5 Travel Brands Winning on Social Media for the Week Ending May 30, 2014

With Memorial Day this past Monday, the unofficial beginning of the summer in the U.S. is here.

Some brands rose to the occasion by celebrating the holiday and welcoming beach travel, and some fell with poor service.

Each Friday we call out travel brands that have seen stronger than usual activity on social media. Using SkiftIQ, we’re able to track current performance versus past (60-day averages, unless otherwise noted) as well as notice spikes in activity that demonstrate a brand has either a viral hit on its hands, or a public relations mess to clean up.

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The latest social activity on SkiftIQ for the week ending May 30, 2014:

1. TAM Airlines on Instagram
World Cup crazy yet? TAM Airlines certainly is. Their candid photo of Brazilian football players Thiago Silva and Marcos Dadi casually having a face-to-face conversation in first-class was a goal. Instagram followers spiked by 300% from 40 followers/day to 161 followers on May 26th.

2. Airbnb on Twitter
The English Gossip Girl star, Ed Westwick is LA Bound. He @mentioned Airbnb on a tweet about how much he loved the site to his 320,000 followers. For two days, their Twitter followers increased by 150% from their 265 followers/day average because of this casual compliment.

https://twitter.com/EdWestwick/status/471384717871169536

3. Amtrak on Twitter

Major delays and lack of communication can increase number of Twitter conversations but will be negative in sentiment. In this case, Amtrak provided social customer service to inform passengers about the major delay for the Syracuse-Utica-New York and New York-Boston trains. Their status jumped by 76% on Memorial Day from their 54.8 status/day average to 264 statuses. Also, their replies to actual tweets are 9:1, so you can see how and how much they use their account to communicate with riders.

4. Condé Nast on Twitter

The release of their June issue was published on all their social media channels. Both Twitter and Instagram's bird's eye view of Indonesia's Raja Ampat Islands attracted more new followers than on Facebook, which posted a different photo. On Twitter, they gained 505 new followers in one day, a 27% increase over their daily follower average.

Indonesia's Raja Ampat islands are like nothing you've ever seen. See more in our June issue: http://t.co/Fyir3KrlJf pic.twitter.com/xb1h4KhYf4

— Condé Nast Traveler (@CNTraveler) May 28, 2014

5. Walt Disney World Resort on Facebook
Memorial Day is an American national holiday that is also the unofficial start of summer. Walt Disney World Resorts adorned the Magic Castle to honor the men and women of the armed forces. This post got over 35,000 likes and increased followers by 70% from 6,430 likes/day average.

Get More on SkiftIQ