“It is easy to get caught up in and overwhelmed with social media”

IN-DEPTH: Handling social media communications

There are several factors which have stopped or delayed travel suppliers’ plans to tap into their own database to make full use of social media marketing. 

According to Isaac Gerstenzang, corporate director of e-Commerce, Destination Hotels & Resorts, the main considerations are lack of time as well as concern about ROI and reputation management.  

“I believe the holdup is partly due to (these) three reasons,” said Gerstenzang.

He added, “Lack of time – I think people can easily feel overwhelmed with social media and are not sure how to best allocate their time and how to follow and engage in the community.  Additionally with staffing and budgets becoming smaller, if the ROI is not immediately prevalent then the time and resources may not be allocated.  Finally, online reputation management is critical and guests are already talking about us online, but how we engage with them or start conversations is critical to ensure the brand message stays positive.” 

In an interview with EyeforTravel.com’s Ritesh Gupta, Gerstenzang spoke about social media marketing. Excerpts: 

Social media marketing is only effective when it’s aligned with the business strategy. What do you think is the key to reap maximum benefits from such initiatives?

It is crucial to align both your Social Media strategy with your overall business strategy to ensure you stay true to your brand.  Your Social Media programme should be developed like you would develop any other marketing initiative or media plan.  When you create a print ad, you make sure it represents your brand and conveys the message and identity you want to reflect.  This is just as important if not more so with Social Media opportunities.

Whether you are creating a Facebook page, posting a blog or responding to a review, the tone in your message needs to reflect that of your brand.   Social Media is great for brand awareness and building. I also believe to reap maximum benefits of Social Media you need to balance social media communications with both push marketing elements to drive traffic to your website as well as relevant information on your market area.   

How should a travel company approach their overall spend/ presence on independent social networking sites?

I feel it is easy to get caught up in and be overwhelmed with social media and all of the new websites and online communities that come along.  You have to start with only one or two sites and build your community from there.

You must decide which sites you engage on just you like decide the rest of your media buy like print or radio:  Does the site make sense for your brand/product, what are the demographics and what is the message I am trying to communicate?  

Social Media may not be a large dollar investment, but it is a time commitment and can a have a large impact on your online reputation.

How do you think the metrics for measuring efficacy of social media campaigns is settling down in the industry?

I think it can be difficult to measure the immediate success of Social Media. However, the metrics that should be reviewed and measured should be Reputation Management scores, website bookings, traffic to your website and finally the level of engagement by your customers.

It is said that if you are interested in building trust amongst your customers or increasing the amount of time that viewers spend on your site, it is worth adding UGC. But is there much point including user generated content on your site if you are not monetising it in some way? 

Yes, it may not have instant monetisation effects, but it helps to engage your brand with your consumers allowing you to build a community and trust with your guests.  It also gives them a reason to come back to your site and remember you.

What is the right combination of trip-planning tools, user-generated content and blogs? Do you need to provide all of them to achieve maximum results? How can one align this with the goal of the site?  

The important thing is not how many of these tools you implement, but how effective the tools are that you do implement. That is why it is critical that a social media strategy is created and is aligned with your overall business strategy.  The social media tools that are implemented should match your brand message and once you start to create the community you must stay engaged.   

Read more:

Is your brand genuinely making the most of social media?

“It is the role of the suppliers to learn and engage”

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Can openness result in consumers defending your brand in the blogosphere? –