Social Media s and Online User-Generated Content s Role in Services Advertising

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1 Social Media s and Online User-Generated Content s Role in Services Advertising Stavrianea, A. 1, a) 1, b) and Androniki Kavoura 1 Department of Marketing, Technological Educational Institute of Athens, Greece, 12210, Aigaleo, Athens, Greece b) Corresponding author: nkavoura@teiath.gr a) kstavrianea@gmail.com Abstract. The aim of this paper is to present results from a study that examines the use of the Internet for collecting material and the attention people pay to advertisements through different media sources in the context of services. A representative stratified sample of 301 respondents of foreign arrivals of tourists in the Athens airport, Greece, collected in June and July 2014 was employed. We present which social media sources and user-generated material that promote advertisements were found to be important in capturing people s attention. Results illustrated the significant role that advertisements on Facebook play on the way people pay attention to. In fact, Facebook was found to be the second most important medium that people use when collecting material. In addition, Facebook was found to be the third source that respondents strongly agreed that they pay attention to advertisements, with the official websites/blogs to be the first source and travel guidebooks and travel magazines to follow, leaving traditional media far behind. Implications and suggestions are provided for online communication programs that may incorporate social media in services marketing communications campaigns. Libraries and corporate bodies may employ social media for advertising their services based on the significant role social media have. Keywords: Services advertising and social media, Official websites/blogs, Photo sharing sites, User generated content, Facebook INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND FOR THE RESEARCH Various marketing and communication tools have been used by marketers to promote their products and services [1]. Nowadays, social media are at the forefront. Social media, the consumer-generated media, allow the creation and dissemination of information online where consumers may participate and companies may communicate with them [2, p. 357]. People on social media collaborate, exchange information, share and send messages over an electronic medium, engage collectively and interact, share content such as video, photos, images, text, ideas and they are the creators or co-creators of this material [3], [4], [5], [6]. In fact, literature provides an extensive list of the most important social media including social networking sites, micro-blogging, blogs such as user sponsored blogs, company sponsored websites, sharing sites for video or photos, viewing pictures, collaborative websites and news delivery sites, social bookmarking sites where users discuss their point of view and recommend online news stories, videos, music [2, p. 358]; [7], [5]. Online social networking offers the opportunity to people to create online communities where they interact, connect, exchange messages [8, p.138], [9]. Information is provided on the Internet by users who exchange opinions International Conference on Integrated Information (IC-ININFO 2014) AIP Conf. Proc. 1644, (2015); doi: / AIP Publishing LLC /$

2 and experiences with other people or they may provide reviews associated with photos, videos, news and blogs. Participating in social networking sites may take place in many services contexts including the travel industry where people interact with other travelers to obtain travel information [10]. One-way information from media such as radio, television, newspapers, magazines may give way to the two-way communication provided on social media [11] where people exchange ideas, share information and keep blogs online [7] who don t just consume content but produce their own, by being connected to each other and creating a communicative network [12]. The low cost of communication on the internet and the interactivity existing since there is a two-way communication available, also allows for data mining of information for people which can be systematically gathered and collected in a consistent way regarding personal exchange of information, such as complaints, suggestions, topics discussed among people, leading to homogeneous groups and prediction of peoples profiles [13], [14]. The above mentioned may take place with the use of online interviews, archival analysis from documents preserved with ICTs within the academic environment as well [15]. Huge amounts of money are invested by companies in regard to advertising on social media. Global media advertising revenue doubled in 2012 while Asia Pacific and North America are on top and the rest of the world follows. Asia Pacific dominates mobile display market with million in mobile display advertising revenue in 2012; North America is the second with 903 million for the same year and Western Europe with 387 million. Middle East and Africa, Central Europe and Latin America follow with 33 million, 29 million and 7 million respectively[16]. Thus, when it comes to travel destinations, on which sources do people pay attention to advertisements? The aim of this paper is to examine what people consider to be important sources of information when using the Internet for collecting material about a travel destination. When choosing a destination, where do people pay