NB: This is a guest article by Anthony Rawlins, managing director of Digital Visitor.
We know we NEED to get involved with social media – but a common theme for many in the travel industry is that they are unclear how to do it effectively and comprehensively.
As we all know, social media has secured its place in the marketing departments of many different industries all over the world, with more brands recognising the enormous benefits that social media can bring.
For the travel industry specifically, a recent study by L2 Digital has confirmed the sheer importance of social media, finding that social media is a significant source of traffic for 78% of travel websites. And while many travel organisations will already have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc, this is only one aspect of a good social media strategy.
The confusion over social media is partly due to a lack of strategic direction, so to make things simpler for everyone, here at Digital Visitor we have created a simple philosophy.
There are two types of social media to consider and both of these should be considered for an effective, longer term and profitable social media strategy. Your social media strategy should be made up of the following:
- An Onchannel strategy
- An Onsite strategy
Your Onchannel strategy should drive new traffic to your website and your Onsite strategy should increase online conversions and repeat visits to your website.
So, let’s look at these types of social media strategy in a little more detail…
Onchannel Social Media
This element of a wider social media strategy should aim to direct traffic back to your company website. If you can achieve this you are a long way towards showing a clear ROI for your social media marketing activities. Once on your website, it is the job of your site to convert your new online visitors.
Onchannel strategies predominantly revolve around Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and over 300 other social media sites in existence.
Onchannel strategies are also 99% of all social media strategies with a great bias across every industry towards this facet of social media. Onchannel strategies are amazing at finding new audiences. With nearly 700 million people on Facebook, it’s irresistible to not try and capture some of these as new customers.
Onchannels strategies are also a great way to communicate with customers or potential customers in a less controlled, less formal and potentially more credible manner.
Like all your other marketing campaigns, it is important to ensure that your social media efforts include set targets in order to clarify a ROI, and with onchannel social media this is predominantly shown against marketing and communications activity.
Here are three ways of measuring ROI for Onchannel activity:
- Traffic back to your website. This can be offset against PPC or SEO spend.
- Job applications via your social media channels reduce recruitment fees.
- Communicating via these channels can reduce email marketing costs.
Over the past few years there have been some great examples of travel companies using social media channels to promote their brand, destination or service.
Here are just a few:
1) VisitBritain and the Royal Wedding
VisitBritain’s activity on Facebook and Twitter during the recent Royal Wedding was certainly impressive. VisitBritain’s objective was to capitalise on the global media interest in the Royal Wedding and increase its engagement with prospective visitors across digital and social media.
The results: the LoveUK Facebook Page was the 6th most “explosive page” on Facebook during the Royal Wedding week, gaining 127,546 new fans to double its Love UK membership. Moreover, content on the page was viewed by over 1.3 million
On Twitter, discussions started by @VisitBritain and mentions of Royal Wedding articles on the VisitBritain Super Blog, reached more than two million people in 48 hours, pushing its Twitter Klout score (the standard measure of influence where one is the least influential and 100 is the most) to over 71, taking @VisitBritain into the top 1% of Twitter users.
2) JetBlue’s incredible social CRM campaign.
The airline uses its channels to reactively answer customer complaints and turn them into positives. Even with tricky PR situations, officials still answer every question, whether it’s positive or not.
3) KLM
The Dutch airline has consistently been innovative with its Onchannel social media activity. Most impressive of all was KLM Surprise where a team researched KLM customers who were waiting at airports through their social media check ins. KLM staff then located them and offered them a small gift based on the interests on their social media profiles.
As mentioned, Onchannel social media strategies are the vast majority of social media but there is a void and a flaw in just Onchannel strategies.
Whilst we feel Onchannel strategies can save some marketing and communication costs and drive new audiences to your site, we don’t feel this has a significant impact on website conversion rates.
For this to be achieved, the social media journey should be continued by visitors on your own website – Onsite.
Onsite Social Media
Put simply: putting in place an Onsite social media strategy should aim to increase browsing time, repeat visits and conversions on your own website.
Onsite social media focuses on how to best utilise social media on your own company website and under your own brand and includes such activities as enabling visitors to upload reviews to your website, create forums and discussions and join your own community.
Like Onchannel social media, Onsite social media also aims to drive search traffic to your website but this will primarily come from organic search engine traffic rather than direct referral.
ROI from Onsite social media is easier to measure and should show:
- An increase in browsing time (usually doubling browsing time if your visitors content is good).
- An increase in online conversions provided you display the correct content on the correct pages of your website.
