ACTE consultant Rana Walker has told EIBTM delegates in Barcelona that many in generation X and Y already considered emails passe, and advised on ways businesses can harness social media tools to communicate both internally and externally.
Walker said: "Social media is 'word of mouth' on steroids - what brands lose in control they gain in transparency." She said despite fears of negative feedback on products and services, it was better to allow and engage on a brand's platforms where businesses can respond quickly and directly.
Walker revealed some eye-opening social media statistics including:
- Social media has overtaken pornography as the world's number one activity online
- If Facebook were a country, its 1 billion active users would make it the third-largest in the world
- 25 per cent of search results for the world's top 20 biggest brands are links to user-generated content (UGC)
- Sharing is 31% of site referral traffic
Walker cited Sapient global travel buyer Michelle de Costa's effective use of social media tool Yammer to engage and inform business travellers, mixing driving policy compliance with sharing personal recommendations and peers' travel tips. However, while Yammer operates behind a company's firewall, Walker said a concern for businesses and travel buyers was employees inadvertantly leaking sensitive company information on social networks: businesses need to develop and effectively communicate a set of clear guidelines to help employees protect proprietary information, she said.
Two examples of pioneering social media marketing included: an Ibiza hotel providing guests with radio-frequency identification (RFID) bracelets and encouraging them to swipe onsite camera booths at its pool parties to post instant Facebook updates. Another was IKEA's Facebook campaign in 2009 which showed photos of furniture displays on its manager's Facebook page - the first FB user to tag themselves with an item in the pictures won it. This spread rapidly and generated a great deal of interest and promotion for the brand on Facebook. "The way for your social media content to go viral, is to provoke emotion," said Walker.
IKEA featured in another ACTE panel session at the show, discussing the 'marriage' of travel and MICE. Lotten Tegstam Welinder, travel and meetings manager at the furniture giant, told delegates how an integrated campaign to promote web meetings within the company saw massive adoption with a resulting €25 million reduction in annual meetings spend from 2009 to 2011.
She said: "We communicate and collaborate with HR, finance, country management, regional travel co-ordinators and all stakeholder. The role is now more strategic."
She said drivers of change included leadership, new meetings planning routines, training and coaching. "Change is a process, not one event," she said.