jump to navigation

NBAA 2011 Online Coverage October 19, 2011

Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, Conference, eBusiness Applications/Services, International Business Development, Internet Marketing, iPhone, Management, Social Media, Twitter.
Tags: , , , , , , ,
1 comment so far

A week ago today, the2011 edition of the annual NBAA convention came to an end in Las Vegas. Although the show was a great success “by every yardstick” with over 26000 registered attendees, many business aviation professionals also rely on online coverage to figure out what are the industry trends. So, as I have done in previous years, here is my take on how the show fared on the internet.

News Outlet Coverage

As always the main aviation news outlet were out in force to cover the show. There were no less than 4 production rooms at the convention center where teams from Aviation International News, Aviation Week, Flight Global and NBAA relayed important information online. The content numbers were impressive:

  AINonline Avweek FlightGlobal NBAA
Articles 230 21 130 55
Blogs 2 18 12 0
Videos 10 0 13 18
Photos 54 75 18 216
Daily
Magazine		 3 3 6 0

First of all, it was interesting see how NBAA stepped up in its own news coverage of the show with a team of freelance journalists and photographers. They produced quality material throughout the show and took advantage of their website and social media to distribute their content (some of it exclusive). Their website is a bit poor in potential interaction, but in my opinion, they did a better job than AviationWeek. AvWeek’s team continues to disappoint with the least amount of innovation, the smallest online content output and their ill-timed decision to part ways with their star reporter Benet Wilson (@AvQueenBenet) right before the show (although she did a very professional job covering the event for them from Washington).

For innovation, you had to look at AIN and Flight which both released a new version of their websites in time for NBAA. Both companies have recently invested heavily to upgrade their content management capabilities behind the scenes, which will allow them to grow the usability and features they can provide their online readers. At Flight, the changes were both cosmetic and premium user focused. It resulted in a redesign of the navigation features and (at last) in the introduction of a good comment function. As huge as these changes were internally, they left me and many other users underwhelmed by the new website. It is “OK”. I am sure the PRO users will get more for their money, but I did not get a chance to review that part of the site. For AIN however, the change in internal content management provided some much needed improvement to their old website. Because they switched to open platform Drupal, they were able to immediately take advantage of off-the-shelf widgets for twitter, Facebook and trending (showing the most popular article). It is definitely the most improved website of the four I reviewed and I really liked it. Because AIN continued to provide the most extensive content, in a well-designed new website, I think for the first time in my reviews, they have actually edged Flight Global for “best in show” (by the slimmest of margins).

With that said, all these news organizations continue to ignore the iPad as an important delivery platform at the show and off the show. These devices were everywhere in Vegas, and must be included in the content delivery plans of many aviation companies. Testing all websites for iPad compatibility is now a must. None of the four sites’ videos could be accessed directly (other than by jumping to the YouTube app). Furthermore, the daily magazines, available online on each respective websites, were not viewable on the iPad. And even though Flight Global and AIN have iPhone apps that work on iPad, but they have not been upgraded to take advantage of the content features of their new websites, nor do they feature conference specific filtering.

Social Media

Twitter was once again very active with over 2700 posts in the #NBAA11 during the show. The statistics from the archive show a healthy proportion of original content versus retweets as well as a crossover of users. Compared to last year the numbers are similar, but businesses were more directly involved with good interaction. A lot of companies took the opportunity to jump in for the first time, unfortunately most of them simply tweeted “Come see us at booth CXXXX”. Hopefully they have learned something by watching the event stream, joining others at the NBAA sponsored Tweet-up, or reading my advice (shameless plug!).

Amongst the companies most active in Social Media, Duncan Aviation continues to show exemplary behavior. They have been active on Twitter (@DuncanAviation) before and during the show, posted multiple blog entries, and deployed a show specific landing page that increased interactivity online as well as at the booth.

The Future

Technology continues to play a growing role in the world of aviation exhibitions. As mentioned before, the iPad was omnipresent both in delivering solutions, in marketing products and services, but also as an effective tool for attendees. The superior NBAA mobile app was also an interesting step towards changes that are upon us. For future shows, I think that the world of online and on site are headed for convergence with much activity taking place before the show online, while the actual onsite presence will become more efficient but will be shared online with others at the show and watching from afar.

Do you have any thoughts about NBAA or the future of this kind of show? Is there anything I missed online? Let me know what you think.

Five Mandatory First Steps for Corporate Social Networking September 8, 2011

Posted by ludozone in eBusiness Applications/Services, FaceBook, Internet Marketing, LinkedIn, Social Media, Twitter.
Tags: , , , , , ,
1 comment so far

Now that many Aviation companies have woken up to the fact that they can no longer simply ignore Social Networking as part of their business strategies, I am often asked what should be the right approach to get engaged. Below are the five first things a company MUST do before deciding how and when to participate.

