Institute of Hospitality management in Prague

Transcription

1 Institute of Hospitality management in Prague Alena Grushetskaya Possibilities of using Facebook, Twitter and Google+ for ads in hospitality Bachelor s thesis 2015

2 Possibilities of using Facebook, Twitter and Google+ for ads in hospitality Bachelor s thesis Alena Grushetskaya Institute of Hospitality Management in Prague Department Gastronomy, Hotel Management and Tourism Major field of study: Hospitality Management Dissertation advisor: Ing. Martina Sochurkova Date of submission: cielrenanyadesu@bk.ru Prague

3 ABSTRACT Alena Grushetskaya Possibilities of using Facebook, Twitter and Google+ for ads in hospitality Bachelor s thesis Institute of Hospitality Management in Prague Prague 2015 Pages The purpose of this thesis was to show how important social media is in hospitality marketing. The target companies were hotels, and the goal of the research was to provide them information how to develop their presence on the web and what possibilities they would have. This is done by enlightening them about most known and used social media web sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+, but also give them advices about social media usage for businesses. The data of this study were collected from literature, Internet expert articles, webpages analysis and by using questionnaire surveys. The aim of the survey was to understand the customer Internet behavior concerning the habits of using Social Media. The results of survey were analyzed by quantitative data analysis method. Other data in this bachelor s thesis were also analyzed using quantitative data analysis method. Findings specified that during preparation of a trip, or even on and after trip, customers are widely using the Internet. They will read the other customers reviews about hotels and afterwards they will share information about their experiences. For companies using the popular social media websites can have a great impact on their marketing, thus their sales, as it helps to attract more consumers. The results of the research demonstrate that customers are using the Internet more and more for buying and other purposes. In addition, they show that social media are still getting more and more users and developing for businesses. Thus it is recommended for hospitality professionals to start using social media besides their web-sites in order to keep up-to-date with e-marketing. KEY WORDS: social media; e-marketing; hospitality; tourism. 3

4 CONTENT LIST OF FIGURES INTRODUCTION Research plan Research objectives Research questions Data and methods Structure of the research LITERATURE REVIEW CONCEPTS AND THEORIES E-marketing E-tourism Consumer behavior SOCIAL MEDIA PHENOMENON Generalities about the Social Media Twitter Facebook Google TWITTER, FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE+ ADS Twitter ads Promoted trends Promoted Accounts Promoted Tweets Facebook ads Traffic and leads for companies website Likes and engagement for companies page

5 4.2.3 Installs for mobile or desktop applications Visitors for companies store or event Google+ ads (aka +Post ads from Google) RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY Profile of respondents Travelling preparation behavior Uses of the Internet and Social Media linked to accommodation THE SOCIAL MEDIA IN HOSPITALITY MARKETING Social Media e-presence of Prague accommodations ADVICES FOR USING FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND GOOGLE Facebook Twitter Google Conclusion and recommendations REFERENCES APPENDICES Appendix 1: Bachelor s thesis survey Appendix 2: List of hotels analyzed for Social Media websites

6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Module of consumer behavior for buying a trip Figure 2. An example of Promoted Tweet Figure 3. An example of Facebook ads Figure 4. An example of Toyota Google+ Ad Figure 5. The gender of the respondents Figure 6. The gender of the respondents Figure 7. The country of residents of the respondents Figure 8. The nationality of respondents Figure 9. The frequency of overnight travels per year Figure 10. The reasons for travelling Figure 11. The kind of accommodation booked by respondents Figure 12. The sources used for information about accommodation Figure 13. Importance of the e-presence of an accommodation: weighted average Figure 14. Importance of the e-presence of an accommodation Figure 15. The Social Media used by respondents Figure 16. Expectations on accommodation s Facebook page Figure 17. Expectations on an accommodation s Twitter page Figure 18. Expectations on an accommodation s Google+ page Figure 19. Existence of Facebook Page Figure 20. The existence of Twitter account Figure 21. Existence of Google+ page Figure 22. An example of Facebook page Figure 23. An example of interaction Holiday Inn with customer via Twitter Figure 24. An example of Google+ hotel s page

7 1. INTRODUCTION E-marketing, e-tourism, web usability, customer behavior, and social media phenomenon are the main themes of this thesis. This themes will be introduced in details the coming parts of the thesis. This thesis researches the customer behavior related to accommodations and travelling, and the possibilities and advantages of social media for hospitality businesses. This research provides information, which will be helpful to professionals in hospitality industry to create and establish their e-marketing strategies, and improve customer relationships. This is done by providing them tips about different social media. The research aims at defining the needs and wants of customers related to accommodation: before, during and after their trip. In addition, it aims at determining the possibilities and advantages of social media for businesses related to hospitality industry. The research is conducted as a quantitative research. Data collected contained a questionnaire survey, experts web articles, analysis of hotels websites and social media pages, and literature. Next chapters introduce a more detailed and specified explanation of introduction. 7

