Last Autumn, an
EyeforTravel survey of 550 travel brands found that 100% had a company Facebook
profile and 75% had a Twitter profile, but I wonder how many of these brands
can say that their social media presence is really working for them? Are most of their social media efforts
languishing unread?
In the 5 years that I have
been charting the rise and rise of social media in travel space, I’ve come
across a number of examples whereby travel brands have sought to tick the
social media box, set up a profile and then have not fully worked out how to
optimally engage their target audience.
And, this perhaps, is no
surprise given 1) how difficult it can be to secure the budget to set up the
right resources internally to continuously manage social media 2) how difficult
brands seem to find it to talk to their customers via social media in the most
optimal manner and 3) how fast social media is evolving. Every couple of months there is a new
‘must-have’ social media platform and it can be confusing to try and work out what’s
right for your brand’s target audience.
When done well however,
social media has been proven to increase customer satisfaction, reduce PR costs
(by as much as 27%) and significantly increase brand awareness. Quite a few travel brands have managed to
achieve this (and they are not just the brands with big budgets!). I’ve invited a number of them to present at
EyeforTravel’s upcoming Online Marketing, Mobile & Social Media in Travel Summit, 3-4 October in Amsterdam.
I’ve also put together an
hour long free webinar which will take place on Tuesday 10th July at
3pm GMT. The webinar will showcase best-practices and
top tips for successful social media engagement including: -
- How to implement content that works – tone, personality, timing, language
- Know when to take the opportunity to reach out to your customers
- Competitions, giveaways, special offers – what works?
- Internal structure - How do you manage who represents your brand voice?
- Hear the top social media mistakes to avoid
All registrants will be
able to tune in on the day and also download the full webinar video to listen
back to at their leisure. The webinar
will feature 3 insightful case studies from:
- Lara Solomon, Head of Communications, Responsibletravel.com
- Frederick Buhr, VP e-Commerce, RailEurope
- Dirk Singer, Head Rabbit, The Rabbit Agency
We will also be carrying out a number of live polls along
with plenty of time for Q&A.