JetBlue.com not only has a simplified and clean “look and feel,” but it also jumps on the personalization bandwagon by displaying fares from your most recent departure airports and real-time flight updates when your departure time nears.

And, a new Pick Me Up feature for the websites and mobile app enables you to send your itinerary, replete with directions to the airport, to the person retrieving you from your flight.

JetBlue also integrated Akamai technology into the redesign not only to enhance the websites’ speed, but also to enhance personalization with a targeting engine based on geo-location, travel history and preferences, the airline says.

And, Jetblue’s new iPhone app features a so-called “smart home screen,” which provides timely updates about your upcoming flight on the app’s home screen.

On the merchandising front, app users can view the DIRECTV schedule and SiriusXM Satellite Radio channel line-up for your upcoming flight.

And, signing into your TrueBlue loyalty program account makes both the websites and mobile app experience more personal, the airline says.

Digital agency Rokkan handled the redesigns and Double Encore served as JetBlue’s mobile app developer.

Third placed American added 1% market share to its previous showing as Delta lost 0.25%.

JetBlue also shed 0.5% market share over the same period.

Most popular travel websites in the US for the week ending December 24 2011:

Agency

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Expedia	www.expedia.com	12.07%	1
2	priceline.com	www.priceline.com	9.33%	2
3	Orbitz	www.orbitz.com	6.79%	3
4	Yahoo! Travel	travel.yahoo.com	6.00%	5
5	CheapOair	www.cheapoair.com	5.92%	4
6	Bing Travel	www.bing.com/travel	5.83%	-
7	Travelocity	www.travelocity.com	5.73%	6
8	Kayak	www.kayak.com	4.84%	7
9	Hotwire	www.hotwire.com	4.52%	8
10	Cheap Tickets	www.cheaptickets.com	2.67%	9

Destinations and Accommodation

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	TripAdvisor	www.tripadvisor.com	7.86%	1
2	Southwest Airlines Travel Guide	travel.southwest.com	2.73%	6
3	Marriott International	www.marriott.com	2.68%	2
4	Hotels.com	www.hotels.com	2.59%	3
5	InterContinental Hotels Group	www.ichotelsgroup.com	2.33%	5
6	Hilton Hotels Online	www.hilton.com	2.06%	4
7	Booking.com	www.booking.com	1.69%	7
8	Carnival Cruise Lines	www.carnival.com	1.53%	8
9	Walt Disney World	disneyworld.disney.go.com	1.37%	10
10	Vacation Rentals by Owner	www.vrbo.com	1.28%	9

Airlines

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Southwest Airlines	www.southwest.com	24.03%	1
2	Delta Air Lines	www.delta.com	12.82%	2
3	American Airlines	www.aa.com	10.20%	3
4	JetBlue Airways	www.jetblue.com	6.81%	4
5	Continental Airlines	www.continental.com	6.48%	5
6	US Airways	www.usairways.com	5.54%	6
7	United Airlines	www.united.com	5.42%	7
8	AirTran Airways	www.airtran.com	4.33%	8
9	Allegiant Air	www.allegiantair.com	3.09%	-
10	Spirit Airlines	www.spiritair.com	3.05%	9

Travel search terms

Rank	Search Term	Percentage of Clicks	Percentage Paid	Percentage Organic	Previous Position
1	mapquest	4.66%	0.39%	99.61%	1
2	google maps	1.64%	2.56%	97.44%	2
3	southwest airlines	1.28%	32.99%	67.01%	3
4	maps	0.87%	0.98%	99.02%	4
5	map quest	0.67%	1.77%	98.23%	5
6	google earth	0.62%	21.22%	78.78%	8
7	travelocity	0.58%	60.88%	39.12%	7
8	expedia	0.57%	57.46%	42.54%	6
9	continental airlines	0.54%	8.27%	91.73%	9
10	american airlines	0.52%	3.79%	94.21%	-

NB: Data couresy of Experian Hitwise

Third placed American Airlines added a nominal 0.25% on its previous showing, but JetBlue lost its fourth position to Continental.

Most popular travel websites in the US for the week ending October 15 2011:

Agency

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Expedia	www.expedia.com	12.51%	1
2	priceline.com	www.priceline.com	9.68%	2
3	Yahoo! Travel	travel.yahoo.com	7.75%	7
4	Orbitz	www.orbitz.com	7.07%	3
5	Travelocity	www.travelocity.com	6.21%	4
6	CheapOair	www.cheapoair.com	5.60%	5
7	Hotwire	www.hotwire.com	5.06%	6
8	Kayak	www.kayak.com	4.05%	9
9	Cheap Tickets	www.cheaptickets.com	3.14%	10
10	Onetravel.com	www.onetravel.com	2.52%	-

