Wolfstar's presentation on Trip Advisor for the Mersey Partnership on social media. (advanced session)

1. A case study

2. Why is TripAdvisor important? TripAdvisor is a web2.0 guestbook It’s published online, for everyone to see Online platforms drive Word Of Mouth (WOM) People trust peer review sites like; Amazon, eBay and… TripAdvisor It gives you free market research on your competitors

3. History of the side TripAdvisor was set up in February 2000 It is a free travel guide and research website It utilises user generated content (UGC) The website is free to use, as it has an advertising business model TripAdvisor is part of Expedia, which also owns 14 other popular travel sites

4. Traffic and influence 45 million visitors a month 15 million members of the community 30 million reviews Over 500,000 hotel reviews The website has over 210,000 links to it Allows people to connect via Facebook It’s the 328th most visited website in the world

5. Using the TripAdvisor site

6. How people use the site

7. User generated content

8. How to submit content

9. How not to use TripAdvisor

10. How businesses can use the site TripAdvisor does not allow self-promotion TripAdvisoris consumer generated information so use the site to respond to reviews and offer explanations and apologies on bad reviews. Businesses need to be involved in the conversation because many consumers consult TripAdvisor before making travel decisions. An example of bad use of TripAdvisor would be to not use it at all...

11. How do businesses use the site?

12. How do businesses use the site?

13. Negative reviews

14. Positive reviews

15. How to amend information t--> t-->

16. How to utilise positive reviews If you’ve had a positive review, consider doing the following; Using a screenshot on your own website Responding to the comment on TripAdvisor using the ‘Compliment reviewer’ function Send the user a message and offer them complimentary services

17. How to encourage your guests to post reviews When using your business, it’s easy to encourage people to submit reviews to TripAdvisor using the following techniques; Produce an instruction booklet offering advice on how to submit a review Replace your guestbook with a laptop and have TripAdvisor permanently on screen If a guest suggests alterations, make them! People will feel more obliged to post reviews if they feel it will make a difference in the future!