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Morris Sim, co-founder of Circos Brand Karma and speaker/mentor at Web in Travel 2010, shares with us his views on social media and how it is impacting the travel industry.
Brand Karma is the leading social media analytics tools for hotels which maps their brand perception and aligns the results with the company's goals and performance metrics. The company has been around since 2006 when three former Microsoft employees decided to leave and start their own company which would track social media and see how it impacts consumer perceptions in the travel industry.
Whilst working for Microsoft, they realized that social media was becoming an influencing factor for software usage and purchases. So if this was happening in the software industry, it was likely to spread to other industries as well. Their bet was on the travel industry!
Although today no one really doubts the importance of social media anymore, in 2006 the whole industry was still in its infancy, especially the travel industry. At the time, Myspace was still reigning supreme and Facebook was just starting to pick up.
In the last 12 months, however, Morris has noticed that the importance and recognition of social media has really accelerated. This time last year there was still a 'wait and see' attitude, partly also due to the worldwide economic recession. Companies, after all, were simply trying to stay alive. This year, however, the conversation is no longer about why social media is important, but what can we do to make social media part of our overall brand strategy.
In the travel industry, Brand Karma has found out that social media is relevant both for independent hotels and large chains across all regions. Of course different regions are adopting it for different reasons, nevertheless, everyone realizes that social media can greatly influence customer's opinions and views. And remember, really bad social media can really hurt your all-important bottom line!
But can it actually assist with directly contributing to the bottom line? Morris says yes. He mentions that some companies are running very successful social media advertising campaigns.
Some of the companies at the forefront are Pepsi, Old Spice, Levi's, Your Singapore and AirAsia. The hotel industry is slightly lagging. However, Morris assures us that there are some very interesting campaigns in the pipeline, which will be launched towards the end of the year, just in time for the holiday season.
Be forewarned though, before you start thinking about how to make money from social media, make sure you're not losing money. Firstly make sure you have a strong brand, ensure that you're not losing money with bad reviews that are turning prospects away, and only then look at how you can effectively use social media for communication, engagement and distribution.
The biggest shift today regarding social media lies within the new expectations of transparency and authenticity in terms of the way businesses operate with their customers and the information they convey to them.
Companies are quickly realizing that social media is a new form of marketing, which actually isn't that new after all. It's an ancient human behavior wrapped up within a new technology. We've been sharing stories and experiences for millennia, this new format just enables us to share much faster and across previously perceived boundaries. The format is instantaneous and effectively cuts out time and space constraints. We are now truly forming a global village. And this, in turn, is raising industry standards for everyone's keeping an eye on all the industry players all the time.
I sometimes have a perception that even on social media, people love to complain and write negative reviews – sometimes we just want to whine a little.
However, based on Brand Karma's research, people are more likely to share positive feedback than negative ones. We must remember that people who share a lot, do it because they want friends and family to enjoy the same experiences.
It's more of a recommendation model. This of course is not to say that there are no negative views out there. However, at the end of the day, successful brands will always have online brand evangelists that will rise up to defend their favorite brands. Just look at Apple! Ultimately, everything balances itself out – the good with the bad, the positive with the negative – and the truth eventually comes out.
I was also very curious to know if 'privacy' is out? Definitely not, affirmed Morris. The onus is on us. We have the option to keep things as private as we want them to be. Of course it requires a certain knowledge and understanding of the different channels that we're operating in so that we can better manage them.
As can be often seen, due to the availability of different features and functions it's easy to be careless about how we use them and obviously share just a tad too much. But the control and choice is ours.
Morris will be speaking at the WIT Conference, as well as playing mentor at the WITovation Entrepreneur Bootcamp.