- An increase in repeat visits to your website and repeat bookings.
Onsite social media is also a longer term investment as reviews on your website and your own community will grow and continually provide benefit to your website with little maintenance required.
Top six reasons why travel companies should also consider Onsite social media?
1. Increased browsing time.
Social media such as videos, photos and reviews are more inspiring and engaging, thus increasing the browse time on your own website. For example, VJVLounge has increased the browsing time under the VJV brand by over three minutes.
2. Increasing traffic.
Referring back to the study by L2 Digital, research found that those travel companies who do allow user reviews on their website, report an increase in traffic of 24%.
3. Maintain traffic rather than send to competitors.
Reviews by real people on your own site increases your authenticity and builds customer loyalty and trust with your brand. If you don’t provide this on your website, your online visitors will find this somewhere else!
A recent study by Forrester Research found that consumers overwhelmingly rely on online reviews and price comparisons to research products and services before making a purchase.
More importantly, the study continued to state that 47% of consumers in fact rely on online reviews about products or services on company websites over newspapers, magazines or social networking sites before making a purchase decision.
These results also highlight the importance for organisations to have up-to-date reviews on their own company website. [More here]
4. Better analytics.
While Facebook provides some tools to help you track interactions, they are certainly not as insightful as website analytics. Google analytics is a free service that allows you track every single interaction on your website; including how people found you in the first place.
Things like keywords and referrals are not included in Facebook analytics and this information is incredibly valuable. Social media on your own site can therefore be analysed in much greater detail.
5. Flexibility.
If your website is redesigned, or you move CMS, your reviews and communities can be easily transferred using innovative new developments in this marketplace.
For example, Visitor Review delivered by Digital Visitor, provides functionality via Javascript and can therefore seamlessly migrate from one version of your website to another – thus making it future proof.
On the other hand, your investment in Onchannel websites such as Facebook is not future proof as you do not have total control over your brand presence.
What’s more, Facebook regularly changes it rules and businesses have to catch-up. ‘Fans’ are now “likes”, “polls” are now “questions” and competitions are technically not allowed just on Facebook.
6. Brand identity.
Whether new audiences or existing, your company should be about your brand and not theirs! Onchannel, there will always be a Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or other experience running in the background, reminding people that they are interacting with these channels just as much as they are with your brand.
This clearly dilutes your brand identity. Onsite social media on the other hand, allows you to communicate like you would on these channels, but on your own terms and in your own style and branding.
Here are a few examples of companies offering Onsite social media solutions and we strongly recommend that you research this option before committing to your social media strategy for the year:
- VR3 by Digital Visitor
- OffExploring
- Fresh Networks
Conclusion
It’s very important to construct an Onchannel and Onsite social media strategy to deliver a complete social media strategy.
Your Onchannel strategy can drive new audiences to your website whilst your Onsite strategy can move these new audiences into your booking flow and increase conversions.
Onchannel strategies should be viewed very much as marketing and communications activities whereas your Onsite strategy is more to do with development of your own website, enhancing its conversion rate and search engine optimisation.
Travel brands that want to secure their place in social media should consider adding social media features to their own website. Both Onsite and Onchannel activity are needed to complete a social media strategy to ensure that your brand is really making the most of all that social media has to offer.
NB: This is a guest article by Anthony Rawlins, managing director of Digital Visitor. Follow on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.
About Special Nodes
Hi Anthony
Though much of what’s here is insightful – I don’t completely agree. Why limit yourself to your own web properties? My mantra – go where the people are… don’t expect them to come to you. For example: create a Facebook app and let people book right there.
Cheers
Jeremy
@jeremy – I completely agree on the “find where your people are and reach and engage with them there” approach.
I recall years ago a sudden rush in travel to create new social networks on existing sites (sorry, Vtravelled is one), but that strategy meant that there was an assumption that people would give up some of their previous social time to do something new in a new place. Risky strategy.
It’s why I like the TripAdvisor Trip Friends idea so much. Rather than build its own social network, which it could’ve done quite easily, it simply realised that there was a quite big social network already out there that could do it instead. Facebook.
Hi Jeremy
Thanks for the comment. I do agree you shouldn’t limit yourself to your website. I think it is on the social media channels you can find brand new audiences to engage with. My philosophy is to grab these audiences on these channels and drive them back to your website.
So whilst we are in agreement in winning new audiences on other websites, i don’t think there is any need to make them purchase right there. I’m sure your website will have a great booking engine with a clear booking flow therefore if they want to book, why not get them to your own site to do this.
