Air Canada vs. WestJet on Instagram

Instagram is one of the newest forms of social media that companies can now use to promote their brand. Today we will be analyzing how Air Canada and WestJet utilize this photo sharing app to their advantage.

Air Canada is a verified account on Instagram. This is an advantage because consumers know that it is in fact the company’s real account. Air Canada posts a photo to their Instagram page roughly 2-3 times per week. They don’t post as frequently as they do on their other social media sites. Usually these posts are photographs of their airplanes, places that they have included in their enRoute magazine and updates about terminals and such. Usually in the description of their photographs they write lengthy descriptions that involve hashtags and tag other accounts that are linked to what they are promoting.

WestJet on the other hand is not verified on Instagram. They post approximately 2 times per week. It really depends if they have certain promotions going on like #WestJet Christmas where they posted a ton of photos leading up to Christmas. These posts consist of photos that include WestJet staff, planes, and destinations. The descriptions that are included are usually a decent length and include various hashtags. Some even include links to their website if they post about certain sales or event happening.

The most popular recent post that was added by Air Canada is about their new Boeing787 Dreamliner fleet. The photograph they posted is of the plane itself flying over water. It received 6,697 likes and 70 comments. On this platform its usually all about the photograph. If people don’t like the photo you have posted they will just scroll past your post. This post was so successful due to people liking the photograph, not necessarily the reason it was posted.

Retrieved from: http://instragram.com/p/BCRTbgiFKPb/?taken-by=aircanada

WestJet’s most popular recent post was added in honour of their 20^th birthday. This post featured a birthday cake that was placed in front of a plane in the storing area. It got 1,650 likes and a total of 40 comments. This post was so successful due to people liking the photograph itself, and people who are loyal supporters of WestJet and are proud to support the company in its 20 years of service.

Retrieved from: https://www.instragram.com/p/BCYn3m9wqL1/?taken-by=westjet

Overall both companies use their Instagram platform significantly less than any other social media outlet. This is probably because users normally use Instagram to view photographs, not to necessarily gain knowledge about a certain company.

WestJet's Social Media Strategy

Analyzing WestJet's Social Media 

WestJet is a Canadian airline which originated as cheaper alternative to other Canadian airlines. It has a presence on tons of social media outlets. These outlets include;
- Facebook
- Instagram
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Pinterest
- Youtube
and more!

   A company may have all these social media accounts but the real question is, do they utilize them to their full advantage?

   WestJet has 700,582 likes on their Facebook account. They don’t post every single day, usually once every second day or every few days. Their posts consist of shared media from WestJet’s other accounts like their Youtube as well as advertisements for deals on flights. Although they don’t have many likes on their page, they get hundreds of shares regularly on their posts. WestJet also takes time and responds regularly to comments and usually adds a more personal touch by adding the name of the individual who responded to the message.

WestJet Facebook Reply (WestJet, 2016)

   Another Social Media site that I analyzed was their Twitter account. Their Twitter account has roughly 592k followers and 134k tweets. These tweets consist of sales, replies, news, various updates and more! These tweets are usually used to generate interest in their service for consumers to later make a purchase. WestJet’s posting patterns are really all over the place. Some days they tweet twice per day and then they may stop and not tweet anything for 2 days.

WestJet Twitter Page (WestJet,2016)

    Most people know WestJet as having great advertisements that tug on the heart strings. All these advertisements can be found on their Youtube channel. They currently have 56,220 subscribers and 292 videos. They post a video at least once every week and have even included categories so people can find certain videos about any location or promotion.

 Lastly WestJet’s Instagram account has 513 posts in total, 56.6k followers and follows 349. The most recent post that they shared was posted 2 weeks ago. Which tells you they don’t use Instagram as one of the main platforms for communicating with their consumers.

   

WestJet Instagram (WestJet,2016)

  

    In Conclusion WestJet uses a wide variety of social media accounts but doesn’t necessarily post as often as they should. They also don’t really coordinate what they post on each site which can be a huge disadvantage. This is due to some individuals only following one of their social media accounts and missing out on information that may have been posted to another outlet that could be beneficial or targeted towards them. Overall WestJet has a wide number of social media accounts that they can use to target various target markets, however they don't post frequently enough to fully utilize the power of social media.

Sources
WestJet. (2016). WestJet Twitter. Retrieved February 27, 2016, from https://twitter.com/WestJet?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author
WestJet. (2016). WestJet Instagram. Retrieved February 27, 2016, from https://www.instagram.com/westjet/?hl=en
WestJet. (2016). WestJet Facebook. Retrieved February 27, 2016, from https://www.facebook.com/westjet