WHITEPAPER
Social Media
& Travel CRM
Over TWO THIRDS of the 3.17 BILLION internet
users have ACTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILES
IT’S NOT OPTIONAL
Social media informs and guides almost every stage of the customer journey of a traveller. From
getting inspiration from friends’ holiday photos, through to tweeting whilst poolside, complaining
about delayed flights to reviewing on return, social media is there every step of the way.
It must be as convenient and easy as possible for you customers to speak to you, so rather than
making them contact you in through your existing channels you should speak to them through the
channels they are already using.
PRE
DURING
POST
TRAVEL
TRAVEL
TRAVEL
• Travel Inspiration
• Comment, post, upload
photos and videos
• Share photos / videos
• Recommendation by
friends and family
• Adverts on social media
• Research on
destinations and
companies through
reviews and social
media pages
• Buy direct from social
media pages
• Check-in at destinations
and events
• Connect with
new friends and
connections made
whilst away
• Give feedback - both
positive experiences and
complaints
• Post reviews
• Engage with community
of travellers for tips and
recommendations
• ‘Like’ place / brand
• Add to content library
and knowledge store of
place/ brand
• Complaints and
feedback
People’s lives are lived with one foot in the world of social media, with 72% of adult internet users
having a social media account (up to 93% of 16-24 year olds) and you as a travel company cannot
afford for your social media presence to be anything other than spot-on. It’s no longer a job for
the office junior, companies can thrive or flounder on a strength of a post. Moreover, your social
media needs to be in constant synchronisation with your other data-streams ensuring that every
interaction is logged, quantified, responded to and its outcome recorded.
SOCIAL MEDIA IS A GROWING TSUNAMI OF INFLUENCE AND YOU MUST LEARN TO RIDE THAT
WAVE, OR DROWN BENEATH IT.
PLACATING THE RAGE MONSTER – QUICK AND
GENEROUS CUSTOMER SERVICES
Angry people don’t like phonetrees. They are not known for their patience in waiting for email
replies. Social media has become the perfect medium for complaints. For the customer it has the
two-birds-one-stone advantage of giving immediate contact, and publically accusing your company
of failing to provide what they need and want. Your company is being tried in the court of public
opinion, and how generous and how quick you are at responding to negative feedback and pleas for
help, affects the way you are seen. If your Twitterfeed is littered with frustrated and exasperated
travellers, your sales will suffer.
70% of Twitter users expect a response from brands they reach out to, and 53% want a response
in less than an hour. That figure goes up to 72% when they are making a complaint. In 2014,
consumers complained about brands 879 million times on social media. Yet in 2015, 7 out of 8
messages went unanswered within 72 hours. A dissatisfied customer will tell between 9-15 people
about their experience. Around 13% of dissatisfied customers tell more than 20 people.
And it’s not just about a poor reputation putting off prospective customers but you can also lose
your existing customer-base, as a customer is 4 times more likely to defect to a competitor if the
problem is service related rather than price or product related. It pays to keep people loyal as a 2%
increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10%.
A 5%
REDUCTION in
72% of people
A customer is 4
the customer defection
COMPLAINING on
TIMES MORE LIKELY
rate can INCREASE
Twitter expect an
to DEFECT TO
PROFITS BY UP
answer WITHIN
TO 95%
AN HOUR
COMPETITOR if the
A DISSATISFIED CUSTOMER WILL TELL 9-15
PEOPLE about their experience
A
PROBLEM IS SERVICE
RELATED rather than
price or product related
Social listening and automation tools mean that there are no excuses for not responding
speedily, defusing potentially damaging situations and turning them into success stories. It is an
important thread to weave into your CRM, as customer services agents must be able to access
the customer’s details quickly to understand their issue, 84% of customers are frustrated when
a representative does not have immediate access to account information. By using Social Media
as an effective customer services tool, you really can win friends and influence people, as well as
getting EVERYONE TO STOP SHOUTING IN CAPITALS ALL OVER YOUR FEEDS.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
Integrate your social feeds into your CRM so that any feedback drops directly into Customer
Services Workflow, so you can instantly be alerted to the problem and begin working to resolve it.
