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This article by Douglas Quinby published on May 20, 2009 in Travel Pulse interested me a lot. I've been blogging for almost exactly 3 years - don''t forget to check out my 3rd anniversary blog on June 6th! I've only recently got interested in Facebook and Twitter. Both seem good sites for promoting Chanters Lodge - our accommodation and food - and to keep in touch with what's happening in the world of hotels, and amongst friends and family. Here's Douglas's piece.
"You may have noticed recently that we’re in the midst of what seems to be a social media mania. You can’t pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV news without reading or hearing something about Twitter, Facebook or similar social media. Manias make me nervous. They can serve as hotbeds of collective creativity and innovation, but also generate a lot of misinformation and misdirection.
There’s no doubt that a lot of travel buying has moved online. At PhoCusWright, we project online leisure and unmanaged business travel will represent 38 percent of the total travel market in 2009. For their part, travel agents have gone through a lot of change as a result. But they haven’t disappeared (as some predicted) – far from it, in fact. Our research also shows that well over two-thirds of the tour and cruise markets were sold through travel agents in 2008 – that’s more than $20 billion in gross sales, not too shabby for a distribution channel that wasn’t supposed to be here today.
So let’s leave the mania at the door and see what’s really going on in the realm of social media. What exactly is it? Is it relevant to your business? And if so, how should you begin leveraging it?
First, this isn’t your grandma’s Internet anymore. Social media is more than just a collection of social networks or new technologies. It’s really about a fundamental shift in how people are using the Internet. I think of the old Web -- or “Web 1.0” -- as the simple migration of conventional media and commerce models to the new Internet channel. Webmasters publish content just like newspaper and magazine publishers. Retailers sell their products online, just as they do in their stores. And “surfers” (remember that term?) would seek information on search engines and consume content.
Enter Web 2.0, or what I prefer to call the “Social Web.” The emphasis here shifts from selling, searching and consuming products to connecting with others and exchanging content. “Surfers” and “consumers” have become generators, collaborators and commentators. There’s no better example of how the Web has changed than to look at how the ranks of the 10 most visited Web sites has shifted from 2004 to 2009. While several big names remain the same -- Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, Amazon, eBay -- there are some very big differences.
So who’s out in 2009? Search engines, portals and content publishers like Ask Jeeves, Terra Lycos, About and Monster. Who’s new in 2009? Social networks (MySpace, Facebook), video sharing (YouTube) and Wikipedia, the collaborative online encyclopedia.
What does this have to do with your travel agency? Well, you know as well as I do (probably much better) that travel is social. Travelers love to share their experiences – good and bad – with friends, family, their travel agents and even strangers. Seventy-eight percent of U.S. travelers say travel creates experiences that they inherently enjoy discussing. Some social media, such as traveler reviews and photos, has become hugely influential. But the direct impact of social networks is not clear. Only 22 percent of U.S. travelers indicate that social networks are influential in the travel planning process.
That said, the potential is huge, and at PhoCusWright we expect that 22 percent to increase significantly in the years to come. Growth in online social networks over the past few years has been astronomical and shows few signs of slowing. And it’s not just teenagers and college kids anymore. More than a third of U.S. adults now have a profile on an online social network (up from just 8 percent in 2005). The number of people age 35 and up on Facebook has exploded over the last 18 months, from just a few hundred thousand in October 2007 to nearly 10 million as of February 2009.
So while there is definitely some mania around social media today, this data makes clear that there is some substance to this story as well. Adults are increasingly using social networks to connect with friends, family and people with common interests. So if you think social networks aren’t for you, or that your clients don’t use them and that email works just fine, please re-read that previous paragraph and think back to the early 1990s when email was the hot new thing for college kids and computer geeks. How important is email to your business today?
The best travel agents today are not just travel experts, but also masters of relationship marketing. Social networks represent a powerful opportunity for travel agents to engage their clients and leverage the network effect. Social networks also have the potential to level the playing field, enabling travel agents to engage in the conversations taking place online, leverage their expertise, and take on companies with bigger marketing budgets.
Just make sure you get started. It’s still a brand new medium. The rules are being written – and rewritten – now. Even if your clients are not there today, it’s likely they will be soon. Now is your opportunity to choose to be ahead – or behind – the seemingly inevitable curve of social media. My Mom turned 70 not too long ago and recently “friended” me on Facebook. Go Mom!
There you are - I was turned off Facebook some time back when I came across a comment from one of my offspring to another which said "can you imagine, Dad's on Facebook". Well, yes, so I am!
More: http://www.hsengine.com/s_ask+jeeves+search+engine.html
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