Nets or knots?

by: Francisco Rodríguez*

This phenomenon of current communication is changing the way companies, and tourism in particular, get their proposals to customers, whether they are regulars or potential. But in this virtual world nothing is easy, much less direct information, since the saturation of announcements, proposals and experiences means that sailors can get lost in that immense sea that is the Internet.

A social network as widespread and powerful as Facebook can be a great tool for small businesses, whether hotels or restaurants, as long as their status comments are simple and direct. And I say the small business because Facebook, as well as other similar ones, must transmit in very few words (the messages on Twitter are less than 150 characters) an attractive proposal, and that generates then a return on investment – in this case the time spent being on the network – that justifies being reviewing every day the "what you are thinking about" that always comes out at the beginning of our personal page.

In recent months I am analyzing the advantages of being on Facebook in the face of marketing and, like everything, I think that before entering it is convenient to see how others do, especially those who take time and dedicate hours to connect with "friends" and fans of this individual album that was born to share photos and experiences of Harvard University students. Of course I do not see it practical if your business is very large, such as hotel chains or for large tourist destinations already known. For these companies, the option of using social networks should be aimed at creating a character – real or imaginary – who is the one who walks through the place and shows the most attractive aspects of the destination.

The dedication of time and communication effort by companies such as many points of sale, whether hotels, beaches or cities, is too much for what you are going to look for. Meliá or Hilton cannot devote part of their marketing time to broadcasting on Facebook or Twitter, but they can devote to the creation of a character or an environment, which conveys the philosophy of being staying in their hotels. I think the same of the great tourist destinations, be it the Canary Islands, Tenerife, Riviera Maya, Madrid or London. The bigger you are the more you have to count, and what can not be is that every second your friends receive messages of what is happening, because in the end they saturate the personal wall of each one so much, that there is no possibility of knowing what the rest of your contacts think or tell.

If you are a small establishment, or you only manage 3 or 4 hotels, it is much easier to make them a fan of you, since not every day you have new things to tell, plus you can be talking to your friends all the time, sometimes we have to work on the other aspects of the business. You can also create communities that support sales work, but for me, communities are more closed environments, and it becomes difficult to reach an audience that is not a user of it.

You have to be very good for you to have followers, and much more if you want those followers to be interested in what you want to transmit, which is what marketing through an Internet community requires. This is why today's topic, do we capture the market through networks or do we tie our customers through knots? I think it is easier and freer to look for them with nets, more is caught (fishermen think the same).

But then what can destinations and large companies do to not lose this great channel of communication and sales that are social networks?, because I return to the previous idea, commented by a good friend, referring to the creation of a character.

Looking for candidates within the personnel selection networks I have come across Pepper, considered by the Daily Telegrapf as one of the 10 most influential Twitter users in the world (the most influential in Spain). Analyzing her professional profile on the LinkedIn network, I see that she has been responsible for Tourism Marketing for a company in Mallorca since 2003, and since 2006 she is responsible for Public Relations of her company, in addition to the island of Mallorca. The truth is that his curriculum in social networks is very good, but getting another donkey (Pepper is an authentic donkey who lives in the Finca Agroturística de Sant Blai, Mallorca) so put into communication on the Internet I do not think it is possible.

I believe that it will be necessary to make a selection of those characteristic characters of each destination, and that they are the ones who serve to transmit those aspects that do not always appear in the institutional brochures, enhancing the advantages of a tourist destination outside the topics of sun and beach (Canary Islands or Caribbean), or the business destination (Madrid or London). For those who do not believe what I just told, just type "pepper, Mallorca" in Google and you will see what happens.

And with this we are, looking for innovation to talk about our business, especially if we are small and we are in a very competitive environment. And it is that the dedication to these networks should not be considered in the company as a waste of time, you just have to know how to organize and decide that, on Mondays and Fridays I dedicate myself to Facebook two hours a day, on Thursday it is time to tweet two periods of half an hour, and the rest of the time we dedicate ourselves to what we are supposed to do daily without the internet.

* General Manager. Capital Hotels.