NOT A ROBOT – CORPORATE VOICES THAT ARE FUN TO
CHAT WITH
Social media is a great equaliser. From multi-million dollar company to your Mum’s
labradoodle, everyone gets a profile. It’s an opportunity for your customers and prospective
customers to get to know you as a business, and it works best if you don’t respond as a
business but as a person.
If eyes are the window of the soul of a person, social media is that window for a brand.
Some feeds churn out promotional offers and corporate spiel. The most successful ones
display the voice and the values of a company, be that irreverent cheekiness or informed
expertise. A combination of inviting people in for a chat, and walking them round your shop,
it’s the public voice you will be judged on.
Successful corporate accounts have displayed humour and understanding, engaging
in conversations as one-to-one rather than one-to-many. Personal connections with
companies are a vital currency in brand loyalty, engendering both repeat bookings and
recommendations to friends.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
Think about who you are as company, and decide how you want to convey that on social
media. Decide on some perameters and build a communications plan to schedule your activity.
Reactions to customer messages should be individual, and spoken like a real person.
96%
of the people that discuss brands online DO NOT FOLLOW
THOSE BRANDS’ OWNED PROFILES. SOCIAL LISTENING tools have
become essential for being
PART OF THE CONNVERSATION
38% of organisations spent
91% of retail
more than 20% OF THEIR TOTAL
MORE social media
SOCIAL MEDIA channels in 2015,
brands use 2
channels
OR
ADVERTISING BUDGETS ON
up from 13% the year before
#WELLJEL – THE VITAL IMPORTANCE OF HOLIDAY
BRAGGING
Getting customers to engage and recommend their friends is a marketer’s dream. It’s personal,
direct, trusted, and doesn’t even seem like marketing. Every hashtag, selfie and check-in that
your customers post, validates your destination and offering.
Make your destination easy to brag about, be it tantalisingly styled food, or quirky details or even
directions for the best angles to capture a beautiful sunset. And good wifi. Let your customers
boast instantly of their pina coladas by the pool or their orangutan trek through the jungle. 3
out of 4 people access social media every day while travelling and 89% share photos and status
updates whilst on holiday, a figure that is likely to rise with increased worldwide internet access.
The AVERAGE
NUMBER
OF FRIENDS per profile
on Facebook is 338
3 OUT OF 4 people CHECK SOCIAL
MEDIA EVERY DAY whilst travelling and
of them share photos and
89%
status updates whilst
on holiday
Influence through personal recommendation and holiday envy is a growing force to be
reckoned with. The average Facebook user has 338 friends, the core of which will be of similar
demographics in terms of age, income and interests. If they have chosen to come on your
holiday, then likely their friends could too.
If your social accounts are well-promoted in your communications with your customers, or
incentivised engagement is used (‘Like Us to get 10% off an evening meal’ of ‘Tag us in your
selfie to win a day’s excursion) then you can generate a varied and authentic content library
that you can use in future marketing. Consumers today filter out promotional and marketing
content instantly, and can see through the dead-eyed smiles of stock photography. According
to research by Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family more
than all other forms of marketing. By getting real people to allow you to use their real content,
you bridge the gap between Company speaking to Customer, to create a dialogue of present
customers speaking to future ones.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
Through integrating with your CRM any leads or interest from referals that pop up through your
social media can be dropped straight into the Sales Pipeline, so that one of your team can follow
up the interest and ensure no prospect falls through the net.
POST SMARTER NOT HARDER
Customers aren’t the only ones filtering out obvious marketing messages. Social media
platforms are changing their algorithms so their users don’t feel bombarded by promotional
content.
Facebook is changing it’s Newsfeed to reflect this meaning that if you churn out lots of offers
Facebook will likely bury your posts, however is you post interesting, funny and inspiring content,
your shareability will increase, and posts will be boosted. You might also want to think about
paying to promote special messages. The precise targeting of Facebook ads mean that you can
ensure the right people see your message for tiny sums. Worth taking a look.
