Is your brand genuinely making the most of social media?

Published: 10 Jul 2009

With studies like the latest one from Forrester Research painting a rosy picture for social media, its time for travel companies to ensure that they are spot on with their social media strategies.

Interactive marketing will reach nearly $55 billion, representing almost a quarter of all marketing expenditures by 2014, according to a new report from Forrester Research. And the biggest growth area for interactive is expected to be social media.

The spend on interactive campaigns through social networks, combined with agency fees for creating social media assets (community sites, internal blogs), will exceed $3 billion by 2014, a compound annual growth rate of 34 percent. And as that investment increases, marketers will “improve how they use social media to engage — not just reach — target audiences. This means more expenditure on multichannel social media campaigns instead of just buying banners on community sites,” according to the report.

The phenomenal growth rate of social media spend can be attributed to the channel’s relatively low start base, currently about $700 million in the US. Still, significantly, it has been highlighted that owned social media assets (like internal blogs, community sites) are really the only emerging media getting traction in today’s economic climate.

Such emphatic findings continue to exemplify the role social media is expected to play in the years to come.

For its part, the travel industry has given ample indication of the fact that social media marketing is only effective when it’s aligned with the business strategy.

A market like Europe, too, has moved strongly.

For instance, during EyeforTravel’s Sales and Marketing in Travel Summit Europe in Munich last year, TUI Travel plc categorically stated that content, both published and user generated, is essential across all countries and brands. The group believes Travel 2.0 is about transparency, community, personalisation and experience. And it uses it to build lasting relationships with its customers, drive traffic and to empower its customers.

As EyeforTravel gets ready for this year’s Social Media Strategies in Travel Conference, to be held in Prague (October 13-14) this year, the setting would be ideal to move a step ahead in this arena and to learn about ways on how to let brands engage their brand advocates, allowing them to spread the message on their behalf.

This year’s edition will feature sessions on consumer behaviour, marking budgets for social media strategy, the relationship between social media, CRM, and brand engagement, and many other critical issues.

Confirmed line-up includes following speakers:

Steven Taylor, Senior Director Digital, Loyalty, Partner Marketing, Starwood Hotels & Resorts

Sandra Leonhard, Director of Web Strategy & Business Development, TUI

Martin Verdon-Roe, Director of Sales, Europe, TripAdvisor

Geraldine Calpin, VP e-Commerce, Hilton Hotels

Niki van Wijk, VP e-Commerce, transavia

Iain Pringle, Head of Customer & Loyalty Insight, The Mileage Company, British Airways

For more information, click here:
http://events.eyefortravel.com/sales-and-marketing/conference/agenda.asp

or contact:

Gina Baillie
Regional Director, Europe
+44 (0)207 375 7197
gina@eyefortravel.com

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