Workshop for VisitWiltshire

1. +
Introduction to social
media
Dr Philip Alford
21st November 2013

2. +
About me …

Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University School of Tourism

Project lead on Digital Destinations project

Board member of VisitWiltshire

Chair of VisitWiltshire Online Marketing Group

Web design, social media, email marketing with
www.MapleCommunication.co.uk / www.TourismusTraining.at
Getting/keeping in touch

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/philipalford/

https://twitter.com/philipalford

palford@bournemouth.ac.uk

3. +
Agenda
 Introduction
 Marketing
plan
 Twitter
 Facebook
 Pinterest
– how to get insights into your
followers and fans to identify your customers
 Measurement
 How
to „listen‟ to social media

4. +
What is ‘social media’?
•
Facebook
•
Twitter
•
LinkedIn
•
Pinterest
•
Blog
•
User reviews
•
Social bookmarking
•
AddThis
•
Flickr
•
YouTube
•
RSS

5. +
Social media trends
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/468937379921463458/

6. +
Social Media Revolution Socialnomics 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXDUqx6_Wk&feature=player_embedded

7. +
Explosion of „big data‟!
> The Count

10. Social media is not magic

12. “Social Word of Mouth”
C
O
N
S
U
M
E
R
Awareness Consideration Conversion Advocacy
Advertising
Internet Search
Own or Partner’s Website
Email Marketing
Social Web/Interaction
BRAND
@KarlHavard
(Facilitates, Stimulates, May not be the “life & soul”)
C
O
N
S
U
M
E
R

13. Aw
y
ac
c
ess
en
ar
Suspect
st
er
Ad
vo
ca
e
re
te
m
to
nv
on
Cu
s
Co
rsi
@KarlHavard
ct
Influe
nc
er
spe
Pro
Ad
vo
An Engagement Framework
Int
e

14. +
Multi channel

16. + Key questions / steps
1.
Who are your customers and why do they buy from you? USPs?
2.
Is the answer to Q1 reflected in your sites?
3.
Develop rich content (StoryTelling) and integrate channels intelligently
4.
Distribute that content – Listen, Watch, Visit, Stay, Experience, Share
5.
Establish benchmarks for present marketing – if possible by customer, product area and
channel
6.
Build hypotheses for how you ‘expect’ customers to engage with your content in the
future and review this as regularly as possible
7.
Test the outcomes against what you expected and ask review – not just on your own!
8.
Think in terms of engagement and conversations and not just sales – remember the
‘customer journey’
9.
Support plan with good customer database, thinking about retention and referral and
not just acquisition
10.
Identify skills gap and explore ways to fill it

18. +
Introduction to Twitter
 230
million active users on Twitter 500 million
Tweets a day
 Fastest
 (An
growing age demographic is 55 - 64
increase in active users of 79%)
 Glossary
- https://business.twitter.com/glossary
 https://business.twitter.com/success-stories
 https://about.twitter.com/company

19. +

20. +
Terminology

21. +
Goals for Twitter

22. +
Drive traffic to website

Tweets that invite direct response – don‟t complicate the
tweet; don‟t include @mention

Have a landing page with engaging content

But have clear offer

23. Call to action?

24. +

Tweets that invite direct response

Direct response – don‟t complicate the tweet; don‟t include
@mention

Indirect lead – value for your audience which will involve sharing 3rd
party content; engage with audience – not broadcast

25. +
Uses of Twitter
 Great
for telling short stories...
 Building
buzz pre-launch
 Offering
updates and news
 Sharing
in conversations
 Voicing
your brand personality
 „Customer
service‟

26. +
Establish your profile

(https://business.twitter.com/perfect-your-profile

Edit your header or profile photo to reflect a new
theme/event/promotion

27. +
Build your base

It‟s quality over quantity when it comes to followers

Create a page on your website that lists your employees‟ Twitter
handles.

Add Follow buttons to your site so people can easily find you
(https://about.twitter.com/resources/buttons#follow)

Put your Twitter handle and any hashtags on your marketing
material, other sites and email signature

Put Twitter timeline on website https://twitter.com/settings/widgets

Be a good listener

28. +
Attract more followers

Interact with those people you follow who don‟t yet follow you
back. Make sure to monitor your Twitter stream and comment
on what other people are saying. Give feedback; compliment
people. The key is to engage.

