Social Dmos: the State of Social Media and Destination Marketing
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REPORT Social DMOs: The State of Social Media and Destination Marketing Researched by Douglas Quinby, Deepak Jain, Chetan Kapoor, Bing Liu and John DiStefano Written by Cathy Schetzina Walsh March 2015 Social DMOs: The State of Social Media and Destination Marketing analyzes social media practices and perspectives among destination marketing organizations. The report also provides benchmarks for DMOs to evaluate their use of social media, tracks which social networks DMOs use and value, and offers insight into key goals, challenges, tools and techniques related to social media. This content is published by Phocuswright Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Northstar Travel Media, LLC.The information herein is derived from a variety of sources. While every effort has been made to verify the information, the publisher assumes neither responsibility for inconsistencies or inaccuracies in the data nor liability for any damages of any type arising from errors or omissions. All Phocuswright publications are protected by copyright. It is illegal under U.S. federal law (17USC101 et seq.) to copy, fax or electronically distribute copyrighted material beyond the parameters of the License or outside of your organization without explicit permission. © 2015 Phocuswright, Inc All Rights Reserved. Social DMOs: The State of Social Media March 2015 About Phocuswright is the travel industry research authority on how travelers, suppliers and intermediaries connect. Independent, rigorous and unbiased, Phocuswright fosters smart strategic planning, tactical decisionmaking and organizational effectiveness. Phocuswright delivers qualitative and quantitative research on the evolving dynamics that influence travel, tourism and hospitality distribution. Our marketplace intelligence is the industry standard for segmentation, sizing, forecasting, trends, analysis and consumer travel planning behavior. Every day around the world, senior executives,marketers, strategists and research professionals from all segments of the industry value chain use Phocuswright research for competitive advantage. To complement its primary research in North and Latin America, Europe and Asia, Phocuswright produces several highprofile conferences in the United States and Europe, and partners with conferences in China and Singapore. Industry leaders and company analysts bring this intelligence to life by debating issues, sharing ideas and defining the everevolving reality of travel commerce. The company is headquartered in the United States with Asia Pacific operations based in India and local analysts on five continents. Phocuswright is a wholly owned subsidiary of Northstar Travel Media, LLC. © 2015 Phocuswright Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2 Social DMOs: The State of Social Media March 2015 Table of Contents Introduction 6 Research Highlights 6 Study Background and Methodology 7 Social Participation 10 Social Value, Goals & Challenges 12 Social Tactics: Tools & Techniques 15 Monitoring & Measuring 18 Social Media Management 23 DMO Facebook Analytics 27 Endnotes 36 © 2015 Phocuswright Inc. All Rights Reserved. 3 Social DMOs: The State of Social Media March 2015 Figures and Charts Fig. 1: DMOs by Size of Budget, 2013 8 Fig. 2: DMOs by Markets of Operation 9 Fig. 3: Use of Social Networks by DMOs 10 Fig. 4: DMO Participation in Regional Social Networks 11 Fig. 5: Number of Languages Used by DMOs to Monitor/Participate in Social Media by DMO Budget 12 Fig. 6: The Value DMOs Place on Individual Social Networks 13 Fig. 7: DMOs' Social Priorities 14 Fig. 8: DMOs' Top Social Challenges 15 Fig. 9: DMO Implementation of Social Applications] 16 Fig. 10: Effectiveness of Social Content, Tools and Activity for DMOs 17 Fig. 11: DMO Social Media Tactics: Engaging Locals 18 Fig. 12: Social Monitoring Frequency, by DMO Budget 19 Fig. 13: Social Media Monitoring Tools Used, by DMO Budget 20 Fig. 14: Mix of Positive and Negative Social Comments (DMOs) 21 Fig. 15: DMO Response Frequency to Negative Social Comments, by Social Network 22 Fig. 16: Metrics DMOs Consider Very or Extremely Important for Measuring Social Media Performance 23 Fig. 17: Where Social Management Lives Within DMOs 24 Fig. 18: Social Media Staffing 25 Fig. 19: Percentage of Marketing Resources Devoted to Social Media, by Size of DMO Budget 26 Fig. 20: DMO Social Media Tactics: Content Management 27 Fig. 21: DMO Facebook Profiles by Region 28 Fig. 22: Key Fan Metrics for 156 Tourism Boards Facebook Profiles 29 Fig. 23: Top 20 DMO Facebook Profiles, by Fans 30 Fig. 24: Australia.com Friday Fan Photos 31 Fig. 25: Marca Perú: Brand Identity, Storytelling and Local Ambassadors Boost Profile 32 Fig. 26: Pure Michigan Taps Trending Topics 33 Fig. 27: Key Benchmark Metrics (Averages) For the Top 156 Tourism Boards' Facebook Profiles 34 Fig. 28: Top 20 DMOs, by Facebook Page Engagement 35 © 2015 Phocuswright Inc. All Rights Reserved. 