Destinations and Accommodation

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	TripAdvisor	www.tripadvisor.com	7.00%	1
2	Marriott International	www.marriott.com	3.05%	2
3	Hotels.com	www.hotels.com	2.64%	3
4	Hilton Hotels Online	www.hilton.com	2.40%	5
5	InterContinental Hotels Group	www.ichotelsgroup.com	2.38%	4
6	Southwest Airlines Travel Guide	travel.southwest.com	2.22%	7
7	Carnival Cruise Lines	www.carnival.com	1.75%	6
8	Booking.com	www.booking.com	1.61%	8
9	Vacation Rentals by Owner	www.vrbo.com	1.57%	9
10	Choice Hotels International	www.choicehotels.com	1.38%	10

Airlines

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Southwest Airlines	www.southwest.com	24.38%	1
2	Delta Air Lines	www.delta.com	13.32%	2
3	American Airlines	www.aa.com	9.69%	3
4	Continental Airlines	www.continental.com	6.71%	5
5	JetBlue Airways	www.jetblue.com	6.47%	4
6	United Airlines	www.united.com	5.61%	6
7	US Airways	www.usairways.com	5.45%	7
8	AirTran Airways	www.airtran.com	4.44%	8
9	Spirit Airlines	www.spiritair.com	3.65%	9
10	Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air	www.alaskaair.com	3.06%	-

Travel search terms

Rank	Search Term	Percentage of Clicks	Percentage Paid	Percentage Organic	Previous Position
1	mapquest	4.21%	0.36%	99.14%	1
2	google maps	1.67%	0.30%	99.70%	2
3	southwest airlines	1.22%	30.31%	69.69%	4
4	mapquest driving directions	1.19%	0.29%	99.71%	3
5	maps	1.00%	0.47%	99.53%	5
6	map quest	0.82%	0.12%	99.88%	6
7	expedia	0.62%	51.97%	48.03%	7
8	travelocity	0.58%	57.23%	42.77%	8
9	southwest	0.52%	22.70%	77.30%	-
10	google earth	0.47%	16.25%	83.75%	-

NB: Data couresy of Experian Hitwise

The pair have a combined share in the category of 37%, more than American Airlines, Continental, JetBlue and United put together.

Most popular travel websites in the US for the week ending October 1 2011:

Agency

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Expedia	www.expedia.com	12.53%	1
2	priceline.com	www.priceline.com	9.77%	2
3	Orbitz	www.orbitz.com	7.59%	3
4	Yahoo! Travel	travel.yahoo.com	7.57%	4
5	Travelocity	www.travelocity.com	6.12%	5
6	Hotwire	www.hotwire.com	5.42%	7
7	CheapOair	www.cheapoair.com	5.36%	6
8	Kayak	www.kayak.com	4.26%	8
9	Cheap Tickets	www.cheaptickets.com	2.87%	9
10	bookingbuddy	www.bookingbuddy.com	2.62%	10

Destinations and Accommodation

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	TripAdvisor	www.tripadvisor.com	7.78%	1
2	Hotels.com	www.hotels.com	2.90%	3
3	Marriott International	www.marriott.com	2.80%	2
4	InterContinental Hotels Group	www.ichotelsgroup.com	2.41%	4
5	Hilton Hotels Online	www.hilton.com	2.17%	5
6	Vacation Rentals by Owner	www.vrbo.com	1.71%	7
7	Carnival Cruise Lines	www.carnival.com	1.63%	6
8	Booking.com	www.booking.com	1.59%	9
9	Walt Disney World	disneyworld.disney.go.com	1.37%	-
10	Choice Hotels International	www.choicehotels.com	1.29%	10

Airlines

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Southwest Airlines	www.southwest.com	22.97%	1
2	Delta Air Lines	www.delta.com	13.60%	2
3	American Airlines	www.aa.com	9.56%	3
4	Continental Airlines	www.continental.com	7.07%	5
5	JetBlue Airways	www.jetblue.com	6.99%	4
6	United Airlines	www.united.com	5.89%	6
7	US Airways	www.usairways.com	5.59%	7
8	AirTran Airways	www.airtran.com	4.74%	8
9	Spirit Airlines	www.spiritair.com	3.34%	10
10	Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air	www.alaskaair.com	2.81%	9

Travel search terms

Rank	Search Term	Percentage of Clicks	Percentage Paid	Percentage Organic	Previous Position
1	mapquest	4.03%	0.17%	99.83%	1
2	google maps	1.69%	0.31%	99.69%	2
3	mapquest driving directions	1.07%	0.25%	99.75%	3
4	southwest airlines	1.04%	48.21%	51.79%	4
5	maps	0.87%	0.37%	99.63%	5
6	map quest	0.76%	0.39%	99.61%	6
7	expedia	0.63%	49.95%	50.05%	7
8	travelocity	0.50%	62.68%	37.32%	9
9	southwest	0.46%	35.01%	64.99%	-
10	google earth	0.45%	24.78%	75.22%	10

NB: Data couresy of Experian Hitwise

The airline received almost 12,000 public tweets, almost 3,000 ahead of JetBlue yet still around 16,000 fewer than Delta.

Cebu replaces Air Asia, which held second position in July 2011.

The report is the latest monthly study from Eezeer and calculates various aspects of how airlines use Twitter to communicate with customers.

Strangely, the number of airlines using Twitter has declined from 191 in July to 186 in August.

NB: The airlines on Twitter report is produced in association with Simpliflying.

