Top 10 A&D Magazines Online: Comparing the Numbers August 25, 2010
Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, International Business Development, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, eBusiness Applications/Services.Tags: eBusiness, Aerospace, Marketing
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In my recent blog post entitled “MRO Americas and EBACE Online Coverage: Missed Opportunity for Exhibitors”, I stated the following:
I would want to see AIN’s news content
in FlightGlobal’s multi-format web platform
delivered to AviationWeek’s online audience.
This was a pretty strong statement that generated much discussion around the water coolers of numerous A&D publishing companies. Flight Global argued that they had a larger online audience and ended up posting their web traffic analysis (PDF) for all to see. AviationWeek sent out a press release about their Farnborough web traffic to show that they felt their presence was pretty successful. Flight Global responded in their editor’s blog. Many others commented to me privately via email. All of this interest prompted me to investigate further. My complete data spreadsheet is available for download (PDF).
PRINT MEDIA CIRCULATION
Using the online BPA circulation reports, I selected the ten most distributed A&D magazines based on their December 2009 Qualified Total Circulation.
As I thought, AviationWeek has by far the largest audience of them all. But there is more than meets the eye. When looking at Qualified Paid Circulation and eliminating the Air Force Magazine which is provided as part of the association membership, the dominance of AviationWeek is undeniable. Quite an achievement since 100% of their circulation is paid versus 77% for Flight International. All the other magazines have less than 15% paid subscribers.
ONLINE PRESENCE
I then looked at the online presence for each company, analyzing the “public” side of each publisher. That is to say, I did not have access to data regarding web pages behind a password protected screen. I also included Twitter information. I gathered the information from websitegrader.com and twitter.grader.com data as well as Google Doubleclick Ad Planner estimates. What quickly emerged, contrary to the statement I made above, is that Flight Global dominates the online audience in every category.
With over 118 thousand pages of information available, they manage an estimated 360,000 unique visitors and 4.6 million page views per month. Next up are Aviation Week and Jane’s who both have a mixed model of public and premium pages. For their public pages, their numbers are similar: around 35,000 pages available, generating an estimated 1.2 million page views by 110,000 unique visitors per month. That is roughly a third of what Flight Global generates. So even if you optimistically double the page views to account for the password protected data (the unique visitor counts would be unchanged), Flight Global is still well ahead. It is important to note that Jane’s traffic numbers are skewed compared to the Aviation Week ones because janes.com handles a number of topic not related directly to our industry. They should therefore be somewhat discounted.
However, niche magazines seem to be missing the online domain entirely. Aircraft Maintenance Technology, Aviation International News, Aviation Today and Defense Systems all have less monthly unique visitors than they have circulation for their flagship magazines. They have the least amount of information available, and therefore generate the least “stickiness” with an average of 6 page views per unique visitor as opposed to over 10 for the industry leaders. Aviation International News has the least stickiness with less than 4. They also all have less than 2000 followers on Twitter (Aircraft Maintenance technology has less than 100!) which seems to be an important traffic driver for the top websites.
Most of the A&D Media publishers also offer “Premium” (paid) products both in print and online. Those are difficult to compare because their circulation and traffic numbers are not public. Segmented headline newsletters (with electronic version usually available alongside) seem to be the most common. The larger publishers also provide database and reference services that are well suited for online access. AviationWeek has indicated a steady growth in their Intelligent Network (AWIN) and MRO Prospector online products. Flight Global has a number of online paid products including the Air Transport Intelligence (ATI) as well as a series of “Analysis Systems” geared at various segments of the industry.
WHAT CAN BE LEARNED FROM THIS?
Despite the introduction of new technologies such as the Kindle and iPad, the convenience and portability of a paper magazine won’t go away for a while. At least not until we have a complete generational overhaul of our industry’s personnel. Judging by the subscription level changes of the last 5 years, the reduction in subscribers seems to follow the natural attrition rate of the industry. That is except for Flight Global. The reduction in their circulation numbers are the most significant in the industry (down 23% since 2005), but they have by far the largest web traffic. Critics will say that providing most of the content for free online hurt their subscriptions figures. However, they offer online advertisers the largest targeted audience with tremendous demographic information, and great campaign flexibility that just impossible to match in print. Will their loss in subscription revenue be compensated by the increase in online advertising and premium web-based product revenue? I personally think it can.