attention to advertisements associated with travel destinations through different media sources? We aim to examine which social media sources and user generated material that promote advertisements associated with travel destinations are important in capturing people s attention. There is need for researchers to focus more on investigating the perceptions of audiences about social media activities [17], [18]. This study also aims to contribute to the description of people s beliefs about social media in the context of services and most specifically when choosing a travel destination. TRADITIONAL MEDIA, SOCIAL MEDIA, THE INTERNET AND ADVERTISING MESSAGES With the advent of social media and their expansion and becoming part of people s lives, traditional media, such as radio, television, newspapers, magazines, as part of a company s marketing and communication activities, are not considered as trustworthy as social media for promoting products and services [2, p. 360] not to mention that marketers cannot get directly in touch with their potential customers when they buy time and space on traditional media [5]. The interaction and the two-way communication existing in social media, offers space for people to trust and engage with each other. Web 2.0 applications allow users to share videos and links, find and stay in contact with friends, comment on each other s photos [8]. Facebook for example, allows the usage of media rich in content, encouraging in that way users to interact, comment, share and engage [19]. The two-way communication unfolding with social media, is not only associated with the sending of a message; the exchange of ideas with people is of ultimate significance [3], [11]. Social bookmarking, to use another example, is associated with the organization, categorization and sharing of webpage bookmarks, with words or phrases that characterize a specific search and making it easier for other people to find this information [8, p. 141]. Facebook and Twitter are social media and micro-blogging networks with a very big appeal to the public. By the end of 2013, Facebook had 1.23 billion monthly active users worldwide, adding 170m in just one year; 757m users log on to Facebook daily, as of 31 December 2013 [20]. The number of active Twitter users had risen to million, tweeting about 500 messages or tweets per day [21]. Internet statistics suggest that 40.4% of the world s population are internet users as of 15th August, 2014 in contrast to the percentage of 14.1% in 2004 [22]. On the 15th of August 2014, 104,316,534 photos were uploaded on Instagram and 7,326,655,218 videos were viewed on YouTube [23]. The percentage of individuals using the Internet in 2012 from any devise, including mobile phones for 211 countries in the world illustrates mobile s active presence in regard to people s use [22]. Marketers may use information from data collected on consumer behavior trends in order to promote and communicate their messages 319

3 [24]. According to recent data, social advertising market may reach $11 billion by 2017, up from $4.7 billion in 2012 [25] and mobile advertising has a big share. As Table 1 illustrates, in 2013, net mobile advertising revenues were more than double in comparison to TABLE 1. Net Mobile Advertising Revenues Worldwide, by Company (Google, Facebook, Twitter) (in billions). Company Year 2011 Year 2012 Year 2013 Google $1.53 $4.61 $8.85 Facebook - $0.47 $2.04 Twitter - $0.25 $0.31 Source: [24, 26]. The abovementioned data may show the increasing tendency that exists for online communications, their impact, the huge attention they have received and their potential. People will go on the Internet to search for information when they want to purchase something; for example, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube offer many options to advertisers [5]. Furthermore, the Internet allows for the use of s for advertising messages about a company or an organization. s consist of an advertising communication tool for advertising products and services all over the world promoting a two-way communication with people. Research has shown that consumers are interested in receiving information through advertisement so long as it is not unsolicited commercial , known as spam [27, p. 293]. Social media advertising is associated with the attention paid of online users through social media sites [5]. These technologies allow companies to have better communication such as collaborative writing (e.g.,wikis), content sharing (e.g., text, video, and images), social networking (e.g., Facebook), social bookmarking (e.g., ratings, tagging), and syndication (e.g., Really Simple Syndication feeds) [6]. The creation of online public profiles, the invitation of friends and colleagues to share this information allows for the connection of these people, allowing users to save, organize and manage links to other websites on the internet and creating personalized websites [28]. At times, the influence of social media and information uploaded in blogs and bookmarking sites for example, is so big that no advertising is needed for a product or a service [6, p. 340]. METHODOLOGY A representative stratified, based on nationality and gender, sample of 301 respondents of foreign arrivals of tourists in the Athens airport, Greece was collected in June and July The sample consisted of 52% women and of 48% men. In addition, the sample consisted of tourists from the United States of America 16.6%, United Kingdom 12.7%, France 11.8%, Cyprus 9.2%, Germany 