The usual quartet had a different player this week as Continental overtook JetBlue to take fourth place.

JetBlue has 7% market share, while US Airways and United have 6% each.

Most popular travel websites in the US for the week ending September 3 2011:

Agency

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Expedia	www.expedia.com	12.65%	1
2	priceline.com	www.priceline.com	9.99%	2
3	Yahoo! Travel	travel.yahoo.com	8.49%	3
4	Orbitz	www.orbitz.com	7.08%	4
5	Travelocity	www.travelocity.com	6.05%	5
6	Hotwire	www.hotwire.com	5.57%	6
7	CheapOair	www.cheapoair.com	4.80%	7
8	Kayak	www.kayak.com	3.81%	8
9	Cheap Tickets	www.cheaptickets.com	2.76%	-
10	bookingbuddy	www.bookingbuddy.com	2.72%	10

Destinations and Accommodation

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	TripAdvisor	www.tripadvisor.com	7.86%	1
2	Hotels.com	www.hotels.com	3.20%	2
3	Marriott International	www.marriott.com	2.78%	3
4	InterContinental Hotels Group	www.ichotelsgroup.com	2.40%	4
5	Hilton Hotels Online	www.hilton.com	2.10%	5
6	Booking.com	www.booking.com	1.63%	9
7	Vacation Rentals by Owner	www.vrbo.com	1.57%	8
8	Choice Hotels International	www.choicehotels.com	1.56%	10
9	Carnival Cruise Lines	www.carnival.com	1.54%	6
10	Southwest Airlines Travel Guide	travel.southwest.com	1.49%	7

Airlines

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Southwest Airlines	www.southwest.com	22.19%	1
2	Delta Air Lines	www.delta.com	13.19%	2
3	American Airlines	www.aa.com	9.88%	3
4	Continental Airlines	www.continental.com	7.25%	5
5	JetBlue Airways	www.jetblue.com	6.98%	4
6	US Airways	www.usairways.com	6.00%	6
7	United Airlines	www.united.com	5.86%	7
8	AirTran Airways	www.airtran.com	4.29%	8
9	Spirit Airlines	www.spiritair.com	3.50%	9
10	Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air	www.alaskaair.com	3.03%	10

Travel search terms

Rank	Search Term	Percentage of Clicks	Percentage Paid	Percentage Organic	Previous Position
1	mapquest	3.89%	0.46%	99.54%	1
2	google maps	1.70%	0.53%	99.47%	2
3	maps	0.94%	0.46%	99.54%	4
4	southwest airlines	0.90%	38.47%	61.53%	3
5	mapquest driving directions	0.81%	0.11%	99.89%	8
6	map quest	0.71%	0.54%	99.44%	5
7	expedia	0.57%	51.23%	48.77%	6
8	travelocity	0.50%	48.23%	51.77%	10
9	american airlines	0.49%	3.79%	96.21%	-
10	google earth	0.46%	22.01%	77.99%	7

NB: Data couresy of Experian Hitwise

The most active, in the latest monthly analysis compiled by Eezeer, are Delta in North America, AirAsia in Asia and EasyJet in Europe.

See below:

NB: The airlines on Twitter report is produced in association with Simpliflying.

The new JetBlue BluePass unveiled today can be purchased online only here on JetBlue.com and all bookings must be made online, as well.

Similar in some respects, but not all, to the JetBlue All You Can Get Jet Pass implemented in 2010, the JetBlue BluePass offers unlimited travel for three months at a range of prices from Boston or Long Beach, Calif., to select markets.

The BluePass actually comes in three varieties: Boston All (Boston to any JetBlue destination for $1,999), Boston Select (to 13 JetBlue cities for $1,499) and Long Beach Select (to nine JetBlue cities for $1,299).

The offer expires Aug. 31 (or until JetBlue runs out of passes) and travel is good for Aug. 22 to Nov. 22, 2011.

The BluePass flights will be available for booking Aug. 15, although the passes were available for purchase starting July 28.

Purchasers must be members of the JetBlue TrueBlue loyalty program and they receive points for purchasing the passes.

BluePass holders can book up to 90 minutes before a flight, can make changes to BluePass reservations without penalty and would get charged a $100 no-show fee only when they don’t appear for a reserved flight twice within seven days.

JetBlue characterizes its BluePass as a U.S. “industry first.”

Airlines have long criticized the GDSs for not having the flexibility to handle merchandising in innovative ways, and the BluePass may be another case in point.

We’re often asked if there are any statistics to show how useful having reviews on your website can be.

The simple answer is “yes – there are many”, so we thought we would round up some very recent examples, as they never fail to impress me and continually argue the case for building up reviews on your website, and quickly.

We researched the travel industry and beyond to bring you a collection of figures to help you convince your management team that reviews are the next thing your website needs.

Here’s how we got on…

1. Positive reviews are almost as important as price

When it comes down to making the decision to book online, a positive review is almost as influential as price or special offers.  So, rather than reducing prices – showing reviews on your site can be equally as powerful at increasing conversions.