8 1.1 Research plan This chapter explains how the thesis was accomplished. It also provides explanations about the concepts and theories behind the research and analysis, and gives the questions that the author wanted to answer. It also defines what kinds of data were collected and what type of methods were used Research objectives The objective of this research is to show how to promote establishment with the help of social media and attract more customers Research questions In this bachelor s thesis, questions connected to the topic of usage of the most used and known social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+, in hospitality industry. The author main researches will be focused on answering those main questions: Why hospitality companies should use Twitter, Facebook and Google+? How to use them efficiently and effectively? Closely linked to those main questions are few sub-questions which will be answered through the research: Do the hotels and hostels offer what customers are looking for regarding their pages on social media? How do travelers organize their trips nowadays? Is the Internet a crucial part of their process for buying a trip (before, during and after their trip)? 8

9 1.1.3 Data and methods In order to answer the research questions, primary and secondary data were collected and analyzed. As primary data, the author made a survey, using a questionnaire targeting the customers, such as tourists and/or travelers. Then survey and questionnaire was defined. Surveys are information collection methods used to describe, compare, or explain individual and societal knowledge, feelings, value, preferences, and behavior 1. A questionnaire is one of the tools used to finalize a survey. It is intended to make the communication smooth. Different types of data can be collected this ways: Opinions: respondents can be asked what they think or how they feel about something. Behaviors and attitudes: respondents can be asked what they do or what their intentions are. Attributes: respondent can be asked for their characteristics, like age, gender, education, or occupation 2 For this research, the questionnaire will aim at defining the customers behavior before, during and after a trip. The author wants to determine in what degree are the Internet and social media a part of the customers habits during the travelling process. Closed questions will be used in this questionnaire. The results of the questionnaires will be processed with a statistical data processing website SurveyMonkey.com and Microsoft Excel. The processes results will then be analyzed using the quantitative data analysis method, which helps researchers to answer their questions by expressing the opinions, attitudes and behaviors of people in quantitative terms 3. Besides those primary data, the author itself will collect secondary data. Those data will be articles published by tourism or marketing professionals about the topic, and web-pages and/or social media pages of Prague hotels in order to determine which are using Twitter, Facebook and Google+ efficiently or not in order to advise them on what to do to use those websites in a better way. By collecting those data, the author would like to show how to use those social media websites in advantage for hospitality businesses to attract more customers and create good customer relationships. Theories about e-marketing and customer behavior will be used as support of the analysis of the data. Those secondary data will be analyzed by usage of quantitative analysis method. Those theories and concepts will be presented in literature review, chapter

10 1.1.4 Structure of the research Chapter 2.1 illustrates theories and concepts behind this research. Chapter 2.2 gives explanation about the social media phenomenon that has been getting more and more crucial in the last few years. It will also define what Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are. Chapter 2.3 defines advantages and possibilities of usage advertising on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. The first chapter of analytical part is about the customers behavior in the buying process for an accommodation and before, during and after their trip, related to the analysis and interpretation of the collected data. The second chapter concerns Facebook, Twitter and Google+ in hospitality marketing, related to the analysis and interpretation of the collected data. The last part is conclusion and summary of the results plus tips for hospitality businesses. 10

11 LITERATURE REVIEW 2. CONCEPTS AND THEORIES 2.1 E-marketing In order to understand the concept of e-marketing, e-business and e-commerce should be described first. E-business is the concept that consists of all the different components of information technologies used in business. It includes not only purchases and sales, but also services related to customers and collaboration with business partners. E-commerce is a branch of e-business online across the extended enterprise. Some advantages from e-commerce that are good to be mentioned are its availability (24/7 and direct access), its larger-scale (available all around the world), and its interactivity (customer service is improved) 4. After explaining those concepts it is now easier to understand what e-marketing is. E-marketing is considered as the marketing side of e-commerce. It is what company does to communicate about, promote and sell their products and services online. Nowadays the Internet has become a powerful tool for companies and their customer relationship management. Companies can interact online with their customers to receive more information about their habits, buying behavior, needs and wants. In addition, customers can ask questions directly to the company and give online feedback (known as review). Thanks to this online interaction, companies can increase their customer value and satisfaction 5. The part of e-marketing the author wants to highlight with this thesis is the advertising part. Thus it should be clarified. Advertising is a form of marketing communications, which deals with getting information about a company, its products and services, or any other message, to the market 6. There are few types of advertising methods will be useful to know about for this research. First, it is online marketing, which includes e-customer relation management and e-newsletters, and it is about placing advertisements on websites or sending them through database 7. Second is marketing, which is a method used by direct marketing. The requirement to use this method is existence of customers database. For example, when a customers will ask a question on a company s website or buy a product on a website, they will be asked to provide some personal contact details as their addresses and demographic details. It is crucial for companies to have a customer database with addresses, as it is nowadays widely used to confirm a booking, to send details of an itinerary or send a customer reference number 8. Lastly, there is viral marketing, which is simply word of mouse which is used online. This has 11

