"Connecting the social media activity with booking levels is incredibly useful"
Published: 20 Oct 2008
Social Media in Travel Special
Social networks may have risen phenomenally in terms of popularity but when it comes to applying them to marketing or media strategy in general, it is mentioned that there are still no clear best practices for the same.
According to Gartner, there is an overall sense of disillusionment with the Interactive Advertising Bureau standard banner approach to monetising social networks, or utilising social networks as an advertiser. One of the problems with advertising on social media is there's so much going on in the average page that it's hard to get noticed.
From the travel industry's perspective, social networks definitely have a connect.
Joel Davis, CEO, TalkingTrip feels social networking has inherently changed travellers' expectations or attitude.
Davis says, "Social media enables people to read reviews from individuals who've actually had the travel experience. Their recommendations carry greater weight than a brochure review. I also think it changes people's expectations and attitudes, in that people looking to book may be prepared to step outside their comfort zone. This is partly due to the additional information and recommendations from peer groups which encourages travellers to go for something more daring."
A section of the industry feels for user-generated content sites to be successful businesses, they need to facilitate a purchase decision making process.
According to Davis, the more user generated sites focus on specific tasks and niches, the more likely users will convert.
"Generic travel sites can be perfect for window shoppers. The further down the purchasing decision making process users are, the more specific consumers requirements are. Larger, more generic travel communities can still prosper if they get the user experience just right. Sites that are best at grouping useful and relevant information together to help support the decision maker will be more successful at converting," he said.
According to Davis, consumers use UGC sites for a number of reasons including supporting their decisions, reducing their short list of options and a place for new ideas.
"My advice to travel community site owners would be to excel at a minimum of one of these buying cycle tasks," said Davis.
At times, it has been pointed out that social networking in its truest form is for the 15 -25 age demographic. Positioning a site with social networking as a key component can alienate the more mainstream audience. Sharing his viewpoint regarding the same, Davis said, "W hen social networking services offer true value to the users supported by an easy to use experience then we will find that they will continue to attract a growing mainstream audience."
On the best way to measure the ROI of advertising campaigns in a social media environment, Davis said, " First of all, I believe it's incredibly important to do so. My team at agency2 create a monthly dashboard for our clients that measure and help us optimise the ROI on all social media marketing campaigns. The most important metric we use is the measurement of conversions (bookings) directly associated to the social media activity we have developed. We track the cost per booking, volume of bookings plus the monthly trends."
For its part, with reference to ROI on ad campaign in social media, TripAdvisor says metrics like traditional ROI tracking from CPM or integrations on a historic booking level, talkability (travellers talking in forums ) and audience dwell time on the advertisers site can be looked up.
"Connecting the social media activity with booking levels is incredibly useful. It is worth noting that we find that social media marketing actually outperforms paid for online advertising, affiliates and PPC marketing with regards to the conversion rate leading to one of the lowest cost per booking channels our clients have," said Davis.
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