29% of consumers consider positive reviews as most likely factor to make them book a holiday

A recent online travel booking poll, conducted by Webcredible, revealed that 29% of consumers consider positive reviews as the most likely factor to make them book a holiday online.

The only factor identified as more important than reviews was price, with 38% of consumers identifying online prices and special offers as the factor most likely to make them book a holiday online.

2. Reviews are the most common form of online research, increasing browsing time on your website by 50 – 100%

Adding reviews to your website can double the browsing time. That’s a 100% increase!

According to Michael McCartan, COO of RateTiger-eRevMax, over 50% of all UK holiday bookings are researched online.

Across all industries, a study by Lightspeed Research found that 62% of customers read reviews online compared to 49% who researched competitor’s sites.

Here at Digital Visitor, we have provided review functionality to over 200 travel and leisure organisations globally. Our research has found that a good review system will significantly increase the browsing time on a website. In fact, on average, client’s see online visitor browsing time double. That’s a 100% increase in time spent on your site rather than competing sites.

3. Reviews drive additional traffic to your website from other social media sites

Travel companies that regularly share reviews with their Facebook page see an increase in traffic back to their company website.  For example, one good review per day generated extra visitors up to 2.5 times their number of community followers per month.

So if you have a Facebook page with 10,000 “Likes”, this can deliver 25,000 visitors to your company website from Facebook every month!

4. Consumers prefer to read reviews on company websites over magazines, forums, newspapers or social networking sites

Referring to the same study by Lightspeed Research, 47% of consumers prefer to read ‘reviews on a company’s website’ over magazines, forums, shopping comparison sites, newspapers and social networking sites.

The only other sources that were more preferred than reviews on a company website were ‘reviews on shopping sites’ (58%) and “via a search engine” (64%).

This highlights that consumers prefer to read reviews by real people over what a company’s marketing material states.

5. 46.7% of consumers have written a review

Participation in social commerce is now the accepted norm. More consumers have written a review than those that haven’t.

Research from Reevoo confirmed that currently, 46.7% of consumers do in fact write reviews compared to 46.3% who haven’t, and it’s becoming a more standard procedure as its popularity increases.

6. A negative review is not always a bad thing for sales

A review that may seem negative to one person can in fact be positive in another person’s view. Take for example a review of a hotel that describes it as “not child friendly”.

A couple looking for a romantic weekend getaway would not see this as a deterrent for booking, and would most likely welcome this fact. What is seen as a negative in one customer’s eyes can in fact be a positive for another.

Travel organisations that really want to make the most of their customer reviews now and in the future, will be those that consider how to make them relevant for each online visitor.

The more relevant and appropriate the reviews included on your website are to the potential customer, the greater the influence is on the booking process.

Research by Reevoo also points out the importance for organisations to be wary of not sensoring all the negative reviews as 70% of people trust reviews more when they can see bad reviews as well as good.

Furthermore, 38% of shoppers are more likely to read the bad reviews than the good ones AND 95% of people said they will still buy a product with a bad review.

7. Reviews enhance sales by up to 18%

Statistics, also from Reevoo, confirmed that retailers and brands that have embraced reviews and recommendations into their online retail strategy see an increase in sales of up to 18%; 2% of which is from repeat customers.

Like it or not, reviews are positively influencing the volume of bookings and if you don’t jump on board, you will be left behind.

So what are travel companies doing, who has reviews on their website and who does not?

We decided to conduct our own research to discover how many of the top travel companies did in fact have some sort of rating or review about their products and services. In order to do this, we looked at 100 of the top travel company websites to see what review capability they offered.

This is what we found:

• 60% of the websites we looked at had a review system in place – Surprisingly, only 15% of these were from TripAdvisor.  The rest used their Facebook wall to collect reviews and most had their own onsite rating and reviews features.
• 40% did not include any reviews – This highlights that there are many travel organisations that still haven’t taken advantage of the increased conversion reviews can bring.

Our top tips for making the most of reviews on your website:

1. Ease of use

Make it easy for your visitors to add review with slick uploading of their comments, photos and videos.

2. Display your reviews in the right place.

We suggest:

• A selection below the fold on the homepage
• A selection on secondary landing pages such as destination pages
• Specific reviews on product/tour/venue pages

3. Urge customers to leave a review in your marketing and promotional material.

For example, you may want to include a link on your receipts, or on any email communications that go to your customers.

4. Incentivise.

Give your customers a reason to review your business or service.  You might want to offer them the opportunity to enter a competition, a coupon or discount off their next purchase if they leave a review.

5. Proactive

If you have received a compliment from a customer, be it via email or verbally, take this opportunity to inform them that you appreciate reviews, and give them the website address where they can post a review and spread the good word.

6. Be helpful

If you spot positive comments about your brand, products or services on any other social networking sites, contact the user with a link to where they can add a review.

7. Responsibility

Make sure you work out which department or who in your organisation is responsible for responding to the comments.

8. Be nice

Respond in a professional and timely manner to every review, both the positive and negative ones. It will show your potential customers that you care about your customer’s experiences and especially about improving your services.

