne, and Peters, 2009). It is identified that social media has
the ability to enhance the rate of customers and with the help of this platform aviation
sector can easily communicate with their clients or stakeholders. Basole and Rouse,
(2008) evaluated that the use of social media technologies in the area of airlines has
increased by 47% between 2015 and 2017. This paper identifies how the aviation
sector uses social media approach for communication purposes and Facebook,
Twitter and YouTube all these are very best examples of social media which are
used by the airlines for marketing purposes (Dijkmans, Kerkhof, and Beukeboom,
2015).
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is defined as the World Wide Web which emphasize user generated
content, participatory nature and usability. It is one of the oldest social media
systems which is used by the aviation sector to interconnect, communicate with each
other and transfer data or information from one location to another. According to
Berthon, et al., (2012) the term the social media is defined as a group of internet-
based applications which build on the technological foundation of web 2.0. It also
provides a way to send and receive any kind of information from one person to
another and the airline industry use this concept for communication purposes. A
recent survey observed that most airline sectors use YouTube to interact with their
clients because it has the potential to improve the efficiency of their system. Around
85% of individuals believe that businesses should communicate with consumers on
social networking websites for example Facebook. Use of social media in the
aviation sector is growing rapidly because of their several advantages such as easy
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to adopt, being more effective approach for growing business, being easy to
understand and operate, take less time for data sharing, and many more.
Impacts of social media on airlines
Bethapudi, (2013) analysed the importance of social media in the area of the airline
sector and also discussed their impacts. The main key difference between Berthon,
et al., (2012) and Bethapudi, (2013) investigation is that Berthon, et al., (2012)
provided the theoretical information about social media due to which readers cannot
understand the impact of social media. But Bethapudi, (2013) used both primary and
secondary data approaches which increases the effectiveness of the research. They
also observed that passengers and consumers are typically the main focus for the
social broadcasting initiative at airports and airlines teams use these techniques for
communicating with their clients and this provide updates regarding their journey.
Constantinides, (2014) provided many examples of social media which are used by
the airline industry such as a virtual consumer service desk, to engage with
consumers, to guide and communicate with clients from any location and many
more.
They also identified the aviation sector use such kind of approach for research and
development like customer satisfaction process, conduct a survey and provide
opportunities to their consumers. Dahlsrud, (2008) evaluated that over 200 airports
use Facebook or Twitter. The rate of Facebook has increased by 67% in the
between 2016 and 2017 and in year 2018 this rate was increased by 6% (Bigne, et
al., 2018). Previous airline studies focused on the importance of Facebook and
Twitter and it has the ability to control and manage their work from any location.
According to Bigne, et al., (2018) from a total of 1800 airports around 25% uses at
least one kind of social media to share the information from one person to another
and they increased their productivity by 77% in last two years.
73% of airlines multiple kinds of social media and 60% use two to three as per their
ability (Bigne, et al., 2018). It is identified that due to using of social media services
they can suffer from the data breach issue like hacking, malware, spyware, phishing
and many more Fischer, and Reuber, (2011). Data breach is defined as security
issue in which data or information is accessed without authorization. Today, around
10000 airlines are using social media approaches and in year 2018 around 60% if
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airlines used this process (Park, 2019). The main problem identified by Park, (2019)
is that social media is a platform that can increase the issue of cyber-crime because
it uses internet connectivity to share data by which hackers can easily enter into their
servers.
Negative impacts
This is a very serious problem faced by the airline sector because they communicate
with numerous consumers in a day and they can lose their personal data or
information. The main key difference between these researchers are that Hvass and
Munar, (2012) uses qualitative data analysis method while Kietzmann, et al., (2011)
uses a mixed method approach which helps readers enhance their skills in the field
of social media. There are many studies or research done on the importance of
social media in aviation, but they provided only relevant information about the
research topic and they are not identified the key factors which lead the issue of
hacking, crimes by in the field of airlines Harris, and Rae, (2009). It is identified that
security is one of the very crucial conditions in airline industries and social media is a
platform where hackers can easily enter into their computer networks Kietzmann, et
al., 2011). It also affects the computer networks and servers of aviation sectors and
increases the overall productivity of their business by promoting their works through
social networking sites. This literature review will identify and discuss the impacts of
social media in the aviation sectors and how they use this approach during the
communication process.
Liang and Turban, (2011) produced a literature review that provided the views and
opinion of other writers and both quantitative and qualitative data methods are used
by the researcher to achieve the goals of their research. A lack of security is one of
the biggest negative impacts of social media due to which airlines industries can
suffer from the financial issues because hacker encrypts their data files and
demands money to restore back their personal information. With the help of this
approach, they can collect and analyse the views of consumers and they can also
access their accounts from any location. According to Luo, (2007), web 2.0 is one of
the best networking techniques which has the potential to change consumer
expectations and their behaviours and other networks like Facebook, MySpace and
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