Social media marketing
media because it’s far more affordable than traditional forms of media and can pack a powerful punch. The amusement industry can instantly communicate with potential customers and this is what makes it so attractive.” There is no doubt that social media has had a positive
influence on the amusement park industry. Given the whole premise of social media is to be an outlet for personal opinion and sharing of exciting experiences and content such as personal images and videos, social media as a whole concept ties in perfectly with the industry. “It is the perfect foundation for customers to share their
experiences and engage with the amusement park before, during and after their visit,” comments Cox, “something most other digital channels cannot offer or compete with. “We also try to tap into the community side of social
media by fully reviewing every comment and message, trying to provide an apt response to build up a relationship with the customer or potential customer, and also make use of all available social media tools to gauge opinion. This can help us respond better due to having more complete information.” For Prystajko, this ‘community’ element of social media
can have problems associated with it, as the first mistake businesses make is not actually understanding the meaning of the word community, as he explained. “It’s about people, not your brand. If you’re advertising
birthday parties a post such as ‘our birthday parties are an incredible experience - click here to learn more’ is guaranteed to get less traction than a message crafted around someone’s experience - complete with names and faces. The ideal social media manager is someone who not only understands the audience but truly wants to connect with them.” Moving forward then, how do our experts see the
amusement industry continuing to make the most out of social media marketing opportunities? What new trends do they expect to see? For the social media experts: “Since social is all about
sharing, we want to encourage guests to post about their experiences,” said Prystajko, “either while they’re at a business or the memories of it afterwards. We’ve seen success in marketers getting people to tag their business or add a hashtag to tweets and Instagram uploads, but the next frontier lies with engaging people to capture and share videos of their visits. As the smartphone-enabled YouTube generation has proven, even something as simple as a funny 10-second clip can explode in ways that plain text or images never could.”
www.InterPark.co.uk 43 Orrell picks up on a point made earlier, concerning
marketing budgets, when concluding, telling InterPark: “I see many parks shifting their budgets more and more to social media in the future. It’s the most cost effective way to get in front of hundreds of thousands or millions of consumers in an instant. Plus, you can nail down your target audience and tailor your message to them specifically through targeting and re-targeting. It packs an incredibly powerful punch you just can’t get with TV or radio from an affordability perspective. You’ll see more and more smaller parks turn to social media to stretch their budget and reach more consumers.” From the parks’ perspective, BPB’s Cox
concludes:
“Social media is ever advancing and with most reputable social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter now turning their attention to monetisation, it will likely bring extra marketing possibilities to the amusement park industry. Specifically, the ability to utilise the vast amounts of data available - this can be seen by Facebook’s recent announcement of Facebook atlas.” And for Merlin Entertainments: “Social proof is so -
important the ability to deliver a great day out and
therefore generate positive reviews and comments is critical. Looking ahead, there are so many exciting new developments we can take advantage of and use in unique ways - developments in iBeacons and RFID that play hand-in-hand with the sharing nature of social media, for example, will form a big part of future promotion.”
Image courtesy
Chessington World of Adventures
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64