Are there any Twitter chats in your area – e.g. #Dorsethour
(every Monday evening 7.30-8.30pm)

Promoted tweets (https://business.twitter.com/ad-products)

Add question marks – 17% increase in clickthrough; are you
looking for places to visit during your stay?

29. +
Types of Tweets to Get You Started:
1.
An Observation: Tweet about something happening around the office. Include
photos to bring those scenes to life.
2.
Events You‟re Attending: Share a link to the next conference or webinar you
are hosting or plan to attend, and why you‟re excited about it.
3.
Your Content: Post a link to your company‟s most recent blog article or an
offer you think is particularly helpful, with a headline or description to
encourage readers to click through.
4.
Someone Else‟s Content: Post a link to someone else„s blog article as a
helpful resource, with a compliment for their good work.
5.
Chat With Someone: Direct tweets to other Twitter users using an @ sign.
6.
Retweet great content: Quickly share other people‟s tweets with your
followers, like forwarding an email, by clicking the retweet button.

30. + Twitter paid advertising

31. +
Promoted tweets

32. +
Content plan - build engagement

What specialty knowledge do you have that you can share?

Curate content that your audience might find useful – use lists

Make use of events and activities in your area

Information about the wider destination experience

Use a # to promote a specific event

Create partnerships with local businesses that complement your
offering and use that for content on social media

Twitter is real time – e.g. bakery tweeting cookies as they come out
of the oven

33. +Use photos

34. +
Using the Twitter handle
To make your tweets as visible as possible, avoid putting
@USERNAME in the very beginning of your tweets. Adding the
@USERNAME to the very beginning will make your tweet
viewable only in the Twitter streams of people who follow you and
the user to whom you„re tweeting (see below examples).
Here is an example of how you would send a tweet to HubSpot:
Example: What‟s up @HubSpot? (viewable to everyone)
Not Recommended: @HubSpot What‟s up? (only viewable in
Twitter streams of users who follow you and also follow
@HubSpot)

35. + Twitter – detail

Respond to „mentions‟ and follow if appropriate

Ask and answer questions is a great way to get started

Keep tweets simple – if want someone to click a link just include the link

Instead of just retweeting copy tweet and paste into a tweet adding your
input and RT before you send

Post content which adds value to the community

Piggy back on local events

Use Favourites to store and curate tweets which your community might
find useful and interesting

36. +
How to get more clicks on Twitter?

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/468937379921535082/

Shorter tweets get better CTRs

Use bit.ly to create trackable links

37. +
- Etiquette on Twitter One Must




Be Interesting
Know One‟s Place
Use Hashtags & Tiny URLs


Be Genuine
Check Your Spelling
Offer your audience an incentive

Maintain a Consistent Tone


One Must Not
Cold Call (Digitally)

38. +

39. The customer journey

40. +
Objectives - example
 Main
aim: Build a larger social media database to
maintain on-going relationships and
communications.
 Objective
1: Increase Twitter followers for
@paultonspark and @peppapiguk by 5% (400 more
followers) 7th February 2013-14th February 2013
 Objective
2: Increase Paultons parks Klout score by 2
between 7th February 2013-14th February 2013
 Objective
3: Generate 500 tweets with the chosen # tag
between 7th February 2013-14th February 2013

41. +
Terms and conditions
 5x
family passes to be won to Paultons Park|
Home of Peppa Pig World.
 All
tweets with the hashtag #lovepeppa
@peppapiguk and @paultonspark will be
entered into the draw.
 Closing
date 12 midnight on 14/12/2013

42. +
Key performance indicators

43. +
Feedback on campaign
“To add 400 new followers in 7 days is a great result for
us. When celebrities have mentioned us before we have
had added around 100-200 new followers depending on
their following. Naturally Paultons Park generate
around 20-30 new followers per week”
(Rob Lee, Digital Marketing Manager, Paultons)

44. +
Insights from campaign
 campaign
length should be reduced to 3
days as Twitter is a direct response short
term channel.
 consider
the use of promoted
accounts, tweets and trends in future
campaigns
 For
a more interesting and creative
campaign in the future a video link could be
used

46. +
Getting started

Encourage your existing customers to like your page

Build your audience tab – email contacts but think about who you
want to engage with

Boost successful posts

Respond and interact – be social and interested!

“Posts like 'caption the image' or 'finish the sentence' usually
generate tons of engagement, and reach three times more than a
regular post.

