Social media: trends and importance

Social media is really important these days, especially for the tourism industry. In a recent conference (Social Media Talk at World Travel Market in London), Debbie Hindle explained why social media is so important and according to her, the main reason is that it can foster an increase in sales, it creates word of mouth advertising which is priceless in today’s economy and it allows us to study consumer habits. However, social media is not really understood by every manager; many of them can’t grasp its importance. The usefulness and it's potential benefits are based primarily on understanding how to use social media properly. According to us, managers of every age should be up to date concerning the different IT trends because it’s crucial to remain competitive. The youngest generation of managers are making a big difference in the industry because they bring new ideas and concepts. Hindle then presents 6 major trends observed during the past year in the tourism industry

The first trend is the integration of social media and the end of the one-way speech. Social media should be a part of the global marketing and communication strategy and it should be used to create, add value and promote the interaction and commitment of the consumers. The amount of fans on social media is not necessarily a measure of success but interaction is and it’s a key point of social media.

Secondly, another major trend is the information, the socialization and the innovation. Several companies get their inspiration from their customers and social media is the highway for brainstorming between those two parts, because it’s ideal to find consumers information, ideas and advice. For example, Virgin organised a «social marathon» that reunited all the teams responsible for social media in the UK and they had to use Facebook and Twitter for 8 hours. Through this initiative, Virgin wanted to encourage the commitment of their fans by asking for their help to improve the business and to stimulate innovation. Other companies should implement this technique in order to share knowledge and obtain benefits from it. Innovation is possible by putting together many internal and external ideas.

  source: http://www.virgin.com/media-and-mobile/news/virgin-to-run-first-ever-social-marathon

The third idea is the social revolution of commerce. These days, e-commerce is present on social media and it’s a new way of distribution. Some companies in the tourism industry offer the option to reserve or purchase directly on social media. For example, it’s now possible to reserve a hotel room on the Facebook page of the Las Vegas Hilton.

  source: http://www.facebook.com/LasVegasHilton

The fourth trend is about the importance of social mobility. Indeed, most of the travelers used their smartphones during their last trip, mostly to stay in contact with their friends and family or to post some pictures on Facebook. The main issue is the roaming charges that are excessive with most of the mobile companies. We think that they should adapt their services to the market by considering consumers who travel around the world with their smartphones.

The fifth trend is about the emerging number of bloggers all around the network. Effectively, we can now find a blog about anything we can possibly imagine. Five types of bloggers are distinguishable: “le professionnel” who is a full time blogger, “l’autonome” who blogs on precise subjects as a journalist or consultant, “le passionné” who writes just for fun and to communicate his passions, “le pigiste” contributes to many different blogs. The last type of blogger is called “le collaborateur” and he writes neutral content for many different companies.

source: https://plus.google.com/

The last trend concerned the importance of social media for search engines organizations. Recently, Google proposed to a restricted number of users to incorporate their new social media platform: Google+. It shows that these days the social network is priceless and has undeniable power. In our opinion, it was mandatory for Google to follow social media such as Facebook or Twitter to remain competitive. The reputation of Google is well established and we think it won’t be long before Google + becomes the most popular social media platform. We have no doubt that social media is here to stay!

Keywords: social media, trend, blogger, IT, innovation.

Source: Racine, Amélie (2011, december 13th). Médias sociaux 2011: leur importance et quelques tendances (compte rendu de conférence): http://veilletourisme.ca/2011/12/13/medias-sociaux-2011-leur-importance-et-quelques-tendances-compte-rendu-de-conference/