The modern business to business marketing techniques suggest strongly that print advertising still works well for brand awareness, but that online campaigns yield the best results when it comes to cost effective lead generation. That puts the smaller publishers in the toughest spot. They make very little revenue from magazine subscriptions yet must carry the significant production costs. They are sustained by traditional (brand) advertising and small premium products, while their online traffic numbers do not allow them to commandeer premium advert insertion rates on their websites. For example, Aviation International News has a similar print circulation than Flight International. However, they have almost no paid subscribers. They have strong print advertisers and high content volume, but they struggle to invest in their online platform and therefore are losing ground to their competitors. Combine that with a very low Twitter presence and it shows the typical profile of an A&D Media company that used to do well, but is now unable to keep up or grow. Aviation Today, Aircraft Maintenance Technology and Defense Systems are all in the same position.
Air Transport World and Defense News have managed better online numbers that the other small magazines. Defense News in particular has a tremendous amount of traffic and inbound links for very low available content. By focusing on their online products and traffic these companies could continue to play a strong role in the landscape and segment they serve.
As for AviationWeek, they have great revenue coming from their print magazine. Based on their published subscription price, and factoring in some corporate discount, I estimate their subscription revenues at around $7M. In addition, B2B magazine revealed AviationWeek’s print advertising revenue to be at $12.7M. That is roughly $20M/year in print revenue excluding other premium services, online services, conferences, and online advertising. Knowing full well that growing their on line portfolio will cannibalize some of that “traditional” revenue, one can understand the careful and measured approach taken by the company when it comes to web based publishing.
My analysis only covered the 10 A&D magazines with the largest physical circulation. There are dozens of other magazines and websites that cover small segments of the industry and draw a very narrow but enthusiastic demographic. Since most of them are driven by advertising and sponsorship revenues, they will all struggle to keep up with the business environment changes afoot unless they manage to make a significant and successful transition online.
Consolidation of the smaller magazines into larger entities could occur but the difficulty is that the audiences overlap significantly and the net revenue increase for the buying company is usually not meaningful enough. Delivering specialized narrow content is only cost effective online if the company has a flexible web platform. That requires significant upfront investment with a long term ROI. So in the next 5 years, I foresee a consolidation of intellectual capital (journalists) into larger properties. They will create better content in a timelier manner as well as premium advanced analytics tools and services. But unfortunately, I don’t think the printed landscape can sustain the diversity that has existed until today.
What do you think of the A&D media landscape? What are some of the trends and innovations you would like to see as a publisher or a reader? What information will A&D businesses expect from these media companies?
MRO Americas and EBACE Online Coverage: Missed Opportunity for Exhibitors? May 12, 2010
Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, Conference, International Business Development, Internet Marketing, LinkedIn, Management, Social Media, Twitter.Tags: Aerospace, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter
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Two major A&D shows followed in rapid order over the last three weeks, and looking at the online coverage of Maintenance, Repairs, and Overhaul (MRO) Americas and the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE), there were no major new developments when it came to the coverage of these shows on the Internet. Needless to say, that was disappointing.
As usual, the full press corps was present. Even though MRO Americas was organized by Aviation Week, Flight Global had sent a four people team to cover the show. At EBACE, those two organizations were also joined in Geneva by Aviation International News (AIN).
For MRO Americas, AviationWeek and Flight Global had their usual website landing pages with Flight also producing their online flight daily chuck full of videos during two of the three days of the show. Reporters on the ground posted blogs and used the Twitter effectively. News from the show was also available in Flight Global’s iPhone application.
For EBACE, the organizers were the first ones to try to expand the use of internet during the show. They designed a basic web-based mobile application with schedule information, exhibitor list, floor plan, and news feed. They used twitter (@ebace) before and during the show to provide information and updates in the #EBACE stream. This was a good start that I hope other organizers will pick up and improve on.
On the media side, AIN joined the fray with their regular website landing page, adding to that of AviationWeek and FlightGlobal. AviationWeek did include videos in a couple of their online ShowNews (a first!), but as usual, none of the content from the daily magazine was repurposed on the website (I sound like a broken record!). In fact, if you want a media review of this show, you can read my blog about the Singapore Air Show and change the name of the conference.
I must also point out that @AvWeekBenet was able to attend EBACE in person and that the Twitter feed from AviationWeek was finally of much better quality than that of previews shows. However, all three news organizations could still improve on their online coverage as discussed previously. To best describe the ideal coverage, I would say that I would want to see AIN’s news content in FlightGlobal’s multiformat web platform delivered to AviationWeek’s online audience.