Endeavouring to maintain its importance to marketers despite scaling back Newsfeed exposure,
Facebook has a few more helpful services. Retargeting allows for messages to be sent to
specific groups defined by their interaction with your company (e.g. follow up emails sent only
to people that have visited your site in the past week), or a Timeline post to everyone who
had clicked on your Family Fun webpage for as little as 20p. Facebook continues to put into
great effects the ‘Custom Audiences’ and ‘Target Audiences’ options that allows you to either
advertise to leads on existing databases or people profiled by chosen criteria. Finally Facebook
have also introduced the Buy Now buttons, providing a much shorter customer journey for busy,
impatient or impulsive buyers.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
Create a detailed comms plan outlining the different content to be created and where and how
it is shared. Use your knowledge of your customer-base and the platform you wish to use to
optimise this plan.
CHILDREN OF THE EVOLUTION
Keep up or be left behind. With so many social media platforms, there is constant competition
between them to stay relevant and popular with both consumers and companies – no one
wants to be the MySpace of 2016! Each platform has recently rolled out innovations that keep
advertisers excited without diminishing the user-experience.
•
•
•
•
•
Facebook introduced 360 Ads for immersive experiences.
YouTube added 360 Ads for more impactful visuals.
Instagram rolled out its action-oriented ad format.
Pinterest announced the limited rollout of its Buyable Pins.
Twitter continued testing its Buy button.
As a travel company you should be looking into which of these are relevant to your demographics
and how to incorporate these new features into your comms plan.
Facebook’s new amendments to their timeline policies mean that companies need to increasingly
take into account the analytics and targeting that Facebook provides rather than just relying on
content to ensure their message gets shared.
MOBILES are now the
PRIMARY SCREENS
for most social media
users
Snapchat
users watch
billion
6
videos
EVERY DAY
Facebook now sees
billion
average daily
video views from
500 million users
As well as the new immersive format of the 360 videos and ads on Facebook and Twitter, channels
such as Snapchat, are beginning to be explored by travel destinations and companies, creating
dedicated Snapchat stories that give a prospective customer immersive snippets of what a trip
might include, Nashville, USA were the first to exploit this channel but other cities have since
followed their lead.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
Keep up to date with changes in social media policy and technology. Be innovative in your
content, videos and photos are essential in 2016 .
8
IS THIS THE RIGHT ROOM?
Pick your platform - Different groups prefer different spaces.
The younger demographics (16-24) are broadening their use of social media profiles use a broad
range of sites and are most likely to adopt new technology, holding multiple accounts: Twitter
(40%), WhatsApp (37%), YouTube (32%), Instagram (35%), Snapchat (26%), Tumblr (8%) and
Vine (4%). Video channels like Vine and Snapchat, and image sharing giant Instagram show the
inclination for creativity and humour in content that engages the younger audiences.
Yet despite the wildly touted demise of Facebook, it is still going strong, but its core market has
moved. The average age is going up, as the +55 market continues to grow on this network. If you
want to speak to wealthier, older people Facebook is a good place to start.
97% of all UK adults aged 16+ with a social media profile say they use Facebook, and close to half
(48%) of those with a profile say they have one only on Facebook. 60% of the UK population has a
Facebook account and it is used most on a daily basis across all adults, with 20% of adults saying
they use it more than 10 times a day.
People aged 55-64 ARE MORE
The global total of social
THAN TWICE AS LIKELY TO
ENGAGE with branded content than
media users have risen
those 28 or younger
the last year
60%
by
176 MILLION In
OF THE UK POPULATION HAS A FACEBOOK ACCOUNT and
20% OF adults
saying they use it MORE THAN 10 TIMES A DAY.
it is used on a daily basis across all adults, with
90%
of UK Instagram
17%
users are under 35
boards to curate
of Pinteresters create
INSPIRATION
HOLIDAY
Instagram has overtaken Twitter in terms of Monthly Active Users (global users 300m on
Instagram, and 280m on Twitter) and engagement. Instagram’s audience is young and majoritarily
female. 39% of its UK users are aged 16-24 and 64% of Instagram users are female (vs 56% of
Facebook users). 90% of UK Instagram users are under 35, with a high amount of these female
that are likely living in urban areas. Whilst this seemingly narrow demographic slice seems limiting
Instagram’s level of engaged users trumps Twitter’s.
