Travel Mole Guest Column

By Dave Hurley, Founder, AgoVita Travel
 

How Social Media is Revolutionizing Travel and Tourism Marketing
 

Social media, from a travel and tourism marketing standpoint, is becoming a great equalizer, providing both huge national brands and smaller businesses with the opportunity to effectively reach their target audience at a very low cost. The industry as a whole increased its spending on social media advertising by more than 360 percent over the last year, to almost $2.2 million.
 

The power of social media comes from the authenticity of consumers’ reactions, revelations and recommendations, and so the single greatest determining factor of a company’s social media success is its ability to deliver (perceived value) to the consumer. So how can you as a valuable travel company, provide consumers with online (and offline) value with your social media outreach? I’ve put together a list of social media do’s and don’ts to help you get started and to make sure that your messages are tweeted (or Facebooked, or Digged) far and wide:
 

DO Dedicate Time and Resources to Social Media
Your competitors are spending the time: Sixty-four percent of marketers are using social media for five hours or more each week and 39% for ten or more hours weekly. With social media marketing, the time you put in is in direct proportion to the benefits you will reap. This doesn’t necessarily mean creating a social media department, but halfhearted social media efforts are perceived as such.
 

DON’T Get Complacent
Don’t ignore tweets or wall posts or anything else that indicated your customers are reaching out to you. Social media is about two-way communication and you should be jumping at the chance to have a dialogue with your engaged customers.
 

DO Tweet….Often.
Time spent on Twitter has increased more than 3,700% in the past year, making it the fastest growing social media network. It is also the most direct, allowing for immediate interaction between your customers and your brand (and with each other).
 

DO Post Relevant Materials
Social media marketing means more than just setting up a profile or creating an account. Give your consumers relevant information, pass on offers and discounts and react to their needs and interests. Social media is about sharing information so make sure it’s the right information you’re sharing.
 

DO Emphasize the Customer Experience
Social media is more efficient than any communications channel that came before it in terms of facilitating the spread of opinion and information among groups of members. This means that travel and tourism related experiences- both good and bad- are disseminated quickly, and magnified. Make sure your day-to-day operations are mindful of this fact and that you address any concerns immediately to prevent ruining your brand’s online reputation.
 

DON’T Dismiss Social Media as a Fad
…or as child’s play. It’s true, most social media users are under 35 (61%), and Generation Y are the most loyal users (only 9% of respondents were least likely to give up social networks for a week), but the fastest growing segment on Facebook is women over 55. Social media growth shows no sign of slowing down and if your company isn’t embracing it to reach consumers of any age, your competitors will be.
 

Executed properly, I know that this change, social media, will prove to be beneficial to both consumers and our businesses for a long time to come. By providing a platform for consumers to interact honestly and instantly with one another and the brands that serve them, social media has transformed the travel and tourism industry.
 

So here’s the million dollar question: what are you waiting for?
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Dave Hurley is the founder of AgoVita Travel, a social networking site that connects avid travelers with smaller businesses in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry to create personalized, affordable travel experiences. The site, which launched in November of this year, offers the traveling community the ability to create a personal profile page, post stories and photos of their travels, create friendships, take part in one-on-one chats, participate in the community forum, and more.