12 developed more and more over the last few years the increase of social media on the Internet. Viral marketing involves the customers, who will decide to share on their webpages good or bad reviews about whatever product or service they liked or did not. They will share relevant and striking content reflecting their personal opinions and values mostly by or on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ 9. Viral marketing reflects the way the marketing message goes from one person to another like virus spreads. The Internet and so-called smartphones have made it much easier, with potential worldwide coverage. An effective way to stimulate viral marketing is for a company to publish up-to-date information that internet users would like to share with their friends because those will find it interesting or fun E-tourism E-tourism is all information communication technologies (ICTs) applied to the tourism industry. It reflects the digitizing of the processes and value chains in the tourism travel hospitality and catering industries. E-tourism includes all business functions such as e-commerce, e-marketing, e-customer relationship management, e-finance, e-human resources management, e-accounting, e-production, e-strategy, e-planning and e-management for all the tourism industry, i.e. travel, transport, leisure, hospitality. Information is the essence of tourism, so technology is essential for the industry to operate in as its services are intangible. Nowadays ICTs are a necessity for the marketing, distribution, promotion and coordination of the tourism industry. If they are used efficiently, the Internet and the ICTs enable tourism companies to: Interact efficiently with their customers and personalize their products and services; Develop tourism intermediation and increase the selling points e.g. the company s own website, Booking, Expedia (mostly for hospitality companies); Allow customers to communicate between each other e.g. via Tripadvisor or Foursquare on the company s profile page; Provide location-based services by integrating data, content and multimedia information on Google Maps and Google Local. As the author concentrates on the hospitality industry, it is important to know how hotels use ICTs. They use them in order to expand their operations, manage their inventory and enlarge their profitability. ICTs systems simplify either in-house management or distribution through electronic media. Hotels also use ICTs and the Internet to sell their products and/or services and to market their company. Online presence is must in order to allow both individual customers 12

13 and the travel trade to access precise information on availability and provide easy, efficient, inexpensive and reliable ways of making and confirming reservations Consumer behavior The consumer behavior is the ways in which customers who buy products and/or services behave in their attitudes and values towards what they buy 12. There are 7 key factors influencing consumer behavior: Motivations: inner drives that people have which cause them to do something to satisfy their needs. In tourism, there can be need for escape, freedom, happiness, or going far away from their homes. Culture: norms, beliefs and rituals, which are unique to each individual. Beliefs are views that individuals have about most aspects of their life. Concerning tourism, people will have belief about companies, products and services, tourism offers, and destinations. Those opinions can be positive as trust in certain hotel brand, or negative as a feeling about lack of security in a destination. Age and gender: being male or female; children, young adults, adults or senior can influence consumer behavior. Social class: position one occupies inside society, determined by such as salary, capital, education, profession, family reputation, value of home and neighborhood. Lifestyle: the way people allocate time, energy and money. Life cycle: stages through which people might go through as they grow older e.g. single, young couple with or without kids, mature couple with or without kids, old couple with or without kids, widow. It can also be connected to tourism, as customers habits and behaviors diversify as people move 11 through their life cycle. Reference groups: entities that have an influence, direct or indirect, on a person s attitude or behavior, e.g. family, friends, work colleagues 13. Consumer behavior is usually a process of stages, as seen in the model below: 13