4 Social DMOs: The State of Social Media March 2015 Phocuswright thanks its partner Socialbakers for Social DMO's: The State of Social Media and Destination Marketing. Without their active support, this research would not have been possible. © 2015 Phocuswright Inc. All Rights Reserved. 5 Social DMOs: The State of Social Media March 2015 Introduction Facebook has more than 1.3 billion monthly active users worldwide; over 500 million tweets are sent via Twitter each day; and new social networks continue to gain traction. Social media is no longer a buzzword, but a firmly established global communication and marketing phenomenon. Over the past several years, destination marketing organizations (DMOs) have dedicated significant resources to building a presence on social media. For many DMOs, the path to becoming "social" has been one of trial and error, and this new and rapidly changing channel poses an array of challenges. From keeping up with emerging social networks and building followers to driving engagement and measuring success, devising and executing a social media strategy is a complex undertaking. Social DMOs: The State of Social Media and Destination Marketing explores how DMOs are using social media and provides a benchmark for DMOs to evaluate their own social media practices. The report tracks which social networks DMOs use and value, and provides insight into key goals, challenges, tools and techniques related to social media. In addition, the research examines how DMOs manage their social media programs and how they monitor and measure performance. Finally, in partnership with Socialbakers, Social DMOs provides analytics across 156 tourism board profiles and highlights DMOs that have been especially successful with social media (based on audience size and engagement). Research Highlights Nearly every DMO is a social DMO ■ At least nine in 10 DMOs use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Facebook usage is ubiquitous at 98%. ■ A majority of DMOs also participate in rich mediabased social networks Pinterest (78%) and Instagram (70%). ■ DMOs are less likely to be active in emerging social networks like Vine and WhatsApp, or regional social networks such as Sina Weibo or Qzone in China. Engagement and branding are top social media priorities ■ Customer engagement is the top social media objective among DMOs nine in 10 cite the goal as very or extremely important. ■ DMOs also prioritize brand marketing, general customer service and building brand loyalty. ■ Sales and lead generation are less important; just one quarter of DMOs rate driving direct bookings as a top objective. ROI remains DMOs' biggest social media challenge ■ Measuring ROI on organic social activity and measuring the impact of brand marketing are among DMOs' biggest social media challenges more than half struggle to gauge performance. ■ Still, DMOs use a range of metrics to measure success. A majority consider page referrals (70%) and engagement metrics such as responses to posts/tweets (67%), clicks on posts/tweets (64%) and number of likes (59%) to be very or extremely important for measuring social performance. ■ Keeping up with new social platforms (48%) and monitoring social media activity (31%) are other common challenges. Meet the new brand advocates: locals © 2015 Phocuswright Inc. All Rights Reserved. 6 Social DMOs: The State of Social Media March 2015 ■ Most DMOs (six in 10) encourage local residents to post to social streams. ■ Destination marketers are also engaging local residents by running contests (55%), creating relevant advertising (41%), and encouraging locals to respond to questions from outoftown visitors (32%). "Always on" is the new norm ■ The majority of DMOs monitor social media activity at least several times a day. This is true for six in 10 small DMOs (<$1 million total budget) and three quarters of large DMOs (>$10 million total budget). ■ DMOs of all sizes rely primarily on free or lowcost thirdparty apps (e.g., TweetDeck or Hootsuite) to monitor social media. Facebook shakes things up ■ Once a largely organic platform, Facebook is now primarily a paytoplay advertising medium. ■ While DMOs continue to accrue fans on Facebook, engagement is declining. The average number of fans per DMO Facebook profile across the 156 DMOs studied grew from 216,000 in September 2013 to 273,000 in February 2014, but the average number of likes, comments and shares per post declined. Study Background and Methodology Social DMOs: The State of Social Media and Destination Marketing analyzes social media practices and perspectives among destination marketing organizations. This report was created as an additional