This is the presentation I used during a lecture on Social Media & Tourism in Spain (CCT, Murcia, 8 February 2012).

1. SOCIAL MEDIA & TOURISM
Geert Bonamie
8 February 2012
CCT Conference Murcia, Spain

2. Contact information
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/bonamie
• Twitter: @gbonamie, @letslearnit
• E-mail: geert@letslearnit.org

3. Example: The Best Job in the World

4. Example: The Best Job in the World
• islandreefjob.com
• Advertising, Facebook &
Twitter, YouTube to create
buzz
• Job description: maintain
blog about Barrier reef
• Selection procedure:
YouTube

5. Overview
1. Introduction: where do we come from?
2. Who & What
3. Why (not) use social media (SM)?
4. Deadly sins
5. What can SM do for me?
6. Where to begin?
7. A few examples
8. What’s next?

6. 1.
Where do we
come from?

7. Web 1.0
A Great Website!
• One site
Find
• Identify yourself information
on
hotel, events,
• One way communication …
• One to many relationship Book hotel Plan trip
• Pictures & low quality Web 1.0
customer
video activities
Contact Watch
people pictures
Watch videos

8. Web 2.0
The social web
• One site • Many webspaces
• Identify yourself • Identify your community
• One way communication • Interaction
• One to many relationship • One to one relationships
• Pictures & low quality • HD Multimedia: Bigger
video Stronger Faster

9. Web 2.0
The social web is all about …
• Many webspaces
Plan a trip: contact
hotel, find map, rent a
car, …
• Identify your community
• Interaction
Keep people informed Join traveller
with status updates
while travelling
communities &
exchange experiences
• One to one relationships
Web 2.0 • HD Multimedia: Bigger
customer
activities Stronger Faster
Share your pictures & Blog about
videos hotel, trip, excursion, …
Write reviews &
recommend
hotels, places

10. … Sharing!
A brand is no
longer what we
tell the consumer
it is – it is what
consumers tell
each other it is
(Scott Cook)

11. 2.
Who & What

12. Who?
Individuals Businesses
• (future) customers • Hotels
• Fans • Travel agencies
• Journalists • Local businesses
• Complainers • Public tourism services
• … • Musea
• …

13. What?
• I’m eating a #donut
• I like donuts
• This is where I eat donuts
• Here’s a vintage photo of my donut
• My skills include donut eating
• Here’s a donut recipe
• Now listening to “Donuts”

14. What?

15. What?
Sharing Social
Preferences Personal networks
LastFM, Spotify, Delicious, Pinterest, Facebook, Google+, MySpace, Ning
Delicious
Professional networks
Content Ecademy, LinkedIn, Xing
Digg, Flickr, Photobucket, YouTube
Content Curation Blogs
Scoop.it, Paper.li Blogger, Tumblr, Typepad, Wordpress
Location services
Plazes, Foursquare, Wakoopa
Microblogging tools
Jaiku, Twitter, Tweetdeck
Need more? wiki.kenburbary.com

16. 3.
Why use
social media?

17. 3. Why use social media?
Corporate POV
Social marketing eliminates the middlemen, providing
brands the unique opportunity to have a direct
relationship with their customers.
Bryan Weiner
CEO Digital Agency 360i

18. 3. Why use social media?
Corporate POV
• Connect with existing customers - Customer
service
Support
Complaints handling
Personal contact!

19. 3. Why use social media?
Corporate POV
• Connect with existing customers - customer service
• Find new customers!
Advertise to specific groups
Identifying new target groups
Your social network: your customers, your press
contacts

20. 3. Why use social media?
Corporate POV
• Connect with existing customers - customer service
• Find new customers!
• Financial
Fairly cheap to implement

21. 3. Why use social media?
Corporate POV
• Connect with existing customers - customer service
• Find new customers!
• Financial
• Technology
Easy
Clean (> spam / phishing)
No server maintenance, back-ups
…

22. 3. Why use social media?
Corporate POV

23. 3. Why use social media?
Customer POV
• Before a trip
Give information about intentions
Do research, read up on other people’s experiences
Seek advice
• During a trip
Post status updates, pictures, videos
• After a trip
Create content across the web in multiple spaces
Share experiences

24. 3. Why use social media?
Customer POV
• Helping people = getting help
• Fun
• Easy
• Networking
• Connecting

25. 3. Why use social media?
Why not?
SM is not free!
• Individuals
– Time
– Hardware
– Technology
– Privacy
• Businesses
– HR
People & time
– Hardware
– Lack of total control
– Financial
ROI

26. Why not?
More information on Roi:
1 –2 – 3 – 4

27. 4.
Deadly sins

28. The story …
August-Nov. 2009 Jan. 2012
Travel bloggers invited by McDonalds Commercial
Princess Cruises campaign to boost its image
#followmeatsea #meetthefarmers: ecological
issues
#McDstories: warm fuzzy
stories

