Usually, when we break down the biggest gainers in "were here" count for the past month, we highlight a company who, for whatever reason, has seen a positive spike in selfies, status updates, and other location-based Facebook posts from their business locations. This metric is a positive foot traffic metric that covers dozens of businesses, with fast food restaurants, gyms, and movie theaters typically leading trendlines month-to-month.
This past month, however, Delta Airlines ($DAL) tops our list of the companies with the biggest gain in "were here" count with a sizable 9.756% increase. However, given current events, this spike may not be for the best reason.
|
Username |
Were Here Count (4/1) |
Were Here Count (3/1) |
Difference |
% Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
delta |
1,212,603 |
1,104,819 |
107,784 |
9.756% |
|
TGIFridays |
1,271,538 |
1,199,962 |
71,576 |
5.965% |
|
ilovekickboxing |
3,295,993 |
3,145,697 |
150,296 |
4.778% |
|
planetfitness |
18,589,147 |
18,042,907 |
546,240 |
3.027% |
|
joescrabshack |
1,045,559 |
1,017,872 |
27,687 |
2.720% |
|
KFC |
4,718,410 |
4,593,483 |
124,927 |
2.720% |
|
CRUNCH |
2,671,503 |
2,613,281 |
58,222 |
2.228% |
|
IHOP |
8,223,275 |
8,047,358 |
175,917 |
2.186% |
|
GreatWolfWaterPark |
3,036,778 |
2,978,729 |
58,049 |
1.949% |
|
CostaCoffee |
2,599,999 |
2,553,804 |
46,195 |
1.809% |
At the beginning of the month, the Chicago Business Journal wrote about Delta's worsening on-time percentage. Specifically, Lewis Lazare wrote that 78.5 percent of Delta flights made it to the gate on or within 14 minutes of its scheduled arrival time.
Granted, this was partially due to a challenging weather period, but that news wasn't the best for a company within a cuthroat industry whose consumers get antsy, angry, and anguished the longer they wait in an airport due to a delay. Seems they also took to Facebook to post updates about their delays, giving Delta a big boost in the data at hand.
Fortunately for Delta, it had a light in the middle of a rough March: it was named the best airline of 2019 according to the popular travel website The Points Guy. The website said that only a few dozen people were involuntarily bumped from Delta flights over the past year, compared to the upwards of 136 million passengers it flew. It was, in all accounts, a very positive piece for the company after a bumpy ride to start the year.
Then, in two weeks time, Delta was back flying into turbulence.
On April 1, 2019, several airlines, including Southwest ($LUV), Alaska ($ALK), and Delta, had flights grounded due to a major systems outage.
Logically, people who are frustrated about missing a connecting flight, being stuck overseas, or whatever other issues they have are going to tag their airline company in their status updates.
Today, Delta is dealing with a bit of a PR nightmare: their interactions and foot traffic is up, but for the wrong reasons. Given its past year of reliable service, which is assumed from the awards it has won, one could hope that this glitch in the system is just a minor bug in an otherwise positive growth year.
