Lithium Announces the Klout 50: Summer Travel Edition 2015

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May 22, 2015, 06:03 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, May 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Lithium Technologies today announced its Klout 50: Summer Travel Edition, which identifies the top 25 airlines and 25 hotels around the world based on social engagement and expertise. These travel and hospitality leaders achieved the most influence among their followers for the way they connect and share experiences on social, and also for the expertise they deliver to make everyone's vacations and business trips better.

The Klout 50 rankings are generated by each brand's Klout Score, which tracks social engagement, sharing, and influence using proprietary algorithms. The Klout Score is determined by more than 400 signals from eight different networks, including Facebook, Twitter and Google+ as well as real-world data from Wikipedia. Additionally, Klout identifies experts in more than 10,000 topic areas by discerning the expertise of any prolife throughout the topic ontology.

For the airlines, Lithium used Skytrax's passenger favorites World Airline Awards Top 100 Airlines of 2014 to identify the Top 25 social media winners. Key findings include:

British Airways ranks #1 on the Klout list for social influence (and #17 in the World's Top Airline list) and is an expert in Europe, Hong Kong and Scotland
Virgin America ranks #8 on Klout and made a huge jump up from #46 on the World's Top Airline list
Cathay Pacific Airways has expertise in "Food" – which shows that content needs to engage a follower or customer holistically, and not just through the lens of a CRM or revenue record

Klout 50: Summer Travel Edition (Top 25 Airlines)	Klout Score
1. British Airways	90.27
2. Air Canada	87.83
3. easyJet	86.24
4. Virgin Atlantic	86.18
5. Malaysia Airlines	86.02
6. Turkish Airlines	86.00
7. Cathay Pacific Airways	85.20
8. Virgin America	85.15
9. Virgin Australia	85.03
10. WestJet	83.39
11. KLM	81.76
12. Qatar Airways	80.86
13. Qantas Airways	80.56
14. Garuda Indonesia	80.44
15. Delta Air Lines	80.12
16. Emirates	78.39
17. Jetstar Asia	76.93
18. TAM Airlines	75.87
19. Avianca	72.89
20. Etihad Airways	72.38
21. Lufthansa	71.97
22. AirAsia	71.57
23. AirAsiaX	71.57
24. Swiss	70.45
25. Air Astana	70.45

For the hotels, Lithium analyzed Travel & Leisure's World's Best 2014 Top 100 Hotels and found that:

Le Bristol Paris ranks #1 on Klout and #44 on Travel + Leisure's list
The Langham Chicago is #2 on the overall Klout list with identified expertise in "Weddings" and "Architecture"
Four Seasons Hotel Prague ranks #4 on Klout and made a huge jump from #50 on Travel + Leisure's list
Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea is an expert in "Beer" and "Wine"
In fact, six Four Season Hotels made the top 25 list which indicates the brand is socially savvy

Klout 50: Summer Travel Edition (Top 25 Hotels)	Klout Score
1. Le Bristol, Paris	65.38
2. The Langham, Chicago	64.53
3. Singita Kruger National Park, South Africa	64.21
4. Four Seasons Hotel, Prague	62.54
5. One&Only Palmilla, Los Cabos, Mexico	62.05
6. Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea	61.62
7. Ritz, Paris	61.44
8. Inn at Palmetto Bluff, a Montage Resort, Bluffton, South Carolina	61.29
9. Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur, India	60.33
10. Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas	60.11
11. Four Seasons Hotel, Mexico, D.F., Mexico City	60.09
12. Taj Lake Palace, Udaipur, India	59.95
13. Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve, Kruger National Park Area, South Africa	57.63
14. St. Regis Punta Mita Resort, Mexico	57.48
15. Four Seasons Resort Hualalai, Hawaii, the Big Island	56.90
16. Banyan Tree Mayakoba, Riviera Maya, Mexico	55.85
17. Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai, Thailand	55.16
18. The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel, New York City	54.85
19. Jade Mountain, St. Lucia	54.54
20. Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok	54.51
21. Lodge at Sea Island Golf Club, Georgia	54.46
22. Four Seasons Hotel, Hong Kong	53.95
23. The Peninsula, Hong Kong	52.78
24. Rosewood Mayakoba, Playa del Carmen, Mexico	52.33
25. Four Seasons Hotel Firenze, Florence Italy	52.16

Interestingly, the lowest Klout score among the top 25 airlines is higher than the highest score among the top 25 hotels. Lithium believes this is because airlines have been forced to deal with "social shaming" via Twitter and other social networks in very public ways—and have built social infrastructures to handle those service complaints. Additionally, the airlines are bigger companies than the individual hotel properties ranked in this Klout list, indicating the benefits of scale and unified social presence on digital networks.

To see all the Klout Expertise rankings, please visit www.klout.com and explore each brand's "topic expertise." With this feature you can see more than 10,000 topics and who the most influential Klout profiles are in those areas.

"What these Klout Scores reveal – especially for those who ranked further down by the respective lists we analyzed, but higher on Klout- is that what they do on social really matters to their customers," said Katy Keim, Chief Marketing Officer at Lithium. "You can be ranked and judged by a variety of factors within your industry, but your customers are online, they're social and they're paying attention to your presence there. These airlines and hotels should be very proud of their social media accomplishments and we're proud to be able to recognize their reputation among consumers."

The Klout 50 was launched in 2014 as the ultimate ranking of brands that are authentically connecting with their digital audience. These social elite brands are the most active on social media platforms and their audiences consistently share and interact with their digital content. The Klout 50 has covered overall Klout 50: Global brands and the Klout 50 Retail Edition. Klout enables both brands and consumers to identify experts in areas they are most passionate about.

About Lithium:
Lithium builds trusted relationships between the world's best brands and their customers, helping people get answers and share their experiences. Customers in more than 34 countries rely on Lithium to help them connect, engage, and understand their total community. With more than 100 million unique monthly visitors over all Lithium communities and another 600 million online profiles scored by Klout, Lithium has one of the largest digital footprints in the world. Using that data and the company's software, Lithium customers boost sales, reduce service costs, spark innovation, and build long-term brand loyalty and advocacy. To find out how Lithium can transform your business—and to share the experience enjoyed by 300 other leading brands around the world, visit www.lithium.com, join our community at community.lithium.com, or follow us on Twitter @LithiumTech. Lithium is a privately held company headquartered in San Francisco.

The Lithium® logo is a registered Service Mark of Lithium Technologies. All trademarks and product names are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Lithium