But to be fair, the industry press had these two events well covered online. The 6,000 attendees of MRO Americas and the 11,000 attendees of EBACE certainly were well-informed and so were the ten of thousands of unique visitors that followed on Twitter and came to the AviationWeek, AIN and Flight Global websites during and after the shows. So with such huge information pipe available to them, why didn’t the approximately 800 exhibitors of MRO Americas and the 450 exhibitors of EBACE take more advantage of online coverage?
The MRO Americas exhibition floor was open for 16 hours over a period of three days. As with many events, it was open in parallel to conference sessions for most of that time. Assuming that the average attendee would spend 3 hours a day on the show floor (which in my own experience would be enormous), and would spend 15 minutes to have meaningful interactions with each exhibitor visited, it means that in an ideal situation, 36 exhibitors would get visited by each attendee. That represents 1 company visited for each 20 exhibiting. For EBACE the numbers work out to approximately 1 out of 10. For Farnborough and Singapore, it might be has high as 1 out of 50 or more. As if that was not bad enough, small exhibitors have to compete against larger companies that will attract attendees by default and keep them for longer periods of time. Which means that if you are not Honeywell, Embraer, or Rolls-Royce, your odds of getting visited are heavily stacked against you.
In the past, companies used traditional methods to try to bring people to their booths: use printed advertising, press releases and sponsorship to promote their booth number; make their booth attractive (ooh shiny!); or “buy” as many random business cards as possible with contests, drawings, or give-aways. But today, it doesn’t work that way anymore. The Power Attendees (the ones that matter – not the ones on a “business vacation”) have a pre-determined list of vendors they want to see. They come to the show with a target list and they try to fit them all in. There is no “browsing”, there is no “I wonder what this company does?” Who has time for that anymore?
These days, business is all about efficiency and that goes for attending trade shows as well. Power Attendees will have a predefined rigorous program established before they get to the event: fly in; attend specific sessions (and skip others); visit specific exhibitors; set aside time for email, phone calls and exercise; socialize with industry acquaintances; and fly out.
As an exhibitor, you have to realize that in today’s world, there are only three reasons a Power Attendee will visit your booth:
- they have a pre-existing direct interest in your product (e.g. existing customer, pre-show marketing campaign)
- they are steered toward your product by the industry media or an independent conference speaker
- you are recommended by someone they trust attending the conference.
You should use the web to help develop these reasons and increase the chances of getting visited by the Power Attendees. The basic approach would be to use the trade show to TEACH attendees something rather than to SELL something. What is more attractive: “Stop by the booth the see my new sensors”, or “Stop by to learn the three factors that make old sensors malfunction”? If you are good at teaching and your sensors do address the three factors, you will sell them – implicitly!
With that approach in mind, here are three things should do before and during the show:
- USE YOUR WEBSITE: create a specific landing page related to the event you are attending. So many exhibitors simply put up a link from their event page to the event home page without taking the opportunity to explain why attendees should be interested in visiting them at the show. Create a page that is specific to your participation at the show. Provide a compelling argument about what you want to teach them (perhaps as a short video), provide information in advance such as a white paper (download it in exchange for contact info), and solicit feedback. If a potential attendee posts a comment on your event page saying “excited to come see you at the show”, it will definitely pique the interest of other attendees. Allow attendees to share a link to your show page with others via email or on social networks. Provide practical information about who will represent you on the show floor. Indicate when you will be there (specifically) and where you can be found. List names, function, specialties, cell phone numbers, email address, and twitter accounts. Provide your associates’ pictures. Simply put, make it easy for attendees to find you. Remember to draw the media to your show page so they might have an interest in discussing your educational approach prior to the show (not necessarily in an article, but on a blog or on twitter).
- TAKE PART IN THE PRE-SHOW CONVERSATION ONLINE: prior to the show, start talking about what you want to teach attendees on Twitter, and in online forums such as LinkedIn. Several events set up specific groups or Twitter hashtags prior to the conference where attendees can network before they travel. AviationWeek and Flight Global also have free forums sites (AWConnect and AirSpace respectively) that are a great place to discuss the challenges you are trying to solve. Be non-commercial in your discussions, leverage the website landing page you have built and invite the attendees to connect at the conference.
