Optimizing User-Generated Content

By Gary Bowerman

Marketing orthodoxy decrees the customer is king, but the internet is moving this dynamic into a different sphere. Online customers don’t just want to be communicated to – they need to participate; to be active, not reactive. This is determining new paths for travel marketers to follow.

"Travel websites are beginning to adapt and improve their offering to customers with dynamic and interactive features that can be tailored to an individual's needs," says Derek Eccelston, Research Director for eDigitalResearch. "We are witnessing the MEcommerce revolution, where the consumer is now dictating to brands where, when and how they want to shop and communicate, and it is essential that travel brands develop their websites in line with what consumers are demanding."

Mobile accessibility and instant interactivity, plus a global audience, make the Internet a perfect platform for user-generated content (UGC). From YouTube videos to Facebook photo albums and tweets, netizens have become accustomed to creating and sharing their own information and voice opinions.

SpotWorld, for example, has created a travel guide app enabling users to locate a destination’s places of interest, share itineraries and post tips, photos and comments. TripAdvisor’s Trip Friends uses app data so users can see where their friends have traveled and solicit tips and advice. Facebook acquired NextStep, which facilitates the creation and sharing of travel guides.

But for travel brand marketers, UGC is a tricky experiment. The central concern is ensuring authenticity and reader value. This issue is emphasized by TripAdvisor, which has long faced criticism that some reviews may not be impartial. In an attempt to evaluate the legitimacy of those concerns, Market Metrix compared TripAdvisor reviews for 67 hotels across 12 months with its own Market Metrix Hospitality Index hotel customer satisfaction panel.

The survey found that 'the mean scores of hotels track very consistently and closely. This indicates that, when taken as a whole, the reviews for a particular hotel are a reliable measure of average customer satisfaction of that hotel, given adequate sample size.' That may be good news for TripAdvisor, but it flags up a vulnerability for brands seeking to integrate UGC into a website. Full-time monitoring and filtering out negative and potentially actionable content are essential.

So why consider using UGC? Being relevant to the interactive mobile generation is, of course, a primary objective, but UGC can also improve a website’s search engine optimization. Visitor contributions help elevate your page rank by sating the search engines’ insatiable hunger for fresh content. In addition, UGC can provide personalized information, feedback and recommendations.

In 2010, Disney Parks took the UGC leap by launching Let the Memories Begin, a website on which park visitors can upload photos and videos, Used in this way, UGC becomes a creative marketing tool that builds an online buzz by engaging visually and emotionally with its customer base. Converting customers into brand advocates also provides content, imagery and ideas for promotions across multiple platforms.

Another benefit is that companies can discern the places and experiences visitors most frequently cherish, and those which are less popular. Going one step further, UGC analysis can determine the types and volume of content generated from different geographic locations – and this data can be used in the creation of unique location-based offers and promotions.

This blog has been commissioned by AmEx.

About Gary Bowerman: Oxford-born Gary Bowerman has travelled the world in search of a good story. After cutting his teeth in legal and tax publishing in London, Gary moved on to edit international business and travel titles before relocating to China in 2004. Resident in Shanghai, he has recently been a contributor to CNN Traveller, Business Traveler,CNBC Europe Business, New York Times, Travel & Leisure and South China Morning Post. Editor of the Singapore Highlights and Beijing Highlights guides, Gary is also one of the founders of Hong Kong and Shanghai-based media and marketing communications agency Scribes of the Orient.