Social Media Strategies Travel 2008 SpecialThere are several opportunities for Travel 2.0 within social networking sites, such as engaging travelers with various entertainment or tactical travel tools, according to Diane Clarkson, Travel Analyst, JupiterResearch.

Published: 08 Apr 2008

Social Media Strategies Travel 2008 Special

There are several opportunities for Travel 2.0 within social networking sites, such as engaging travelers with various entertainment or tactical travel tools, according to Diane Clarkson, Travel Analyst, JupiterResearch.

Citing examples of the same, Clarkson says it has been seen on Facebook, for example, with applications like TripAdvisor's "Local Picks" and STA's "My Travel Checklist".

Commenting on how Travel 2.0 is headed in the next year or so, Clarkson, a speaker during EyeforTravel's Social Media Strategies Travel 2008 Conference held last month in San Francisco, said, "At this point, however, the long-term business case for travel and social networking has not been established. It has not yet been demonstrated that major social networks will generate incremental sales and the ability to develop targeted advertising is in its early stages. That said, I do believe that we will see some creative experimenting, particularly with niche markets or activity-based travel."

New technology delivery of content is empowering and critical, but should be tied back to the business objectives that one wants to achieve.

On how Travel 2.0 companies or sites go about utilising features such as videos, blogs etc and set specific, measurable goals related to business metrics, and then track them regularly and measure the ROI, Clarkson told EyeforTravel.com's Ritesh Gupta that travel companies must be very clear in their objectives before they proceed with adding features such as videos, blogs or other UGC.

"These features can be useful tactics towards objectives such as branding, promotion, search engine optimisation, building content or soliciting market intelligence. In each case, it is crucial for measurement to be aligned with goals. Overall, we are seeing social marketers challenged by campaign measurement, largely stemming from the misalignment of goals and measurement metrics. Specifically, social marketers frequently run campaigns to increase brand awareness yet use direct-response metrics such as clicks or sales rather than brand survey metrics or a professional buzz monitoring service," she said.

It is being acknowledged that social networking in its truest form is for the 15 -25 age demographic. Positioning a site with social networking as a key component can alienate the more mainstream audience.

On this, she said, "It is true that social networking is most popular among younger users: 43% of online users between 18 – 24 years use social networks. That does not mean that social networks are the exclusive domain of this segment: 35% of online users between 24 – 34 years and 21% of users between 35 – 44 years belong to a social network."

She added, "Social networks are also relatively new and we can expect to see them expand more broadly into professional networks as well. I believe that social networking can co-exist within a broadly targeted website if it is done mindfully. That said, it does not mean that social networking is appropriate for all travel websites. Social marketers are very excited about social networking, but that excitement is not a starter's pistol. Marketers must identify the strategic objectives, determine the most appropriate budget allocation, implement solidly and to target, and have clear metrics in place to assess success."