How Facebook Has Changed Our Travel Lives

Facebook’s tenth birthday has arrived! and we can’t help but notice how this social network has revolutionized tourism for industries such as airlines, travel agencies, journalists and the traveler itself. Its impact in travel life has been outstanding. Facebook can be thought of as a beneficial influence but some people perceive it as an aggressor whose threat cannot be stopped. This communication channel has been so effective that it resembles a type of Trip Advisor.

So, how is Facebook beneficial? People are all now connected to an immense enabler that helps us find out all about airlines, hotels and locations. Facebook lets us know about facilities, accessibility, if it’s price worthy, what it lacks or if it’s the most convenient airline to use for certain places and why. Experiences and assessments are directly shared from your friend list. Those people who you trust more than any official website have the power to change your perception of any airline or destination in a second through a simple Facebook comment.

Contacting travel agents, cruise lines and suppliers becomes easier as Facebook enables you to get inside information from their interaction with travelers. Facebook displays opinions, reactions and destinations. As the article says, Facebook has become a type of vision board for users. Users see where their friends are going and incites them to plan a trip in that location and ask them, specifically, for advice. This responses will determine a traveler’s choice.

In addition, one can be tempted to book a trip anywhere now, not just a nearby place since now anybody can surpass their fear of unfamiliarity as they can now find out how to travel long distances just by asking simple questions through Facebook without need of professional help. There is no longer price restrictions, need to know the person or need to reveal your identity either.  

So, is there any professional benefits? The professional benefits are as extense as the social ones. This is not just a website to interact with your friends but also a way to attract and understand your potential clients needs and wants. This can be great for the airline industry if they know how to use it in their favor as they can detect what they need to improve, what they lack or what they need to leave unchanged in the service they provide. They can also see what destinations they are missing in their airlines and which ones can give them great profit.

For a journalist, life becomes even easier.  Time saving research and access has allowed them to contact companies and individuals directly. They are now able to view traveler’s photos, read about their experiences and gather data to design and publish graphic and emotional insight knowledge.

Threat or benefit? Facebook is a catch 22, where it can waste your time it can also provide you with so much information and advice from strangers and close friends but either way, it has altered all lives. The article’s author gives an analogy with a point. Car’s speed and power don’t add to “men’s minds or the beauty of their souls. But automobiles have come, and all outward things will be different because of their arrival” just like Facebook. Its true impact in society and journalism is immeasurable.

An ordinary person can be advised of locations, a journalist can get firsthand stories and information and a travel agent or airline can understand how to market their work. It’s a simple tool but more than effective way of instant communication which has changed so much that it has become an essential piece of our lives already.

Even though some wish to quit the network, we have become a society addicted to people’s feedback and reactions which makes it impossible. Curiosity has become our way of interaction and it has changed us in such a way that we do not know how to act without Facebook. It’s not just a vice, but a way of life. It is a part of our daily behavior and mindset that has spread like a disease. The only thing left for us is to wait for the next epidemic. 

About writing the blog:

We decided to write out blog about this phenomenon because it applies to people of all ages, professions and nationalities as everybody has been affected somehow by this social website even though some may not notice its profound impact in our daily lives. We believe it is interesting to point out the effect on tourism of a simple technology. Most of us travel or plan to do so, and it is useful to know what is happening behind our travel experiences, what is shaping them. We use Facebook and we are sure you do so as well so we might as well understand its relevance to this aspect of our lives.

Karen Madriga

Tina Stojanovic

Sources:

Thomaselli, R. (2014, February 06). How Facebook has changed our travel lives. Retrieved from http://www.travelpulse.com/news/travel-technology/editors-corner-how-facebook-has-changed-our-travel-lives.html 

Graph Search: A new lease of life in the tourism industry?

You have probably heard of the new social search engine launched by Facebook, few days ago. It is called “Graph Search”. The article written by Philippe Fabry from Atout France and published on etourisme.info (January 16^th, 2013) describes this new tool. Besides, it also explains the different impacts it could have on the tourism industry. Please find the link below.

Facebook was looking for a new feature to reassure its investors. It appeared that its advertising model was not profitable enough. That is why on January 15th 2013, Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of Graph Search. For the moment, only a limited beta version is available on the English-speaking Facebook. 

How does it work?

It enables members to do a research on a subset of content, as on Google. It focuses on interests, place, people and pictures. The tool gives them a number of answers depending on their profile and friends’ network. To be clearer, here is an example. If a member searches for “my colleagues living in San Francisco” (Fabry P. (January 16^th, 2013) Facebook lance Graph Search, son moteur de recherché social, etourisme.info), he will see pictures of his colleagues who live there appear.