14 Figure 1. Module of consumer behavior for buying a trip 11 14

15 3. SOCIAL MEDIA PHENOMENON This chapter introduces what social media are by presenting them generally and also by characterizing more specifically each type of social media. In addition, the author will here describe Twitter, Facebook and Google+ as they are most known and widely used by people all over the world and they are worth to be aware for tourism businesses. Later the author will go deeper concerning social media. 3.1 Generalities about the Social Media Social Media are mostly websites where users can add their own content but do not have any control over this website in the way as they would with their own website. Social Media allow users to reach hundreds, thousands or even more people at the click of a mouse to send them a message. Those recipients can then also send that message to untold masses of people. It is what is usually called sharing in the social media world. By this way customers are interacting with brands and contributing to marketing on a scale that was not imagined by most marketers ten years ago 14. There are several types of Social Media. Here will be described two of them that will be useful in the research: microblogging and social networking. Microblogging is a form of blogging that limits the size of each message posted by a user, called more specifically posts 15. The most will-known microblogging site is Twitter, where the messages or posts are called Tweets. This website will be described in next chapter. A Social Network is a website where people connect with friends, both those they know in real life, as it is called offline, and those who are online-only friends, who they have never met in real life. Social Networks are important for businesses, as they offer a number of opportunities for interacting with customers, and companies can have an account on those Social Networks to make that interaction possible 16. The Social Networks that will be considered in this research are Facebook and Google+. Those will be represented later in chapters 3.3 and Twitter Twitter is a Micro-blogging site not unlike SMS text messaging on a mobile phone. Users can post messages, as it is called tweet, with using only 140 characters on which others users can comment or repost, also called as retweet. It was introduced in 2006 and at first was perceived as a rather quirky site with little mainstream interest. This perception was quickly altered and it 15

16 now boasts 175 million users 17. There is even a Twitter account used by the astronauts on the International Space Station. Twitter is becoming more significant within the travel industry with particular emphasis on the hotel sector. For guests it is becoming more and more worthwhile to follow hotels Twitter accounts to find some of the special offers, last minute deals or even about special events. It also acts as a direct communication channel 18. For the hotel Twitter offers many advantages. It provides a direct communication to customers. A correctly used Twitter account can be a great feedback tool. An open relationship with guests to report praise or problems, in full view of the public, should give extra incentive to staff to respond as appropriate. Other users can be assured by the positive way in which staff responds to the situation. This customer care approach is the most common way in which hotels use Twitter. 3.3 Facebook Facebook is the by far the largest social network in the world with more than one billion individual users in the world 19. It allows hotels the possibility to connect with a colossal number of potential customers. Through the customers that join a hotel s Facebook page, their online friends will know the brand every time as they interact with the hotel. Facebook crosses the borders of social networking, blogging, micro blogging, video and picture sharing as well as most of the other social networks. According to E.A. Vander Veer, Facebook is a social networking site that combines the best of blogs, online forums and groups, photo sharing, clever applications, and interaction among friends 20. On Facebook page hotels can provide not only information about their hotels which encourages users to be more than a one-time visitor, but also information about events happening in and around city they are located in and general advises useful to plan trip around city. This added value approach engenders and encourages users to visit page for information. Rather than acting as another sales channel the Facebook page is used to promote the brand by providing valued content, encouraging others to become brand promoter by sharing links to people within their own networks. In addition, hotels can offer exclusive discounts through the page if potential customers are following their Facebook page to make customers feel valued. 3.4 Google+ Google is already more than just a search engine. The company has created many different applications and services all aimed towards making the Internet a better place to hang out. From its famous Google Maps, News and Groups to its Google Earth projects, Google has created very 16

17 useful tools. Recently Google enjoined the world of Social Media and created Google+, a Social Network that combines the best components of other Google s services 21. In many ways, Google+ is quite similar to Facebook, but it has already proven to be better when it comes to reaching right people that can be very useful for companies. It is also more powerful than Twitter when it comes to keeping up with breaking news. One of the interesting features can be found on Google+ is Circle, which permits users to organize their friends into handy groups: friends, family, following and others can be created. Then users can choose to publish their posts to all their circles, only with some of them, or publicity with all Google+ users

18 4. TWITTER, FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE+ ADS 4.1 Twitter ads There are three different kinds of ads on Twitter: Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts and Promoted Trends. They are clearly market with a promoted icon. Customers can interact with promoted content in much the same way as organic content on Twitter, it means they can follow, favorite, or Retweet (share) promoted content. The cost for using Promoted trends is 200,000$ per day, for two other the cost is from 0.50$ to 4.00$ per engagement of the customer with content on Twitter page of the hotels Promoted trends Promoted trends put a sponsored topic at the top of Twitter s trending topics box, which reflects the most-discussed topics on Twitter at any given time. The appeal of Promoted Trends is that they spark discussion between customers to increase the brand s image. They also allow advertisers to drive Twitter users to their own websites (via links) and amass new Twitter followers. The latter will give the advertisers a direct communication channel with the Twitter until the Twitter user unfollow (stop subscribing) the brand. The capacity for a brand to generate (mostly) organic social media conversation at will. It is important to be mentioned that Promoted Trends product does not provide expected results every time Promoted Accounts Twitter suggests users for people to follow; promoted accounts puts these accounts at the top of the queue and are a way for brands to gain more followers. The recommendation is based on simple algorithm: Twitter suggests that users follow people whom the people they follow follow. With Promoted Accounts, brands can buy their way into the suggestion box. Twitter promotes its Who to follow feature heavily, with a tab at the top of every page. So promoted accounts are always in front of potential customers. Brands can also commercialize their pages with things like sweepstakes, e.g. Retweet this and follow us to get 20% discount for your next stay in our hotel! 18

