The Growing Opportunity for Online Travel Sites to Target Social Networks
Written by Emeka Ajene (contact - e-mail) -- March 23rd, 2009 | Share - Save - E-mailSocial networks have been quite successful in capturing the attention of consumers online. As the level of interaction consumers have with this group of sites continues to grow, the opportunity for travel marketers to leverage these sites to drive brand awareness grows as well. Moreover, social networks are becoming increasingly well-positioned to drive traffic to brands in the online travel industry. From February 2008 to February 2009, the number of total monthly visits to social networking sites jumped 60%; just over 2.5 billion visits were made to social networking sites in February 2009.
As the volume of visits to social networks grows, it is not surprising that many online travel sites are experiencing increased traffic coming from this segment. We find first that the share of referrals from social networks to hotel websites is growing rapidly (up 151% since February 2008). Indeed, a similar trend (with respect to social networks’ share of referrals) exists for many other segments within and outside of the online travel industry. The more interesting finding is that the conversion rate of the referrals from social networks to hotel websites exhibits a similar growth trend, growing 98% year over year. Taken together, these findings indicate that social networks are increasingly a source of in-market traffic for hoteliers.
To be sure, as the role of social networks as a traffic source for the online travel industry continues to rise, the opportunity for savvy marketers to tap into the potential of these sites to generate incremental business value also grows. Competitive digital intelligence is a great tool for travel marketers in this respect and can be used to analyze which social networks resonate with a particular brand and to assess the conversion performance of social network referrals at competing brands to discover unexploited opportunities. It can also be used to investigate brand shopper engagement with various social networking features to ascertain which features and functionalities would align with a brand’s own social media implementations.
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March 24th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
I’d like for some companies to understand the concept of social networking sites being used for social networking, as opposed to corporate self-promotion and/or as a sandbox to test out marketing strategies. You know, most of the people who are active on social networks have their own blogs and websites. Don’t try to sell your products on the social networks. Develop relations with people on the networks so that they, in turn, willingly and without any benefit, start talking about your products and the company.
May 19th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
hi, msj 545 wonderful blog 545 share
June 10th, 2009 at 2:47 am
To Ling
In a way I would agree with you that the “without benefit” concept is preferable, but here is the question From where the social networks will make their money then ? No advertisers no money it is like shooting in your leg!
The graph shows clearly that the referrals from social networks is still in its infancy. It is easy to grow 98% YoY from 2 to 5%
July 10th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Definately will not go to Vilamoura anymore, 6 Hour rounds of Golf and 4.5 Euros for a beer , we will stay clear of the Vilamoura golf courses this year, and the so called free shuttle bus turns up if you are lucky.
July 31st, 2009 at 7:08 am
Ya i totally agreed with you that social networking craze are increasing day by day. It is really helpful in increasing traffic. A lot of people engaged in that. I also like social networking.
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Yes Boris ! Very nice travel site!
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