Dan Caplin, Managing Director of Click with Technology presented "Social Media..What Next?" at Travel Technology Europe 2010. Here's a summary of what he discussed.

It’s been a big year for social media across the globe. I think it’s safe to say that anyone reading this now interacts and participates online whether editing your profile on Facebook, networking with peers on LinkedIn, writing a review on Amazon or maybe you’re even tweeting!

The power of social media was clearly demonstrated by the race to the Whitehouse. Barack Obama has embraced new media with a YouTube channel, Facebook fan page and the Whitehouse website now features a blog, RSS and email newsletters.

The arrival of the first “Internet President” is an exciting new development.

• Barack Obama has 5 million “friends” on more than 15 social networking sites
• Nearly 2,000 official YouTube videos, watched more than 80 million times,
• 8.5 million monthly visitors to MyBarackObama.com

Closer to home, Susan Boyle appeared on talent show “Britain’s Got Talent” and became an overnight sensation. The video of her audition was posted on Facebook and 120+ million YouTube views later…

• Her album was recently recognised as the fastest selling UK debut album of all time.
• In the US it outsold the rest of the top 5 albums combined!

Proof that members of the public play an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, and analysing news and information; when Janis Krums from Florida post the first photo of a plane landing on the Hudson River on Twitter from his iPhone…

Thirty minutes he appeared live on MSNBC as the main witness.

Why does the travel industry need Social Media?

Travel is about the experience and sharing that experience with others. By opening up avenues of communication through social media, a travel company stands a much better chance of enhancing the traveler’s experience and their own brand integrity.

If you don’t have a strategy, its likely your competitors have, or are planning to. In a recent e-consultancy report, 65% of companies use Facebook as part of their marketing strategy, while Twitter marketing has jumped from just 3% of companies last year to 49% this year.

Twitter alone registered more than 7 million unique visitors in the US for the month.

On Facebook there are more than 350 million active users, 50% of which log on to Facebook in any given day. There are more than 2.5 billion photos uploaded to the site each month and the average user spends 55 minutes on Facebook everyday.

Social media is truly a global platform, as it opens quick and regular communication channels between customers and businesses. Social Media can drive greater brand engagement and increase repeat visitors, which eventually become buyers and brand evangelists. [Source: Econsultancy / Guava UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report, April 2009]

What innovative ways are people integrating social media?

1) Email Marketing

Although not thought of traditionally as a social media platform, Email marketing is beginning to engage with social media, by providing links to Twitter and Facebook profiles and by developing programs that incentivize recipients to make referrals to friends.
There are also a number of trends email marketers at StrongMail have suggested for 2010.

• Dynamic content. This ranges from personalization on an individual user basis to broader geotargeting.
• Concise, impactful layouts. When it comes to email marketing, looks matter. Keeping email layouts simple so that the message is readily apparent to recipients.
• Time sensitive promotions. When recipients are given a call to action that requires urgent action, better results can be expected.
• Clear, visual call-to-actions. Again, looks matter. Images should be used strategically, particularly with a call-to-action, to boost clickthrough rates.
• Social media integration. According to StrongMail, email marketers are adopting social media. How they do it ranges from providing in-email links to Twitter and Facebook accounts to developing programs that incentivize recipients to make a referral to a friend.

[Source: http://econsultancy.com/blog/5237-design-timing-and-social-media-key-to-email-marketers-in-2010-report]

1) Customer Review Platform

Hayes & Jarvis were the first tour operator to provide customers with reviews from TripAdvisor. [Source: http://www.bazaarvoice.com/resources/stats]

Over the four months since launch, the visitors who read the reviews converted at twice the rate of those that did not.

Although there has been some reticence on behalf of travel sites to accept review platforms, due to the lack of control and possibility of negative reviews 81% of people still use consumer reviews before their purchase decisions and this cannot be ignored.

Despite the lack of control a review platform can offer, the impact that a neutral or negative review can have can also have a positive effect on brand integrity. Besides… reviews can be moderated and followed up with an appropriate response that essential improves your brand equity.