9.2%, Australia 9.1%, Italy 6.8%, Switzerland 4.9%, Canada 4.8%, Belgium 4.8%, the Netherlands 3.5%, Spain 3.3% and the Russian Federation 3.12%. The above stratification was based on the official Athens Airport Authorities Arrival Research, which was conducted in The researchers examined the attention paid to travel destination advertisements by visitors through various online communications and the use of internet for collecting material. RESULTS Data analysis used descriptive statistics using SPSS. This section presents the results from the answers provided from the respondents. When using the internet for collecting material about a travel destination, 83.4% of the 301 respondents do not consider User-sponsored Blogs important and 16.6% consider them important, 84.7% do not consider Twitter important and 15.3% consider it important, 61.5% do not consider Facebook important and 38.5% consider it important, 73.4% do not consider Video Sharing sites (eg. YouTube, Vimeo) important and 26.6% consider them important, 73.1% do not consider Photo Sharing sites (eg. Instagram, Flickr) important and 26.9% consider them important, 75.1% do not consider Collaborative Websites (eg. Wikipedia) important and 24.9% consider them important, 81.7% do not consider News Delivery Sites important and 18.3% consider them important, 320

4 87% do not consider Social Bookmarking Sites (eg. Digg) important and 13% consider them important, 75.4% do not consider Mobile Applications important and 24.6% consider them important, 45.5% do not consider Official websites/blogs of the destination important and 54.5% consider them important, 78.1% do not consider Company sponsored web sites/blogs important and 21.9% consider them important. Travel destinations advertisements through Travel guidebooks and travel magazines come in the first place for which respondents were found to agree in a percentage of 29.6% and strongly agree in a percentage of 20.2 %, whilst 6.4% answered they strongly disagree, 6% that they disagree, 5.6% that they rather disagree, 13.5% that they neither agree, nor disagree and 18.7% that they rather agree (out of 267 respondents). Advertisements in the Official Websites/blogs is the second category that respondents pay attention to, with a percentage of 21.5% stating they agree and 18% stating they strongly agree, while 12.6% stated they strongly disagree, 4.2% that disagree, 9.2% that they rather disagree, 14.9% that they neither agree, nor disagree, and 19.9% that they rather agree (out of 261 responses). Advertisements through Facebook follow with a percentage of 14.4% of the respondents answering that they pay attention to and 13.7% stating they strongly agree that they pay attention to 25.5% strongly disagree, 9.9% disagree, 10.6% rather disagree, 11.8% neither agree, nor disagree, 14.1% rather agree (out of 263 respondents). It is worth mentioning that traditional media such as Television, Radio, Newspapers and Magazines were found less important sources related to the importance people pay to relevant advertisements. More specifically, 16% stated they strongly disagree, 12.2% that they disagree, 15.3% that they rather disagree, 17.6% stated that they neither agree, nor disagree, 15.6% stated they rather agree, 14.9% stated they agree and 8.4% responded that they strongly agree that they pay attention on advertisements associated with travel destinations through Television (out of 262 respondents). As far as paying attention to relevant advertisements through Radio, 26.4% of the respondents stated they strongly disagree, 17.7% that they disagree, 11% that they rather disagree, 14.6% that they neither agree, nor disagree, 13% that they rather agree, 9.8% that they agree and 7.5% ( out of 254 respondents). As far as paying attention to relevant advertisements through Newspapers, 16.7% of the respondents answered that they strongly disagree, 10.9% that they disagree, 14.3% that they rather disagree, 19.8% that they neither agree, nor disagree, 17.1% that they rather agree, 14.7% that they agree and 6.6% answered they strongly agree (out of 254 respondents). Finally, related to travel destination advertisements found in magazines, 12.1% of the respondents stated they strongly disagree, 8.7% that they disagree, 9.4% that they rather disagree, 21.5% that they neither agree, nor disagree, 20% that they rather agree, 19.2% that they agree and 9.1% stated they strongly agree (out of 265 respondents). DISCUSSION AND SUGGESTIONS It is typical to note that the abovementioned results of the previous section, illustrate that the respondents, when using the internet for collecting material about a travel destination, consider Facebook to be an important medium and it is in fact the third most important source of information for them. The official websites/blogs of the destination are the first source that respondents use and Photo Sharing sites (eg. Instagram, Flickr) are the second most preferred source they use. When choosing a destination, the attention respondents pay to advertisements associated with travel destinations also illustrated the high importance attributed to different media sources. Facebook was the second medium for which the respondents strongly agreed that they pay attention to the advertisements, with the official websites/blogs of the destination to be on the first place and travel guidebooks and travel magazines to follow. There is a huge potential for Facebook to be used in services and especially in the travel and tourism industry. Messages