Social Media and TourismMaximising your social media presence

S N A P S H O T

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SOCIAL MEDIA AND TOURISM: MAXIMISING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

Introduction

Have you ever tried telling your friends to spend a whole day without looking at their social media? Nope, because you can already picture the look on their faces whilst they ask if you’re ok. The thought of not being able to tag, watch, like, swipe, comment or share is, for some, unfathomable. For marketers, social media has opened the floodgates to potential customers and the tourism sector is no exception. This snapshot will help you utilize social media to the max and help your travel business stand out from the crowd.

Today’s Digital Marketing Environment

The marketing communications environment has changed enormously in the last decade. Technology and the Internet have fundamentally altered the way the world interacts and communicates. Traditional approaches to branding that put emphasis on mass media techniques are less and less effective in a marketplace where customers have access to massive amounts of information about brands, products and companies and in which social networks have, in some cases, supplanted brand networks (McCabe, 2013).

In the new media environment, consumers are increasingly in control. Not only do they have more choices of media to use, they also have a choice about whether and how they want to receive commercial content. In response marketers are employing more varied marketing communications techniques than ever before. To communicate effectively and efficiently, tourism marketers have to go where the consumers are – and this is increasingly online. There were over two billion Internet users in 2011, up from one billion in 2005, 420 million in 2000 and 45 million in 1995. Two-thirds of the population in North America and Europe regularly go online. Much of current and future Internet user growth is coming from populous countries such as China, India, Brazil, Russia and Indonesia. The travel sector itself boasted annual online sales of almost $100 billion in 2012, around a third of all global e-commerce activity (McCabe, 2013).

Social Media and Tourism:

1. Todays’ Digital Marketing Environment

2. Role of Social Media Marketing in the Tourism Industry

3. Brand Awareness on Social Media

4. Implementation of a Social Media Strategy

5. Activities to Engage on Social Networks

6. Instagram Vs Facebook

7. Benefits of Social Media for Small Companies

8. How Social Media has Changed Tourism Behaviour

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SOCIAL MEDIA AND TOURISM: MAXIMISING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

Role of Social Media Marketing in the Tourism Industry

Social media marketing may be described as the act of using social networks, online communities, blogs or any other internet form of media for marketing. “It is the umbrella term for the wide variety of tools and applications that give the Web its social capabilities” (Ray et al, 2017).

Social marketing provides visibility and awareness for the brand; this is the awareness that is essential to convert potential customers to loyal customers eventually. The secret is to create thematic content that can lead to an effective marketing campaign. This move will generate brand awareness and the brand will be at the top of the mind of consumers if they decide to buy the product or services. While traditional media keeps customers informed, social media goes a step further by keeping the customers stimulated and involved. When a company gets their customers involved and engaged, it leads to lasting working relationships with organizations. The level of customer support increases with the use of social media since it is personal and interactive. In the event of an unfortunate situation, social media may serve as a catalyst to turn this situation into an opportunity for a company to extend their services and go the extra mile to reverse the negative feeling (Ray et al, 2017).

Brand Awareness on Social Media

It has long been the responsibility of the marketers of cities and towns to promote them as a possible destination by developing a brand image. First the marketers’ responsibility was to assess the city for possible places and also people of interest. These places and people were then photographed, and information written about their history and stories, which was then communicated, first using print and now digitally. This branded image was both developed and then controlled by marketers. The ease of taking and posting photographs along with visitors posting and sharing travel stories has changed the branding process by taking control away from the marketing department. For example, visitors posting travel images online has meant that the city is no longer in control of what sites are defined as worth visiting. Those charged with increasing tourism must still develop a promotional strategy, but it will be based on encouraging visitors to co-brand along with the professionals (Kolb, 2017).

Even if a city develops the brand image, tourism will not develop unless this image is reinforced by the posted images and stories of past visitors. As people must spend considerable time and money to visit the city, unless past visitors communicate a positive and authentic image that matches the branded image, the potential tourist will not take the risk of visiting. Therefore, when developing a marketing plan to attract tourists the emphasis must be equally on developing the city as a place worth visiting and then encouraging the public to reinforce the brand by posting on social media (Kolb, 2017).

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3The average daily

social media usage is 136 minutes.

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SOCIAL MEDIA AND TOURISM: MAXIMISING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

Implementation of a Social Media Strategy

Tourism businesses who plan to use social media need to have the ground work established and carried out strategically to engage the potential customers to the business. While social media is not costly to set up compared to traditional marketing tools, there is still a need for a concrete plan to execute the process and determine the measurable in terms of brand loyalty and ROI (Ray et al, 2017).

A social media strategy plan may comprise of some of these following questions and factors which an organization should pay attention to:

• What is the main purpose? Is the objective meant for awareness, loyalty or sales driven?

• What kind of relationship is to be established with the customers?

• Establish if the customers utilize any form of social media.

• What do the customers use social media for?

• Determine the metrics to be used to measure brand loyalty and ROI. Among the above-mentioned factors, measuring the metrics for success of social media is often not done by organizations. Based on a 2009 Mzinga and Babson Executive Education study, it is known that at least 80% of professionals do not consider the ROI for their social media programs for their company. The metrics can be measured quantitatively and qualitatively, so as to collect both the “concrete” numbers and anecdotal evidence (feedbacks, comments, pictures, etc.) to give a holistic and accurate perspective to social media strategy (Ray et al, 2017).

