How to beat bloggers at their own game

Travel industry executives can use Social Media such as Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon and YouTube to build business and communicate with customers.

That was the underlying theme of a seminar hosted, last week, by Pata-Thailand Chapter and Tourism Technology Association (TTA) for 80 travel business partners, mostly executives and marketing and e-commerce directors from tour companies and hotels.

Speakers included Syndacast founder, Wolfgang Jaegel, Admax Network Thailand managing director, Tiwa York, and Media Plus managing director, Nathida Ratthanawut.

During the seminar, Mr Jaegel pointed out that branded content was the key to success in Social Marketing. Users demand solid content. In terms of success, the automotive industry tops the list for tapping social media followed closely by travel, particularly when travellers are critical and share experiences.

“You have to look at your marketing channel and adjust it based on the user’s demographics. If there is a bad comment by some high profile blogger, you must try to change that blogger’s perception because it will impact on your brand,” he said.

He recommended offering a free room night, meal, or anything that would dilute the blogger’s criticism and change his perception. Some of his comments would have raised serious opposition from bloggers, who believe they are making critical observations based on facts and not perception.

Unfortunately, speakers failed to look at the other side of the social media coin.

The recommendation to “bribe” the blogger with goodies to soften the criticism is a standard travel industry response used to soften print media comment. It is viewed as very tacky and unethical in a community that wants to generate real dynamic comment.

There is also a tendency in travel to concentrate on changing perception rather reviewing product deficiencies that were highlighted by bloggers.

Hotels flood Youtube with video clips of their facilities that rarely gain views and waste the time of those who use the service, while using Facebook or Twitter for outright advertising is a considered unacceptable by users of social media.

Singapore Tourism Board exploits Social Media to promote its Singapore Medical Campaign through Twitter, Ning, Facebook, .Docstoc, and blog.com. This way, the NTO can identify their target and narrow their marketing scope. Instead of promoting to millions they focus on a niche. But it will face criticism, too, if it goes over a certain line of what is considered appropriate activity.

Another speaker, Mr York added: “The travel industry is already a leader in online marketing, but social media is a new tool, less than two years old. Last May, there were only 280,000 Facebook users in Thailand, but I estimate there are now 1.6 million. There are 316 million Facebook users worldwide.”

In theory, the speakers noted social media marketers can become interactive with their customers, know their needs and wants, then adjust their products to suit customer’s demands.

“You can’t approach new media with old thinking,” Mr Jaegel says.

However, none of the speakers addressed the issue of how marketing executives could avoid manipulating social media through planted advertising copy, recommendations and reviews that were written under false identities.