SOME DOs AND DON’Ts OF SOCIAL MEDIA
worry that introducing
corporate social media will undermine your travel programme. Be part of the conversation instead of being an outsider looking in.
use social media to communicate
with your employees. Big companies are already using Twitter to do this. Look at the employee-focused Twitter feeds of UPS (@UPSers) and Starbucks (@Starbucksprtnrs) to see how it can be done well, particularly if you are a geographically scattered organisation.
think of social media as a
one-way tool. The whole point is for the relationship to be two-way, with travellers giving their feedback.
consider adding social media etiquette
guidelines to your HR policy. When your travellers are checking-in at certain locations and posting status updates that do not have geolocation turned off, what information are they giving your competitors?
The most radical use of Chatter is enabling what the travel team often describes as its B2T model
expense teams both take advantage of the large audience base to provide guidance and policy compliance. Salesforce is known as a disruptive
innovator in the software industry, and the travel team is part of that, as it is an advocate for corporate direct, or ‘open booking’, as it is often referred to. It has stated at past travel conferences that it views Concur’s Tripit as the ‘missing link’ in managed corporate travel – it allows for what Salesforce defines as the key tenets of any corporate managed programme to be met: policy compliance; duty-of-care; supplier data; travel analytics; and cost savings. It enables direct deals with suppli- ers and two-way communication between suppliers and their employees. At various industry forums, Salesforce has said it has recently eliminated its global hotel website and, instead ‘Chatter-ised’ it, where every hotel in the programme has its own Chatter page. Employees can rate the properties, provide personal reviews, review the property details, review embedded maps of its offices and local hotels, and connect to booking. But the most radical use of Chatter is en- abling what the travel team often describes
WORTHFOLLOWING
@boudaHQ Travel management consultancy Bouda regularly tweets links to interesting articles on business travel, as well as engaging in conversation with those in the industry.
instagram.com/ heatherpoole Heather is a flight attendant on an un-named US airline, and also the bestselling author of Cruising Attitude, which lifts the lid on life at 35,000 feet.
56 BBT JULY/AUGUST 2014
@JibberJabberJo The Twitter handle of Jo Seabright at Chiltern Railways gives the game away, really – prepare for a torrent of Twitter goodness, both industry and personal. @TheGTMC Hyperactive in recent months, this feed provides a mix of industry comment and links to the GTMC’s own material, as well as the occasional selfie from chief executive Paul Wait.
@richardquest CNN’s business travel host is hugely influential on Twitter (nearly 200,000 followers) and he tweets constantly about business travel and his guests, and interacts with followers. @paultilstone The GBTA’s head of global development tweets a good mix of GBTA content, industry news and personal observations.
#roadwarrior Not a particular user, but a hashtag – tweets and status updates here are sometimes self-deprecating, frequently enlightening and often very funny. And, of course, you should also follow @BBT_UK and @TravelbizPaul, and join Buying Business Travel’s Linkedin group. Oh, and don’t forget to follow me, too – @markfrary and
uk.linkedin. com/in/markfrary
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
as its B2T model – that is, business-to- traveller. Salesforce has recently launched its first B2T Chatter Community site with Marriott. Marriott is now engaging in direct dialogue with Salesforce employ- ees, offering special deals, and addressing traveller questions. The possibilities are endless – and Marriott is only the first. It is understood that airlines and car rental companies will soon join this programme.
THE NEXT BIG THING? It’s virtually impossible to predict the future in such a dynamic field but there has been some high-profile activity in the sector recently. For example, mobile messaging platform Whats App was recently bought by Facebook for an eye-watering US$19 billion. Despite having half-a-billion users, the business model is not immediately obvious, particularly as one of its attractions is that it is ad-free. Yet the potential for a socially joined-up messaging service for business users is enormous.
Linkedin is often seen as the most
relevant social network for the B2B space, but it’s worth looking at the ecosphere surrounding its network of 300 million members (15 million of them in the UK). One stand-out is the Here On Biz app, which mashes up your Linkedin profile with geolocation services to show you who from your network is near you when travelling on business – and potential contacts of interest if you are looking for business leads.
And of course another trend for busi- nesses is the rise of closed-user group networks, or social intranets – as well as the aforementioned Chatter, tools include Noodle and Microsoft’s Yammer.
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