19 4.1.3 Promoted Tweets Promoted Tweets are tweets that are ads at the same time. They appear in three places: On top of search results for certain terms. On top of a user s Twitter timeline if they follow the account that the tweet originated from, and, starting very recently. In the timelines of users who are not following the brand s account. Figure 2, p.19, shows an example of promoted tweet from Feed the Children. As you can see, user does not follow the page, but he/she still can see it in their feedback. Figure 2. An example of Promoted Tweet Twitter has begun rolling out the last kind of Promoted Tweets. According to industry observer John Battelle Twitter believes putting Promoted Tweets in users timelines will be its big moneymaker. Targeting the customers is the key, both in terms of advertiser and user acceptance. Twitter targets these tweets based on lookalikes : users who behave similarly to users who also follow the account. Based on the kind of Twitter accounts a user follows and other data like key words in tweets, Twitter will be allow advertisers to target ads based on: Interests e.g. movies, consumer electronics, etc. Audiences e.g. influencers, conversationalists, etc. Demographics. 19

20 Geographic. Device. The broad rollout of Promoted Tweets suggests that Twitter is moving in the same directions as TV, newspapers, and other ad-supported media: people tune in to be entertained and informed. And like the other media, this content is presented with commercial interruption Facebook ads Facebook has three sales channels to interact with advertisers: Direct channel deals with the largest global brands, for which Facebook has dedicated account teams to manage the relationship directly with advertiser and their agencies. These are generally referred to as managed account. The important point to know is that certain products, especially Premium, are only available to managed accounts. Inside channel works with the next tier of clients, who may be spending in the hundreds of thousands dollars per year on Facebook. These clients will have a sales representative whom the deal with directly to buy advertising, but they do not have quite the same level of strategic support as managed accounts. The rest of advertisers interact with Facebook via the online, or self-serve, channel. Facebook has developed broad amount of different ads to help advertisers to reach their goals Traffic and leads for companies website One of the most common purpose of Facebook Advertising is driving traffic to companies website. This can be either to increase companies websites overall reach or to send users to a dedicated landing page and have them buy companies product, sign up for a newsletter, or participate in some other kind of lead generation. Below is a list of ads to purchase this goal: Domain Ads. They can be only displayed on the right column and it is important to know that this ads are not mobile-friendly. Title, short description and the URL can be chosen by companies to be displayed. Nowadays, it usually underperforms in terms of its clickthrough rate (CTR) but its cost can be cheap. (Figure 3, p. 22) Page post link. This is the most common of all the Facebook ads types. Page Post Link ads (aka Newsfeed Ads) feature a big image that is great to catch user attention. Companies can test both the post text and the link description to better explain their offer. These ads perform really well and have the side benefit of generating Like for 20

21 companies page. It is important to remember to check and reply on every single comment. Multi-product. This ad type is available only in the Newsfeed, desktop and mobile. It is very similar to the Page Post Link ad but instead of featuring only one link, it supports up to three products and links showcased. With a single ad companies can promote three different products, each one of them with its own picture, link and title Likes and engagement for companies page All Facebook ad types are great for Facebook Marketing. Companies can use them to increase the number of Likes on their pages and to increase the reach of content posted by companies. Page like. This is the go-to ad for increasing page Likes. It can be displayed on all placements and will include a visible call to action for users to immediately Like companies page. It is very important to find the right image for this advertising to achieve great performances. It is necessary to remind that this ads are not about getting the cheapest Likes, it is about to find right customers. Page post photo. This Facebook Ad type is to show your potential clients attractive pictures. The most important is to pick the right image. It is also possible to insert a link in the text description of the post to increase traffic of companies website. Page post video. This Video Advertising is about to show potential clients the products the companies are selling. The downside of this type of ad is that producing a good quality video is time consuming and expensive. Page post text. This ad format is focused on page engagement. However, there is very little reason to use it instead of the Page Post Photo ad that pictures simply perform better Installs for mobile or desktop applications Mobile Application Install ads present a unique opportunity to reach more potential clients through their mobiles and tablets and to promote companies own applications. Mobile application. This ad is displayed only on the mobile newsfeed. When users click the Install call to action, the App Store or Google play Store will immediately pop up. When using this Facebook ad format, companies will have many additional targeting options to fine-tune the potential customers, e.g. companies will be able to choose which ios/android version customers are supposed to have, or if companies want to target just mobile devices or also tablets. 21