Furthermore, booking applications on Facebook in generally aren’t having much success because I feel people want more information when they book. The kind of great, insightful information that only your website can truly deliver.
Heres an example of what we suggest you do for on your social media channels and the best way to approach a strategy in case you are interested.
http://bit.ly/kvVAr2
thanks again for your feedback
Anthony
Jeremy, I like your mantra and, given the current state of social media I agree, to a point. I believe you are ahead of the curve when you say, “let people book right there”. Can we agree that many travel products are fairly complex goods or services? For suppliers to start transacting, for example, spring break trips on Facebook, is a tall order when they just finished figuring out LIKES… Or when (dare I say), some companies don’t even get product ecommerce booking “right” on their core website?
Fcommerce evolution for travel products has certainly already begun with pioneers like MHbuddy, BookNow from Booking.com etc.. I would wager that their booking transactions are minuscule. That said, this will definitely be a hot future topic (and surely well covered by Tnooz nodes!). The current FB environment is technically (referring to App Dev) clunky, chunky and dumpy. On the front end, you can’t easily search for products or services and it’s just too damn easy to open a tab and go to the brands web storefront to transact (hopefully). So, for now, I agree with Anthony for transaction: drive them from OnChannel to OnSite. (With the caveat that I believe FB is doing everything they can to change this in the medium term).
For me the exciting part of Social Media at present is not about booking but rather about personalization and close engagement with the KING CUSTOMER via these new touch points. I firmly believe that for many who have already jumped in, Social Media has quickly become a required part of the Online Marketing Mix. For those that haven’t taken the plunge, they are looking for (and need) help on what to do next. I think OnChannel/OnSite strategy Anthony shares is a solid approach for companies who lack their own strategy
So many companies do not have the in house resources or expertise to successfully engage in social media marketing. The toughest problem? It’s the time commitment. A solution is to find an experience out-sourcing firm like JPWilliam.com. We provide social media services to WTMO (www.whenthemeetingsover.com) the new social network for business people who travel – blogs, tweeting, facebook activities, etc. If you need social media marketing help, contact us because we can do the work you don’t have time to do!
@susan – does your social media strategy extend to plugging the product in the comment section of media sites?
Only kidding, thx for commenting.
Glad you made this comment, Kevin. A number of commenters on Tnooz do offer similar services without plugging them in their responses to articles, based on the premise thar if the comment is relevant and of interest the reader might check them out in more detail. This is how social media use should work, right? It’s not a channel for sales pitches.
The points made in the article are very useful. Of course, going to fish where the fish are is essential but using that presence to create attention for and drive traffic to the main website is a solid strategy. You don’t want to be a sharecropper on Facebook only.
Brilliant.
- Troy
If it were me I’d train my employees and find the resources in-house. I believe that in 5 years or so much of this stuff will be so everyday, everyone will do it. Your customers have limited time too – if they choose to communicate with you via twitter they won’t call you or email you. Right now it’s hard to profile people so you can’t tell whether a coversation on twitter or Facebook is worth your time getting involved with. I think that will change fast as the social graph stuff really begins to take effect.
Then again – I feel increasingly uneasy about sharing my data in all these spaces… so maybe I am wrong on that point.
Some interesting stuff here. Problem is that most of it (and most articles) are about why not how (to do it).
I feel if from the outset people had talked about/focused on ‘marketing’ and channel management &c- rather than ‘social media’, we’d all be a bit further forward in exploiting the utilitarian value of SM. One of the many reasons some of my clients don’t touch it is because they’re still very skeptical about it, largely because they don’t know who to trust as an authoritative learning source with a proven track record.
Who are these very people? – can someone tell me who they rally trust and respect as ‘social media strategy advisers’, and i mean the doing, rather than just the planning. I am in the hotel sector, and really the amount of verbiage and rhetoric on the subject by so-called ‘experts’ is mind boggling. Furthermore there is no one size fits all approach I don’t think, as you really must look at the sectoral factors in order to focus the strategy and the action plans.
I like Josiah MacKenzie because I think he gets closer to the practical, common sense, doing approach – for my industry specifically. There’s a starter, any more suggestions?
Hi Robert
I agree there isn’t a once size fits all approach at all. This isn’t a plug but if you look at this page it may be useful to see the kind of ingredients you should have in a social media strategy. http://bit.ly/kW6Qwz.
