Is social media the new online porn?

SYDNEY – Eight out of 10 Australian internet users use social media tools, which have edged out pornography as the nation’s No.1 internet activity (www.australianitnews.com.au).

This revelation confirms two things; pornographers need to get with the times; and that social media is the single most important phenomenon to hit the internet since somebody first decided to upload footage of a man and a woman eloping.

Don’t think that Australia’s love for porn is waning however, as “sex” remains a popular Australian search term. Instead, consider that regular internet users have found a more interesting way to spend their many hours fixed to a computer screen or mobile device.

Consequently, three social networks have crept into the Google top 10 most searched terms for Australia in 2008 – YouTube, MySpace & Facebook.

In terms of online trends, it is generally agreed that Australian consumers mimic the UK and more advanced parts of Europe.

The more advanced countries in Asia – for a mixture of social, cultural and economic reasons – can be anywhere from 3 to 5 years behind this curve.

So no matter how keen the Asian interest in online pornography may be, it seems only a matter of time before we witness social media develop into a similar popular cultural phenomenon across the region.

If Asia’s online travel sector continues at the projected 17 percent growth in 2010, an educated guess would conclude that social media channels will play a hugely important role in this growth.

The savviest travel brands are already pioneering strategies in this space. Some successfully, while others are sadly quite the opposite.

Apparently best practice is a difficult thing to gauge when the list of working examples is so short, and the consumer is still discovering their own user preferences on each new emerging channel.

What develops is a massive void between successful campaigns like V Australia’s LA 4320 Twitter campaign, and the disaster that was Langham Hotel’s ‘Big Deal’ YouTube campaign.

While V Australia arose as Twitter’s most followed Australia-based airline, Langham Hotels suffered labelling as “culturally insensitive”, and were forced to release a public apology – via YouTube – for all offences caused.

These are two examples of wildly different results from campaigns that were designed to fulfil very similar branding goals.

Whatever the outcome may be for each brand, the important thing is that they recognised social channels as the most critical form of engagement available on the web. In Langham’s case, although the approach was totally wrong, the intention was absolutely right.

The internet and social media are inseparable, and yet again the huge opportunity that Asia presents has all the leading sales and marketing teams salivating.

Whether it be for brand building, loyalty enhancing or sales generating purposes, it’s fair to say that as Asian online travel growth steam rolls ahead, social media will become the new online porn.

Hear more discussion about the Langham Hotels and LA 4320 campaign by Michelle Lee, GM Marketing for Virgin Blue Group, at Sales & Marketing in Travel Asia Pacific 2009. Sydney November www.eyefortravel.com/smapac