"Consumers are increasingly putting a premium on authenticity and convenience"

Social Media Strategies Travel 2008 SpecialWith the "always on" evolution of media, the world is a much more transparent place today than it was five years ago, according to VibeAgent Inc.'s Co-founder & CEO Adam Healey.

Published: 21 Apr 2008

Social Media Strategies Travel 2008 Special

With the "always on" evolution of media, the world is a much more transparent place today than it was five years ago, according to VibeAgent Inc.'s Co-founder & CEO Adam Healey.

"Technology is rapidly changing the way consumers access, process, and act upon information. Consumers are increasingly putting a premium on authenticity and convenience. The wisdom of crowds approach to social media is increasingly trumping the command and control perspective of broadcast media. Today it's all about participation. Users want to be a part of the process. This means that companies need to join the conversation and engage their customers and potential customers in a more democratic and authentic fashion," said Healey, who was one of the speakers during Social Media Strategies Travel 2008 Conference in San Francisco last month.

In an interview with EyeforTravel.com's Ritesh Gupta, Healey spoke about loyalty in online travel business, how can UGC help you create a dialogue with your customers and much more.

Excerpts:

Ritesh Gupta: A travel executive told me "Loyalty" is such a buzzword these days in an era when it doesn't really exist in the online travel world. What's your viewpoint regarding the same?

Adam Healey: Of course loyalty exists. However, companies can't take brand or product loyalty for granted - the switching costs for consumers to change brands is practically zero. This puts a premium on products that engage and provide significant value to consumers as opposed to products that have massive marketing budgets behind them.

Start-up travel companies like VibeAgent can gain significant market share at the expense of big consumer brands by providing a more compelling product and continuing to deliver something customers want. This adds increasing efficiency to the marketplace and in the end consumers are the winners.

Ritesh Gupta: In your opinion, how can travel suppliers and intermediaries partner with social networking sites? Do you foresee integration of relevant content from top social networking sites to suppliers and intermediaries websites?

Adam Healey: VibeAgent is a perfect marketing partner for OTAs and hotel suppliers. We provide the social networking and review platform, and then drive very qualified leads to our partners' websites. So yes, travel suppliers and OTAs can partner with VibeAgent or sites like ours, and continue to focus on their core competencies, while VibeAgent is focused on social travel search, user-generated content, and social networking as our core competencies. Our partners only pay us for successful transactions, so it's a total win-win - our incentives are directly aligned with our transaction partners.

Ritesh Gupta: An OTA executive told me as long as you are willing to accept unfiltered points of view, you can create an honest and authentic dialogue with customers that can help provide valuable insights into how your business operates. How can UGC help you create a dialogue with your customers and provide you with a platform for communication?

Adam Healey: It's pretty simple. If you don't, you'll lose customers and business, because your competitors are. Embrace authenticity and transparency. Contain your need for "control".

Ritesh Gupta: When it comes to negative publicity emanating via UGC, then some say instead of being frightened by UGC, companies should be harnessing its power in order to learn by their mistakes, improve quality control and ensure that in the future their own house is in order. How critical is negative publicity when it surfaces on social networking sites? Do you see the same impact on the brand and travel service provider?

Adam Healey: Actually, the average review on VibeAgent gets a 4 out of 5 rating, and is very positive. It's just like the offline world. Respond quickly to negative feedback and act upon it to improve the underlying cause, and share your favorable reviews with as many people as possible.

Ritesh Gupta: How do you foresee the role of UGC and social networking sites shaping up in travel industry in the time to come?

Adam Healey: Social media is not a trend, it's a whole new way of understanding markets. Markets are conversations. It's imperative companies embrace this paradigm shift in how markets work. UGC and social networking will permanently sideline command and control marketing tactics and enable authenticity and transparency to prevail. Social media democratises consumer participation in the capitalist economy and makes them the most important stakeholder in the process.

(New event on Social Media Strategies:

EyeforTravel is scheduled to conduct its inaugural Social Media Strategies in Travel Europe conference, as part of Sales & Marketing in Travel Europe 2008. The two-day conference will be held in Berlin on 14 and 15 October.

For more information, click here http://events.eyefortravel.com/smeurope/ or contact Gina Baillie at +44 (0) 207 375 7197 or gina@eyefortravel.com).

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