Brands using Instagram are seeing higher levels of engagement than on Twitter. Focusing purely
on the top 25 most engaging brands, the average post engagement rate is 3.31% on Instagram
compared to 0.07% on Twitter.
Despite being overshadowed by Insta’s rising star, Twitter is still going fairly strong, with a pretty
even gender split of audience, and over 15 million active users in the UK and over 65% of these
users are under the age of 34. There are over 400 million tweets sent daily, and close to 75% of
users are following less than 50 twitter accounts.
88% OF ALL PINTEREST
USERS PURCHASED A
PRODUCT they pinned and a
further 49% have purchased 5
of more products they pinned
Study of the top 25 ‘most
engaging brands’ has shown
ENGAGEMENT
IS OVER 47 TIMES
that
GREATER
on Instagram
than on Twitter
Pinterest, traditionally a women’s space (68% vs 38%) has made large increases in its male audience in the
last couple of years and is a great place to curate holiday inspiration content. In fact 17% of Pinteresters
create boards specifically for this reason. Impressively 88% of all Pinterest users purchased a product they
pinned and a further 49% have purchased 5 of more products they pinned.
Through in-depth data analysis you should be able to identify the audience and demographic you wish to
communicate with and then be able to select the platform accordingly. Know who you want to speak to,
then work out where and how you should spread that message.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
Understand your customers through CRM data analysis and targeting to select the right
platform for your audience and message.
FACEBOOK
•
•
•
•
•
•
Facebook adds 500,000 new users every day; 6 NEW PROFILES EVERY SECOND
72% of all online adults visit Facebook at least once a month
The average number of friends is 338, and the median number of friends is 200
There are 40 MILLION ACTIVE SMALL BUSINESS PAGES
But only 2 million of those businesses pay for advertising
Facebook accounts for 62% of social logins made by consumers to sign into the apps and
websites of publishers and brands
INSTAGRAM
TWITTER
•
•
•
There are 500 MILLION TWEETS SENT EACH
DAY. That’s 6,000 Tweets every second
500 million people visit Twitter each month
without logging in
There is a total of 1.3 billion accounts, but ONLY
•
•
UPLOADED EACH DAY
•
320 MILLION ARE ACTIVE
•
•
Of those, 44% made an account and left before
ever sending a Tweet
The AVERAGE TWITTER USER HAS 208
•
But 391 million accounts have no followers at all
•
77% OF TWITTER USERS FEEL MORE
POSITIVE ABOUT A BRAND WHEN THEIR
TWEET HAS BEEN REPLIED TO
There are 400 million Monthly
Active Users on Instagram
Over 80 MILLION PHOTOS ARE
•
•
FOLLOWERS
•
There are 3.5 billion Instagram Likes
per day
More than 40 billion photos have
been shared so far
90 percent of Instagram users are
younger than 35
When INSTAGRAM INTRODUCED
VIDEOS, MORE THAN 5 MILLION
WERE SHARED IN 24 HOURS
•
Pizza is the most popular
Instagrammed food, behind sushi
and steak
YOUTUBE
•
300 HOURS of video are uploaded
to Youtube EVERY MINUTE
•
There are 3.25 billion hours of video
watched each month
•
MORE THAN HALF OF YOUTUBE
VIEWS COME FROM MOBILE
DEVICES
•
•
The average mobile viewing session
lasts more than 40 minutes
On average, there are
1,000,000,000 MOBILE VIDEO
VIEWS PER DAY
•
You can navigate YouTube in a total
of 76 different languages (covering
95% of the Internet population)
PINTEREST
•
•
•
•
•
•
176 million Pinterest accounts have been
registered
But only 100 million are active each month
42% OF ALL ONLINE WOMEN USE THE
PLATFORM
The BEST TIME TO PIN IS SATURDAY
FROM 8PM-11PM
In 2014, male audience grew 41% and their
average time spent on Pinterest tripled to
more than 75 minutes per visitor
66% of content that users Pin comes from
brand websites
HOW DO YOU RANK? – SOCIAL MEDIA AS AN SEO
SPRINGBOARD
It is widely contested as to the extent that social media is counted in the SEO calculations, but it is
undeniable that they play a part. Use your smart social to boost your company’s Google placement.
