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Specialist offers social media advice
Tuesday, August 18, 2009 Social media specialist Yomego has published a five-point plan to help the travel industry cope with websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Yomego believes companies can avoid such media frenzies if the follow a few simple rules. Joe Hughes, the company’s research and insight manager, said: “Like it or not people are talking. They’re telling each other what to buy, where to go, where to stay, how to get there, what to think. Huge networks with audiences measured in hundreds of millions have emerged in just a few years. "The case of United Airlines shows it is easy to become a victim.” He said bosses needed to be “brave and courageous” about seizing social media. “Using social media to build brand awareness and revenue is an increasingly essential part of any travel business and being proactive is vital.” The five-point plan: 1. Listen closely Your customers are talking about your services online, whether you’re involved or not. But, the first step to engagement is: take the time to listen. Find out where people are congregating, tune in to what they’re saying, and monitor the conversation closely. This information, if properly interpreted, should form the basis of tactical intervention (which would have helped United Airlines) and should inform future social media marketing initiatives. 2. Who goes where? Who is talking about your brand and on what social media channels? You’ve followed the discussion; now you should be looking at segmenting your social media audience. Who is using what site? Once you know, you’ll see patterns emerging, you’ll know how to respond, and appeal to the various groups. Divide this audience into passive and active members of your community. Both are important. 3. Make friends You’ve sat back long enough, now get involved. And based on what you’ve learned so far, set up some short term aims. Jumping straight in can look like blatant advertising, which doesn’t hold much ground in social media circles. Instead, start making friends with key bloggers, or relevant twitter users with large numbers of followers, or launch some basic social media apps. Make sure it’s relevant, interesting, useful and genuine. 4. Be involved Now you have a basic presence in place and you’re active in the social media space, engage with and start growing your audience. There are various approaches to this like, content seeding, more in-depth social media apps, the growth of fan pages on social networks and increased activity through blog channels. This is the time to start running social media specific campaigns targeting different groups and demographics. 5. No place like home Now you’re a legitimate and active member of social media, you can start providing spaces your audience can populate. Brands can now consider creating their own social network, blog, community site - giving their audience (who hang out in multiple locations across the web) a place to come together, get involved and make a difference. With the rapid decrease, over the last two years, in the costs of building and running a social network this is now a viable option that has massive benefits for customer acquisition and most importantly, retention.
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