29. Deadly sin 1
Thinking you can control SM
Hashtag = Bashtag
#followmeatsea #meetthefarmers #McDstories
“It will be really interesting to see
how all the travel writers handle
the “twethics” as we all know
that large cruise ships do HUGE
damage to the environment. It’s
the travel industry’s dirty
secret, isn’t it? (…) Cruising is
actually 7x worse than air travel
on C02 emissions”

30. Deadly sin 2
Being unprepared for negative SM

31. Deadly sin 2
Being unprepared for negative SM
#followmeatsea #meetthefarmers #McDstories
@PrincessCruises did not even McD: immediate response!
prepare their own campaign
Prior to the cruise, could have #meetthefarmers was used twice
announced ecology issues, eg. #McDstories slightly longer
“We look forward to showcasing
our environmental efforts with an °#LittleThings
extensive behind the scenes tour
for bloggers!”

32. Deadly sin 3
Being deaf to the conversation
#followmeatsea #meetthefarmers #McDstories
@PrincessCruises: No Problem solved
reaction!

33. Deadly sin 4
Taking time to respond
#followmeatsea #meetthefarmers #McDstories
@PrincessCruises waited more Problem solved
than 48 hours!

34. Deadly sin 5
Getting lost in the heat of the moment
#followmeatsea #meetthefarmers #McDstories
@PrincessCruises: did not take Problem solved
emotionally charged
conversation out of the public
channel

35. 5.
What can SM
do for me
& vive versa?

36. 5. What can SM do for me & vice versa?
Blogs
Provide a steady stream of content: static pages,
dynamic news sections
SEO > Rank well on Google/Yahoo/Bing/…
Encourage interaction through commentary
Provide ind/businesses with an approachable
voice
Uwishunu - official tourism blog of Philadelphia

37. 5. What can SM do for me & vice versa?
Facebook
Some facts
Resp. 845 million / 483 million daily active users in Dec. 2011
If Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd largest in the
world (after China & India)

38. 5. What can SM do for me & vice versa?
Facebook
Some facts
Feature awards, promos, special deals, contests, …
Customized landing page

39. 5. What can SM do for me & vice versa?
Facebook: some examples

40. 5. What can SM do for me & vice versa?
Facebook
Some facts
Feature awards, promos, special deals, contests, …
Customized landing page
Create apps, games, tweaks
'Like Us' = larger audience
Location based discounts for people who've checked in
Share pos/neg experiences
Use the FB communication model (friend/fan)

41. 5. What can SM do for me & vice versa?
Foursquare
Digital Punch Cards
Check-in Specials
Mayor specials
Secret Coupons
To Do Lists
Tips for other customers
Raffles

42. 5. What can SM do for me & vice versa?
Foursquare

43. 5. What can SM do for me & vice versa?
Tourism-focused communities
• TripAdvisor, WAYN, Matador Travel, Lonely Planet’s
Thorn Tree, Tripit, Tripwolf, TravelMole, …
• Loyal fan bases
• Exchange experiences, find deals/travel buddies, …
• Target an appropriate demographic
• Understand ongoing topics of interest to those
groups

44. 5. What can SM do for me & vice versa?
Twitter
• Some facts
– First billion tweets: 3 years, 2 months and 1 day
– Billion tweets Feb. 2012: 1 week
– Average number of new accounts per day between
Feb. 13 – March 12 2011: 460,000

45. 5. What can SM do for me & vice versa?
Twitter
• Some facts
• Schedule tweets (HootSuite, TweetDeck, Eggtweeter, ...)
• connect quickly with people looking for
recommendation/conversation around travel & tourism
• Tweet special deals, promos
• Answer queries
• Find people for your type of deal or your destination
• Tweet videos, pictures
• Tweet experiences
• Raise awareness

46. 5. What can SM do for me & vice versa?
Twitter

47. 5. What can SM do for me & vice versa?
YouTube
• Some facts
• + 100 million users
• Every minute, 10 hours of video is added
• PR: e.g. Jump to the beat

48. 5. What can SM do for me & vice versa?
YouTube
• Some facts
• PR
• Share pos/neg. experiences

49. 5. What can SM do for me & vice versa?
YouTube

50. 5. What can SM do for me & vice versa?
More tools
… are available here

51. 6.
Where to begin?
A few tips

53. 6. Where to begin? A few tips
Strategy
Decide on technology
Twitter / FB / 4SQ / Gmaps / Mobile technology / ...
Why are you using these tools?
To find friends? To seek advice? To find cheap hotels? To
boost sales? To complain about st? …

54. 6. Where to begin? A few tips
Strategy
Decide on technology
Start exploring & using social platform: 5 Stages
Creator (24%)
Critic (37%)
Joiner (59%)
Spectator (70%)
Inactive (17%)
Source: North American Technographics Empowerment Online survey, Q4, 2009

55. 6. Where to begin? A few tips
Strategy
Decide on technology
Start exploring & using social platform: 5 Stages
Corporate strategies:
• Join several social media technologies
• Identify your target market: find people on Twitter
lists, facebook groups. Which platforms do they use?
• Create content in these social media platforms
• lure people into buying your product

56. A few technology tips for people working in tourism …

57. 6. Where to begin? A few tips
Technology: The Company Website
Be accessible to the world – translate your website
More information
Content disclosure
More information
Tourists are far from home--make sure your site is
mobile-friendly
More information site 1 – site 2
Make sure they can find you: provide good directions
More information
Learn about outside trends & tech that can affect how
visitors see your site.

