Social Media in Tourism Business
Petri HollménCEO, MBA
Lyyti [email protected] / 040 173 7777
Axxel 2.12.2010Parainen
Today:
Me
SoMe
Customers in SoMe
You / your tourism business in SoMe?
Oh behave! In SoMe
Discussion (hopefully…)
Speaker’s background?10 + years in tourism business (last position: CEO of
s/s Ukkopekka and Rymättylän Herrankukkaro)
MBA from Turku School of Economics
Personal interest in e-business since 2004
Personal blog www.perjantaikokki.fi since 2005
At most over 100 000 monthly readers
”Best food blog of the month – July 2009”
Entrepreneur, Lyyti Oy, (never published a single print add)
Facebook, blogs, email-marketing, viral etc…
3 kids and a beautifull wife
What’s in common?
Frying pan, Villa in Tuscany, B2B-software, backpacker in Australia
SoMe
= Company
= Client / prospepct
Traditional Media
= Message
”The thin line…”
€
LIFE IN SOCIAL MEDIA
Blogs
Pages Pics
Videos
= Company
= Client / prospepct
= Message
SO WHAT? WHAT’S NEW?
Local vs. Global (language restrictions, though…)
Real time – on line - everywhere
Size of the target group
Concept of authority?
It is SOCIAL -> it is communication, not just delivering A message or THE message
Extremely important for tourism! Why?Immaterial products (services)
Friend’s opinion affects buying a lot! (Today, who is your friend?)
After consumption, you’ve got a lot to share. (Cell phone vs. Cool trip to Koh Samui)
STORY!!
What do we do or did?Blogging (shaping the opinions, giving background
information. Making the intangible service more tangible)
FB fan pages (making the product your friend)
LinkedInn -> important for sales people. CHECK WITH WHOM ARE YOU DEALING WITH!
Viral marketing -> Spread the word -> make your friends speak for you!
BIG QUESTION:can you choose not to be in the social media?
Why is it so hard for traditional companies?
BECAUSE…
MarketingDepartment
SalesDepartment
Customer ServiceDepartment
R&D
CUSTOMERS
SOCIAL MEDIA
EXAMPLE # 1
CS in SoMe
EXAMPLE # 2
R&D in SoMe
EXAMPLE # 3
HELP!
EXAMPLES OF TOURISM RELATED SOME-SERVICES
Tripadvisor - www.tripadvisor.com
Tripit - www.tripit.com
Couchsurfing - www.couchsurfing.org
Pallontallaajat - www.pallontallaajat.net
WAYN - www.wayn.com
www.booking.com
www.vacationist.com
Etc. Etc…
So, my customers are there. What should I do and how to benefit?
1. Be real
Meaning?
SoMessa you’ll get caught if you play a role
Reality has to match with your SoMe-presence
If contrary -> your business is in trouble
On the other hand: truth, and even admitting the errors, is valued
2. Listen
Meaning?
As seen before, SoMe offers great medium to listen! To collect feedback, get R&D ideas etc.
By listening and wathcing, you learn the name of the game
You’ve got two ears and only one mouth. For a reason – also in SoMe…
3. Be available
Meaning?
Beeing there with ”[email protected]” –attitude is THE wrong way
24/7 presence is not needed – idea is to create, follow and participate
You have to be available in SoMe also for one to one-discussions
4. Dump the projects
Meaning?
”Hello! My name is Petri Hollmén and I just moved into the neighborhood. I’ve started now a 3-month project about communication and solialicing with you and after that I’ll evaluate the results and decide if I wish to continue…”
Not a great idea to earn long term relationships (i.e. ”fans”)
You are already in SoMe since your customers are. At he moment you activate there, you change the way you behave. You don’t start a project.
5. Be valuable
Meaning?
Give more than expected – create or deliver valued information
Don’t waste your keyboard to nonsense. Less is maybe more!
Help your customers with their problems. It always works!
Remember the power of a good story!
Compare:
INFORMATION and FACT
Lyyti is a web-based service, which was born to face the clients needs in organizing events, creating value to events and helping with communication.
Further information and feature list at: www.lyyti.fi
STORY
Lyyti was born, when in december 2006 I received over 2000 registration mails to my inbox in ONE DAY! I spent two weeks copy-pasteing info to an Excel sheet. It destroyed my nerves and a lot of money.
Then we created a service to do that. It really rocks!
Please, have a look!: www.lyyti.fi
6. Find, and you’ll be found
(participate)
Meaning?
If you are active in SoMe, then follow also others in your field
Participate with your name and profile. You are seen and found
If you concentrate only to your self, you are very lucky if somebody gets interested!
Don’t put your nose into everything. Be discrete. But you may also disagree.
7. Link your self
Meaning?
Link you channels together
Choose one channel where you want to be the best
Then link it technically to other forums and channels
If you are a blogger, connect it with LinkedInn, Facebook, Twitter etc. Then you reach much bigger audience
8. Start small
Meaning?
”John from the add agency hi! Shall we make the Pepsi campaign to your company as well?”
Not going to work! SoMe is a process of learning
Choose on channel and method and be good at it. You will, eventually, create ”the snow ball effect”
9. Forget the layout
Meaning?
Nice and beautifull layout mean (almost) nothing
Text is much more important (story, conversations etc.)
You do not have to be a professional writer (unless your customers are…). Just speak the same language as your target group
10. insource, don’t outsource
Meaning?
Would you let your add agency to handle your customer service, R&D and sales ?
Use pros to help you, but they can’t speak on your behalf or pretend to be you
SoMe is about communication. For you, it can be done only by you.
So… what’s in common?
LinkedinTwitterFacebook.com /petrihollmen
/perjantaikokki/lyytipalvelu
[email protected] 173 7777
KIITOS / TACK / THANK YOU!