According to wikipidea.org social media is designed to be disseminated through social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to transform and broadcast media monologues into social media dialogues.
Such social media can take many different forms, including internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, microblogging, wikis, podcasts, pictures, video, rating and social bookmarking. Technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowdsourcing, and voice over IP, to name a few.
Today my interest is mainly on South African provincial tourism authorities…just how far, are these government entities using social media to spread the word about their respective tourism destinations? Since INDABA is around the corner, I’m sure I’ll be seeing all the respective representatives there, however once INDABA is gone we seize to hear anything about these tourism destinations. How I wish there could start maintaining an ongoing media presence beyond INDABA! I’ll exclude Tourism KZN in that regard, I’ve been hosted on numerous media tours by Tourism KZN.
One MAJOR benefit of using social media in your communication/marketing strategy is that it’s free of charge and is able to reach vast amount of users, whom in normal circumstances would not have been reached without spending money…the internet is superior to all other media platforms (it reaches far and wide).
I’m more interested on the popular social media platforms that everyone is using on the internet today:
FACEBOOK – Millions of people use this website everyday to connect with friends, upload an unlimited number of photographs, share links, videos and learn more about the people they interact with. This provides an opportune platform to showcase your tourism business to prospective clients.
TWITTER – This is another popular website which enables users to write brief messages limited to 140 characters. Today twitter is known to break news around the world before such eventualities make the headlines in mainstream media. This website is proving to be a big hit with bloggers as well…since it enables us to gain new readers with easy.
FLICKR – This website is your online version of the physical photos album where you store your photographs. It enables you to upload an unlimited number of photographs for private and business use. I have a PRO account which is $25 per year and comes with extras, like uploading multiple images at once.
YOUTUBE – This website has opened up new opportunities for bloggers and small businesses to use videos to sell/promote services free of charge. Today anyone can broadcast a video message and reach million of viewers free of charge.
| TOURISM AUTHORITIES | FLICKR | YOUTUBE | ||
| KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Authority | 215 members, not bad, but there is a HUGE room for improvement, this is South Africa’s main tourists attraction during all public holidays, therefore the 215 members is not a true reflection. | Missed opportunity to broadcast industry related news. INDABA is only a few days away and nothing is communicated with the industry at large about preparations etc. | Missed opportunity to showcase the tourism attractions found within the province. This DMO is home to INDABA, which could be better showcased through FLICKR. | Has managed to attract 6 subscribers, a page was created, however not much effort is invested into updating it. |
| Mpumalanga Tourism Authority | Missed opportunity to sell destination to rest of the world. | Missed opportunity to communicate with potential guests about tourism attractions found in the province. | Kruger National Park is a crowd puller for the province, missed opportunity to showcase all wildlife and other attractions found in this tourism destination. | Another missed opportunity yet again…clearly their marketing/communications department is sleeping on the job. |
| North West Parks and Tourism Board | Missed opportunity to sell all the various attractions to the rest of the world. | Missed opportunity to talk about Sun City, Pilansberg National Park etc. | Missed opportunity to spread the word about all the tourism attractions… Million Dollar Challenge attracts international golfers yearly, that is an ideal event to showcase. | Pretty much the same as on flickr, showcase video footage of international golfers in action within your province. Missed opportunity once more, PR/marketing department needs a wakeup call. |
| Eastern Cape Tourism Authority | 19 members, at least they took the initiative to create a group page, though still spotting the old brand. Not much effort has been invested into breathing life into this group page. | Missed opportunity to talk about the new soccer stadium to host world cup matches. | There was an aggressive online campaign through Google Adsword last year, I would have uploaded that campaign on a flickr page as well, to give it extra mileage into the future. | I recall seeing a TV campaign about Eastern Cape Tourism last year…I would have uploaded that campaign on YouTube, so that even after the TV gig is completed, browsers could still view same campaign on YouTube forever. |
| Western Cape Tourism Authority | Missing link. | Missed opportunity to broadcast industry news. | Should be riding on Cape Town Tourism’s shine, with over 20,000 images uploaded. | 57 uploaded video clips and 14 subscribers, not bad at all…however you can learn a great deal from Cape Town Tourism, who are hot on the heels of SA Tourism (I envy them) in terms of social media integration. |
| Limpopo Tourism Authority | Missed opportunity, Kgatla Ntlhekeng – Media Liaison Officer, should also hook-up his employers on Facebook. | 44 followers, half a loaf is better than nothing, your peers don’t see the bigger picture here. | Missed opportunity | Another empty space, sell/market tourism attractions in the province using motion pictures, there is no expiry date, it’s lifetime. I’m aware that during December holidays, there is a grass-root boxing tournament (crown with bragging rights) that attracts a lot of interest, its ideal that it’s showcased to the rest of the world. |
| Gauteng Tourism Authority | 135 members, it’s interesting to note that users have hijacked this page to promote their tourism businesses. | Twitter is Greek to Gauteng Tourism Authority. | Missed opportunity to dispel the misconception that Gauteng is gangsters Paradise, tourism attractions should be showcased here. | Once upon a time, we created a YouTube page and assumed it’ll be on automation with new content without an effort. It’s pointless to create a page if it’s not updated. |
| Northern Cape Tourism Authority | I strongly recommend Facebook to Northern Cape Tourism, it’s free of charge to create a page and it reaches far and wide. | Missed opportunity | Blank page. | Missed opportunity. |
| Free State Tourism Authority | Thembela Mafuna you need to introduce your employers to the benefits of using Facebook. | Twitter is huge, your message spreads like wildfire within a short space of time…sign-up today and start microblogging. | Nothing to parade through photographs. | Khotso Thole get your DMO on YouTube dude. It’s free of charge and the benefits are endless especially for your department. |
Blogger Muzi Mohale
I’m Muzi Mohale, based in Roodepoort (South Africa). Blogger with www.travelwires.com. Love Travelwires.com since I get to travel our beautiful country through blogging and get first hand tourism experience.
Thanks – great article – the tourist boards seemt o be well behind the curve when it comes to socail netowrking.
We are trying a few things athttp://www.africantravelexperts.com – a facebook group, flickr and yourtube account – but it takes a lot of effort but we believe it is of value to our safari clients.
Agreed Paul, this requires time for it to produce results…however these organisations have marketing and communication departments which should be taking responsibility for social media. I'm puzzled that these departments are not clued up with social media as it is part and parcel of their daily duties…
Thanks for the post, hope the tourist department in my country was able to read your post, they could have avoided spending millions of pesos launching a website which aims to promote tourism in the country.
It is true that social media marketing can be accomplished for free, but to really succeed a small budget should be established. Social media is similar to a snowball and a small budget in the beginning can push your marketing full speed ahead…As the snowball gets bigger, now it naturally attracts targeted audiences who now come to you….and now your social media marketing is free.
Yes although social media is free is still requires the right people driving it otherwise the technology becomes a toy or worse a waste of time.
Social media will continue to influence our lives in every way .