22 Desktop application. This as unit allows companies to drive users to companies Facebook application. Since Facebook apps are not supported on mobile, companies can only target either the desktop Newsfeed or the right column. It is crucial to remember that the rating of companies app is shown below the picture to make sure to have a good score Visitors for companies store or event Those ads help companies to drive visitors to physical event or store. Event. Facebook events are a great way for event organizers to attract more visitors. If companies want to maximize the reach of the event, the usage of this ad unit will help. According to the size and relevance of the event companies promote, they may limit the geographical reach of the ad to people living in the same city or region as the event. Offer. This ad helps to attract more potential customers to physical buildings of the companies. To create an offer, the page need at least 50 Likes. When the Offer ad is live, any user who click on ad and redeems the offer will receive an containing the details and terms of the offer. Figure 3. An example of Facebook ads 22

23 4.3 Google+ ads (aka +Post ads from Google) With Google +Post ads, companies pay to promote their valuable Google+ content as an advertising on relevant third-party websites. Companies can promote any of their public content as pictures, videos, updates and offers. Important to know that +Post ads are not just within uthe Google+ stream, they are served through Google s Display Network and companies can handle them through their AdWords account It is good to describe what Google s Display Network is. It is a paid ad service that shows companies ads (e.g. companies +Post ads) on relevant websites and to the audiences most likely to be interested in companies product and/or service. (Figure 4, p. 23) Anyone can see companies +Post ad content, but the special thing about these ads is that users who are logged into Google can share, +1 or comment on companies content right in the ad, without going to Google+. If the content includes a link to companies websites, users can clock through. Figure 4. An example of Toyota Google+ Ad If companies want to use +Post ads, they should be a qualified brand on Google+, what means they need to have over a thousand followers. There are several ways to create +Post ads, which are mentioned below. 23

24 New Engagement Add Campaign. This is the option to start completely from scratch through companies AdWords account. Existing Engagement Add Campaign. This method is very similar to the previous one, nut rather than create an entire campaign, companies will choose from an existing one and create a new ad within it. Ad Gallery. The AdWords Ad Gallery is used to create ads using companies own customized texts and logos. Companies Google+ pages. Instead of using AdWords account, companies can create +Post Ads directly from their Google+ account. Once companies have created or found a public post that they want to promote and the post will be promoted within Google. 24

25 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 5. CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY The purpose of this survey was to investigate consumer s habits in the process of booking an accommodation for a trip, related to Social Media. The questionnaire s data were collected during April 2015 through various Social Media. The questionnaire (appendix 1, p52) was sent through Social Media such as Twitter, Facebook, Vkontakte (Russian analogue to Facebook) and Pikabu (Russian entertaining social media website) to people who travel at least once per year for at least 2 days, which means there is a night stay needed. The goal was to get at least 50 respondents, which was almost exceeded, as at the closing of the questionnaire form, there was 43 individual respondents; all of them were qualified for the analysis. 5.1 Profile of respondents Most of the respondents were female. Out of 43 people, 25 were women, which is 58 per cent and 18 were men, which is 42 per cent (figure 5, p.25). This can have several meanings. It can show that more women are inclined to take some time to answer online surveys or also that women spend more time online than men. GENDER female male 35% 65% Figure 5. The gender of the respondents The majority of respondents were between 18 and 25 years old (67 per cent). There were smaller amount of respondents aged Unfortunately, there were no responses from respondents over 36 years old, which makes this survey a representation of just two age groups (figure 6, p.26). The 18 to 25 group being so much represented shows that they are the ones using the most the Internet in their daily routine, as most of them started to use it when they were kids or 25

26 teenagers. According to Hudson 13, age and gender can influence customer behavior: male or female; young adults, adults or senior. AGE and older 0% 33% 67% Figure 6. The gender of the respondents Regarding the countries where the respondents came from, the author being an expatriate decided to divide the question into two questions: country of residence and nationality. Although 42% of the respondents are living in Czech Republic, but only 5% of the respondents are Czech, which means that 37% of respondents living in Finland are from another country (figures 7 and 8, p ). The culture from the country of origin and the culture of the country of residence both affect the behavior of people, as when moving abroad they bring their own culture with them, but then slowly merge part of the new country culture. According to Hudson 13, culture is the norms, beliefs and rituals that are unique to each person. Moreover, according to Hofstede culture is the collective mental programming of the people in an environment 13. People residing in many different countries answered. Respondents living in Russia were the most numerous as 18 people living there. Then 10 people from Czech Republic and 5 people from Malta answered the questionnaire, followed by three people from Ukraine. Other countries with only one respondents of each included France, Norway, Finland, United Kingdom, Kazakhstan, Brazil and Spain. (Figure 7, p.27) 26