2) A Blog

A travel company blog should really be no brainer. It’s an easy way to regularly engage and communicate with your customers about existing or new products and services.
A blog will also allow for greater transparency and more personal discussion.
76% of corporate blog owners said web traffic and media attention increased because of them blogging, [Russell Research/Cymfony/Porter Novelli, July 2006]

• 42% said at least one post on their blog has affected the company or brand (mainly in a positive way).
• 37% blog at least once or multiple times per day

Wordpress is a popular blooging platform which will allow any user with an account, to add quickly; content, posts, pages and widgets to your site. Users who follow your blog can respond to posts with their own insights and comments, which you can then choose to post.
A Wordpress CMS can be themed with your travel website using your graphics and brand identity. Staff, freelance copywriters and travellers can be set up with their own remote accounts, which can be moderated by an admin.

3) Twitter

Twitter is a great example of a microblogging platform that has captured the public’s imagination. Micro-blogging is now the most widely adopted social media tactic.

For 2010 it will be good idea to interact both personal and corporate twitter accounts. There will be more optimisation and greater management of twitter accounts using tools such as tweetdeck, and twitterhawk.

There has been a question over Twitters real marketing value? In short yes, it’s a cheap (free) way of promoting your products and offers. You can receive feedback from the consumer, place job adverts, create contacts, use it for event updates, find potential business and provide live coverage.

Gary Vaynerchuk a prolific wine blogger found:

• $15,000 in Direct Mail = 200 New customers,
• $7,500 Billboard = 300 New customers,
• $0 twitter = 1,800 new customers

[Source http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypmfs3z8esI&feature=player_embedded]

4) User Generated Content

In a recent econsultancy report 65% of companies use Facebook as part of their marketing strategy. [Source: Econsultancy / Guava UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report, April 2009]

Social media sites, Facebook Myspace, Bebo, Linkedin can provide effective communication channels without requiring massive incremental staff support.

For 2010 there will be of a focuss on brand presence and integrity, creating trustworthy social media profiles that engage with the consumer.

When building social media profiles you should not be overtly corporate, and some good guidelines are:

• Transparent: Be careful when disclosing personal information, maintain client confidentiality and obtain permission before publication.
• Substantive: Liaise with experts to provide sound information.
• Constructive: Simply pushing products appears cynical and lacks depth; you should try and engage your customer base.
• Appropriate: Employees should adhere to corporate codes of conduct and be respectful and positive when engaging with the brand across social media platforms.
• Thought-out: Exercise judgment when developing friends and connections.

As more businesses integrate social networking sites into their digital marketing media strategy, companies are increasingly focusing on measurement techniques to better understand the ROI from social media.

5) Viral Marketing & Widgets

One of the most hotly talked about areas of Social Media are viral campaigns.
All viral campaigns share common elements, entertainment, humour, the unusal, or interesting.
Viral Campaigns often come out of the leftfield, so it is important to be non-corporate and keep your mentions of your brand down to a minimum.

Widgets are a low-cost distribution strategy: they offer their tools and services in a form that enables users to embed those tools and services into their own websites.
Some fantastic travel widgets are:

• Weather widgets
• Currency widget
• Travel Distance calculator

Or you can go to Yahoo Widgets and build our own.

So there are just some examples of the technology and platforms available within social media, but remember social media is not just about 18-24 years olds on Facebook,
in fact, the fastest growing users of social media are now baby boomers. it actually appears that Gen Y may be suffering from a bout of social media fatigue. [Source http://www.micropersuasion.com/2009/03/social-networking-demographics.html]

Latest reports are suggesting that boomers are:

• Reading more blogs and listening to more podcasts. Usage grew to 28% from 18% last year.
• Watching and posting more videos online. 36% of boomers are now doing this, up from 26% last year.
• Using social networks at a greater clip. 28% are now on them; only 18% were on them in 2008.

Social media offers a cost effective marketing solution for any travel company, no matter who your target audience is.