NB: This is a guest article by Anthony Rawlins, managing director of Digital Visitor.

We know we NEED to get involved with social media – but a common theme for many in the travel industry is that they are unclear how to do it effectively and comprehensively.

As we all know, social media has secured its place in the marketing departments of many different industries all over the world, with more brands recognising the enormous benefits that social media can bring.

For the travel industry specifically, a recent study by L2 Digital has confirmed the sheer importance of social media, finding that social media is a significant source of traffic for 78% of travel websites. And while many travel organisations will already have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc, this is only one aspect of a good social media strategy.

The confusion over social media is partly due to a lack of strategic direction, so to make things simpler for everyone, here at Digital Visitor we have created a simple philosophy.

There are two types of social media to consider and both of these should be considered for an effective, longer term and profitable social media strategy. Your social media strategy should be made up of the following:

• An Onchannel strategy
• An Onsite strategy

Your Onchannel strategy should drive new traffic to your website and your Onsite strategy should increase online conversions and repeat visits to your website.

So, let’s look at these types of social media strategy in a little more detail…

Onchannel Social Media

This element of a wider social media strategy should aim to direct traffic back to your company website. If you can achieve this you are a long way towards showing a clear ROI for your social media marketing activities. Once on your website, it is the job of your site to convert your new online visitors.

Onchannel strategies predominantly revolve around Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and over 300 other social media sites in existence.

Onchannel strategies are also 99% of all social media strategies with a great bias across every industry towards this facet of social media. Onchannel strategies are amazing at finding new audiences. With nearly 700 million people on Facebook, it’s irresistible to not try and capture some of these as new customers.

Onchannels strategies are also a great way to communicate with customers or potential customers in a less controlled, less formal and potentially more credible manner.

Like all your other marketing campaigns, it is important to ensure that your social media efforts include set targets in order to clarify a ROI, and with onchannel social media this is predominantly shown against marketing and communications activity.

Here are three ways of measuring ROI for Onchannel activity:

1. Traffic back to your website. This can be offset against PPC or SEO spend.
2. Job applications via your social media channels reduce recruitment fees.
3. Communicating via these channels can reduce email marketing costs.

Over the past few years there have been some great examples of travel companies using social media channels to promote their brand, destination or service.

Here are just a few:

1) VisitBritain and the Royal Wedding

VisitBritain’s activity on Facebook and Twitter during the recent Royal Wedding was certainly impressive. VisitBritain’s objective was to capitalise on the global media interest in the Royal Wedding and increase its engagement with prospective visitors across digital and social media.

The results: the LoveUK Facebook Page was the 6th most “explosive page” on Facebook during the Royal Wedding week, gaining 127,546 new fans to double its Love UK membership. Moreover, content on the page was viewed by over 1.3 million

On Twitter, discussions started by @VisitBritain and mentions of Royal Wedding articles on the VisitBritain Super Blog, reached more than two million people in 48 hours, pushing its Twitter Klout score (the standard measure of influence where one is the least influential and 100 is the most) to over 71, taking @VisitBritain into the top 1% of Twitter users.

2) JetBlue’s incredible social CRM campaign.

The airline uses its channels to reactively answer customer complaints and turn them into positives. Even with tricky PR situations, officials still answer every question, whether it’s positive or not.

3) KLM

The Dutch airline has consistently been innovative with its Onchannel social media activity. Most impressive of all was KLM Surprise where a team researched KLM customers who were waiting at airports through their social media check ins. KLM staff then located them and offered them a small gift based on the interests on their social media profiles.

As mentioned, Onchannel social media strategies are the vast majority of social media but there is a void and a flaw in just Onchannel strategies.

Whilst we feel Onchannel strategies can save some marketing and communication costs and drive new audiences to your site, we don’t feel this has a significant impact on website conversion rates.

For this to be achieved, the social media journey should be continued by visitors on your own website – Onsite.

Onsite Social Media

Put simply: putting in place an Onsite social media strategy should aim to increase browsing time, repeat visits and conversions on your own website.

Onsite social media focuses on how to best utilise social media on your own company website and under your own brand and includes such activities as enabling visitors to upload reviews to your website, create forums and discussions and join your own community.

Like Onchannel social media, Onsite social media also aims to drive search traffic to your website but this will primarily come from organic search engine traffic rather than direct referral.

ROI from Onsite social media is easier to measure and should show:

• An increase in browsing time (usually doubling browsing time if your visitors content is good).
• An increase in online conversions provided you display the correct content on the correct pages of your website.
• An increase in repeat visits to your website and repeat bookings.

Onsite social media is also a longer term investment as reviews on your website and your own community will grow and continually provide benefit to your website with little maintenance required.

Top six reasons why travel companies should also consider Onsite social media?

1. Increased browsing time.

Social media such as videos, photos and reviews are more inspiring and engaging, thus increasing the browse time on your own website. For example, VJVLounge has increased the browsing time under the VJV brand by over three minutes.

2. Increasing traffic.

Referring back to the study by L2 Digital, research found that those travel companies who do allow user reviews on their website, report an increase in traffic of 24%.