27 Country of Residence Brazil Spain Kazakhstan United Kingdom Finland Norway France Malta Ukraine Czech Republic Russia Figure 7. The country of residents of the respondents In total, the questionnaire got respondent from 11 different nationalities and countries of residence, mostly from European countries. As for nationalities, the majority were Russian people with 25 respondents out of 43. Russian people were followed by Maltese and Ukrainian people, with respectively 5 and 3 respondents. Czech Republic and Italy both brought two respondents, while Iraq, Netherlands, Brazil, Finland, Thailand and Spain brought 1 respondents each. (figure 8, p.27) Those results show that the answers to the survey will mostly represent a Russian point of view, and a world mix point of view. 27

28 Nationality Spain Thailand Finland Malta Brazil Italy Netherlands Ukraine Iraq Czech Republic Russia Figure 8. The nationality of respondents 5.2 Travelling preparation behavior For companies to develop their marketing, it is essence to know how the potential customers behave regarding travels. When do they travel and why? What Social Media the use to prepare their trips? The survey tries to answer those questions. It is important to know how if the customers are people travelling a lot or not. Out of the 43 respondents, per cent declared travelling 1 to 2 times per year, per cent 3 to 4 times per year, and per cent 5 or more time per year. In addition, small percentage of respondents, as 9.30 per cent, do not travel at all. (figure 9, p.29) 28

29 Figure 9. The frequency of overnight travels per year The reasons for travelling are various. Most of the respondents, per cent, travel for leisure purposes. Other reasons of travelling were seeing family and/or friends, with per cent of the respondents, and business, with 6.98 per cent of the respondents. With 6.98 per cent were other purposes, which included hunting and hobby interests as anime and photography. (figure 10, p.29) Figure 10. The reasons for travelling 29

30 Most of the respondents travelling choose a hotel to sleep, followed by respondents staying at friends or family. Those latter are the one who also travel for the reason of seeing friends and/or family. Another important accommodation, mostly used by students and young people, is hostel (figure 11, p.30). Under the other accommodation was presenting camping by 9.30 per cent. Altogether per cent of the respondents prefer to book a hotel or hostel when travelling for 2 days or more. Figure 11. The kind of accommodation booked by respondents It is then important for the hospitality companies, such as hotels and hostels, to be aware of what sources people use when they want to choose an accommodation. Knowing that will help companies to develop their online marketing strategies where the potential customers are looking for information. The question about the sources used to look for information about accommodation showed that people are widely using the Internet for this purpose. Respondents could, for this question and the upcoming ones, choose more than one answer that apply to their behavior. Out of the 43 respondents, per cent of them go online to look for information about accommodation. Most of those check Internet hotel booking website such as Booking or Expedia, with per cent of them, or Internet accommodation website, with 18 of the 30

31 respondents. Reviews Social Media such as TripAdvisor or FourSquare where people will read others travelers opinions on accommodations is used by per cent of the respondents, and general Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter or Google+ is used by only 4.65 per cent of the respondents. In addition, important per cent of people ask their own family or friends when they want to be sure to stay in a good accommodation. According to Hudson 13 references groups such as family, friends, colleague and other travelers have a direct or indirect influence on a person s behavior. The one respondent does not use any of the mentioned options for preparing their trip. (figure 12, p.31) This research of information before booking an accommodation contains several steps of the model of consumer behavior (figure 1, p.14): level of involvement, identification of travel alternatives, and evaluation of travel alternatives 11. Figure 12. The sources used for information about accommodation 31

32 5.3 Uses of the Internet and Social Media linked to accommodation After knowing that more and more people use the Internet for their accommodation researches and booking, it is also important to know how they use it. For this research, the questionnaire focused on knowing then which Social Media people use and how they use them concerning travelling. In addition, they were asked what they find important regarding the e-presence of accommodations, which means where they would like accommodation to be on the Internet. What is somewhat important and very important as e-presence for the respondents are slightly the same (figure 13 and 14, p.33). For per cent of them is it very important that an accommodation is on a Google map or Google Local so that they can specifically see the accommodation on a map with pictures and other information, while for per cent it is somewhat important. For per cent of the respondents it is very important that an accommodation have its own website as it allows them to directly find information, book a room, contact the customer service, while for per cent it is somewhat important. Regarding the Social Media, they do not consider it is as important yet. Only per cent of the respondents it is somewhat important that an accommodation is presented on Facebook, while just for 2.38 per cent it is very important. This is definitely, because it is not yet so much used as a source of information about accommodation. In addition, for 6.98 per cent of the respondents it is somewhat important for an accommodation to be on Twitter, while 4.76 per cent of the respondents said that a Google+ page for an accommodation was somewhat important. This shows that for most people who answered the survey, most being Russian people, Social Media did not yet make their way concerning accommodation, mostly because most of the accommodations in Russia are not yet on the Social Media to show them how important it can be. Social Media marketing regarding tourism is still quite new, but it is developing quickly. According to Gillin 25 the growth and acceptance of the web as a means to disseminate information has been nothing short of astounding, and many experts now predict that the Internet will become the world s largest advertising medium within the next 5 years. Moreover, according to Evans 26 social media takes its roots in word-of-mouth, which is widely important for marketing. Word-of-mouth marketing can spread a message more quickly and convincingly than conventional marketing

