Tourism Australia is today recognised as a thought and best practice leader in social media marketing. With a current Facebook fan following and engagement of just over 1.5 million, Tourism Australia shows the power of a dedicated and dynamic approach to social media and the potential of word (or world!) of mouth recommendations.
With a friendly, and approachable brand such as Australia, the potential to create buzz in both overseas and domestic markets is enormous, and benefits to the Australian economy and to individual tourism and associated operators huge.
Travellers today refer to a number of online and offline sources of information in the process of deciding what kind of experience they desire, and where exactly to spend their money. Typically, travellers refer to information sites such as regional tourism destination sites and tourism operators’ sites as well as authentic recommendations or review sites such as Google Places, Trip Advisor and IgoYouGo.
This trend of course applies also to other industries, most obviously the food and beverage sector with sites such as eatability, urban spoon and true local offering the consumer’s own verdict on the ‘real experience’ of a venue. Specialist bloggers offer more authentic reviews to a dedicated fan base.
In other words, a brand’s profile and the way the public perceives it and makes decisions about it is now very much in the hands of the purchasing consumer, as well as industry experts and the operators themselves.
What people are saying defines a brand to the degree that purchasers are listening; it’s vital to now harness and build on positive perceptions – it’s simply no longer a market where a ‘one way street’, product-oriented approach will work.
Around 70% of online users trust online recommendations of other users they don’t know; whilst 90% trust recommendations of users they do know. The old-school ‘over the backyard fence’ recommendation is still stronger, though obviously less far-reaching than its online counterpart.
Tourism Australia has introduced the concept of ‘trust rankings’, where the importance of a referred authentic, real endorsement will be relevant to the level of economic and emotional investment involved in the engagement and ultimate purchase; ie the higher the perceived investment the more trust is required.
How to gain consumers’ trust? Be transparent, open and honest. A belief in the quality of a product or service experience means being happy to share what others are saying about it.
Linking to Trip Advisor and other relevant review sites on a main brochure site shows confidence in a product, an open approach and ultimately creates a one-stop shop: if users can get tourist and operator information as well as authentic reviews without having to leave the site to search, so much the better for everyone.
Tourism Australia’s approach to its audience has been one of advocacy, of mutual support, empathy and listening to create positive referrals and generate buzz. Facebook has grown organically, with direct engagement, a positive vibe and encouragement to share and participate in the space key to its success.
Ongoing online events such as the ‘Share a photo Friday’ on Facebook and the successful ‘There’s Nothing like… Australia’ which saw nearly 29 000 consumers send in their own favourite Australian holiday snaps and stories. This is real, trustworthy information and endorsement. A nation-wide back fence!
This was not only a listening and sharing activity but an inspired drive for content; the result is a vast online library of videos, stories and images from its friends’ submissions, providing real, authentic content about the experience of the Australia brand.
The ‘new media’ version of the former Visiting Journalists Program is the Visiting Opinion Leaders Program (VOLP), where socially connected commentators, or bloggers and others in the role of journalists are identified and encouraged to visit to experience the product. Similar is the ‘Friends of Australia’ program where celebrities and various though leaders or industry identities are sought to share their stories, videos etc. Their interests and their common interests with others – be it in fashion, food, arts etc are defined as ‘passion points’ or ‘connectors’ and present a new perspective, density and potential audience to this amazing brand, Australia.
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