Change is not easy, especially for corporate America. For some time, we noticed the traditional B2B content pushed on Amadeus' social channels was falling flat. After a period of content testing, our assumptions proved true: successful content showed the "real" side of Amadeus, employee and customer stories and a much more visual and creative storytelling approach. To support this shift in social strategy, we had to change the mind-set of our organization, get executive buy-in and create an infrastructure that supported this approach.
To loosen the figurative corporate tie, we laid plans to make it clear that social media was no longer owned by marketing communications; it was a part of Amadeus' company culture and set programs in place to support an inclusive and creative approach. We ensured oversight of these efforts and any self-initiated efforts were guided by an authentic and engaging approach. We set KPIs for channel growth and engagement to test and validate. Then, we set out to try something new.
We shifted tone of voice to a more casual feel, amped up creation of original, interactive content and began featuring these real voices in blog stories, videos and profiles. Our executives noted the shift in content and encouraged even more Amadeus team members to contribute socially. In turn, we put Amadeus people and our customers front and center, revealing their skills, personality, corporate social responsibility projects, how they work and where they travel. Our audience rewarded us with unparalleled organic shares, comments and channel growth.
Our goal was to humanize the Amadeus brand and connect with our audience, as well as increase engagement, increase brand perception, and build trust in the marketplace in an authentic manner. Our executive board trusted our team to change the face of Amadeus on social, which instilled confidence in our employees to participate on great levels. Those internal pushes and validation helped us shift the corporate machine into a space to be real and engaging.
We warmed content tone to be more casual and colloquial and immediately saw an increase in @mentions and comments. In addition, Amadeus employees and our sphere of influencers began to amplify the messages. Our social media steering committee searched out opportunities to engage our employees on social. We also made it a priority to encourage dialogue and two-way conversations with the audience. In Fall 2014, we launched the Amadeus Shapes Miami video project, where we used Twitter crowd-sourcing as a guide to tour Miami in one day. The goal was to 'hack' the traditional travel plan – using social to make travel more personalized, connected and sustainable, mantras of our new corporate identity and ethos. Our Twitter followers, from local travel businesses and customers to influential travel gurus, suggested where to eat, drink and what to experience in Miami. To ensure this approach was not an organizational "fad," but now a guiding philosophy, we built social content program "regulars" and activities to ensure this would continue. We highlighted a "Face of Amadeus" on Facebook each week, deployed a social "PHHHOTO" booth with instant sharable GIFs at traditionally stuffy trade shows, featured a creative "day in the life" customer profile video and deployed a travel "selfie" photo contest to kick off a new brand campaign. And we gave responsibility to various Amadeus staffers to be social reporters for topics of interest and focus for the organization. We also rewarded them for their efforts with recognition and accolades.
We produced live on the scene social coverage (videos, photos, recaps) for important company events, such as Amadeus technology powering our customer SouthWest Airline's first International flights and Amadeus sponsored hackathons, where we rewarded over $10,000 in prizes to hackers creating innovative solutions to shape the future of travel. Customer testimonials were no longer talking heads. They were YouTube videos of customers in their field, to bring color and life to the stories.
And we utilized the power of the various social channels to stitch the Amadeus social quilt together, telling a comprehensive story in different ways across the platforms.
Overall, these new strategies and campaigns continue to help build brand awareness, acquire new followers and increase engagement.
Instagram followers increased 374%. Our Twitter follower base increased 41.4% with a 122% increase in RTs in 2014 from 2013; Facebook's follower base increased 306%, with a 442% increase in people talking about Amadeus in 2014.
At the end of January 2014, we had 12 comments and 21 shares on our Facebook page. At the end of 2014, we reached 862 comments and 836 post shares. Our YouTube channel increased 308% views in 2014 from 2013, with 40% more shares.
Employees and industry advocates are a part of the growth on our social channels as they've amplified our content to their spheres of influence. As a result, we've increased 22% in overall social media mentions in 2014.
Humanizing the Amadeus brand was paramount in building relationships with the travel and technology community and our employees. Skift.com even featured Amadeus as one of the top B2B companies humanizing their brand on social media. Skift.com recognized how we empower employees all across North America to share their Amadeus story with audiences on all channels. It has boosted morale, strengthened team alignment, and validated our efforts with top management for continued support of this shift in strategy. As we invest more in content creation and focus efforts on social engagement, we've decreased our paid advertising spend as the ROI was clearly stronger for this effort.
As a B2B company with a complex model, we believe our campaign broke the traditional B2B social culture. Not only are we receiving national recognition among other B2B companies, but we've developed more relationships with the travel and technology community and showcased the Amadeus brand's trustworthiness and expertise.
