The use of social media marketing by Air Malta

Abstract

This study investigates the effectiveness and success of Malta’s flag carrier airline, Air Malta, in deploying social media marketing. Various aspects of social media marketing were of interest to this dissertation including social media platforms, social media strategies and social media benefits. This research was conducted due to the great impact which social media nowadays has, not only on the lives of individuals, but also on the day-to-day operations of businesses and organisations. Thus, to be able to engage more efficiently with the digital and social customer of the 21st century, companies are now operating on a variety of social media platforms. As competition grows fiercer within the airline industry, airlines have not been left behind in this development of marketing communications. Three methods of data collection were utilised for this study; an in-depth interview with senior Air Malta personnel, an online questionnaire directed towards Air Malta’s social media followers and a series of observations of the airline’s social media platforms. All these have shown Facebook as the strongest social media platform within the airline industry, along with the growing significance of Instagram and YouTube. Moreover, Air Malta was found to be lacking some of the essentials of social media marketing such as a segmented target audience. The conclusion was that such limitations might be the result of the fact that Air Malta does not have a well-defined social media strategy in place. Nevertheless, Air Malta still boasts an active and a strong social media presence, which enables the airline to achieve satisfactory customer-relationship management and to augment sales.