Social Media is Shaping How Destinations Are Promoted [+] Expansion Plus, Inc

« back to index

Social Media is Shaping How Destinations Are Promoted

01/26/2010

The travel market has been in the doldrums for the last year or so, but 2010 is looking much rosier. However, travelers are still looking for discounts and promotional pricing, say the experts at Travel Insights 100. The big change is WHERE they are looking.

“Social media (Twitter in particular) will continue to reshape how destinations are promoted and travel companies need to increase their participation in, and creative use of, social media.” Source: Travel Insights 100.

If that is the case, many hotels have their work cut out for them: a recent analysis of the top 50 hotel chains’ websites and social media activity shows that only 21percent are currently on Twitter and a scant 16 percent are engaging with their community. It is definitely time for travel and tourism companies to revamp their Travel PR strategy and include social media marketing in their plans. Having a well researched social media strategy will be the foundation of a successful program.

In fact, this could well be the make/break point in 2010. When those eager travel shoppers are online, your website and special deals need to be found. And since they are searching longer phrases like “find affordable hotel in Hawaii” as opposed to “hotel Hawaii” and turning to social sites like Twitter and Facebook to find the deals, you need a social media strategy that makes your content visible in all these places.

The best way to tap into this new trend is with news content, images and videos about your destination and then tweet links to that content. Syndicate the content so it appears in search engines and across the social web.

Interesting content syndicated with news feeds is a proven online travel PR strategy that gets results. Hotels and visitor bureaus have at their fingertips a wide array of content: write about your destination and all the interesting things one can do while in the area. Take a leaf of the Intercontinental Hotels book – they spent a large portion of their budget on producing a short video for each hotel that shows the surrounding area and place of interest.

There are a number of strategies that can raise your online visibility and seed your content into the social web: blogs, videos, feeds, social media press releases and a social media newsroom.

Almost half (49 percent) of travel organizations polled say they want to outsource this work to a travel PR agency with skills in search engine optimization, social media marketing and online PR. But these are hard to find so you will need to do your research and find a social media agency with experience and qualifications in the field. Make sure they provide a comprehensive social media strategy too.

Author Bio

Sally Falkow is President of Expansion Plus and a veteran of the PR industry and early adopter of digital media. She was recently named as one of the “25 Women Who Rock Social Media.” She was named PR Trainer of the Year for 2009 by PR News. She is accredited in PR by the Public Relations Society of America, a Senior Fellow of the Society for New Communication Research and the founder of Social Media Club in the Los Angeles area. Visit her blog for more information, http://www.proactivereport.com

Technorati Tags: Social media, social media strategy, travel companies, travel market, travel PR agency, travel PR strategy, social media marketing, social media press releases, social media newsroom, search engine optimization, online PR, social media