  1. CLAIM YOUR SOCIAL BRAND.
    It is important for companies to realize that, for the most part, trademarks do not carry over to the cyber world. Just like with domain names, companies do not have a guarantee that their brand name will be available in social sites. For example, @Boeing on Twitter is NOT owned by Boeing Corporation. So the first thing to do is to claim accounts in all the main sites before they are gone. You can use namechk.com to find availability in a single search. You should probably claim the most important sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, WordPress/Blogger, and Flickr. Set-up the accounts using new email addresses like twitter@mycompany.com to maximize flexibility in the future. Grab all the main accounts even if you might not use them in the future. If a key site is not available, pick one brand for the majority of the sites and a derivative for the unavailable sites. For example “MyCompanyVideos” might be a good alternative on YouTube. Keep a central register of all your Social Media accounts with usernames, passwords and associated email accounts. Leave the accounts’ public profiles to the bear minimum until you are ready to use them.
  2. ORGANIZE YOUR LINKEDIN UNIVERSE.
    Search for your company on LinkedIn. Claim the company profile and edit it to your satisfaction. Include links to key parts of your website (i.e. careers), and review the groups that might already be related to your business. Create two official groups: MyCompany News (public group managed by your marketing folks), and MyCompany Current Employees (private group managed by HR). Leave them empty for the moment (more on that in step 4 below). Take stock of your employees already on LinkedIn and make a general quality assessment of their profiles.
  3. ORGANIZE YOUR TWITTER UNIVERSE.
    It is very likely that if you end up using Twitter, you will have multiple accounts. For example, you might use @mycompany as the main account but you would have @mycompany_jobs for career opportunities and discussions. Think about the account structure you would like to have and register the key accounts you might need. If @mycompany is available, it is unlikely that that @mycompany_anything would be taken. This is not as much to grab the actual accounts as it is to establish a nomenclature and structure for your future accounts. As with step 1 above, don’t forget to set up distinct email addresses for each account and put them in your register. Remember also that key members of your staff might have personal twitter accounts that should not be mixed in with their business activities. For example, Bill Smith might be your CEO and he might be active as a volunteer in the community. He might use @BillSmith for his private posts and you might want to create a @mycompany_CEO for his business posts. Do not create
    @mycompany_BillSmith because you will have to change it if/when he leaves. Instead put his name in the profile and change it when necessary. It works the same way with the associated email address which should be CEO@mycompany.com rather than BillSmith@mycompany.com. Make sure to create a @mycompany_employees account which you will use in your policy enforcement (see step 4 below). Set-up minimum profiles for each accounts and clearly indicate in the profile if these accounts are dormant to avoid any misunderstanding or judgment. Finally, set up the accounts structure in HootSuite or TweetDeck to be able to read/manage the multiple accounts in a single powerful interface.
  4. ESTABLISH A SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY.
    The good news here is that most of what needs to be covered should already exist in other policies. Social Networking is really not different than email, although you might have less ability to control distribution. You need to simply remind employees that amongst others, your confidentiality, responsibility, and harassment policies fully apply to social media and will be enforced equally. In addition, you should mandate that your employees declare their Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts to you. This is simply to enforce your policy. You do not need access to these accounts, connect with them, or “friend” them. You just need to know that they exist. You should encourage your employees to keep their Facebook accounts locked and perhaps offer them a class on how to set that up. You should follow every employee’s Twitter accounts from your @mycompany_employees account to monitor potential breaches of policy. Employees should also be required to “like” your FaceBook page so they don’t miss important public news and announcements. Finally, you should mandate that everyone who has an account on LinkedIn join the private “MyCompany Current Employees” group for internal communication and discussions (Tip: LinkedIn has the ability to create subgroups for specific projects/departments). As an appendix, you should publish a list of all your Social Networking accounts with a clear responsible person or department associated with each.
  5. LISTEN BEFORE YOU TALK.
    After you have established all the accounts and policies listed above, it is now time to listen. DO NOT start posting “Hello World” messages on all the platforms. Each tool must be part of a coordinated Two-Way communication strategy. Be sure to set-up Google alerts for your company, products and areas of expertise. Set-up saved searches in HootSuite or TweetDeck to mine the Twitter conversations. Join a few key groups in LinkedIn and set-up weekly group email reporting. Create reporting metrics to quantify the activity you witness in each channel. Listening to the conversations that are taking place, finding out where your audience “hangs out” (including employees), and deciding what channel to use for what purpose is extremely important to developing a strong social networking presence.

