If travel companies ever need proof why they should have a presence on YouTube and Facebook, it is here: the duo capture 75% of all visits to social networks in the UK.
Figures from Hitwise for April 2011 show that YouTube accounts for one in five visits by UK web users to social networks, the video sharing giant’s highest ever share of the overall social media pie.
The Google-owned site has jumped from having a 17% share of visits to social networks in the UK in April 2010 to 20% within 12 months.
Facebook captures around 55% of all social network-related visits (up 1% on April 2010), while Twitter – for all the hype and use by celebrities – accounts for just 3% of the overall social media landscape in the UK.
In terms of wider web behaviour, Google still accounts for a massive nine in ten of all web searches – a drop of 1% year-on-year, but still a seemingly unassailable lead (Microsoft picked up a 1% increase year on year to 4% overall).
Experian Hitwise research director Robin Goad says:
“If you look at the year-on-year trends, you can see that Microsoft is slowly eroding Google’s grip on the UK search market, but as the April data shows, the gains for Microsoft at the moment are relatively small, and easily lost.”
The question, of course, is how can travel businesses boost their presence on social networks, given the sheer volume of traffic hitting the sites on a daily basis.
For some it is creating reams of content to add to channels (YouTube) or fan pages (Facebook). Others can simply rely on the good fortune of customers to create compelling material on their behalf.
The Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney probably couldn’t have asked for a better promo clip than this wonderful time-lapse effort by a recent guest:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfF_kIA6mv8
It’s no brainer to see that social media is here to stay for good. Given vast variety of the existing channels to choose and stick with, it’s time for such a hot space to enter into a new category. There is a need for a portal to provide a quick and intelligent decision for both the consumer and the enterprise about their online connections.
A Platform to Help us to Distinguish Our Quality vs. Quantity Friends, Fans, Followers, and Companies
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, Flickr and others have been doing a decent job of providing additional marketing exposure and even in some cases, additional revenue. However, as more and more social networking sites pop up, how do you manage your brand across all these channels? Maybe more importantly, which one of these sites should you select as the one that will help you best reach your target audience? The proliferation of the social media avenues is becoming overwhelming.
This glut of information reminds me of the early 90’s when WWW was adopted broadly by the general public. Every company rushed to have a presence, to the point it became literally impossible to find the right information on the Web. That’s when a better generation of search engines – at first the Yahoo! and then Google – entered the market and helped us find the most relevant information by just typing simple keywords in their search box. If you had asked before Google launched, if there was a need for another search engine – most would have said no, we already have those….
Then came Web 1.0 & 2.0 – Youtube, Flickr, myspace, Facebook, Twitter and countless others have turned everyday people into content producers, influencers and experts. We basically tripled down on the information overload How do you know which channels to select for deploying your social media strategy? How do you know which one is the right channel to let your fans and followers to find you, your products, and services? Most importantly, who is Joe Smith that is recommending that person, that company, that product?
I hope my awesomize.me can accomplish such a mission. The site is not another social networking platform. Yet the portal to all your existing social media channels. The platform helps you, your fans, your potential clients to make an intelligent decision as to which company to connect to or follow via which social media channels and why? It’s free!
Elias
CEO & Founder
http://awesomize.me
Wouldn’t twitter be greatly understated because people are using clients like tweetdeck etc?
I found really impressive this figures as another proof of the need of tourism companies to put efforts on having a effective presence on social networks.
I am currently developing a research project about Social Networks and their influence on Tourism. In this regard and in order to study tourists behaviour on social networks, I have run a brief web survey, as follows:
http://www.e-encuesta.com/answer.do?testid=eYPJOFbk250=
I would really appreciate if you could help me filling it in. It will not take you more than 5 minutes. I will be pleased to share the results with anyone interested.
Thank you very much in advance!