3. Maintain traffic rather than send to competitors.

Reviews by real people on your own site increases your authenticity and builds customer loyalty and trust with your brand.  If you don’t provide this on your website, your online visitors will find this somewhere else!

A recent study by Forrester Research found that consumers overwhelmingly rely on online reviews and price comparisons to research products and services before making a purchase.

More importantly, the study continued to state that 47% of consumers in fact rely on online reviews about products or services on company websites over newspapers, magazines or social networking sites before making a purchase decision.

These results also highlight the importance for organisations to have up-to-date reviews on their own company website. [More here]

4. Better analytics.

While Facebook provides some tools to help you track interactions, they are certainly not as insightful as website analytics. Google analytics is a free service that allows you track every single interaction on your website; including how people found you in the first place.

Things like keywords and referrals are not included in Facebook analytics and this information is incredibly valuable. Social media on your own site can therefore be analysed in much greater detail.

5. Flexibility.

If your website is redesigned, or you move CMS, your reviews and communities can be easily transferred using innovative new developments in this marketplace.

For example, Visitor Review delivered by Digital Visitor, provides functionality via Javascript and can therefore seamlessly migrate from one version of your website to another – thus making it future proof.

On the other hand, your investment in Onchannel websites such as Facebook is not future proof as you do not have total control over your brand presence.

What’s more, Facebook regularly changes it rules and businesses have to catch-up. ‘Fans’ are now “likes”, “polls” are now “questions” and competitions are technically not allowed just on Facebook.

6. Brand identity.

Whether new audiences or existing, your company should be about your brand and not theirs! Onchannel, there will always be a Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or other experience running in the background, reminding people that they are interacting with these channels just as much as they are with your brand.

This clearly dilutes your brand identity. Onsite social media on the other hand, allows you to communicate like you would on these channels, but on your own terms and in your own style and branding.

Here are a few examples of companies offering Onsite social media solutions and we strongly recommend that you research this option before committing to your social media strategy for the year:

• VR3 by Digital Visitor
• OffExploring
• Fresh Networks

Conclusion

It’s very important to construct an Onchannel and Onsite social media strategy to deliver a complete social media strategy.

Your Onchannel strategy can drive new audiences to your website whilst your Onsite strategy can move these new audiences into your booking flow and increase conversions.

Onchannel strategies should be viewed very much as marketing and communications activities whereas your Onsite strategy is more to do with development of your own website, enhancing its conversion rate and search engine optimisation.

Travel brands that want to secure their place in social media should consider adding social media features to their own website.  Both Onsite and Onchannel activity are needed to complete a social media strategy to ensure that your brand is really making the most of all that social media has to offer.

NB: This is a guest article by Anthony Rawlins, managing director of Digital Visitor. Follow on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.

Thanks to the folk at Simpliflying, a handy infographic has shed some light on the issue by researching the where the additional (if any) resources are coming from within airlines and how they approach using and engaging in social.

In particular it looks at the integrated and dedicated team models of social media marketing.

UPDATE:

There’s a video version, too.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un-DfHDeM28

And, for travelers who prefer not to dabble in downloadable apps, the merged United Airlines and Continental Airlines will donate $1 to Conservation International’s Protect an Acre project for travelers who board jets after scanning mobile boarding passes.

United Continental Holdings is capping the total mobile boarding pass donationat $50,000, and also is sponsoring the Earth Day celebration today in headquarters-city Chicago.

Meanwhile, United Continental Holdings detailed some of the prime facets of its new Eco-Skies program, including improving the fuel efficiency of its aircraft and vehicles; using alternative fuels; better-managing wastes generated by its operations; and promoting accountability with customers, airports, partners, suppliers, governments and nongovernmental organizations.

Travelocity, too, chose to get in on the Earth Day festivities, but via social media.

The Roaming Gnome posted a Facebook status update informing friends that “over on Twitter,” anyone who tweets the Earth Day-oriented stuff they are doing today would be entered into a drawing for two Virgin America roundtrip flights as well as a two-night Kimpton stay in the U.S.

To be eligible for the Travelocity drawing, you need to be following the Roaming Gnome on Twitter and your tweet needs to include #greengnome.

And, JetBlue’s homepage got into the green act, as well, offering customers the chance to win a a Honda CR-Z sport hybrid or an Amana appliance makeover.

The official rules for JetBlue’s One Thing That’s Green Sweepstakes can be found here.

Innumerable other travel and tourism companies were marking Earth Day today, as well.

In the spirit of the day, please don’t print this article:)

So says Robin Hayes, chief commercial officer, who provided scant detail about the forthcoming program.

Hayes was speaking during a question and answer session at the airline’s first quarter of 2011 earnings call yesterday and mentioned the upcoming program in the context of products which provide a “value proposition for the customer.”

Hayes says JetBlue won’t be “nickel and diming [passengers] and stripping and unbundling the product.”

In that regard, officials said they have no plans to increase the seating density on JetBlue flights or to introduce first-checked bag fees in select markets, such as the Caribbean, as American Airlines has done.