After you accomplish these five steps, you can start to define your approach and goals. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try small projects. That is the best way to learn. You might want to read my post on “How to effectively combine website, blog, and Twitter?” for some ideas of how to move forward. But even if you decide to stand back for a while and just listen, at least you will be assured that a strong Social Networking foundation has been set up for your company and employees.

Do you have questions about these five steps? Are there other things you think should be added? Please leave your questions and comment below or email me directly.

Use of Twitter takes off at MRO Americas April 18, 2011

Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, Conference, International Business Development, Internet Marketing, Management, Social Media, Twitter.
Tags: , , , ,
1 comment so far

Last week, the MRO Americas conference and exhibition hosted by AviationWeek in Miami Beach was the largest in the 16 years series. Clocking in at over 8500 attendees and 950 exhibitors, it was good to see the buzz in back in this segment of the industry.

Both FlightGlobal and AviationWeek were reporting from the show by posting a constant stream of blogs, pictures, and videos on their respective show landing pages. FlightGlobal sent their aviation web celebrity team of Mary Kirby (@RunwayGirl) and Jon Ostrower (@FlightBlogger), both of whom continue to bring their unique brand of refreshing reporting to the industry. But it was AviationWeek showed notable improvement in their online presence. Largely attributed to the leadership of new President Greg Hamilton, AviationWeek was here in full force from the editorial, sales, and event sides of the business. They all seemed re-energized by the enthusiasm of web-minded talent such as Rupa Haria (@AvWeekRupa) and Alejandro Wyss (@AWyss). For example, @AvWeekEvents credited Alejandro for the idea of the innovative Twitter Electronic Boards in the lobby and exhibit halls which many thought were a great addition to the show. Beyond the conference hashtag (#MROAM), the conference also had a Four Square location and a fun tweet-up to get attendees, suppliers, and web followers connected. This resulted in the best performance by the AviationWeek online team to date with much promises for the future.

Beyond an excellent use of twitter by the two news organizations as well as veteran social media users such as @DeltaTechOps , it was good to see a number of suppliers jumping into the conversation, many for the first time.  The #MROAM conference stream registered over 600 updates in a period of three days, even briefly trending on Twitter during opening day. But it was obvious by the posts coming from the newbies that they were not really sure how to use the medium. So here are 3 pieces of advice for using twitter effectively at large tradeshows:

1)      People talking about you is better than you talking about yourself
Too many suppliers simply said something like: “For a great demo stop by booth 3145”. This is not enticing to an attendee as much as if a journalist says your demo is worth seeing (as did @AvWeekKristin), or a customer proclaims their satisfaction with your services. So rather than tweeting about your own great virtues, ask journalist and customers to tweet about you. That is 10 times more credible

2)      Don’t Shout, Converse
The proper use of Twitter is in the form of a conversation. Leave the news flash to the professionals. Instead, ask questions or engage attendees in conversations: “What did you think of this comment?”, “What swag do you like best?”, “What innovations have you noticed in the exhibit hall?”

3)      Be helpful without being overbearing
Try to think about what would interest you if you were an attendee to this conference. What would be helpful to you? But if you have nothing to say, don’t retweet other posts. Retweeting is not the equivalent of the FaceBook “Like” button. If you like what someone says, simply reply to the post with a thank you message rather than a re-tweet. This is especially important when you have far less followers that the original poster. If you feel that your audience could benefit from the original post but might not be following the conference stream, retweet it, but by removing the conference hashtag from the post. This will eliminate a lot of noise from the channel and make everyone happier.

For additional tips on how exhibitors can use Social Media at tradeshows like MRO, you can check out my review from last year’s show entitled: “Missed Opportunity for Exhibitors”.

The next big show will be Paris Air Show this summer. With both AviationWeek and FlightGlobal promises new web updates and other goodies for the show, as well as many suppliers entering the social media fray, it will surely be the strongest A&D online event to date. I can’t wait to witness it.

What would you like to see happening online at Paris Air Show?

NBAA 2010 online coverage review October 26, 2010

Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, Conference, International Business Development, Internet Marketing, Management, Social Media, Twitter.
Tags: , , , , ,
1 comment so far

In her excellent NBAA Social Media preview, Benet Wilson of AviationWeek (@AvWeekBenet) predicted correctly that this year show would be well covered on Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube and LinkedIn. Well, a few days after the end of a very successful show in Atlanta, it is time to analyze the results.

First of all, the ambiance at the show was much more optimistic than in the last two years, so there was a lot more to report. The major Aerospace publications all had a strong presence on-site. They each put out 3 show dailies that were distributed online. The format was similar to that of the Farnborough editions, with the exception of AIN which managed to produce much more professional video through their AINtv brand. They also added blogs for the first time which is another step in the right direction.