- INTERACT WITH ATTENDEES ONLINE DURING THE EVENT: monitor the conference stream on Twitter and get involved in the conversation. Try to contribute rather than sell. Gain respect for your expertise in the community. Find out what the “buzz” is, our create your own. Create “impromptu” events over twitter by gathering people of similar affinity or background at a lunch table or at the bar after hours. Involve the press in the discussion. Post answers on their blog posts, upload pictures or even short videos to the conference site or YouTube.
Events are using the web more and more to promote and manage their events. The industry media is jumping on the band wagon (we various degrees of success), but definitely creating buzz. Vendors who are not taking advantage of this media to their advantage are definitely missing out. And despite what many believe, you do not need a big budget or a large staff to take advantage of this opportunity. If you want to check out a company that does this well, check out Duncan Aviation’s EBACE page and follow them on twitter (@DuncanAviation). They understand the digital environment and they are getting ahead!
Are you taking advantage of the Internet when exhibiting at an Aerospace event? Share your story, ask your questions, or share some tips here. We would love to hear from you.
Boeing changes communication strategy with new website, twitter accounts April 20, 2010
Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, International Business Development, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Twitter.Tags: Boeing, Social Media, Twitter
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If you read my post about the Social Media Score Card for the Top 10 Aerospace Companies, you noticed my lament at the absence of Boeing on the scene. So imagine my excitement when Boeing actually launched not one but three Twitter accounts last week, followed this week by a major website redesign.
Talking to Todd Blecher, Communications Director at The Boeing Company, you get a sense of why they waited to jump into the Social Media mania: “We have been observing Twitter for a while and have learned a lot from Boeing experiments such as UnitedStatesTanker.com and Randy’s Journal. We did not want to rush into Social Media platforms without having something interesting to say. Simply getting on Twitter or on FaceBook is not a productive Communication strategy in itself.”
Boeing felt that with a million unique visitors per month, Boeing.com needed to be the hub on which a new strategy could be rooted. “But we wanted to make sure that if we brought people to the website via Twitter and other means, the experience was not boring or targeted only at our obvious audiences such as airlines and government. We wanted to create a reputational enhancement strategy that will better the opinion of Boeing amongst other audiences such as future employees and the general public.”
The new website is organized around a handful of featured stories that focus on the people and customers of Boeing rather than just the technology it produces. This gives the company a more “human” face rather than the colder and glossy corporate feel it had before. “We wanted our people to be the voice of our topics”, said Blecher. The stories will be updated on a weekly basis by an editorial team of about a dozen people across both the Commercial Airplanes and Defense business units. The new website also features a social media “share” button on many pages allowing users to propagate Boeing’s message throughout the Digital Environment. Finally, the “comments” function was added at the bottom of the story pages, a major change for the site. Randy’s Journal, the Commercial Airplanes pioneering blog, has more details about the other new features. My only suggestion would be to feature the Twitter accounts on the home page, something I am sure they will fix soon.
@BoeingCorporate, @BoeingAirplanes, and @BoeingDefense share the load on Twitter. I like the tone and direction of the twitter feeds so far. They have not just used them to simply repeat their press release headlines. They have actually provided interesting insight (e.g. volcano ash impact), they have retweeted third party stories, and they have actually responded to other tweets. All this shows me that they have done their homework before jumping in. Blecher indicated that they are trying to have a measured approach to twitter, trying to engage in interesting conversations and advocacy without creating an overwhelming information flow. I totally agree with this. If I want to get a company’s press releases, I’ll subscribe to their RSS feed, not their twitter feed.
I look forward to the next Boeing developments in the Digital Environment. Blecher indicated that they are considering a FaceBook presence as well as a stronger engagement during the major Aerospace events. “Although we feel that any Aerospace company has a great opportunity to use Social Media to enhance its presence at a show like Farnborough, we remain prudent in our approach and might not be ready to take full advantage of it this year.” This prudence is reflected when I asked about YouTube. Blecher indicated that Boeing was uncomfortable with the platform because they could not control what was displayed beside their videos on YouTube. “We are getting more open with the new website and twitter accounts, but we are not ready to turn our communication landscape into the Wild West.”
I believe this is the right approach for Boeing and they have the right idea. It is a major change for them and I applaud their initiative. Let’s see what they can make of it and how it resonates with audiences. What do you think of it?