Here are some things to bear in mind (paraphrased from here)
1. Grow Your Number of Followers. Organically. No Bots allowed.
2. Encouraging External Inbound Links, through outputting great content. Backlinks boost up your
SEO.
3. Make it findable. - Optimizing Your Posts for Searches – basically have an anchor piece of
content like a video or infographic, then make a great Clickbaity title like ’10 most perfect beaches
to propose on that you’ve never heard of’ and wait for the sharing to commence.
4. Encourage people to share amongst themselves - Competitions, discounts, or just good
content. Likes, shares, favorites, replies, and retweets all count toward this increased authority.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
Increase follower numbers through nurtured leads and loyal customers. Get them excited about
your offering and encourage them to share your content.
PARTING TIPS
1.
Make sure you have someone responsible for social media.
2. Establish the persona you want to present in social media and make sure everyone knows what
that is. Be authentic, to your own voice and in the content you put out.
3. Decide on the best channels for your business, not all are relevant but ALL need monitoring.
4.
Integrate with your CRM system to capture opportunities and customer service issues and build a
workflow to manage them.
5. Hatch a plan to engage with your audience and make sure it is part of the overall marketing plan.
6. Create interesting content that can be used in all channels.
7.
Make it personal.
8. Make all of your CRM data available to your social person/team to make relevancy easier.
9. Use a consolidation software such as Hootsuite to make your life easier.
10. Have fun, it’s social after all!
SOURCES
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/social-media-and-seo/
http://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-trends/
https://www.brandwatch.com/2016/03/96-amazing-social-media-statistics-and-facts-for-2016/
https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/study/2304492/brands-expected-to-respond-within-an-houron-twitter-study
http://venturebeat.com/2014/12/12/social-media-we-complain-879-million-timesyear-and-facebookis-our-top-target/
http://sproutsocial.com/insights/sprout-social-index-2015/
http://www.warrenknight.co.uk/2016/01/04/the-demographics-of-social-media-users-in-2016/
https://econsultancy.com/blog/66824-key-social-media-statistics-from-ofcom-s-communicationsmarket-report/
http://www.rosemcgrory.co.uk/2016/01/04/social-media-statistics-2016/
http://www.statista.com/statistics/271349/facebook-users-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2015/07/13/instagram-reveals-it-has-14m-monthly-uk-active-usersbarclays-debuts-platform
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/11976299/Facebook-reveals-1.5bn-people-use-thesite-every-month.html
http://www.slideshare.net/globalwebindex/gwi-you-tube-infographic-2014-1
http://www.leadagency.com.au/the-value-of-your-existing-customers-preaching-to-the-converted/
http://www.slideshare.net/lacharismae/masters-thesis-new-york-university-mobile-digital-marketingfuture-of-hotels?next_slideshow=1
http://returnonbehavior.com/2010/10/50-facts-about-customer-experience-for-2011/
http://returnonbehavior.com/2010/10/50-facts-about-customer-experience-for-2011/
Mobius Poll 2002
http://returnonbehavior.com/2010/10/50-facts-about-customer-experience-for-2011/
Bain & Company
http://returnonbehavior.com/2010/10/50-facts-about-customer-experience-for-2011/
Strauss & Seidel
http://returnonbehavior.com/2010/10/50-facts-about-customer-experience-for-2011/
Leading on the Edge of Chaos, Emmet Murphy & Mark Murphy
https://econsultancy.com/blog/65939-20-instagram-stats-marketers-need-to-know/
Thank you.
To discuss this whitepaper or find out how we can help you
create an incredible social media and CRM strategy and please
contact us at the details below:
Paul Vennard
Rebecca Ross
Managing Director
Head of Marketing
T: 020 3744 6468
T: 020 3750 2347
M: 07711 624910
M: 07710 703203
E: [email protected]
E: [email protected]
www.findingfriday.co.uk
@FindingFridayUK