In terms of volume and quality of information produced, AIN continues to lead with the largest amount of news stories, while AviationWeek took the lead in blog posts due mostly to the personal involvement of Bennet Wilson who was actually on the ground for once! Flight Global continued their casual style of video reporting with the @RunwayGirl and @Flightblogger team. As usual, Mary Kirby stole the show but her style is perceived as too cavalier by some. I personally disagree and the number of YouTube views seems to side with me.

The bottom line numbers go as follows:

  News Stories Blogs Videos
Aviation International News (AIN) 285 4 10
AviationWeek 33 41 1
Flight Global 103 23 12

But there were other big changes compared to last year’s show. First of all, @NBAA was itself much more active in Social Media. As I suggested in my analysis from last year, they were much more engaged with the people attending the show. They used Twitter a lot and maintained a very active Facebook page with plenty of good information. They also catered to the people who could not attend by providing their own NBAA News Bureau. Finally they once again hosted the very popular NBAA Social Media panel (See report from ABCI’s Paula Williams) which was attended by over 100 people and is now available as online video(s).

Secondly, there were a lot more people reporting directly from the show using Twitter. Over the period of Nov 18-22, over 2200 tweets were sent on the #NBAA10 stream. That is nearly double the volume from last year. Looking at the list of top users below, I am pleased to see a healthy mix of media, large OEMs, suppliers and service providers. Embraer, Boeing, Airbus and Dassault are noticeably absent from the list while Bombardier and Gulfstream gained great exposure with their brand also showing in the top words tweeted from the show.

[Click picture to enlarge]

Finally, there was also the first ever tweet-up at the end of the show. Sponsored by allFBO.com, it was attended by many of the people from the list above and generated a promise for bigger and better things to come in the future.

For now, NBAA takes the crown for online coverage amongst all the shows I have analyzed in the last two years, so congratulations to all on a job well done.

What were your impressions of the show? Please share your comments and highlight below.

Top 10 A&D Magazines Online: Comparing the Numbers August 25, 2010

Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, eBusiness Applications/Services, International Business Development, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Twitter.
Tags: , ,
add a comment

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?

Farnborough Air Show 2010: Review of Online Coverage July 29, 2010

Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, Conference, International Business Development, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Twitter.
Tags: , , , , , ,
3 comments

In every one’s opinion, last week’s Farnborough Air Show turned out to be more exciting than previously anticipated. The 787 fly-in, large aircraft orders and a generally optimistic mood contributed to a great success. But this show was not constraint to just an airfield southwest of London, it was also experienced online by thousands of professionals from all corners of the world. Compared to last year’s Paris Air Show, Farnborough brought many innovations and expansions online.

INDUSTRY MEDIA

The three main aerospace publishers were once again present at the show and online. Aviation International News (AIN), AviationWeek, and FlightGlobal all set-up camp on-site to produce the traditional daily publications that have been handed out to attendees for years. As it is now customary for each major show, they also created an event landing page on their website to broadcast news and information. Each organization produced a massive amount of reports:

  AIN AviationWeek FlightGlobal
Dailies Produced 4 4 4
(+3 online)
Articles 196 35 591
Blog Entries N/A 41 72
Pictures 165 120 205
Videos N/A 27 31

AIN and AviationWeek used the same website than at previous airshows (See Singapore review) with no significant new features. I am sure that loyal followers of these websites are comfortable with their formats. However, I did not like the obtrusive advertising that seems to be creeping up with each new show. The AviationWeek site in particular now seems to feature more company logos than your average race car! But according to their own press release, AviationWeek’s steady coverage of the show seems to resonate with their internet audience.

By contrast, the online innovation leader was once again FlightGlobal. Not only did they produce the most content, their new “Tree of Communications” website is clean, fully featured and easy to use. It integrates multi-media information with all the social tools required in modern information publishing and manages to do it in a slick and cool interface. The online audience is reacting well to the new design according to these record-breaking internet traffic figures. I tend to agree. Here are some of my favorite highlights:

  • Links, links, links: using their extensive tagging engine, most pages you browse automatically display a list of related articles, videos and pictures. It is very easy to navigate and allows you to dive-in. Articles can also be sorted by popularity (most viewed) or by ranking (based on user feedback). The blog entries are an easy way to start your daily show review as they provide the links to the various pieces of information related to each subject.
  • Videos: as I have mentioned before, the FlightGlobal daily wrap-ups are my favorite. The dynamic duo of FlightBlogger and Runway Girl were once again in rare form while bringing us the show essentials in a fun and casual daily report. Critics will say that the videos are amateurish at best, but I think this is much more engaging for the new generation of Aerospace workers than reading endless pretentious reports. However, I will say that for feature pieces, AviationWeek demonstrated their maturity and professionalism under the leadership (and impeccable voice-over) of accomplished broadcaster Ed Hazelwood. Just compare AviationWeek’s “787 Arrives Farnborough” versus FlightGlobal’s “John Ostrower takes you on a tour of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner” to see the difference. This is one area where AviationWeek has definitely improved since Paris, and where FlightGlobal could invest a bit more time.
  • Show Guide: Although AviationWeek’s Show Guide is full of information and practical information, its PDF format misses the opportunity to provide much better online content. I love the static display map provided by FlightGlobal with each aircraft linked to a full profile with related articles, pictures and videos.
  • Live flight display: in cooperation with FLIR Systems, each afternoon’s flight display was rebroacast online. This was a nice addition to the site especially when the picture would switch to infrared mode and show the heat profile of some of the airplanes.
  • FourSquare: FlightGlobal organized an online contest using their Stefan the Pilot profile to highlight different areas of the show. Using FourSquare, Stefan “checked-in” to locations of interest and challenged others to follow him. The person that managed to follow Stephan the most by the end of the show won an iPad. This is once again an interesting experiment by Flight Global that has the potential of providing new avenues for sponsorship and revenues for the publisher.

All industry media companies were also very active on Twitter, with AviationWeek and FlightGlobal producing the most updates from their main accounts as well as from a group of on-site and off-site journalists. Compared to last year, AviationWeek did a much better job with Twitter under the incessant enthusiasm of @AvWeekBennet. But I feel it still lacked the “play-by-play” feeling that the on-site Flight Global team delivered. The Twitter statistics seem to confirm that fact, with Flight’s @FlightBlogger being the most retweeted contributor to the #FARN10 stream. But I think that is a matter of personal preference. Judging strictly by comparing @flightglobal and @aviationweek, I think they were very similar in presence and quality.

In conclusion, and compared to last year, AIN stayed the same; AviationWeek improved its social media presence and video production; while Flight Global continues to embrace the online environment with more innovation and more content.

THE INDUSTRY

While the main Aerospace players were barely active online at Paris last year, Farnborough saw an explosion of online content from most of them. I think these companies finally realized that the show plays out online as much as on the ground.  As I recommended in this article, most of them created dedicated microsites for the Farnborough air show. The content included:

Company Show Schedule Videos Pictures Blogs
Airbus N 16 93 N
BAE SYSTEMS Y 9 0 N
Boeing Y 32 41 34
Bombardier Y 15 24 N
EADS Y 19 65 7
Lockheed Y 2 25 N
Northrop Y 6 31 N
Pratt & Whitney Y 0 0 N
Raytheon N 3 13 13
Thales N 0 53 8

Out of all these microsites, here are some of my favorite highlights:

  • Boeing’s onsite videos were very professional and to the point. They produced 32 reports for the show (most of them on site) while maintaining a very high level of quality and interesting content. Boeing posted their videos in their own library, while Bombardier, EADS, Lockheed, and Raytheon used YouTube to store their videos which I think might get them more views in the long run.
  • Of those that posted their show schedule and show contact information, I liked how Boeing linked the executives’ pictures and bio right from the schedule page. I think it is important to show attendees who is who at the show so they can be recognized from their picture.
  • BAE Systems and EADS provided 3D guided tours of their booths with links to the various product and programs being displayed. I found this particularly interesting for power users who will want to plan their visit ahead of time. Thales also provided a booth description along with a “how to find us” page which I found very useful.
  • Raytheon provided a nice media coverage section with links to stories from other media organizations about Raytheon. I think this was a clever way to provide more content on the microsite.

For the top industrial players, Farnborough also saw a significant uptake in the use of Twitter. While EADS and SuperJet just joined the platform for the show, most of the others took advantage of the social media tool to distribute their information online and bring people to their dedicated microsites. Most advertised their Twitter presence online with some of them, such as Boeing, even providing an integrated twitter feed applet. A comparison of the numbers of followers from a year ago shows the undeniable uptake in microblogging:

Twitter Account Followers at 2009 Paris Air Show Followers at 2010 Farnborough
@BoeingAirplanes 0 7256
@LockheedMartin 268 4339
@NorthropGrumman 680 3139
@RaytheonCompany 625 2909
@EmbraerAeronaut 3 1673
@PrattandWhitney 351 1485
@Bombardier 53 1419
@BAESystemsInc 0 1146
@ThalesGroup 76 728

But not all companies did well when it comes to online presence at Farnborough. Embraer, General Dynamics, GE, and Rolls-Royce had NO online presence. Airbus, BAE Systems Corporate, General Dynamics and Rolls-Royce don’t even have a Twitter account! Also, the Airbus, EADS, and Thales microsites did not offer the now standard “Share” button for users to be able to disseminate information throughout the social media cloud. I think this will turn out to be a significant disadvantage in the future.