Social Media Score Card for top Aerospace Associations January 13, 2010
Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, FaceBook, International Business Development, Internet Marketing, LinkedIn, Social Media, Twitter.Tags: Aerospace, Association, Social Media, Twitter
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A few months back I wrote about the “Three must-do for industry associations’ websites.” I received promising feedback from several prominent groups, so I thought I would check out their progress as we begin this New Year. I reviewed the websites of 42 Aerospace, Aviation, and Defense Associations websites, and the results are unfortunately dismal.
With every other industry embracing Social Media whole heartedly, it was not surprising to me that our community would be slow to react. However, recent signs of movement have appeared and I am starting to see traction from major Aerospace companies and many Airlines. All that have tried it are indicating early success and are eager to grow the use of Social Media in 2010.
Most of the associations I researched had very similar goals: promote the members’ capabilities, provide networking opportunities, gather feedback and create a “representative” voice. You would think that with these goals, associations would jump on the benefits that Social Media has to offer. But yet, most are completely ignorant of this new trend.
FAILING GRADE
For example, the Air Transport Association (ATA) who’s many members have seen great benefits from social media (See article from SITA), has remained on the sidelines. Elsewhere in the United States, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), the Helicopter Association International (HAI), and the Aviation Suppliers Association (ASA) have no Twitter presence, no website interaction beyond email, and have no way to share their information on other social media sites. In Europe, the Aerospace & Defense Industries Association of Europe (ASD) as well as all but one of its 28 members have no social media features on their website. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) does have an unpublicized twitter account (@iataevents) which it uses for a few of its big events.
That seems to be the approach the National Defense Industry Association (NDIA) is taking by having twitter feeds set-up for some of events in 2010. This was no doubt inspired by the pioneering social media work done by its subsidiary the Association For Enterprise Information (AFEI) (Disclaimer: I supported those efforts in 2009). Despite some of its most prominent members such as Pratt&Whitney, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman going full speed ahead with Social Media in 2010, NDIA remains mostly uninvolved. But there are some rays of hope.
COULD DO BETTER
The venerable Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and its UK counterpart A|D|S (former Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC)), are both active on Twitter. Although @AIA_News mostly posts the main headline of its daily briefing, a couple of more interesting posts have appeared lately. Also the last few editions of their AIA eUpdate newsletter finally have the standard “Share” button at the bottom of their pages. I do not understand how this is not used more throughout the site. From the UK, @adsgroupuk has been a fairly active and militant account and I have seen a good bit of interaction with them. However, neither AIA nor A|D|S publicize their twitter account on their home page. There also doesn’t seem to be a Social Media strategy from A|D|S for the upcoming Farnborough air show, but that will be the subject of another blog post.
Patrick Carlson, Online Communications Manager at AIA, says that Social Media is a major agenda item for the association in 2010. The experimentation they did last year with the Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) was very successful and they now need to determine the best way to engage various portions of the AIA audience from young people, to industry, and to staffers on the Hill. “We believe there is an opportunity here” said Carlson, “and you should see a lot more from us this year, particularly during the upcoming major Aerospace events.” That is very encouraging.
TOP OF THE CLASS
Three associations are noticeably ahead of the rest.
The National Air Transport Association (NATA) has established a presence on Twitter (@NATAaero) as well as on FaceBook. They responded to some of their pioneering members such as Duncan Aviation, Cutter Aviation, Priester Aviation and DB Aviation who are all active users of Social Media. They advertise their presence right on the home page, and they maintain an active blog. They provide members with the ability to interact mainly on the blog, but they do not have the ability to share information on other Social Media sites.
Score Card: B-
The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) has been the most active and vocal about Social media. They have established a strong and active presence on Twitter (@NBAA) and on FaceBook. They have used social media at their events by taking advantage of hashtags. They even have had dedicated Social Media sessions at their conferences (See #NBAAsm). These sessions have generated huge interest and been very well attended and received. They are advertising their social media activities right on their home page and they have a “Share” button on just about every page. I would like to see a regular blog to round out their presence, but I guess it would be duplication the great job Benet Wilson is doing at AviationWeek’s Business Aviation Now blog. Patrick Dunne, NBAA Communications Manager, says: “Social Media is a great way to reach out to our community, participate in the conversation, and offer support. Even though our members have interacted on our AirMail forum system for years, we find the social media platforms offer new opportunities for engagement.”