may be communicated with the implementation of social media; nonetheless, their capabilities have not been realized yet so that they are incorporated in a company s promotional efforts [2], [29]. In addition, company sponsored websites were found to be important to the respondents with a 21.9% considering them to be a significant source. As literature suggested [2, p. 361], companies can speak with their customers and more effort needs to be put upon on that objective through the creation of communities of like-minded individuals incorporating social media in a company s or organization s marketing communications decisions. Host communities may contribute to the enhancement of this online community using social media to upload photos and videos, comment on reviews and promote the local culture of a destination. Local communities and their people have a role to play in the creation and promotion of online experiences and senses [30], [31]. 321

5 The study is in line with literature that has shown that traditional media s influence such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines diminishes and becomes minimized [2, p. 360]. In fact, in regard to the attention paid to advertisements associated with travel destinations and those strongly agreeing about them, the traditional sources such as the abovementioned, did not get a higher percentage than 10% each, with the highest (9.1% ) for magazines, 8.4% for television, 7.5%, for radio and 6.6% for newspapers. Facebook as preliminary results of this study have illustrated, competes in popularity official websites of destinations and travel guidebooks. The active role of social media and the economic and social aspects associated with their incorporation to a company s marketing and communication strategies needs though to be further examined since literature has shown that companies have not fully realized social media s potential and this is the case for the sector of tourism as well [6, p. 339], [19], [29]. Further research needs to take place in order to analyze marketing rules for the tourism sector using new technologies and tools [32], [33]. Social bookmarking can be effectively used with phrases or words as suggested by literature [8]; in particular, phrases or words that characterize a destination or other services associated with a travel industry, may provide an innovative marketing tool that may make it easier for other people to find this information. In regard to traditional media, the provision of content and not just messages so that people can relate to appreciate, interact [3], may allow space for these media to have a significant role in the advertising perspective, employing interactivity and promoting online advertising campaigns. Print media and television may well apply best practices such as those [5, p. 221] presented about India for example but also for other places all over the world where a special section can exist with information and related links with social media, informing the public about the latest trends and topics discussed on social media using the traditional media. In regard to social media, the idea of collective sharing [3], [29], is the key for their further use. The creation of messages by those people who are interested in a specific product or service can also minimize the costs of social media advertising and that should be taken into consideration by companies when they decide to adopt social media on their promotional campaigns [6]. Synergistic mixes in the integrated marketing communications process may effectively combine traditional media advertising and the potential offered by social media for different brands and sectors whether this is the travel industry, the health sector or the implementation of social media by libraries and universities, for communicating with the public or for communication research to name but a few [27, p. 293], [8], [6], [34]. For example, corporate bodies, -e.g. libraries and archives- may use social media in order to promote their image to the public and, hence, improve their public relations [35], accessed via mobile phones [3], [8, p. 141] which can be also part of further research. Following literature, technology may contribute to the development of competitive advantage, which can be applied in different sectors and for different services [36], [37]. Last but not least, mobile advertising potential is huge with applications and it remains to be seen how it may be further employed. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors would like to thank Eleftherios Venizelos Authorities of the Athens Airport, Greece for the special access provided for the data collection. REFERENCES 1. G. E. Belch and M.A. Belch, Advertising and promotion. An integrated marketing communications perspective McGraw-Hill Irwin, New York, (2007). 2. W. Mangold and D. Faulds, Social Media. The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business Horizons, 52, (2009). 3. G. Drury, Opinion piece: Social media: Should marketers engage and how can it be done effectively? Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 9, (2008). 4. Dimitrios K. Nasiopoulos, Damianos P. Sakas and D.S.Vlachos, The contribution of dynamic simulation model of depiction of knowledge, in the leading process of High Technology Companies, KEM, 543, (2013). 5. S. Goyal, Advertising on social media. Scientific Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences, 2, (2013). 322

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