Social Media & Travel: Still An Unfulfilled Journey?
By Gary Bowerman
"Travel & Tourism needs to continue to be at the front of technological innovation and brand awareness in the online and mobile space, and adapt to be prepared for the next generation of global travelers and tourists."
That call to action by David Scowsill, President & CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council at the conclusion of the 11th Global Travel & Tourism Summit in Las Vegas in May, underpins the travel industry’s current approach to the evolution of new media marketing. Being at the forefront is essential, of course. It’s just not clear where that technological cutting edge is right now, or where it is headed. Nor is it quite clear what global travelers expect from social media marketing.
Most travel industry analysts agree that marketing via social media channels and applications is increasingly important, some say essential. But there is concern about how these platforms can actually drum up new business or retain, and even upsell, existing business.
A June survey by TravelClick, for instance, revealed almost a quarter of hotels are not utilizing social media to increase occupancy and revenue per available room. "Hoteliers should be incorporating a mix of online marketing, GDS media, as well as social media, in order to touch their key audiences," said Jonathan Cherins, chief marketing officer of TravelClick.
Touching key audiences only succeeds, however, if the content is both engaging and enlightening. Using social media is not going to be a marketing panacea if the content distributed replicates that used for traditional channels. New thinking is needed, and new content ideas are crucial. Throwing out repurposed offline material via Twitter and Facebook is unlikely to connect with a web-savvy generation that prefers its content in interactive and participative formats. In short, like any marketing activity, social media engagement needs a policy outline and an implementation plan and guidelines.
My own Twitter account now receives an increasing volume of 'daily' webzines. These are mostly created and distributed by companies through platforms such as paper.li, which repackages Twitter and Facebook content into a newspaper-style format headed by your own company/personal logo. The webzines feature a mix of up-to-date content, with each article or collection of links referenced to the original creator, and layout templates can be optimized for laptop, smartphone and tablet screens.
The issue, it seems to me, is that these webzines can work well in niche areas – such as destination marketing. But, generally, the ones I have read aim to cram in too much content across too many subject areas and themes. Much of it, especially when delivered on a daily basis, appears irrelevant to any relationship I might have, or choose to develop, with the company sending it to me. Consequently I often scan, but rarely read the webzines properly – and a marketing trick is missed, because I am not being engaged.
Perhaps that is the real crux of social media marketing. The enabling of any individual or company to become its own publisher is fine in principle. But the central issue is no longer distribution. Content, frequency and targeting are the critical components. What is the overall campaign objective of creating a webzine? How do you package relevant content for your target audience, and do they wish to receive this daily? Researching the market you intend to serve is vital because unless there is engagement in your content, there will be no activation. And, in the social media world, where there is no buzz, there will be no bottom line benefit.
Content segmentation is especially important for companies whose clientele transcends geographical borders. Savvy travel marketers reaching out to Asian markets, for example, will be interested to note some new consumer research published in early July.
The 2011 Campaign Top 1,000 Asia-Pacific Brands survey highlighted the growing importance of online engagement with Asia-Pacific consumers. The survey conducted in 10 key Asia-Pacific markets – Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand – revealed that internet search and social media sites, such as Google, Facebook and Twitter, performed strongly in brand recall terms across the region, but locally based brands, such as Baidu (China) and Naver (Korea), are rising fast through the ranks.
China, for example, has around 420 million netizens, or 21 per cent of global online users. While Facebook and Twitter are blocked in China, social media is catching fire – and the hottest site is Weibo.com. Basically a Twitter/Facebook hybrid, Weibo is the platform used by China’s web-savvy generation to post news, comments and images, and to follow media and marketing trends.
Company marketers are flocking to Weibo with exclusive discount campaigns and prize giveaways hoping to generate new business, and a handful of non-Chinese celebrities (all Chinese celebrities are avid users) like NBA star Kevin Durrant post content in English. The most productive Weibo posts are in Chinese characters, however.
Elsewhere in Asia, the Tourism Authority of Thailand recently launched five social-media ‘Smile Land’ game applications "targeted at the millions of young people using Facebook and smartphones" to promote popular images of Thailand. These new games follow the success of the Amazing Thailand Mobile Application, for iPhone, Blackberry, Android, iPad and Nokia platforms, which the TAT says generated over 20 million hits and 200,000 downloads.
"In 2010, we enjoyed considerable success in promoting Thai tourism through online marketing," said Suraphon Svetasreni, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand. "Digital is the new media to reach the internet and smartphone users, all of whom are well-educated with high income levels."
The TAT’s application of social media will not work for all travel marketers, of course. Different target markets and demographics will invariably respond to different triggers. But the underpinning model is inarguable – determine the segment, create social media-based content that meets its evolving needs and distribute it across the platforms that the audience most frequently engages with.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Maybe its time to write that social media plan.
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.
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