A World Travel Market report issued yesterday on social media painted a mixed picture about its apparent use by consumers.
Some commentary contained in the online version of the report from WTM chairman Fiona Jeffrey (not above, that is a WTM TV presenter) highlighted concerns over low influence of social media but appear to still stress its relative importance…
“It’s believed social media has revolutionised the travel and tourism industry, however the findings of the World Travel Market survey would dispute this.
“What is clear is the general perception of a travel company or holiday resort on social media does impact on potential bookings, so companies within the travel industry need to make sure they are fairly represented on social media sites.”
Fair enough.
But what’s this in the print version of the report:
“It be a [sic] concern that, Â the travel and tourism industry plan to invest heavily in social media over the next five years believing it’s one of the major opportunities for the industry.
“WTM’s research reveals this investment could be a waste of time and money as holidaymakers do not appear to rely on social media as much as the industry believes.”
Oh.
WTM says it is unsure why the comments were watered down for the online version.
What this report confirms is that social media should be part of any complete marketing strategy. Not to mention that social media isn’t just about marketing. It should be part of the way the company communicates with its customers. I think a lot of companies are still approaching social media as an extension of their advertising programs, which is a short-sighted approach.
Spot on! It’s having a commitment to communicate with your customers which is important, and social media is just one channel that you can leverage to do that.
Totally agree with you, Stephen. To underestimate the fast increasing impact of social media on consumer decisions would be a strategic mistake just because this particular UK study shows relatively low numbers right now.
Joe:
I think you have a better understanding than most in the industry. Is there some way I can contact you?
kind of like saying search isn’t going to have much impact and is probably a waste of time back in 2000?
Is a good social media strategy like putting lipstick on a pig?
Companies seem obsessed with building their social presence at the moment. World Travel Market 2010 is bursting with presentations full of glitzy videos and amazing social media statistics but with very little real content or analysis on how social media contributes to the bottom line and what the right level of investment should be.
More worryingly, factors impacting the other 95% of business performance seem to be largely ignored or discussed. Given the huge challenges and limited resources facing many travel businesses today, companies need to carefully prioritise where precious investment in people, technology and money is spent to drive the bottom line.
Yes the point is that as there is in effect very little real travel presence on social media, it has not yet become a channel which consumers generally use to research holidays. That much is obvious and the report seems to confirm this.
Where it goes in the future though is really anyones guess – but clearly there is a natural match between travel and social media – any company powered by referrals and reccomendations in the traditional sense, will tell you.
The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.
William Gibson (1948 – )
Frankly, this sounds very much like the discussion about the Internet’s role in travel distribution ~12 years ago.
In my mind, the fact it is that the travel marketing industry has not yet figured this out fully. Possibly also there is some component that is missing from the infrastructure and is going to emerge soon (e.g. a relevant “social search” capability). Pretty soon someone will and become a huge success – and then everyone will just follow.