58. 6. Where to begin? A few tips
Technology: Blog
blog publicity: online interaction & face-to-face
interaction
‘Marketing’ happens off the blog
Content is King

59. 6. Where to begin? A few tips
Technology: Facebook
1. Join interesting groups/pages
2. Create a FB profile
3. Create a group/page
Group Page
Apps None Most
Active outreach Post to Profile Post to Profile
Send Update to
Fans
Advertisements
Event invitations Invite members Invite fans
metrics None comprehensive
Control of Partial Yes
associations

60. 6. Where to begin? A few tips
Technology: Facebook group/page
1. Choose the creator carefully
2. Stay@Bruges vs Hotel Memlinc
3. Update often, but not too often
4. Content is King
5. Personalize: Create a custom tab & land with a splash!

61. 6. Where to begin? A few tips
Technology: Facebook landing page

62. 6. Where to begin? A few tips
Technology: Facebook group/page
1. Choose the creator carefully
2. Stay@Bruges vs Hotel Memlinc
3. Update often, but not too often
4. Content is King
5. Personalize: Create a custom tab & land with a splash!
6. Communicate with visitors
7. Beware of contests!
8. Use the wall to send a message to your fans
9. Loosen the reins

63. 6. Where to begin? A few tips
Technology: Facebook group/page
More information:
1. The unofficial Facebook Resource
2. Mashable

64. 6. Where to begin? A few tips
Technology: Twitter
1. Name your account
2. Personalize landing page
3. Follow!
Identify top twitterians
Identify hashtags
If interesting for your business, find local Tweeps with
LocaFollow
List of travel tweets in categories: wanderlisting.com
About followers …

65. 6. Where to begin? A few tips
Technology: Twitter
1. Name your account
2. Personalize landing page
3. Follow!
4. Tweet!
Further information
Twitter Etiquette
Twitter stat tools

66. 6. Where to begin? A few tips
Technology: YouTube
Individual corporate
• (Quality) short videos • Quality short videos
• User videos = authentic • not explicitly advertising
and thus highly credible • Quirky facts that
captivate viewer
• Contextual ads

67. 6. Where to begin? A few tips
Technology: Foursquare/GMaps
Interactive maps
user reviews, local businesses, activities, contact
details, etc.
Provide as much information as you can!

68. 6. Where to begin? A few tips
Technology: Foursquare/GMaps

69. 6. Where to begin? A few tips
Technology: Foursquare/GMaps

70. 7.
A few
examples

71. 7. A few examples
Hotels
[Facebook]
Kimpton Write Here Right Now
[Facebook & YouTube]
Terranea Resort – video 1 - 2

72. 7. A few examples
Airlines & Travel Agencies
[Foursquare & Twitter]
KLM Surprise
[Mobile]
Gol Airlines

73. 7. A few examples
Travellers
[Twitter]
Twitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy
[Social community]
Travbuddy
[blog]
Villa de Ayora

74. 7. A few examples
Public Tourism Campaigns
[Facebook]
LoveUK
Pure Michigan

75. 8.
What’s next?

76. 8. What’s next?
Augmented Reality (AR)
Some examples …

77. DISCUSSION &
QUESTIONS

78. Sources
210 TV.com. Special: Becky McCray and Sheila Scarborough, visited on 1 Feb. 2012.
Asia Tech News for the World, How to promote Tourism through Social Media, visited on 5
Feb. 2012.
Blanchard, Olivier, Basics Of Social Media Roi, visited on 28 Jan. 2012.
Bosschem, Anthony. Talking Heads, There’s no ROI in social media, visited on 28 Jan. 2012.
Delobelle, Vanina. Social Media Strategy, visited on 25 Jan. 2012.
Lips, Katie. Social Media and Tourism 2.0, visited on 24 Jan. 2012.
North American Technographics Empowerment Online survey, Q4, 2009.
Paddock, Mark. Socialmediatoday. 9 Important Elements of a Social Media ROI
Report, visited on 24 Jan. 2012.
Patel, Anand. Socialmediatoday. Metrics for social media Roi, visited on 1 Feb. 2012.
Queensland Tourism. Social Media for Tourism, visited on 23 Jan. 2012.
Tourism Currents, http://www.tourismcurrents.com, visited on 4 Feb. 2012.
Van Thienen, Sarah, De ROI van social media meten: een checklist, visited on 25 Jan. 2012.
Warren, Christina, Mashable Social Media. How to measure Social Media ROI, visited on
15 Jan. 2012.
Xiang, Zeng & Gretzel, Ulrike, “Role of social media in online travel information
search”, Tourism Management, Vol. 13, Issue 2, 179–188.