The importance of social media is still growing and could well become an essential mode of communication toward interacting with the customer, and players of the industry can take advantage of this trend and rip the benefits in terms of online placement and revenue. The tourism industry may question itself on why to introduce social media and what could the benefits of the social media elements entitle; the results below are gathered from various independent sources in the tourism industry. The experience of being online enables a more open and direct form of interaction with the customers. Both parties can also reply to any questions or feedback and be engaged in a two-way communication. It is an effective way to spread a piece of information by word of mouth through the social network—hence becoming an advocate toward an organization’s message or cause within the social and reaching the areas that cannot be reached on some occasions (Ray et al, 2017).

4By 2021 3.1Billion

people will be using social media.

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SOCIAL MEDIA AND TOURISM: MAXIMISING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

Activities to Engage on Social Networks

Social networks provide a great array of online venues for marketers to distribute information and communicate with others. There are many activities in which marketers can engage on the social networks, but some of the most important of these are identified below:

• Building and maintaining communities of interest: Social networks tend to build communities that share similar interests. For marketers, the goal is to build communities that have an interest in their specific destinations.

• Collecting User Generated Content: This is a very important function of social media sites for marketers because people post their blogs, comments, videos and photographs of trips to destinations.

• Displaying photography and videos: Some of the social media channels are designed specifically for displaying visual materials: for example, YouTube (for videos) and Instagram (for photographs).

• Distributing topical news stories: The social networks are a great place for marketers to push out news stories about their destinations. This is done through websites but can be more effective when distributing to communities of people who have indicated an interest in the destination.

• Emphasizing current events and campaigns: The social networks are very timely, and people are constantly checking them. Placing upcoming events and new promotional programmes here gives a freshness to the information.

• Encouraging word-of-mouth recommendations: This is another of the most important functions of social networks for marketers. The positive recommendations of past visitors may influence others to go to the destinations.

• Getting feedback: The marketer can request feedback in several ways from people using social networks. Some marketers conduct polls and place research surveys on social networks.

The use of social networks is growing in importance among marketers. Consumers are increasingly accessing social media through mobile phones and smartphones, and apps for these phones are the next component of digital marketing (Morrison, 2018).

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SOCIAL MEDIA AND TOURISM: MAXIMISING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

Instagram Vs Facebook

Instagram: Instagram is not only being used to upload travel pictures but is also a valuable tool for travellers to research pre and post vacation. Hashtags are being used to view destination stories and images to lead travellers to locations that they may have not been aware of (Levi, 2018).

Facebook: Many travellers are utilizing Facebook’s recommendations feature to glean information from friends regarding must see things to see and do, as well as where to stay and eat. In addition, the “check-in” feature on the page can provide ways for individuals to meet up with friends or to ask for input from others who have also “checked-in” to that location (Fyall et al, 2019).

Benefits of Social Media for Small Companies

Technology has also made it possible for small companies to compete with billion-dollar companies, which would not have been possible without the Internet and social media. Owing to inexpensive direct marketing capability that is provided by technology, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can now carefully conduct market studies with high accuracy, segregate the market into operationalizable segments, carefully select the target market(s), study them, and offer an appropriate solution to satisfy their needs and wants. In other words, technology has provided accessibility and opportunities for so many SMEs in so many different ways (Fyall et al, 2019).

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SOCIAL MEDIA AND TOURISM: MAXIMISING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

How Social Media Has Changed Tourism Behaviour

Tourism has been affected by the development of technology that allows rapid two-way communication between people across distance. Access to social media has increased the desire for authentic personalized experiences as people want to interact with the local community when they travel (Kolb, 2018).

Technology has also changed the trip purchase process and the expectation of quality. It is now much easier for potential visitors to research and book their own trip. Technology also makes it easy for visitors to complain when a tourism product is not meeting their expectations (Kolb, 2018).

In fact, consumers will not only let the company know; they will also let everyone else know by posting their opinions online. The product preference information posted online is a form of marketing research data that already exists for use by researchers. Social media allows market researchers to understand visitor preferences by reading reviews, following bloggers and watching trends. Familiarity with the ever-evolving apps that people use to access and share product information is necessary so that marketers can keep abreast of visitor preferences (Kolb, 2018).

There is so much data available that there is now data collection software that will search the social media landscape to find comments, both positive and negative, about an organization or destination. As a result, the ability to use this software to analyse data is often now a required skill for market researchers (Kolb, 2018).

823% of UK adults will

search potential holiday destinations

on social media (WeSwap, 2018)

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SOCIAL MEDIA AND TOURISM: MAXIMISING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

For more information on the books used for this snapshot:

Marketing for Tourism and HospitalityCollaboration, Technology and Experiences, 1st Edition

By Alan Fyall, Patrick Legohérel, Isabelle Frochot, Youcheng Wang

Published: 19th March 2019 ISBN: 9781138121294 Read more

Marketing and Managing Tourism Destinations2nd Edition

By Alastair M. Morrison

Published: 6th September 2018 ISBN: 9781138897298 Read more

Marketing Research for the Tourism, Hospitality and Events Industries1st Edition

By Bonita Kolb

Published: 29th January 2018 ISBN: 9781138042162 Read more

Tourism MarketingA Strategic Approach, 1st Edition

Edited by Nilanjan Ray, Dilip Kumar Das, Raj Kumar

Published: 17th August 2017 ISBN: 9781771884709 Read more

Tourism Marketing for Cities and TownsUsing Social Media and Branding to Attract Tourists, 2nd Edition

By Bonita Kolb

Published: 21st February 2017 ISBN: 9781138685192 Read more

The Routledge Handbook of Tourism Marketing1st Edition

Edited by Scott McCabe

Published: 17th December 2013 ISBN: 9781138071438 Read more