7 need-to-know social moves and mobile trends that you may have missed

Social media has matured, the success of visual marketing is old news and mobile is the business, so where to now?

In less than two weeks we’ll be in San Francisco helping you to understand the biggest social and mobile trends that will help you sell more travel products in 2014. Over the past few months we’ve talked to a cross-section of the industry for their insights into current initiatives and the business challenges they face.

 

From American Airlines to Ritz Carlton, Tourism Victoria, Virgin Atlantic and Twitter, big names and big innovators will be there on March 17-18 to expand their views and share their insights.

 

Ahead of the event, here is a quick snapshot of what we expect to dominate the discussions on the other side of the pond.   

 

1. Social integration across the business may not be as simple as you think but how do you get it right?

 

For Jonathan Pierce Director, Social Communications, social media going forward there are a number of barriers to social media integration. From hiring the right people to fighting your corner in an environment where everybody is competing for budget and finding the right metrics for measurement are just some of the challenges. After all, every company is unique and the big question, says Pierce, in a recent article on EyeforTravel.com is, “how do you join up social data which is very free form and very unique is constantly evolving with existing technology infrastructure and the type of data you have there”.

 

2. SoLoMo is here to stay but are you ready for a bit of silo-bashing

 

For destination marketer, Tourism Victoria, an early mover in the mobile space, the trend to SoLoMo is unquestionably here to stay. User behaviour points clearly to this, says Michael Hauser, the organisation’s digital marketing manager. Going forward, he believes that with new technologies coming on line all the time, wearables, local search and local offers, local bookings and conversions (particularly for attractions/events), increased local social media conversations, push notifications across local/mobile channels and the growth in free Wifi access (still a key barrier in regional areas of Australia) will be very real opportunities in the coming year.

 

3. Measuring engagement through likes, shares, comments, tweets, retweets and hashtags is old news 

 

Worldhotels social media evangelist and senior director Ed Perry points out in a recent article on EyeforTravel.com that for years, hotel social media professionals have justified their worth with likes, tweets, retweets and so on. Enabling communities to become mere advocates of the brand and what it conveys is probably not going to be enough. That may be well and good but in 2014 social media evangelists will need to convince one another that the “most pure value of social outreach is in overall sales potential”.  Perry’s big advice: “The more you pay attention to consumers via ALL social media channels, the more you will sell. Period.” While that may well be true, interesting, Ritz Carlton’s Sitch believes that social should not be a channel for transactions - which is “almost a turnoff” – for their guests, at least.

 

4. Pick your channels wisely, engage across them all and know how to use them creatively

 

Of course, not every travel brand has the budget or the time to be across all social media channels. But wherever you decide to be you need to work creatively on your engagement strategies. Ritz Carlton, for example, takes a particular approach to each channel. On Facebook, where the audience is almost entirely customers, this is about creating and sharing memories of the brand. Twitter is for a B2B following whereas Instagram is 100% user-generated content where consumers are asked to hashtag RC memories; a “hugely popular with followers” five shots are selected each week and pulled onto the channel. Tumblr is used to create little vignettes of, for example, waves crashing against rocks in remote locations and professional travel writers are used to create mood. “This is all about location, not a hard sell,” says Allison Sitch Ritz Carlton’s Vice President of Global Public Relations.

 

5. Visual marketing drives eyeballs but watch your colours – you may need to change the way you do photography

 

For luxury hotel brand Ritz Carlton, social media plays a central role in engaging with customers. They have a presence on ten channels, including two in China, all of which they use differently. Following extensive research, they have found that while dominant red and orange tones look warm and inviting, they just don’t drive the same engagement. That’s with Ritz Carlton high-end customers of course. Blue, which in marketing terms symbolises dignity, peace and calm – and also happens to be the world’s most popular colour – drives the most engagement across all channels. “That’s changed the way we do photography,” says Sitch. Even in China, where initially all advice pointed to using the colour red, which in Asia is symbol of power and good fortune, research with Chinese consumers found differently. Hence Ritz Carlton, which is strongly committed to growing market share in China, decided to be true to the colour that works best for its brand – blue!

 

6. Building social tools in house requires a clear understanding of the business benefits

 

If you have both time and money and know exactly what you want to get out of a social tools, then yes do consider building in house, But before you do this ask yourself:

 

·         What are the key features that would save time and take your social marketing to the next level?

 

·         Do you have a unique need that is either under-served in the marketplace, or cost prohibitive?

 

These two questions were taken seriously by American Airlines’ which decided to insource its customer service tool because it needed to talk to so many proprietary systems.

 

Still, getting into building tools is not a task that should be taken lightly though, because they will require constant upkeep, says Mike Supple, Director of Social Media at Milestone Internet Marketing. “The APIs and social channels change constantly, so you need to have a robust programming and design team that is able to adjust quickly and cost-effectively.”

 

7. Few businesses need to build their own application-programming interface (APIs)

 

According to Supple, very few businesses will need to build their own APIs. “It is most effective to become familiar with the APIs of the major social networks so you can consume data on a large scale and use it to inform strategy,” he says, adding that most APIs are rather broad in scope, which makes it critical to understand exactly what you want from a particular API before you spend time analysing and integrating it into your systems.

 

To hear further insights from the people quoted this this article – and many more - sign up now to join us for Social Media and Mobile Strategies for Travel 2014 (March 17-18)

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