With their new website and Farnborough microsite, I think Boeing has really taken the lead in online presence and is a great example to follow. Some of the others had original ideas that are worth noting as well. However, I think the show organizers and the smaller exhibitors once again missed the opportunity to make a difference online which continues to disappoint.

What were your thoughts about Farnborough online?  What are the things you liked and didn’t like? Please share your views in the comments below. All opinions are welcomed!

FlightGlobal and AINOnline iPhone Apps Reviews May 18, 2010

Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, eBusiness Applications/Services, Internet Marketing, iPhone, Social Media, Twitter.
Tags: , ,
4 comments

When FlightGlobal released its A&D News iPhone app a few months ago, I downloaded it in the first couple of days. They were the first A&D media company venturing on the platform and they were rushing to get it ready in time for the Singapore Air Show. Last week, AINOnline released their own iPhone app which they have been working on for a few months. Both apps are free and they offer very different features, but which one should you be using? Let’s take a look.

Before jumping into the details, it is important to note that these apps are pioneering a new platform for our industry. Both Michael Targett (FlightGlobal) and Chad Trautveter (AINOnline), the respective Online Editors, insist that this is just “version 1” and that they have many improvements in the work for future versions. So it is important to judge the application in their current state rather than in regards to the “could be” state.

Note: FlightGlobal Released A New Version of this App in November 2010
See Complete Review Here

Click to watch videoThe FlightGlobal iPhone app (Search for “FlightGobal” in AppStore) strives to be very complete and uses many different features. At a high level, it offers 5 sections: news, blogs, twitter feed, videos, and jobs. The interface is configurable to arrange and display your favorite sections at the bottom of the screen. The app is designed mainly as a “jump point” to other apps. The News section only contains the headlines, and links to the main website in the Safari app for the whole article. The Video section links to the YouTube app. The Jobs section has more information, but still requires jumping to the Safari browser for proper formatting and interaction. The Twitter section lists the tweets from the entire FlightGlobal team, however, it requires that you jump and login to the Twitter website on the Safari app for interaction such as retweeting or opening the embedded links. The Twitter section also seems to lag behind the current timeline by as much as several days. The Blog section has the most content (with full blog posts and pictures) although some of them simply embed the main website page. The Search section only returns hits from the photo gallery, so it is not very useful to parse the news and blog items available. This is a big setback to find the news you want as the app does not allow the categorization of news between Airline, Business, MRO, Defense, etc… Most pages have the ability to email someone a link to the story, using the iPhone email app. The app does not work offline and it reloads all data every time it opens. It also has no resiliency so every time you come back from another app, it takes you back to the home page rather than the page and/or item you were reading.

Click to watch videoThe AINOnline iPhone app (Search for “AINOnline” in AppStore) takes the very pragmatic approach to delivering basic content to mobile users. The app is organized in three main sections: Headlines, Categorized News, and Calendar. The Categorized section provides grouping of news items in no less than 15 different topics ranging from Airlines, to Avionics, to Defense, and Rotorcraft. The main menu at the bottom of the screen is configurable to allow your favorite categories to be accessible quickly. The rest are reached through the “More” button. Each section contains at least a couple of week’s worth of news articles. The display provides a chronological list of headlines and synopsis. Each item can be read in its entirety by clicking on it. When reading a specific item, you can send a link via email or post it on Twitter. There are also links to the full web version in Safari to access the pictures and other features. The calendar provides links to each event’s website as well as a useable phone number (click to call). All th eexternal apps are imbedded in the viewer so you do not have to leave the application when jumping off. There is also an omnipresent search feature that scans the entire content, however it cannot be restricted to a single category. The most attractive part of this application is that it can be used off-line. Because the app only contains text, updates when connected are extremely fast. You can do a quick refresh over WiFi or 3G before boarding the flight and have hours of reading available while off-line. The app also resiliency, so if you close it, you get back to the last screen you were on.

As I said before, this will be an evolving medium. Perhaps that is why AviationWeek is late to the table with no iPhone app development underway only “considerations“. Greg Hamilton, their Online Publisher, argues that their mobile website works well on iPhone and that it serves the needs of their audience. It doesn’t work off-line, but using WiFi it is fast and offers many of the features I like in the AINOnline app. It is a valid alternative approach that also has the advantage of covering all platforms, not just the iPhone. But when it comes to leveraging the unique features of each Smartphone system (like customization or integration), AviationWeek offers only the “lowest common denominator” approach. It is interesting to note that neither FlightGlobal nor AINOnline offer a mobile version of their site, arguing that the Smartphones display their regular site well enough. I am not convinced that it is a good argument. The AviationWeek mobile site is definitely the best way to get A&D News on the other Smartphones. And aren’t there more BlackBerrys than iPhones in use in the A&D industry anyway?

