COVID-19 and social media communication strategies: A comparative study of the effectiveness of Facebook posts during the lockdown and the “new normal” in the airline industry

This comparative study analyses the effectiveness of the communications delivered via Facebook by two Spanish airlines, Iberia and Air Europa. Using various indicators, the publications posted by the two Spanish airline companies (Iberia and AirEuropa) on this social media site during the COVID-19 pandemic are examined using two time-frames, namely the “strict lockdown” (between March 14th and June 21st, 2020) and the “new normal” (between June 22nd and September 30th). In this study we examined a total of 39 Iberia's and 49 AirEuropa's posts for the former period and 49 Iberia's and 89 AirEuropa's posts for the latter one. By analysing the followers' reactions to these posts, the work seeks to identify the relationship between use of different contents and three variables: brand popularity, customer brand engagement, and virality. Two time periods are selected, one spanning national lockdown as a result of the state of emergency declared in Spain and the other relating to the subsequent ‘new-normal’ as emergency restrictions began to be lifted. The results show that the Facebook posts created by Iberia that included informative messages, references to COVID-19, with hashtags, and allusions to corporate social responsibility—were more popular than Air Europa posts. Iberia posts generated greater customer brand engagement and virality, and received more positive reactions in terms of likes and loves.