On the tech front, David Barger, the JetBlue CEO, said the airline is “very pleased” more than a year after the cutover to the Sabre SabreSonic CSS system with gains in the corporate market, particularly in Boston.

Hayes said 15% to 20% of JetBlue customers “are flying business” and that percentage is greater than 20% in Boston, where JetBlue offers some 100 trips per day.

For the first quarter of 2011, JetBlue posted a $3 million profit, compared with a $1 million loss a year earlier. Revenue in the first quarter rose 16.3% to more than $1 billion.

The Slater incident and JetBlue’s becoming the “official and exclusive airline” of Catch Me If You Can, slated to open at the Neil Simon Theatre on Broadway April 10, have little to do with with one another in the airline’s mind.

But, oh, the juxtaposition — you can’t make this stuff up.

Actually, there are a couple of parallels for those of us who know how to really stretch a comparison.

Slater complained in the wake of his unscheduled escape from the aircraft that passengers were rude and that the bygone days of passenger-flight attendant civility were long gone.

And, JetBlue, too, apparently pines for that bygone era.

“JetBlue’s mission and brand essence [is] to bring humanity back to air travel, resurrect the glamour and joy of flying in the 1960s, the industry era created for the Broadway show,” says Lisa Borromeo, the airline’s manager of brand and partnerships.

The musical portrays the life of a runaway teenager who searches for the high life and along the way passes forged checks and poses as a pilot.

Fictitious transgressions arguably worse than Slater’s.

There are social media themes running through the flight attendant incident and play partnership, as well.

The Slater incident created a social media firestorm for JetBlue, which actively engaged customers and others on Twitter, Facebook and in blog posts after Slater’s slide went international and viral.

For Catch Me If You Can, JetBlue is back at it with customer engagement and social media.

The airline and the theater production are running a contest where fans are asked to upload an audition video of them reading a pre-written news story about Frank Abagnale Jr., the play’s protagonist.

The grand prize winner will be designated JetBlue Carpet Correspondent for opening night, April 10, and will earn roundtrip tickets for two to New York, a hotel stay at the Flatotel, tickets for Catch Me, and exclusive access to the Blue Carpet and a post-theater party.

JetBlue says details of the contest are available at CatchTheMusical.com [although said details weren't immediately available at press time].

If the videos don’t end up on JetBlue’s Facebook page, this reporter will parachute out of my next flight.

Incidentally, there’s no word yet on whether Slater, who no longer works for JetBlue, has been invited to audition.

Travelers can now buy a single e-ticket combining travel on New York-based JetBlue and LAN Airlines, which has multiple hubs in South America, including Santiago, Chile; Guayaquil, Ecuador; and Lima, Peru.

With the interline relationship, travelers check-in, check baggage to their final destination and receive boarding passes for the entire journey.

Within weeks, the airlines say, travel agents will be able to book JetBlue-LAN flights through global distribution systems, and consumers will be able to purchase these flights through online travel agencies, LAN websites or by phoning LAN reservations.

Both JetBlue and LAN airlines use the SabreSonic reservations system, which facilitates their new interline agreement.

The ShopAlerts are a location-based, mobile advertising program in which AT&T creates a “geo-fence” around a retail location — say an airport check-in counter — or at an event, and AT&T wireless customers would receive messages containing coupons, rewards and other promotional offers.

The advertising program would be targeted at customers who opt-in to use it.

“We were excited about the opportunity because it takes the onus off of the advertiser to build a large database of opt-in users that the true power of technology can be harnessed,” says Katie Thompson, associate director of digital media at Mullen, JetBlue’s ad agency.

Details on how JetBlue will implement the solution are sparse.

JetBlue will be in test mode with the advertising service and is working on its development, says spokesperson Mateo Lleras.

The service will initially be available to AT&T customers New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.

Other launch advertisers include HP, Kmart, SC Johnson, Kibbles ‘n Bits, Nature’s Recipe and the National Milk Mustache Campaign.

JetBlue officials, speaking Jan. 27 during the airline’s fourth quarter earnings call, noted that the direct-to-consumer model is still the basic way the airline generates sales despite its participation in the GDSs.

Robin Hayes, the airline’s chief commercial officer, said “business through the GDS channel, while it’s significantly grown, it’s still a small slice of the pie. We remain and continue to remain a largely consumer-direct business. So to some extent, we don’t have the same skin in the game as some of the more traditional airlines have.”

Hayes said the airline has seen strong yields from corporations through the GDS, adding, “We can do that within the GDS infrastructure. We don’t need direct-connect for that.”

Then came her message for online travel agencies.

“I think the online travel agents, we said before, the jury is still out,” Hayes said. “We are not sure how much of that distribution is truly incremental and so [there is] a lot of focus from us on making sure that channel, if we’re going to participate in it [my italics], is at the right cost level.”

JetBlue participates in the major OTAs, but perhaps is looking for some steep discounts if the airline is to remain on board.

The comments come several weeks after one major carrier, American Airlines, removed its flights from Orbitz Worldwide, and saw Expedia Inc. remove the airline’s flights as negotiations on a new contract stalled.

Unlike JetBlue, American Airlines is pursuing a direct-connect strategy.