Moreover, when members would not find an answer in the internal website of Facebook, they will be redirected on Bing. It puts Facebook in direct competition with Google.

What could be the impacts on travel?

Regarding tourism, Facebook members will have the possibility to look for every aspect of trips of their friends and family: hotels, restaurants, attractions, specific destination, sports, special event and pictures of them. For example, they could search for “hotels that my friends went to in Paris” or “Tourist attractions in Spain visited by my friends” etc.

We know that recommendation from friends and relatives is a frequent motivation in the tourism industry. If you know that your brother went to this specific hotel in Miami and that his experience there was amazing, you will definitely book this hotel for your future trip in Miami. Recommendation from friends and family is stronger and more efficient than those from an unknown internet user that you can find on recommendations’ websites.

This article is interesting as it allows internet users to be more familiar with Facebook’s new tool. It seems to be a powerful research feature. “People use search engines to answer questions,” Zuckerberg says. “But we can answer a set of questions that no one else can really answer. All those other services are indexing primarily public information, and stuff in Facebook isn’t out there in the world — it’s stuff that people share.” (Levy S. (January 15^th, 2013) Facebook’s Bold, Compelling and Scary Engine of Discovery: The Inside Story of Graph Search, wired.com)

In addition, people will enjoy having advice from friends and family that they trust, without having to disturb them by email. It could also validate their choice of going to a particular place. For instance, you would like to invite your parents to a new restaurant but are not sure if the dishes are of good quality.  If you saw that your cousin posted a comment when she went to this restaurant 2 months ago saying “Wonderful time with family at this original restaurant – Loved the home-made lasagna!”, you will go there.

However, it is important to note that this information was already available on Facebook. This new search bar will only make research easier. Indeed, without this tool, how could you do to find who from your 400 friends has been to Thailand? It will take hours to find the right people.

Privacy is another issue that Facebook has to manage. In order to work, internet users have to trust Facebook. Otherwise, members will not put their private information such as photos or places they went to. If they think that this tool is reliable, they will enjoy putting information which may help their friends afterwards. Therefore, privacy parameters should be clearly defined and members have to know how to use them.

Would it revolutionize the tourism industry? It seems that Graph Search will have more impacts at regional level rather than internationally. Indeed, local attractions (restaurants, museums…) will probably be more impacted.

                                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD951tHz38g

                                                                     Coralie DEGUERVILLE, Alyssa KIEFFER, Lou MICHEL

Article from:  

http://www.etourisme.info/facebook-lance-graph-search-son-moteur-de-recherche-social
Other information:

http://www.wired.com/business/2013/01/the-inside-story-of-graph-search-facebooks-weapon-to-challenge-google/all/

http://www.travolution.co.uk/articles/2013/01/16/6347/facebook-graph-search-the-experts-view.html

Picture from:

http://protechgeek.com/introducing-graph-search-on-facebook/

The Facebook Send button in the travel industry

Mujteba Naqvi, the founder of US-based social travel startup Bonvoy wrote an article on “How the travel agencies can make the most of Facebook Send”.

Celebrating its most successful year, the Facebook Like button has been incorporated through more than 2.5 million websites. Although email is still the largest and most personal social network, the Facebook Send button might just shatter that gap.

Facebook gives us the ability to click a button which helps in sharing contents with whomever we want on Facebook.

Mujteba Naqvi believes that the Facebook Send button has to be also adopted in travel industry, which will help in sharing hotel and trip information. For instance the review sites such as TripAdvisor or Yelp can integrate it so users and their friends can exchange information whilst tapering the field of choices or activity and tour websites like Viator and Trafalgar need the button so friends can discuss what they should do while on their trip. Moreover flash sales sites like Jetsetter or LivingSocial integrate it so that a user can send their deals to a friend with whom they wish to go on a trip, as well as airline, hotel, and car companies should implement this so loyal customers share directly from their sites.

As an entrepreneur in the social travel industry Mujteba Naqvi finds it overwhelming that Facebook validates what they have already been doing at Bonvoy.

Bonvoy is supporting groups of friends on cooperation around any topic, while they have been assisting travel collaboration and planning for groups of friends within Facebook as an app. They are expecting Facebook to continue to integrate, thus giving users the opportunity to be selective with their social graph. “It will be exciting to see how travel sites use the Send button, I can envision friends kicking off trip planning or estimating costs”, says Mujteba Naqvi.

