Companies are using web 2.0 to leverage the power of social media, where users are editors and writers, to build lasting relationships across all stages of the customer journey from inspiration to sharing holiday experiences.

Published: 17 Jun 2009

Companies are using web 2.0 to leverage the power of social media, where users are editors and writers, to build lasting relationships across all stages of the customer journey from inspiration to sharing holiday experiences.

From a travel supplier’s perspective, Terry Kane, digital marketing director, Jumeirah Group, admits that companies are no longer sales people and marketers, but content publishers and facilitators.

“The new process is to listen, learn and then provide the information in the way that it wants to be received, individual and special to the recipient,” Kane said.

He added: “The consumer is undoubtedly in more control than ever and the travel suppliers really have no option about “giving freedom”, the freedom is already there, it is the role of the suppliers to learn and engage.”

Kane, in an interview with EyeforTravel.com’s Ritesh Gupta, spoke about featuring content strategy, usage of UGC and other issues. Excerpts:

How do you think travel suppliers should consider featuring rich online experiences such as images and videos?

Luxury travel is an emotional purchase, the quality of content, and how it is displayed and interacted with is fundamental to the purchasing process.

On most occasions the website only gets one shot at getting it right. On the reverse there is still the very grey area of brand protectionism with rich media assets versus the social media explosion of sharing everything in a number of different media’s. The Jumeirah website is particularly rich media heavy as we know that our properties are of interest for numerous reasons to large segments, on the flip side it is important that booking is no more than 3 clicks away.

Can you provide info on how travel suppliers can use videos? Should they be embedded in booking and browsing sections?

It is dependent on the brand, some travel suppliers have little/no need, while others who are a more emotional purchase will require greater use. The first question RM users need to consider is the technology implications, do they stream or download and what is the prominence of video on the site (how much will it be used?), all of these play a vital role in successful use of RM.

After this, it is a mix of common sense of putting it in the customer journey when it will be utilised and using analytics to make the best decisions/ make changes.

Do you think there are advantages in increasing UGC and video on sites as it will be beneficial in driving traffic through natural search? What do you think are the challenges in ensuring that at this stage such content is unique as there is an enormous amount of content that already exists?

As a brand we are not moving in the direction of including UGC on our brand website, it simply doesn’t make sense. What we do however have strategies for in using UGC on the sites that are successful (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc) and maximising exposure.

This obviously does very little to improve the ranking on brand.com, but there is a considerable amount of traffic & opportunity in ensuring that a UGC strategy is implemented. By enabling the properties under the Jumeirah brand to become content editors and owners, we can ensure that content is always fresh and unique, as corporate we set the guidelines, policies, best practice and monitor.

How do you assess the utility of such content? Do you think it is moving from using social media to validate holiday or accommodation choices to the stage to inspiring customers?

Both. Look at the click stream of any travel website, you will have price comparison companies, search engines and Tripadvisor there! The public are inspired and put off by the comments of complete strangers, a good strategy to effectively manage the most important recommendations / SM sites is vital.

Travel businesses continue to gather customer preferences and have been looking to provide improved personalised features for travellers. How do you assess such efforts?

Jumeirah is not inclined to move in the direction of having UGC on brand.com, however the next stages of our own development will be user owned content, somewhere that the guest can build, book, change and be inspired according to their own selections and history.

Like certain retail sites, technology is now able to recommend based on rules created in a recommendations engine, the rules to this should be created at a company level and can change how a website functions. Every page of the website in the future will effectively be individual to the user, a major move towards this, this year will be the release of TLD’s, companies that can afford and know how to effectively utilise this technology will undoubtedly be industry leaders.

Overall personalisation efforts and cross-selling initiatives are becoming more targeted and seamless across all touch points. In this context, how do you assess the role of the website capturing customer data to feed your CRM initiatives and accordingly offering customised communication and offerings via various channels?

It is surely the objective of every company to garner as much information from all consumer touch points, both online and offline. The benefits to consumer and company are widespread and in the short/medium term it will form the back bone of customised communications strategy for all brand users.

The first and most important step is the proper collation of data from all touchpoints and cleaning of the information, for global companies with numerous on and offline touchpoints this is a lengthy process that requires expertise and investment. Once data is stored, rules set then with quality management, every communication that reaches the consumer (email, RSS, web etc.) should be individual to their personal history (browsing, purchase, opt in etc). Effectively implementing and managing is no mean feat and requires experience.