The term direct-connect should not be confused with direct distribution.

American Airlines says it wants to distribute through GDSs, OTAs and traditional travel agents, but it wants them to hook themselves up to American Airlines Direct-Connect.

In contrast, JetBlue wants to drive direct traffic to its website, but is not pursuing a direct-connect strategy with intermediaries.

JetBlue CEO Dave Barger emphasized the airline’s direct-to-consumer roots.

“I think the headline [is] this direct model, that hasn’t changed, it’s right in the fabric of our DNA since day one and even with the conversion to Sabre [for the airline's internal reservations system] and as we’re in the GDS world and the OTA model, I mean, the direct model certainly has not changed,” Barger said.

Barger added that JetBlue’s percentages of direct sales have shifted over time, but the basic direct model is “not going to shift for us.”

The study, Best of the Anywhere Web [pdf], found that JetBlue’s homepage loads in 4.11 seconds, compared with 4.52 seconds for Facebook, 6.12 seconds for Walmart and 22.59 seconds for Sprint, for example.  [You can access a Webinar about the study here.]

Among airline and rail mobile websites analyzed in the transportation sector, JetBlue tied for first with rail lines Amtrak and Bay Area Rapid Transit. The three notched scores of 73 out of 100. The Metropolitan Transit Authority was second with 72 and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority was third with a 71 score.

Only 16 of the 48 companies studied received passing scores and JetBlue was the only airline to do so. The other airlines in the study were British Airways, Southwest, Delta, US Airways, Northwest, American, United and Continental. Orbitz was also included and the only online travel agency scrutinized, but didn’t receive a passing grade for its mobile website.

In a switch from the most recent prior study, in 2008, the rail lines — Metropolitan Transit Authority, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Chicago Transit Authority, Amtrak and BART — as a group scored better than the airlines in the 2010 study.

American Airlines was the best in the transportation category in the 2008 study, but Yankee Group says airlines as a whole haven’t kept pace with the evolution of mobile websites.

The study measured the availability of mobile website pages, and how fast and how much data they downloaded.

Among 12 technology companies in the study, Google ranked first [81], Bing second [70] and AOL third [69]. Further down in the mix were Facebook, YouTube, Epson, Canon, Brother, Yahoo, Dell, Microsoft and Sony.

Key lessons from the Yankee Group study?

• Companies need mobile websites — they are no longer mere differentiators.

• Previously wireless networks may have been a bottleneck for mobile websites, but today the server infrastructure is a make or break component.

• Mobile websites must have automatic device detection to gain consumer eyes and loyalty.

• By 2011, when Yankee Group plans to conduct its next mobile website study, the company forecasts that location detection will be a feature in all websites that get to the top of its rankings.

The airline revealed its intentions about the new business line as it announced it completed a memorandum of understanding to have ViaSat provide in-flight broadband access and other services to JetBlue’s fleet of more than 160 Embraer E190 and Airbus A320 aircraft.

JetBlue says it hopes to sign a definitive agreement with ViaSat before the end of 2010.

Under the MOU, ViaSat would provide Ka-band satellite bandwidth services, with two-way transmission, to the aircraft using WildBlue-1 and ViaSat-1 satellites.

LiveTV, which JetBlue acquired in 2002, would handle integrating the ViaSat broadband onboard the aircraft and LiveTV also would install Wi-Fi service in the cabins, JetBlue says.

JetBlue says this type of broadband satellite service “will be the first of its kind for commercial aviation” and thus is subject to Federal Aviation Administration approval prior to installation, which is expected to begin mid-way through 2012.

“ViaSat is able to provide true broadband bandwidth with speeds and capacity not seen before in the commercial aviation marketplace,” says JetBlue spokesman Mateo Lleras. “Ground-based systems can’t scale to meet the bandwidth needs of advancements in personal technology, especially the bandwidth volume needed (as opposed to just speed) as more and more passengers begin to share the connection.”

JetBlue also says it intends to partner with ViaSat to bring Ka-band satellite broadband services to the airline industry, including LiveTV’s existing roster of airline clients.

LiveTV’s clients include Continental, Frontier, WestJet, AirTran, VirginBlue, ExpressJet, Air One and Blue Wings.

“Combing LiveTV’s expertise in entertainment and content management with ViaSat’s satellite technology means we can create products and services for airline customers that are unparalleled in the industy today,” says Glenn Latta, LiveTV president.

JetBlue spokesman Morgan Johnston says user traffic related to a fare sale today led to the airline’s website experiencing “intermittent outages” for about 30 to 45 minutes this morning.

@JetBlue earlier had tweeted: “We’re experiencing technical difficulties on our homepage. To book, please go to:http://book.jetblue.com/B6/webqtrip.html”

Johnston says the website issues have since been resolved.

Today’s surge of website traffic follows last week’s burst when JetBlue sold out an offering of All You Can Jet flight passes in 60 hours.

Johnston declined to reveal how many flight passes JetBlue sold last week, but indicated that consumers bought 15% more of the airline’s flight passes than they did when the passes were offered in 2009.