Impact Of Social Media On Tourism

Anderson, C. (2012). The impact of social media on lodging performance. Cornell Hospitality Reports, 12(15).

A large amount of information was collected from the articles and journals that were reviewed. All of the information that was looked at was in favor of using social media as a marketing strategy. It can be determined from the first article reviewed that while television advertising and e-mail marketing are effective means of marketing, social media is even more effective. This quote from the article “…consumers that have a greater motivation to find information, have a greater desire to socialize online and use the Internet are more likely to become part of the firm’s social media site” means that using social media puts the company in the perfect position to connect with consumers who are already there (Kumar, Ashish, et al, From Social to Sale). Another article reviewed shares the four most important aspects of social media marketing. The author lists them in order: organizational competence, customer engagement with social media, individual commitment, and organizational commitment (The Use of Social Media in Sales, Guesalaga). These four aspects are essential in having a successful social media marketing campaign. Organizational competence refers to the company’s knowledge, productivity, and expertise with social media (Guesalaga). Customer engagement refers to engaging the customer through methods such as commenting and messaging on forms of social media. Thirdly, there is individual commitment (Guesalaga).

Social media is not new. Facebook has been around since 2004, YouTube since 2005, and Twitter in 2006. What is new is how social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are affecting the way businesses market their products and services. Never before in our history have consumers been able to communicate so effortlessly with each other and with the businesses they frequent. Never before have businesses been able to interact and react to customer feedback so quickly and efficiently. However, just because businesses have the ability to use social media for their marketing and advertising efforts, does not necessarily mean they should. This paper intends to

Successful social media sites are effective for sharing information, for project collaboration, and for communication. One of the advantages of social media is that there is a direct interaction with their followers, from a marketing point of view, this is an ideal situation. Marketers have their target audience’s attention. All they need to do is to deliver their message. Whether one’s goal is to share information, develop a network community for feedback or for promoting a project or idea, social media can be a powerful

Through out the year, we have seen the development of social media evolving. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Instagram etc. are not to post personal photos from your vacation or parties with friend anymore but also a tool for your business. A vital tool that is, social media has became a powerful marketing tool if it is used correctly, it can guide the customers from their social media site to their actual business site where information is provided much more in detail.

Social media marketing is described by (Grant, 2010) “as a term that refers to using social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, and Digg, as well as blogs, forums and other online communities to reach online consumers.” Social media marketing has given companies a profound opportunity in reaching

The purpose of this report is to show that even though some state that Social Media has fallen short of their expectations, it is actually good for business, given that it enhances the visibility of their brand and helps businesses stay connected to potential customers.

According to Tourism Management, social media platforms have emerged as a dominant digital communication channel (Chappuis, Gaffey, & Parvizi, 2011). Music, Corporate Marketing, Religion, Sporting events, Human Growth & Development, and even Politicians have emerged through the utilization of Social Media. In a 2011 study, Facebook (64%), Twitter (26%), TripAdvisor (4%), YouTube (3%), and Fousquare (1%) are the most influential social media tools (Sparkloft Media,

The research I propose to undertake aims at examining how social media platforms are used by exhibition organizers to market and sell their events. Particularly, this dissertation compares the use of social media by exhibition organizers to market their event in China and the United Kingdom. I plan to answer various questions, which will guide this dissertation, some of them include; what social media strategies are best and effective to market event; how is the return on social media investment measured, what are the best ways to engage audience with social media while marketing of event; which tools are the most suitable for social media management, and how to create a social media strategy?

2), but instead the Web has become the world and everything and everyone can cast their “information shadow”. Web 2.0 has enabled people to collaborate and share information online, and has gained a massive popularity in doing so (Reactive 2007). Social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Wikipedia are some of the very popular Web 2.0 sites that are dependable on the engagement and activeness of the users to provide the content on these sites. O’reilly (2009) explains how Web 2.0, as a platform, “[builds] applications that literally get better the more people use them, harnessing network effects not only to acquire users, but also to learn from them and build on their contributions” (p. 1). Hence, one of the very important concepts within Web 2.0 is User Generated Content (UGC), which also has become the “pivotal role that individual consumers have in submitting, reviewing, and responding to the online content” (Cox et al, 2009, p. 744). In marketing terms, UGC has effectively become a form of consumer-to-consumer e-marketing, equivalent of electronic word-of-mouth marketing (Cox et al., 2009). Accommodation aggregators makes use of various Web 2.0 features such as mashups (e.g. using the combination of Google Maps with hotel locations), and user reviews and ratings of the hotels which are UGC.

Due to the fact that these two social networking services possess millions of people's profiles, demographics and personal interests, thousands of multinational companies have turned their focus on new social media strategy to reach their target online. The term 'social media’ has become the most recent area focused on by marketers, advertisers and public relations professionals in various business sectors and many experts have studied and tried to understand the benefits and functions of the term social media. According to Turner (2011), the Chief Content Officer of the 60 Second marketer reported that social media is about creating and having conversations among networks in online forums, blogs, and social networking sites. The key fundamental function is to use them as a medium for contacting, sharing and promoting data and contents. But when it comes to business, the main objective of operating social media is far beyond that.

Facebook is the most successful and popular form of social media. It was established in 2004 and has over 900 million active users; half of who use it on a mobile device. It also appears in 77 different languages. Because of its overwhelming popularity, Facebook is a widely used outlet for marketers worldwide. Facebook and social media as a whole play a large role in a company’s Integrated Marketing Communications strategy. Companies are incorporating social media into their marketing mix to reach more consumers on the Internet as well as on smart phones (Porterfield 2010). Facebook in particular is extremely successful for large well-known companies. Coca-Cola and McDonalds have millions of fans just on their Facebook pages. This proves

The marketer can communicate mostly information that they need customer know including their promotion, their event or their advertising by integrate these marketing activities through social media in many channels. Social media are divided into 3 types which are blogs, social network sites and content communities. (Smith, 2012) This essay focus on 3 top users of social networking site that are Facebook (900,000,000 visitors), Twitter (310,000,000 visitors) and LinkedIn (255,000,000 visitors) which have many visitors in one month. (Ebizmba, 2014) From statistics, Facebook is the most popular website which in June 2014 has about 829 million users a day. (Newsroom, 2014) Starbuck who has a big fan pages on

Using social media to market ones program is a growing marketing trend which often ends up in spectacular results. But repeating the same success level when it comes to ecotourism is a difficult task. Traditionally, sensations created by social media are often related to entertainment industry or really important events that can stir public interest. But when it comes to ecotourism, we are dealing with a sustainable business market that requires long term attachment, trust and other permanent factors playing roles which cannot be replaced by sensational aspects. We must use cognitive and emotional marketing strategy mix to create interest to our potential customers. But at the same

Social media campaigns provide an insight into the competitive market to improve the communication and the brand identity of an organisation (Keller, 2014). In the case of the tourism industry, social media like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter help firms to expand their brand reach by building a relationship with customers through an open conversation process (Ammerman, 2015). A social media campaign helps the tourism industry to achieve more customer satisfaction and loyalty. Considering the words of Ramaseshan and Stein (2014), it is essential for a social media campaign to select a suitable social media platform for engaging the customers with the right choice of messages. Therefore, a tactical plan for a social media campaign is going to be developed for Shropshire Hills Tourism, UK. The tactical plan attempts to create potential leads by developing a photography competition campaign on Facebook.