The cruise industry has been encouraged to follow in the footsteps of airlines when it comes to social media and focus efforts on a small amount of platforms.
Dean Harvey, of digital media company Designate, encouraged cruise lines and agents to stick to the social media platforms they feel most comfortable with – “pick it, stay with it and do it will,” he proclaimed to an audience of delegates at World Travel Market.
He said airlines such as KLM, Air France, Emirates and Lufthansa were particularly strong on Facebook, with Royal Caribbean International being the only cruise line to make the top ten travel brands in terms of followers.
On Twitter the top 10 is again primarily made up with airlines, Harvey explained, with KLM again taking the top spot for the number of followers, with American Airlines, Delta, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic rounding off the top five.
“Airlines got on social media very quickly, whereas the cruise industry seemed to stand back and wanted to wait to see what would happen. You’re (the cruise industry)making good headway though,” he insisted.
During the session, which discussed the success of the cruise sector in the social media world, Harvey said emerging trends on social media included video blogging, and cited the recent success of the Thorne Travel video which went viral last month. The panel said video content would help to increase engagement, improve SEO on websites and accelerate sharing.
He used research from marketers and consumers to highlight what customers want from social media.
He said: “55% of marketeers believe that brands presence on social media is adding value and making social media richer, and 76% believe that increasing investment in content marketing through social media with keep customers engaged. But 64% of consumers say they are likely to stop using social media if they are bombarded with advertising.”
Harvey encouraged cruise lines to prepare a content calendar which can be used to plan social media activity to maximise amplification.
He urged delegates to use the Hero, Hub and Hygiene strategy which involves picking your key content, producing regular and relevant content and then actively learning about what your audience is searching for regarding to your brand or industry.
Andy Harmer, director of Clia UK and Ireland, who hosted the session, said that the cruise association had achieved great traction during the industry’s Cruise Week.
He said that during the week of activities, more than 2,600 tweets were posted by 1,200 tweeters reaching out to a total audience of 7.3 million Twitter users.
In addition, the association’s peak reach on Facebook was 13,400 people and the activities led to 9,000 visits to its agent website cruiseexperts.org.