But if you are an iPhone user, the AINOnline app is much more useable than the FlightGlobal app or the AviationWeek mobile site. It works “off-line”, has all the content you need organized in easy-to-use categories, allows customization, and avoids unnecessary bells-and-whistles. So until new versions come out, I would say definitely download the AINOnline app.

For future versions, I’d like the apps providers to consider a few additional features:

  • The offline mode is extremely important so I can read the news anywhere and at anytime. This will be even more important for the iPad version! The app should therefore allow for quick text download with the option to download larger items such as pictures on demand (either as a setting or via a button in the item)
  • Provide resiliency to allow me to return to the last place I was in the app after I come back.
  • An indicator of what items I have already read with the ability to “Mark all Read” and selectively sort and display on this criteria would optimize reading over multiple sessions. (“Where was I again?”).
  • Full reposting of the stories via email, Twitter, Facebook, and Digg using APIs rather than application call-out. This is the best way to generate traffic back to the main website.
  • Customizable search with the option the save my favorite queries. This way, if I am interested in “Airbus” I can re-run the search every time I open the app. I should also be able to limit the query to a specific category.
  • Provide a “favorite” button and section to save stories of particular interest.
  • Provide a “like” button to create trending and create a “most watched” section based on it.
  • Provide YouTube integration via an imbedded mobile interface (in HTML5) rather than jumping out to the external app.
  • Create a separate “Major Events” app to handle Farnborough, Paris, and NBAA to allow special features and content, rather than trying to cramp everything in the main app.

What do you think of the apps? How do use them? What would you want in future versions? The best way to make the apps better is to discuss them and suggest new ideas. But first, pass the word and have as any people as possible download the apps so publisher can measure the interest.

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: , , ,
4 comments

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:

  1. 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).
  2. 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.
  3. 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: , ,
3 comments

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?

Heli-Expo 2010: An Experiment in Social Media March 3, 2010

Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, Conference, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Twitter.
Tags: , , ,
add a comment

The annual HeliExpo took place in Houston last week. Although this is already the largest helicopter event in the world with 16,000 visitors and 595 exhibitors, it was interesting to see how it also played out on the web, before and during the show. As usual, I was online to watch, measure and evaluate. Here is my take.

THE HELICOPTER INDUSTRY MEDIA

As always, the industry media was present at the show. However, it was strange to see a very different dynamic than at the recent Singapore or Dubai airshows. Unlike Aviation International News which put out a similar coverage than at the other shows, AviationWeek and Flight Global were relatively quieter.

  Articles Blog Entries Photos Videos
AINonline 130 0 124 7
AviationWeek 0 29 51 0
Flight Global 17 0 0 14
HeliHub.com 143* 0 0 0
Rotor and Wing 0 10 55 20

*Reposts from other sources

AIN produced the most professional videos through their affiliate AINtv which was contracted especially for the show. Rotor and Wing and Flight Global produced lesser quality videos with some major editing and sound issues in a few of them. Rotor and Wing posted their videos on YouTube which made them show up in Google searches although the tagging was not uniform (e.g. why not use HeliExpo10 as a tag?).

AIN was the only news organization that used the #HE10 twitter feed to aggressively promote their content online with 143 posts throughout the show. AviationWeek and Flight Global managed less than 20 posts each (in the stream). However, Flight Global had a Twitter widget on their show page that was tracking the “Heli Expo” keyword so they managed to capture a good portion of the conversation. The other news organizations posted from their twitter accounts but never used the #HE10 tag despite several attempts to contact them to correct the issue. This seems like a lost opportunity especially for HeliHub and Rotor and Wing which have relatively small followings (500 and 800 respectively).

At the end of the show, a quick online survey was generated by @Heli_Expo. Although the participation was low, the results (available in PDF) show that “Article from News Organizations” is by far the most important use of Twitter by professionals in our industry. Even though I believe this will eventually change, I think smaller online news outfits should pay more attention to HOW they use twitter for shows like this. They should definitely use the hashtags so they can be read by a group larger than their followers. They should also post shorter tweets that can be reposted without editing. For example, @HeliHub should limit their original posts to a maximum of 127 characters since any repost will take an additional 13 characters for the prefix “RT @HeliHub: “ . This is actually a good tip for any organization that posts on Twitter and wants a chance to be re-tweeted.