He considers that the mission of most travel websites is to make travelers’ experiences better and he anticipates that the Send button will help in this development and will enjoy scores of success.

It has been explained how Facebook's Send application can be used for the travel sector, it's use divers and useful, it is still not explained how it can be implemented into the events sector and how it will impact it?

For the time being is hard to actually predict how the Send button will affect and influence the events environment, but one thing seems very clear. Facebook will make itself known to that sector shortly. What do you think?

Social Media, Find your way!

Have you ever wondered which Social Media to use?
Have you ever felt lost in the middle of the different possibilities?

This guide created by CMO.com, offers the possibility to choose the right Social Media for your purpose. 10 different Social Media are reviewed in this guide. From Twitter to Reddit, you will find valuable information as to which best suits your goal. Whether you are looking for brand awareness or search engine optimization (SEO), the CMO social landscape table categorizes the Social Media as follows: good at doing it, OK or Bad. Hence, at a glance, you are able to know that Facebook and Twitter will help you with brand exposure and customer communication but will not only be of any help if what you are looking for is SEO.
You also learn that YouTube helps you "build links back to your site" and that "videos rank high". Digg, a news site, also indexes the stories quickly, therefore enhancing your SEO.

In our opinion, this table is a great tool for those launching themselves into the Social Media experience.
In a previous article, we had showed you soime of the best Social Media campaigns out there. Thanks to this table you will be able to organize your next campaign with more efficiency.

So print it out and share it with your co-workers, because Social Media is here to stay!

Facebook factor’ inspires 52% to book a holiday, reports Skyscanner.

How to find a new destination? What’s influenced our choices? This article written by Theodore Koumelis in traveldailynews.com shows the influence of Facebook, and social networks in general, in our travel choices’.

In communication and especially in advertising we know the importance of images. We also know that the most influenced pull factors are friends advices and friends experiences and especially in tourism sector. As Sam Baldwin said “A picture worth a thousand words”, this article illustrates perfectly this notion. Indeed, according to the author 52% of Facebook users admit that seeing fiends’ holidays picture had inspired them to book a holiday to the same place.

But why is it such a big deal? Why is it important to know that 52% of

Facebook users are influencing by their friends holiday’s pictures for their travel choices? Just because Facebook is know representing a community of more than 500 million people, it’s mean that around 260 million people choose their destination for holidays by being influenced by their friends holiday’s pictures. Its represent a fantastic target for DMC, DMO, hotels, clubs… Those organizations need to reinforce their presences on social networks and can use Facebook to be aware of the new travel trends and try to influence them. It’s a real opportunity to promote a destination, by seducing a few numbers of people to go to a destination, DMO’s know that will create a snow ball effect, and more people will go to that destination by viewing their friends holiday’s pictures.

Skyscanner survey also reveal that Facebook’s role in tourism sector do not limit itself in influencing people choices, but take more part in group travel organization. Indeed, according to that survey, 46% of Facebook users having either organised or been invited on a trip via the site.

Facebook is know a real tool of promotion for DMOs, to use with caution…

Image: http://www.traveldailynews.com/images/upload/Image/FACEBOOKx510.jpg

The Social Media Revolution

As part of generation Y, we love images. How could we not? We grew up with the television! Nowadays, our thirst for images can be sustained thanks to Internet and cable TV.

We embrace learning with videos, and that’s why we decided to browse Youtube in search of a fun video to share with you. We fell across this montage posted by Socialnomics 09 in association with the HULT International Business School! ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng )

This video montage will keep you on the edge of your seat, thanks to the music, and makes learning fun and exciting with its amusing facts! Did you know that social media overtook pornography as the number one activity on the web? Or that 96% of generation Y has joined a social network?

Indeed, they are amusing facts, but they also empower you with useful knowledge. Why spend millions on television advertising when the positive Return on Investment is lower than 18%?

This video tries to teach sceptics that the future will not be done without social media and that if you are running a business, then you can no longer avoid the obvious: You need to be on social media. This statement may sound evident to you, reader of this blog. But many companies are still not up-to-date. As part of a project we are analysing the internet visibility of the city of Cannes in France. They are nowhere to be seen on Facebook, Twitter and haven’t even posted a promotional video on Youtube!

Internet, smartphones, applications, and social media are growing fast, and if you haven’t caught the train, then this video may make you start running!

Karen Powell and Tiphaine Boucher