Score Card: B+
But by far the best implementation of Social Media by an Association can be found at the Air Force Association (AFA). No doubt encouraged by the US Department of Defense superb use of Social Media, the AFA has taken advantage of all the benefits of these platforms in its activities. From Twitter (@AirForceAssoc) to FaceBook as well as LinkedIn, AFA is omnipresent. Much activity is generated before during and after its events. The content on the site can be shared on other social media sites. And there are many good opportunities for interaction on the site and on the blog. Chet Curtiss, Director of Communications at AFA says their implementation of Social Media was an absolute requirement: “Our mission is to advocate and educate the American public and the younger audience in particular, about Aerospace Power. As technology started to evolve, we could not be left behind and Social Media is where the conversation is taking place.”
Score Card: A+
CONCLUSION
In the days before the Internet, associations were necessary to help members of an industry interact with each other and to represent their common interest to the public and the government. However, with the advent of technology and Social Media, such tasks can be achieved easily without such intermediary and often opinions and information circumvent the associations.
Don’t get me wrong, I think trade associations are needed, but they need to adapt. They need to find ways of brining new benefits to their members and they need to embrace and exploit new ways of doing so. I believe Social Media is a great opportunity to be more involved with the membership and carry-on a true conversation. It can also be used in trade events and associations could do far worst than leading the way in its implementation and teach their members how to do it in turn.
Tweet for Tweet: Competing Defense Programs Resort to Social Media to Make Their Case January 7, 2010
Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, FaceBook, International Business Development, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Twitter.Tags: Aerospace, FaceBook, Social Media, Twitter
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The Aerial Refueling and JSF Dual Engine Programs are two major US DOD initiatives that have pitted several major Defense contractors against each other in search of elusive government budget awards. Even though these battles have been chronicled regularly in both industry and mainstream press, they have also been fought on the Internet through the use of Social Media. I thought it would be interesting to see how targeted websites, blogs, and Twitter have been leveraged by the various players. I will be using some of the measures from my “Social Media Report Card for the Top 10 A&D Companies” post to evaluate these initiatives.
Aerial Refueling:
Boeing KC-7A7 vs. Northrop Grumman/Airbus KC-45
Except for Northrop Grumman, these companies’ main websites do not use Social Media and yet, for this particular program, they have gone out of their way to provide a direct information channel. Here is what they are offering:
| KC-7A7 | KC-45 | |
| Website | UnitedStatesTanker.com | BestAmericanTanker.com |
| Photos | Yes | Yes |
| Videos | Yes | Yes |
| Blog (#Posts) | Yes (31) | No |
| Twitter (#Posts) | @USTanker (35) | @NorthropGrumman |
| FaceBook Page | No | Northrop Grumman |
Positives:
The Boeing Site is nice, clean and harmonized. It features a very active blog as well as a news feed right on the home page. The Blog is also available from an RSS feed or via email subscription. They have good comment solicitation in the blog and via a “Share Your Story” page. You can even request to be sent a free Boeing Tanker sticker (success measurement technique?). The Twitter account is advertised right on the home page.
The Northrop site does not have a blog but does have a number of additional functions to make its case. There is an interactive map of where the jobs for this program would go. It also has a “Contact Your Elected Representative” section that provides all you need to send a message to the appropriate official based on your zip code. The use of FaceBook is also unique and, although not specific to the program, it gives the KC-45 another channel to deliver its message.
Negatives:
The @USTanker account has been under utilized which is a shame since it could at a minimum post the press links published on the home page. There is also not a way on the website to post a link to the blogs or press releases elsewhere via a now standard “Share” button.
The KC-45 message is very fragmented. One can find news and facts about the program not just on the website mentioned above, but also on northropgrumman.com/kc45, eadstankerupdate.com, aerospacealliance.com/the-tanker, and keepourtanker.com.
Verdict:
I think Boeing has a better platform, but they don’t seem to know how to use it beyond the traditional way of putting the URL on printed advertising. They should take advantage of the Twitter account and implement ways for people to spread the content.
Northrop Grumman should take some of the innovations it has recently implemented in its main site and put them on this site as well. They might want to create a dedicated Twitter account for the program and then retweet the posts in the main account as appropriate. Finally, the KC-45 message seems to be fractured with multiple voices trying to tell the same story but not coordinated or linked to each other. Coordinating facts, blogs, and news through a central website and twitter “mash-up” might be more beneficial.
