SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING

Social Media in Advertisement (Tourism)



Social Media in Advertisement (Tourism)

Introduction

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is the strategy businesses pursue to be in touch with their customers and target audience. It endeavors to synchronize and manage the different components of the promotional mix. In the present days, the tools and tactics to be in touch with customers have transformed extensively. The transformation has occurred with the appearance of the trend acknowledged as social media. It is known as consumer-created media, as well. Consumers are averting from the conventional media of advertising for instance, television, radio, newspapers and magazines (Mangold & Faults, 2009). The advertising industry has been completely changed by the emergence of social media. Companies can now communicate directly with their consumers, without any intervention in a cost effective manner (BBC news, 2012).

Food and beverages brands, automobile manufacturers and all other companies from diversified industries are putting up their “brand outposts” on Orkut, Face book, twitter and other social media sites since their consumers and target market spends noteworthy time on those social media sites. Even many brands are now focusing more on social media advertising instead of the major television and outdoor advertisements campaigns (Evans & Mckee, 2010). As in every industry, social media have been increasingly utilized as a tool for advertisement in tourism, as well.

Discussion

Tourism is an industry which entails very wide-ranging and comprehensive information. Development of the Internet and the emergence of the social media advertising is of immense significance for the tourism and hospitality industry. Tourists require trustworthy information in their decision making regarding the purchases of tourism products and services, so as to trim down the risk arising from the complexity and diverse range of the available products and services. As a result, tourists look for qualitative and easily available sources of information (Rodriguez, 2009). The emergence of social media advertising has provided opportunities for both the tourism companies and the tourists. Audiences are convincing the tourism industry to exploit social media as a means for communication and advertisement to hold the audiences (Iham, 2009). However, there are both advantages and disadvantages of social media advertising in the tourism industry.

There are significant advantages of using social media for advertising in the tourism industry. Using social media for advertising can allow the tourism companies to make audiences aware of their products and services as well as new promotions in no time. It can also allow ...