Facebook Influence

Photo / video exchanges, information sharing, meetings, professional network creation, community, feeling of belonging, etc.: so many reasons to be a part of social network. It is said that 90 % of consumers go to the Internet to know the point of view of others before buying; word of mouth seems to be the most efficient influencer in the consumer’s behaviour (http://www.marketlineinfo.com/). According to Facebook’s fundator himself: “Facebook is a part of millions of people’s lives all around the world providing unparalleled distribution potential for applications and the opportunity to build a business that is highly relevant to people’s lives.” (Facebook, 2011)

Facebook is a very powerful social network with 500 million users all over the world. Companies are aware of this phenomenon and should all take this tool into consideration in their communication strategy. Indeed, Facebook allows them to reach a large number of people, with low costs. We note that, although Facebook is free, we need to account for the time spent to create an efficient fan page and to interact with fans.

Destination Marketing Organizations are increasingly more visible on Facebook. They post their photos, inform about news and activities to be discovered in the city. The interaction with the fans helps the DMO to measure the perception of the destination, to argue and to be closer to the visitors and residents. Moreover, since social plug-ins launched in April 2010, an average of 10.000 new websites integrated with Facebook every day (Riegner, 2007). DMOs can also now save information about their consumer through various applications to improve their database.

If the DMOs, and all tourism suppliers in general, manage to follow at least the little tips below, their marketing strategy on Facebook can be very efficient and become only Web-Orientated.

The article 15 ways to enhance your Facebook Influence from http://www.socialbrite.org/ highlights several very interesting facts and tips that companies should be aware of when pursuing a Facebook communication strategy.

1. Visibility: This is the first aim of a company when joining a social media platform such as Facebook. Visibility leads to brand awareness and recognition which is of course the first step to turning a lead into a client. The article suggests that, although many platforms such as flickr allow you to link your posts through plug-ins so that they are visible on Facebook, this is not necessarily the best solution if you want to maximize your visibility as Facebook will prioritize content that was added via Facebook applications then that which is added on another application and then linked to.

2. Content: To help achieve visibility, companies need to provide content. However, too much content is just as inefficient as not enough. Companies should make sure to provide content that is necessary, make profile updates as well as upload videos and music as needed only and rely on comments and “likes” for the rest.
   
   
3. Interaction: This is necessary to engage consumers and gage the interest of potential or repeat clients as well as enhance your visibility on Facebook by appearing on News Feeds. Don’t just post things about you, ask for other’s opinions and get discussions going. If the company starts to really interest and get consumers to participate, they gain in popularity and visibility through the news feeds of those participating and their friends.

Recently, a new application was created to help companies organize contests on their Facebook pages. Be careful as Facebook will ban any company organizing a contest on Facebook without their own application.

4. Build a database: A new application allows for companies to put in a “request to be kept informed”. This allows for companies to collect precious information on their followers as they subscribe for information.