The following is one of the rare examples where a big company takes the "Social" in Social Media for serious - and puts a smile on the faces of their customers.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqHWAE8GDEk?wmode=transparent]
So what did KLM do?
- First of all they located Social Media users that identified themselves as boarding for a KLM flight via Foursquare, Twitter etc.
- After that, dedicated staff informed themselves about the profile of these users, i.e. found out what their hobbies are, where they were going etc.
- In a third step they hunted them down at the airport (in the mall, at a gate etc.)
- And at last they presented these customers with a gift. Nothing big, but always something personal. A guidebook for their destination, an energy drink for somebody potentially exhausted, a ticket for a movie according to the interests of the user. (Interestingly enough there's a scene in the video above where they gave a ticket for the movie "The Social Network" to somebody travelling to a Social Media congress. Could've been me ;)
And the result? Huge smiles on the faces of their customers.
I like this example so much because KLM took some things seriously that are at the core of Social Media:
- Social Media have been invented to bring people together.
- Not only on the screen but also in real life.
- Social Media are about being generous, friendly and amiable.
- Social Media gives companies the chance to learn more about their customers and to make the best out of it - for both.
So, the next time you think about a Social Media campaign, why not introducing a new KPI: the number of smiles to be generated.
