SOCIAL MEDIA
SOCIAL GATHERING
Real-time connections, increased loyalty and extending the off er are among the benefi ts of social media, but which platform is right for your attraction?
NIC RAY • MANAGING DIRECTOR • QUIRK LONDON
widely recognised that such platforms have actually become an essential tool for engaging with the public. But just how do you go about selecting the right platform? The choice usually seems to come down to Facebook or Twitter, but these are by no means your only options. Other platforms like Pinterest, Tout and Google+ are all worthy contend- ers to take on Facebook and Twitter. Not that this makes your fi rst foray into the social realm any simpler. But luck- ily all it takes is a little forward thinking before just hopping on to Facebook. The fi rst step is to clearly defi ne your aims – what do you want to achieve by hav- ing a social media presence? Having a
B
usinesses no longer require extensive persuasion to appre- ciate the benefi ts of using social media. By contrast, it’s
Facebook page just because everyone else has one isn’t a good enough rea- son. Next, you need to assess what each social platform can offer you, along with its strengths and weaknesses. Whichever platform best matches your business objectives is the place to start. As an agency, we always advise brands
that it’s important to have one quality presence in social media. Creating a premium user experience on multiple social media platforms is next to impos- sible – unless your budget is particularly generous. So, as a starting point, invest in just one platform and manage it well. Once you’ve proven the success of “social”, chances are that you’ll be able to pitch for more budget and slowly begin to expand. To get you started, we’ve collated a brief round up of some current social media platforms.
FACEBOOK Primary strength: Building brand loyalty. Facebook is billed as the place to engage with customers, but it’s always in dan- ger of becoming a numbers game. Many brands become fi xated on the number of Likes they’re able to gain, instead of focusing on what they really should be striving to achieve – a sense of affection towards their brand and feeling of friend- ship with a consumer. Churning out generic content may
gain superfi cial interactions. However, the real gold is in getting people to com- municate with your brand and creating an affi nity towards your business. One issue with Facebook is that it’s primarily a closed hub, in the sense that it’s up to the user to allow people (or brands) to see their updates and become part of their network. Or, in the instance that they’re looking to become involved in a specifi c arena of discussion, they must already know what sources are likely to contain the desired con- tent before they make the best use of Facebook’s limited search functionality.
TWITTER Primary strength: Sharing news and extending reach. The shorter format of tweets (140 characters) means that rela- tionship building is not Twitter’s primary aim. Rather, it’s the ideal medium to keep people up to date with news and
Businesses are advised to have at least one quality presence on social media – and focus on that before adding more outlets
58 Read Attractions Management online
attractionsmanagement.com/digital AM 1 2013 ©cybertrek 2013
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