Monitor engagement through Insights
https://www.facebook.com/facebookforbusiness/news/pageinsights

47. +
Case study

https://www.facebook.com/facebookforbusiness/success/samschowder-house

48. +
OBJECTIVES
 To
create more engaging content on
Facebook, increasing
awareness, interest, conversion and reach amongst
Bournemouth University students
 To
create more informative content on the website
relating to Bournemouth University students, driving
the traffic to conversion

49. +
TACTICS - Facebook
 Daily
plan of posts:
– News article
 Tuesday – Photo of the week
 Wednesday – Interesting Story
 Thursday – Blog of the week
 Friday – Weekend question
 Monday
 Increase
„tagging in‟ on posts to increase
virality of posts

50. +

51. MAGIC MOMENT
• Voluntary interaction on
Facebook by EDW staff
Helen Evans
posted very
positive &
useful
comment
Saw huge response
to number of views
(57 organic, 123
viral)

52. CHALLENGES - FACEBOOK
• Time
– Initial plan meant impact on ALL staff members time to
create content i.e. blogs, photo‟s, requesting comments from
students, monitoring, finding newsworthy articles
• Struggling to find five topics for five-day plan
– Not wanting to increase numbers to subscriber list just for
the sake of it (competitions aimed at students would get us
quantity but not quality?) as per Philip‟s Google Analytics
presentation – “think about quality of traffic, not just quantity”
– Monday – News article – time to research
– Tuesday – Photo of the week – difficult to maintain
– Wednesday – Interesting Story – too similar to Monday
– Thursday – Blog of the week – VERY time consuming
– Friday – Weekend question - worked

53. +

OUTCOME - Facebook
4th January – 5th February




8th May – 28th May




Total Likes - 126
People talking about this – 58
Weekly total reach - 108
Total Likes – 160
People talking about this - 10
Weekly total reach – 232
We are seeing more viral views to our posts

54. +
OUTCOME – Facebook - Website
• We paid to boost this post – yet during the
period of 8th –
29th May we
received just 6
referrals from
Facebook to our
website

55. +
OUTCOME – Facebook to Website
 Saw
an increase in traffic directed from Facebook
to Website during peak of campaign, despite
sustaining regular content now tailed off
to Feb – 13 referred from Facebook
 Feb to Mar – 28 referred from Facebook
 Mar to Apr – 51 referred from Facebook
 Apr to May – 15 referred from Facebook
 May to Jun - 8 referred from Facebook
 Jan

56. +
NEXT STEPS - Facebook
 Working
 Friday
out what works best
weekend question often gets a few
comments, and then receives a higher number
than usual views and viral views
 Blog drives traffic to website – how do we increase
this?
 Some posts very popular – why?
 Utilise Facebook Insights to see which posts are
most popular

57. +Digital Destinations Project:
Norburton Hall
www.norburtonhall.com
info@norburtonhall.com
facebook.com/NorburtonHall
twitter.com/norburtonhall

59. +
What did we achieve with Facebook?
 Increased
Facebook likes by 45%
 Grew
genuine „Likes‟ naturally rather than through
short-term incentives and fully adhered to FB rules
(i.e. no competitions).
 Offered discounts using email, Facebook and
Twitter encouraging people to engage on
Facebook.
www.norburtonhall.com
info@norburtonhall.com
facebook.com/NorburtonHall
twitter.com/norburtonhall

60. +
Facebook integration

http://www.hotel-seppl.com/en

http://www.facebook.com/Hotel.Seppl.Pitztal

http://www.facebook.com/myriviera

61. +
Case study – Hotel Terravina
Hotel Terravina were active in all elements of on-line
marketing, but felt that their approach was too „scatter
gun‟ and required much more focus. The main areas
of improvement were around social media and
customer engagement and relationship management
– the business made sure that all activity fed back to
the website and that there was consistency and
relevance about each of their messages: „social media
provides us with more brand presence and means that
people don't forget about us!‟

62. +
Hotel Terravina case study

A recent Sommelier blog post reached a staggering 10'000 people!

Generally we get between 25 and about 70 click throughs on tweets, which
over a month probably sees something like 700 additional website visits.

Using the website to promote special offers

Tweeting offers, adding them to the hotel’s FB page

Encouraging followers to re-tweet and like our pages.

We are more pro-active about social media (TV opportunities are followed
up and actioned)

http://www.slideshare.net/DigitalHub/hotel-terravina

63. +
Questions?
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/philipalford/
https://twitter.com/philipalford
palford@bournemouth.ac.uk