THE EXHIBITORS

Speaking about other organizations on Twitter, an amazing 77 HeliExpo exhibitors had twitter accounts. @Heli_Expo created a very convenient Twitter List of all the exhibitor accounts. Even though this media is new to most of them, some have embraced it quiet nicely as showed by the top contributors to the #HE10 stream:

  Tweets Exhibitor?
HAImandy 181 Organizer
AINonline 131 Yes
HELI_expo 111  
HON_Carrie
(Honeywell)		 41 Yes
FSIrivet 30 Yes
roadshownews 21  
GPS4aircraft 16 Yes
DakotaAirParts 13 Yes
dnpixl 13  
CNTV 12  
bbryon 9  
embryriddle 8 Yes

I was shocked that more of them did not take advantage of this medium which overall had good activity. There were 670 posts from 51 different accounts in the #HE10 stream. But many companies do not even advertise they have a Twitter account on their home page, even when their account is relatively active (See DakotaAirParts).

Also absent from the #HE10 stream were the Helicopter manufacturers. Five of them have official Twitter accounts: @SikorskyAircraft, @Eurocopter_EADS, @one_bell, @MDHelicopters, and @RusHeliCo. Sikorsky and Eurocopter were the most active while Bell and MD fell silent for some strange reason. I think that was a big mistake when you analyze how Sikorsky approached the use of Twitter at the event.

Sikorsky published 15 press releases around HeliExpo starting with one announcing their Twitter page. The press release contained the strongest endorsement of Twitter by any Aerospace & Defense company to date. Since they had created their account back in December, they opened the show with already over 200 followers as opposed to Eurocopter’s less than 50.

Even though they didn’t use the #HE10 tag, they posted 32 updates during the show. They pushed their press releases, but also targeted the audience at the show by posting booth schedule updates. Despite attempts by several users to dialog with them, they did not respond probably because they have not yet figured out how to make Twitter a two-way channel. This is typical of organizations that are new to this.

But the discussion ABOUT Sikorsky was tremendous and much bigger than for any of their competitors. The keyword “Sikorsky” was mentioned 654 times during the show from 329 different accounts. Their posts were re-tweeted 21 times by 8 different accounts to a total of 1928 followers. Ten of Sikorsky’s press releases were also broadcasted 139 times on twitter directly by 81 different accounts to a total audience of 128,344 followers. That is a tremendous online exposure that all exhibitors should be tapping into. There is no way to know how much bigger these numbers would have been if Sikorsky had used #HE10. Sikorsky has now set the standard, so how can a company like MD Helicopters afford not to jump on Twitter?

THE ORGANIZERS

HeliExpo is organized by the Helicopter Association International. I contacted them before the show to see if they had any social media plans for Houston. Mandy Stahl, a Membership Assistant at HAI, pointed me to her Twitter stream @HAImandy and indicated she had be allowed to post updates before and during the show whenever her regular duties permitted it. From the Twitter stats above as well as the survey results, you can see she did a tremendous job. She also indicated that although the association owned the @HeliExpo account, they were not going to use it. Furthermore, Mandy’s account was not advertised in any official HeliExpo communication from HAI. I thought that was a great loss of opportunity for them.

So I decided to experiment…

Unbeknownst to HAI, I created the @Heli_Expo account at the beginning of February and started posting about the event in the way I thought it should be done. I was careful never to represent the account as being an official account, only using it to promote the event. As I mentioned before, I created a list of exhibitors and posted heavily in the #HE10 stream. I complemented what Mandy was posting avoiding duplicating her work. I worked along three avenues:

  1. Help the exhibitors by reposting their information in the stream, sending them practical local information, and encouraging companies that should have been exhibiting to do so next year.
  2. Help the attendees by posting HeliExpo news and information posted on the web into the #HE10 stream. For example, I found several videos and articles on Google that were not on Twitter so I posted links.
  3. Help the organizers by re-posting show information from their own website such as staff photos and event schedule, as well as promoting Mandy’s account and her work.

@Heli_Expo Twitter Followers

I limited my invested time to 60 hours before the show (mostly on researching the exhibitor list) and 20 hours during the show. I was not physically in Houston and created very little original content. I used only free tools and platforms. The response was tremendous. Many companies and news organizations started following the account and interacting directly with it. The account was recommended multiple times and my posts were re-tweeted to a large following. I can only imagine what the exposure would have been like if this had been an official effort advertised and coordinated by HAI.

I will now send Mandy the passwords to the accounts so HAI can take them over, but I think I have demonstrated to them and other Aerospace associations that a small time investment and a concerted approach can give them a much greater exposure online especially for events like this.

Why let others tell the story of your event when you can steer the conversation yourself? Are you listening Farnborough?

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.