In terms of the ‘how’ rather than the ‘why’, again you are spot on. The majority of clients we speak to (many in your sector) say ‘we want to be involved in social media, we just don’t know how’.
Again, im trying to be very careful not to plug here but in answer to this exact problem, we developed our social media strategies, bespoke for each client using the ingredients mentioned in the above link. We produce a 40+ page document, looking at each channel and define, what they should say (with examples), how often they should say it and what resource they need internally to do this. This is as exact as it is possible to be.
As you have said, one size doesn’t fit all so every businesses social media strategy will be completely unique and should also draw on historical information as well as a good solid competitor analysis to shape it.
thanks again,
Anthony
Great article! I completely agree with the need for a dual approach and especially agree with the need for an onsite strategy.
Too many business owners and marketers forget that accounts on Facebook, Twitter, or other networks remain at the mercy of the site’s administrators and can be gone at the click of a button. If you have put all your eggs in the onchannel basket, this can be catastrophic for your business. If you have a solid onsite strategy on the other hand, the blow can still be crippling but not fatal for your marketing efforts.
As Jeremy pointed out, it’s important to go where the people are, but I don’t see anything wrong with inviting them to your turf for continued conversation once they get to know you. People also tend to follow value and a good onsite strategy can definitely offer that.
Hi Sophie – much appreciated. This thinking is certainly getting more and more prevalent and more companies are looking at their onsite strategy now as social media marketing matures. There was a mad dash for Facebook fans/likes, setting up Foursquare profiles, Twitter followers and more. These are still brilliant and can be used expertly to drive traffic to your site, but we are at 300+ social media channels now – where will this end? This is the beginning of what is sure to be an incredibly important facet of the marketing mix and over the next few years its exciting to think of the ways all these social media channels and your own website will be tied together to create long term, loyal tribes around your brand, on all sorts of channels.
Do you know, the most interesting (and usually frustrating) thing for me is the fact that some clients are pinning a lot of hopes on social media, when their own on line strategy is either not right, in disarray even, and certainly not fully exploited.
The web site is at the core, the hub of all things integrated marketing and customer engagement today, including PR, display ads, email marketing, SEO and SEM, mobile marketing, social media &c &c – and some websites out there wouldn’t even pass the most basic of best practice and usability tests, far less marketing efficiency! Get the fundamentals right, before you engage in social media, it will never bail out a poor on line web development and marketing plan in a million years
Both your posts talk about some key issues. When the first mentions of social media appeared on the web a few years ago hardly anyone talked about it in terms of marketing and the emphasis was on the word “social” and how people interact and communicate on the web using various technologies as tools. What happened next was an almost total focus on those tools like Twitter and Facebook. Increasingly marketing and PR folks became aware of these tools and their potential use for marketing.
What companies still have to learn the hard way is that by focusing only on tactical tools and using them in the old one-way push communication fashion doesn’t bring results. If all the emphasis is on the “media” disregarding the social aspect people will not respond and consider it just the same old intrusion.
A sound social web engagement starts with the fundamentals of great product or service, the right culture and readiness to listen and learn from the social conversation among people about your brand before becoming active. If these elements are not in place and form part of an overall, objectives based strategy then social media activity is just so much putting lipstick on a pig.
It all starts with “WHY” if you can’t answer that basic question, the “how” and “what” won’t work.
Well said Robert.
I agree that it’s about a dual approach – not just one OR the other. As marketers, we carefully spend our budget on activity that we can prove has had a ROI, and as Anthony said, this can be harder to discover via onchannel activity. Onsite social media strategies are about keeping those all important loyal brand advocates for years and years to come…and there is no better way to do this than on your own website and under your own brand.
The dual approach is definitely important as I mentioned in my earlier comment. One way of increasing the ability to better measure ROI on Facebook while also keeping full control of the branding as well as all the revenue derived from the app if it includes an F-Commerce component, is with a Facebook app as opposed to a mere Fan page.
Great article, Anthony. One issue, the company that released the study is L2 Think Tank (www.l2thinktank.com) not L2 Digital. It’s a great organization that brings together thought leaders from industry and academia to tackle the complex issues around digital branding. Just wanted to make sure they received the recognition for this study.
This is the concept of not putting all your eggs in one basket without spreading yourself into too many either. It’s easy to get locked into one thing, like Facebook or Twitter. It’s also tempting to try and participate in a dozen different forums. There needs to be a safe mix depending on your time and expectations.
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@craig b – thanks for the plug. Happy to point you in the direction of our advertising department next time