What Are People Sharing Via Social Media at Airports?

Airports are typically brimming with activity, with people coming and going and having a mixture of positive and unpleasant experiences. For example, some will be experiencing happy reunions as they meet loved ones coming off the plane, while others are stewing in anger over a missed or delayed flight.

You can imagine some passengers complaining about service while others are pleased and recommending a particular airline or airport to their friends. With so many people carrying mobile devices with them everywhere they go, the result is that many of them will be posting their varied reactions via social media for all the world to see.

To gain more insight into what all these people are talking about, Geofeedia, a social media monitoring company, conducted a study of social media posts at Chicago O’Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles International Airport and JFK in New York. Geofeedia analyzed hundreds of thousands of social media updates and came up with some interesting statistics, noted a recent article at Road Warrior Voices.

At least 30 percent of tweets came from airport employees (and not always in an official capacity). The leader in overall tweets is LAX with 40 percent of all communication, while people were most reticent at DFW at just 16 percent.

Passengers tweeting from the runway have mostly pleasant things to say, with the most common keywords being “happy,” “sweet,” “love” and “thanks.” That’s touching, as it indicates that so many people are glad to finally get home and back to their friends and family.

People tend to be more active on social media networks over the weekends, but the numbers vary from one airport to the next. Fridays are the peak posting days for people at LAX and O’Hare, Saturdays are when people post the most from JFK and Sunday is the most social day at DFW.

Photos and videos were posted the most from JFK travelers, the study noted, but these updates only account for about 6 percent of all communications traffic at the airports.

At Royal Coachman, we find these statistics to be quite intriguing. Do you find yourself falling into similar patterns in terms of social media usage at any of these airports?

Posted in: corporate travel