The blog writing industry has never been so
flourishing: more than 3 million blogs are nowadays created per month in the
world. In 2013, 56% of Internet-users in the world first went on a blog before
consulting a formal website and 34% of French people trusted a travel blog more than other traditional tourism websites. Blogs and bloggers are now everywhere
and most of them are specialised (gastronomy, fitness, travel, fashion, dance,
music etc.) and in consequence they reach a particular public that can interest
commercial brands or firms.
Gathering numerous people around their passion
and stories and being web-experts, they use a new and particular story-telling
way: more authentic, they use “I”, a personalised tone and different tools for
expressing their personality and stories (words, pictures, videos, testimonies
etc.). In their story-telling, they publish articles before, during and after
the journey or the event on different channels (multi-channel strategy):
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and their blog. But we should
bear in mind their difference with journalists - who face conflicts of
interests for example and who should remain as objective as possible. Indeed,
bloggers benefit from their freedom. They interact a lot with their readers,
have real relationships and dialogues with them, according to Marie-Julie Gagnon
(writer, columnist and blogger).
According to a study ran by Marmara, most of
bloggers spend more than 10 hours a week on their blog, 1 out of 5 spends more
than 30 hours on it and more than 50% of respondents do not consider themselves as
professional bloggers. Amateur or professional, young or older, at work or not,
because of their huge and confident audience, the travel-bloggers are more and
more needed and contacted by firms and brands to promote them on Internet and
social media.
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| Source: Marmara, http://veilletourisme.ca/2015/11/23/comment-travailler-avec-les-blogueurs |
The tourism industry starts being deeply
interested by these bloggers as this sector is strongly linked to the Web. ITB
fair in Berlin has organised for 2 years “speed-datings” to make bloggers and
tourism professionals meet. Last September, the first “Travel Bloggers Fair” was
held in Cannes. In a world where information is omnipresent, it is difficult to
find some around; bloggers offer a new alternative than peers’ opinion. They
are trust-worthy, have a large public of readers and their words count. As they
are considered as ambassadors and opinion leaders, they obviously represent strategic
allies for firms to extend their reputation or positioning. Indeed, they know
how to create buzz, one easily follows them on social networks, one can simply interact
with them and they make their followers loyal. In consequence, blogs become
more and more a part of marketing strategies. They represent a great tool to
understand trends of customers, their expectations and needs; it is also useful
for improving the SEO of a place (hotel, restaurant, club, bar) as the search
engine will take the place more into consideration.
Examples of brands using bloggers:
·
Voyages-sncf.com
caught this wave and based its strategy on social media and blogs: from
September 2014 to March 2015, 6 female bloggers visited 6 French cities in order
to find good tips, the must-sees, must-dos and activities in partnership with
My Little Paris, a website broadcasting trendy tips in Paris.
· In
2013, Radisson Blu ran a first blog campaign, #MyMauritius, and gathered 13
bloggers during a week. This resulted into 54 published articles, 964 published
pictures on Internet and reached 800 000 fans on Facebook.
Different financing possibilities can be proposed
on these blogs:
- Ads on the blogs, pay per click or according to the website traffic
- Sponsored articles promoting a product
- Affiliated links to commercial websites
- Special actions or partnerships when the bloggers collaborate with the brand to create content
According
to Abbi Agency, 70% of bloggers received a remuneration for an article. For
example, Alexandre – CEO - who launched a blog in New York to supplement his
pay, finally earned €200 000 in 2013. “For a blog, to be influent, it
needs 1 000 unique visitors per day”.
Examples of the different uses of a blog:
It is one of the most famous travel blogs; its motto
is “Tips and advices on how you can travel better, cheaper and smarter”. For example,
some articles are entitled “The ultimate guide to travelling when you have no
money”, “How to find a cheap flight”, “How to buy good travel insurance”, “Why
travel makes you awesome”. We have the feeling that the blogger talks to us
individually; he moves us with his own words, he is close to us, understands
our concerns and uses an informal tone with regular jokes. He talks about his
experience, feelings, adventures, and meetings, what he liked in such city or
on such trip and shares some must-dos and tips with his readers. For instance,
in his article about Melbourne, he strongly recommends taking a jacket during
the moonlight movies sessions in the Royal Botanic Gardens and points out that
food and drinks are allowed.
« The joys of event management» is a
popular French blog about the life of a junior event planner and about news in
the industry. Through this blog, Gwendoline shares her passion and what she
constantly learns, discovers about event planning. In one of her latest
articles, she talked about her experience organizing a show for an amateur
singer association. She explained that this project had taught her how to
control herself and become mature. She encouraged her readers to live a similar
experience with a lot of challenges, as it is how you learn the most and you
feel the most satisfied about the final result.
By Camille COURTIAL-SPIROUX & Manon GATTEGNO
Sources
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