Social Media Expert Deirdre Breakenridge Provides Insight Into How The Travel Industry Uses Social Media
With this being Social Media Week, I thought it would be fun to interview a few experts on how the travel industry is leveraging tools such as Twitter, online user reviews, and of course, blogs!
One of those experts is Deirdre Breakenridge (@dbreakenridge), who is President of a new marketing agency in New Jersey called Mango!. She is also the author of four books including, Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences, The New PR Toolkit, and Cyber Branding. With this kind of background, I thought she’d be perfect for an interview. Hope you enjoy!
1. What are your favorite travel blogs and why?
As I began traveling more for business, I started to check out a few of the travel blogs, including Gadling, Peter Greenberg Worldwide and RatesToGo blog. The one that really kept my attention was Gadling. In my opinion, Gadling is one of the best travel blogs because it offers informational posts that are targeted to your destination. For example, before my recent trip to Boston, I was able to review posts that ranged from Boston on a Budget to the Boston’s Books and Brunch. I also find myself enjoying the 100-words or less tips on travel, hotels and packing, which are peer generated and offer useful information.
Additionally, I never really searched for travel blogs in years past, having relied exclusively on Expedia and Hotels.com for my travel needs and information. I find the ratings and reviews tremendously helpful on Hotels.com. I remember reading in Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff that the Forrester’s Technographics Profile tool shows that business travelers are very active in reviews and are considered more active as Critics than the average US citizen. According to the authors, business travelers are also above average in terms of being social media Creators (those who publish web pages and create blogs, audio/video).
2. How have user reviews changed the way people use travel sites?
I think user reviews can be very powerful. I’ll give you a personal example. I recently read about Kayak.com and asked a friend if it was better than Expedia. As soon as he said that he used the site (Kayak) and just had an okay experience stating it was, “not too bad but nothing to write home about,” I didn’t have the desire to research any further. The trusted peer is today’s relied upon source. This comes with the rise of the citizen journalist, the lack of trust of the brands that just throw messages at the market, and the shift from mainstream media to democratized content.
I also want to point out that it’s very important that a brand has ratings and reviews on its site and not everything has to be the highest positive rating. As long as the information is on topic and appropriate to the rating, then the brand should allow the comment, even if it’s less than stellar.If there are too many positive reviews, then it may look like the site is not sharing objective opinions from customers, and only sharing those opinions that may appear biased toward the brand.
3. If you were CEO of a company in the travel industry (hotel, airline, car rental), is there one specific social network you’d look to start a community in right away, or would you look to join several all at once?
This is an excellent question and actually applies to any CEO in any industry. You have to listen very closely to the conversation in the social landscape to understand where you need to be. I always point executives and their communications teams in the direction of the Conversation Prism. It’s important to understand that there is an entire universe of social networks with hundreds of platforms to choose from. For example, many brands rush to be on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, before ever knowing why they should be there, or if there is a reason for their participation.
4. How imperative is it to create incentives for consumers to visit corporate sites and Twitter handles? If not, how do you go entice people to keep coming back to hear your thoughts?
I think, even before incentives, we have to abide by the general rule of social communities and building social capital. You have to provide information that is valuable and void of spammy messages. The information can be aimed at helping people to make a decision, and/or providing them with great deals and promotions. I do believe we are an incentive or award driven society in the sense that we look for those great deals from our brands as a reward for being a loyal patron. We want to feel that we are a part of a community that offers something exclusive. I know friends, family and peers who have expressed that being a part of a Facebook fan page is worth their while, when they receive incentives that they might not have obtained if they weren’t participating in the social community.
This is also true for Twitter and active participation with the use of a Twitter handle. As people become comfortable with the brand on Twitter, or in any network, and they find interesting information that’s a lot easier and quicker to access, it makes them that more active with the company. After all, if you are finding out about the promotion long before the coupon arrives in the mail or prior to seeing the ad in the magazine, then you can take advantage of it sooner than your peers. I also believe that travel brands benefit from the one-on-one conversations and the help that they are giving their customers through Twitter. Great examples include Jet Blue and SouthWest Airlines.
5. Is it easier for travel companies to maintain a social media presence given their audience is both consumers and business professionals, or does that present greater challenges?
That’s an interesting question because in traditional marketing we look at B2B and B2C very differently. However, we have to remember that the social sphere is about transparency, humanness and being open with all stakeholders.Companies are figuring out how to talk to consumers and at the same time determine what type of participation exhibits thought leadership for their business partners. I’ve noticed that brands use different Twitter handles to address consumers vs. the information that they tweet for their business audiences. You can employ more than one handle to segment those you need to reach and offer appropriate information. This is similar to the way you can have different Facebook fan pages or a variety of groups on LinkedIn. If you listen first and then provide the communication that is needed by a particular group, then you will have the right people following your brand.
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