What do you think, will more than 700 Mio. people world-wide be induced to use Facebook? In the first place, I would like to keep the answer of this on hold. Rather, in this blog I would like to deal with it whether and how can the Tourism sector be benefited from social media platforms such as Facebook respectively.

The dimension of Facebook and whereupon is the advantage at all

Lets keep in mind: 20 Mio. persons (Status Beginning of 2011) only in Germany are already active with Facebook. In other words, almost every 4th German maintains his/her social contacts through this medium and is thus accessible for advertising and eCommerce. Even if the younger generation first approach Facebook (the main focus is subjected to users below 30 years), however, above 81% of the German Facebook users are of working age.

Since the German tourism sector is highly dependent on international market, obviously we must take this into our consideration. Every year we receive more than 27 Mio. holidaymakers in Germany. Now if we know that other countries are much more active in Facebook than we Germans, also it is evident that major part of our foreign guests have a Facebook account and thus also use Facebook for planning the vacation or the business trip.

Right at the beginning we would like to pose the basic question: Will it be at all significant for travel companies to deal with Facebook?

My answer to this question would be clearly “Yes”, because Facebook is the undoubtedly most frequently visited social platform world-wide and the number of new accesses has not reduced. Thus, the users in Germany alone have doubled than last year 2010. Even the “Conversion Rate” for travel offers in Facebook could be increased significantly by 8% in the first few months in 2011. Although Facebook as tourist decision medium is currently still in the early stage (only 5% use Facebook as decision aid), this number will increase promptly in the coming months, because Facebook itself has laid foundation stone for “Facebook Apps” by making its system open to accessible interfaces. According to the motto: “What does iPhone get must Facebook also get.”, Facebook may become a central market place in the internet universe.

But the decision alone to be active on Facebook and with it to activate customer retention and to generate sales volume is not sufficient. The travel company must act in structural way as well as clearly define aims and responsibilities. While implementing the Facebook-project, one must be prepared for it that the user may not directly open the fan page euphorically after first two posts and would book after opening it. Here persistence, an authentic communication and sure instinct is questioned. If correctly launched, Facebook may quickly become a sales-oriented important part.

Facebook Fan page – The lobby of my virtual hotel

Regardless of whether it refers to individual hotel, hotel group, tourist region or travel agent in case of travel company, all have one thing common: The provide products that are interesting for the fan communication on Facebook and would like to consume.

Tourist products additionally have key benefit: Tourism is highly influenced emotionally, multi-layered and active, stronger than any other sector, exclusively on recommendation (42% decide on the basis of serious recommendations). This may lead to the fact that the active participation in tourist topics is considerably higher than other product categories.. Travel companies thus have to simply develop fan community and to link them to your products.

An additional aspect plays a serious role: Facebook is a touristic independent platform and does not pursue own financial aims like the tourist evaluation portals. Also articles and postings of fans on Facebook turn out to be significantly authentic than in classical evaluation portals. The reason for this is obvious: The fan must have a Facebook account to be able to write articles. This makes it traceable which in turn leads  to authentication of his subscriptions.

Moreover, it should be noted that the conversion rate on Facebook by now 8% is significantly more than 5% of the evaluation portals, which possibly should also be explained by the negative critics of the last few months.

Now to come to the fan page itself: A fan page can be registered by travel companies free of cost. The setup is quite simple. Using simple “Read & Click”, the account is one-time set. At the same time, particular attention is to be paid to the “Privacy Settings”. Specialized agencies eagerly support while setting the fan page.

The travel companies must make fans aware of their products before entering into open dialog with (potential) guest/customer. This is achieved via the classical path by placing the fan page address on all on and offline mediums. In principle, the fan page address should also be displayed wherever there is an internet address of a company.

Social Management – The way to the fan

All this of course assumes that you wish to run a Facebook fan page professionally. For this, following rules must be observed:

• Provide general contents connected with your touristic products to your fan community regularly. Always make sure that these are formulated in brief, concise and not so formal manner.
• Always communicate authentically and gently with your fans.
• Create media-compatible environment. Do not put graphical material and links to videos, podcasts etc. that are in connection with your products aside.
• Respond to the questions of your fans within 24h.
• Regularly set incentives in form of discussions or similar
• Create open surveys with the help of tools in Facebook, which help you to evaluate your product in the market better.
• Take criticism of your fans seriously and with this improve your product. Communicate improvements actively.

Once this step is done and the fans have reached the fan page, you shall immediately observe the enthusiasm with which the fans communicate with you. Since this spreads like a virus (viral marketing), quickly further curious fans may stop by, because “collective decisions” are also frequently taken on Facebook. This will be the case, if the fan questions his own decision and calls his close friend circle in the form of consultants. Following the motto “What do you think about the offer?”, he then finds in his decision. The benefit: Also the consultants can become fan in a short time.

Social eCommerce – Bookings from satisfied customers

The most difficult step is already if the fan is connected to the product for the first time. Now it means to persuade him for the Social eCommerce and to generate sales. Optimally, this happens obviously in one click directly on the fan page. For this a navigation point “Online Reservation” should be created in the fan page. Now only the booking system is missing.

The market for professional, tourist booking systems that can be integrated in Facebook uniformly and easily, is at present still manageable. While selecting the correct booking system, however, you should look for the system that supports the Cross-Media-Mix and can be used as central system for all online-based sales channels. Modern systems such as the tourist eCommerce System “TourismusSuite”  (http://www.tourismussuite.com) exactly support these Media-Mix and provide the own Website, mobile end devices as well as the Facebook Fan page with only one central Content and booking system.

Only one system, which handles the Cross-Media-Mix, can ensure that the customer is always supplied with identical contents and information irrespective of particular sales channel. Here is an example: The guest books through your booking system newly integrated in Facebook. Exceptional circumstances prompts him to cancel or modify the booking on the way using his Smart-Phone. After entering the reservation number, the mobile booking system informs the guest, that the reservation could not be found in the system. What has happened?

Most travel companies use systems of different suppliers. Each supplier for himself develops the process of the booking management correctly in own system. However, information exchange among themselves does not exist, with the result that the guest can modify his reservation only in the system in which he has booked. In today’s increasingly mobile age where cloud computing has almost become standard, you might have one annoyed customer, who may also express his displeasure on your fan page. A problem that could have been avoided with TourismusSuite.

If you have reached here and have started operating the online-booking system, you have already achieved a lot. Now your fans would obviously like to be entertained and persuaded. You must operate Social-Management permanently to maintain interest your fans. Say thanks to your fans from time to time for the faithfulness, in which you offer e.g. special offers or small discounts and promos. Actions that can be incidentally processed ideally using  special “Promotion Codes” via the TourismusSuite.

If everything is correctly made, your fans will thank you with faithfulness, a lively fan page and naturally bookings.

Conclusion

Nowadays, Facebook should be already classified as serious sales platform in the travel sector. Travel companies can optimize their products with professionally operated fan pages, bind customers and generate sales. Moreover, the prognosis show that Facebook will expand further and will take a higher position in the corporate communication sector. A key concept as well as the correct system are the key factors for a successful Facebook Project. If a company has once taken the decision to use Facebook as Marketing and Sales channel and thus would like to be successful for longer time, upcoming innovations must be continuously provided to secure long-term competitive advantages.

Finally to our initial question: What induces approx. 700 Mio. people world-wide to use Facebook? The answer is quite simple. With Facebook, one can simply socialize and maintain contacts unbound with time and place. In particular, hesitant people welcome the option to contact with another persons a bit anonymously and with this to increase their self-confidence. And what is naturally applicable for all: I want to belong to it!