Hello,
I've been asked to speak at quite a big tourism conference in March and the theme of it is around social media marketing - Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. etc.
This is definitely the fashion in marketing circles at the moment and, admittedly, there are big success stories. The best one I can think of in tourism in South Africa is "The Battle of Kruger". And, I do believe that some review websites such as TripAdvisor need a lot of attention (both for marketing and to improve your product).
But how much value do you actually get back from social media efforts? What return do you get on your facebook group update and tweets? How many people follow you and how many of them ever go on to spend more cash with you because of it? From my experience many of the most useful social media marketing has happened when it wasn't planned or contrived by the person trying to 'sell'. In fact it was started by someone else and happened by accident. The Battle of Kruger is a good example.
If you have found that your new LinkedIN profile or facebook 'likes' have not turned around your businesses, is it because you are doing it wrong or because, fundamentally, the opportunity for your business to marketing in this way is quite limited?
I am increasingly sceptical about the return on many of the social media outlets. There are only so many people I can follow on Twitter and get through their tweets whilst still having a life. If someone tweets something dull, I will now unfollow them. So have you got enough stuff that's genuinely interesting to say. I'm not sure I do. I would love to know your thoughts on this. Has it worked for you? If so, what worked? Are you going to keep it going / try something else?
I'd love any anecdotal comments or quotes that I could use to 'sensationalise' my presentation because I'd like to disagree with some of the other presenters there!
Thanks
Rob