JSF Dual Engine:
Pratt&Whitney F135 vs. GE/Rolls-Royce F136
Where the Tanker debate has essentially focused on the DOD Procurement process, the JSF Engine battle has been much more about head-to-head combat. Social media has been used in this case to put forward a lot of arguments and opinions against the opponent. It has had much more negative undertones than the Tanker debate. Here are the platforms that have been used.
| F135 | F136 | |
| Website | F135Engine.com | F136.com |
| Photos | Yes | Yes |
| Videos | Yes | Yes |
| Blog (#Posts) | Yes (70) | No |
| Twitter (#Posts) | @F135engine (299) | @F136 (57) |
| FaceBook Page | F135-Engine | No |
Positives:
The Pratt&Whitney site is very professional and complete. It has all the main features plus integrated social media and blog. It has also a “Contact Congress Now” page. The @f135engine account is used very effectively and is very active. The blog is written expertly to amplify information that surfaces as well as dismantle counter-arguments from the opponents. The dedicated FaceBook page is also very active.
The GE site is a bit more austere and does not feature a blog. However, it does display the Twitter feed from @f136 which is a nice touch. The “Tell Your Senator” page is featured prominently and is much more elegant than the outsourced tool used by Pratt&Whitney. It offers the option to Tweet the Senators which is very smart. The program is also supported on Twitter by GE corporate accounts @ge_reports and @GETech_Infra. The later account has been an extremely vocal defender of the F136. I also like the fact that most of GE’s arguments (particularly on Twitter) are attributable to a specifically named employee or outside source. GE reports that traffic on f136.com has surpassed 100,000 unique visitors since the summer.
Negatives:
The F135 site offers very little direct feedback other than the “Contact Us” page. One can leave comments on the blog (powered by Blogspot) but they are moderated so it might not represent a true conversation. The parallel campaign waged by Citizen Against Government Waste has been called into question by some, and might have tarnished an otherwise very professional and effective use of Social Media.
The Rolls-Royce website offers very little information about the program and does not link to the f136.com website at all. There is also very little information in the official team website at f136engine.com. It seems to be redundant with the main site. Like the F135 site, the GE site provides little opportunity for feedback or conversation. The @f136 account is not very active.
Verdict:
Pratt&Whitney is practically setting the standard for Social Media use in this scenario. One small improvement would be to have tweets from @f135engine reposted to @PrattandWhitney rather than the other way around. Management is reportedly very pleased with the feedback it is receiving and the effort has been deemed a great success. Erin Dick, Communications Manager for Pratt&Withney Military Engines says: “By using Social Media we have been able to move into a conversation about the program rather than a one-way information distribution. We have been able to engage thousands of people from all over the country in the debate in a way we could have never achieved using traditional methods.” To that point, I would like to see more solicitation of feedback from the site.
GE needs to add a few of the elements used by the other companies to this website to make it more integrated and useable. A blog would be very nice to amplify the points made in the quotes and on Twitter. The excellent arguments and posts generated by @GETech_Infra should be reposted to @f136 (or vice-versa). There should be more links from the GE and Rolls-Royce sites to the program site.
Conclusion
Pratt&Withney seems to be the only one that has a well organized all encompassing plan of attack (pun intended) where others seem to have pieced a few tools together to “have a go at it”. All seem to still treat these new methods as another information distribution channel and I wonder when they will try to start “listening” more and react to the conversation rather than trying to drive it. You can follow the development via the two Twitter Lists I will be maintaining: Tweet4TweetTanker and Tweet4TweetJSF.
Nevertheless, I applaud all these companies for exploring the use of social media to address challenges in a new way. Hopefully, this will provide lessons and expertise that will lead to more use in the main business processes.
Jeff DeMarais, Executive Director of Global Communications at GE, (and the voice behind @GETech_Infra) seems to agree: “The social media campaign is viewed as a very successful component of a well-rounded and successful communications effort. We learned a great deal about the platforms and continued to optimize their use as the year went on. If you look back at GE Aviation’s social media efforts during the Paris Air Show and Oshkosh you’ll see that we’d been doing some very different things in 2009. The JSF dialogue helped us identify new areas to develop and we’re ready to tell our story in 2010.”
Ludo Van Vooren, a 15 years veteran of the industry, blogs about eBusiness, Social Media, Internet Marketing, and International Business Development.