33 Figure 13. Importance of the e-presence of an accommodation: weighted average Figure 14. Importance of the e-presence of an accommodation 33

34 Respondents are not using Social Media for travel information research and booking so much yet, but it is good for companies to know what Social Media their potential customers are using, so that they know where they should be to interact with consumers. According to Charlesworth 27 an attribute of the online advertisement that is missing in all other media is its potential for interactivity. The majority of respondents use Facebook, with per cent of them, followed by per cent using Twitter, per cent using Google + and 24 per cent using other Social Media. In other options were mentioned that three respondents do not use social media at all, as Russian analogue for Facebook, VKontakte, is used by 9 respondents, and in addition were mentioned TripAdvisor, FourSquare and Instagram (figure 15, p.34). All those Social Media will be analyzed in the following chapter, specifically for tourism businesses. Figure 15. The Social Media used by respondents 5.4 Social Media pages expectations Being online for hospitality company is becoming more and more important, as customers are using the Internet more and more for everything, especially regarding travelling. In addition, this will increase even more in the coming years, as the teenagers and kids from today are the ones who were born with the Internet, and do everything through it. Moreover, those people are the customers of tomorrow. Then it is also good for companies to know what people expect from Social Media pages. It will help to develop the e-marketing strategy in the right way and attract more customers. 34

35 Concerning Facebook, Twitter and Google+ the expectation are quite similar. Only one person out of all respondents skipped questions as he or she does not use Twitter and Facebook. With Google+, just four responders did not answer the question, as Google+ is not used as much as two other Social Media networks. However, with close look, all respondents who answered other can be counted as non-users of following Social Media networks. The most important things expected by the respondents were getting up-to-date information about the accommodation, obtaining special promotions and/or deals, and sharing experience about the accommodation (figure 16, 17 and 18, p.35-36). It was seen earlier that travelers share about their trips on Social Media, thus it is even better when the accommodation is present on Social Media, as the traveler can then share directly with the accommodation and tag the accommodation when sharing with their friends so that their friends can see directly more information about the accommodation. Following those main expectations, the wish for an efficient way of communicating online with the customer service was also mentioned by per cent concerning Facebook, per cent concerning Twitter and per cent regarding Google+ (figure 16, 17 and 18, p.35-36). Figure 16. Expectations on accommodation s Facebook page 35

36 Figure 17. Expectations on an accommodation s Twitter page Figure 18. Expectations on an accommodation s Google+ page 36

37 6. THE SOCIAL MEDIA IN HOSPITALITY MARKETING In this chapter, the author will go in depth in the world of Social Media and explain why hospitality companies should use each the one chosen and how they can use them, giving also advices how to attract potential customers. Moreover, the author researched which hotels and hostels of Prague were already present on the Social Media. 6.1 Social Media e-presence of Prague accommodations Tourism marketers have the possibility to be on the Social Media as a company by creating business account, and thus join the conversation with customers about their products and services. Companies can read, lead and participate. The cost of entry is relatively low, or even free in most cases, and the benefits are remarkable. Conversations lead to interactive dialogue, dialogue builds relationships and relationships foster affinity. It is how brands build loyalty. The use of Social Media is high and growing in all customers segments 28. In Prague, hotels marketers are working a lot with Social Media. The author analyzed in total 102 hotels in Prague: 33 five stars hotels, 28 four stars and 41 three starts hotels. (Appendix 2, p.56) Out of those 102 accommodations, 80 are having a Facebook page, and most of them posting regularly to market the establishment and attract customers. Almost all five and four star hotels use Facebook, meanwhile 2/3 of three star hotels are present there. (figure 19, p.37). It is not surprising, as Facebook is one of the most used and known Social Media in the world. Existence of Facebook Page star hotels 4 star hotels 3 star hotels Have Facebook Page Do not have facebook page Figure 19. Existence of Facebook Page Twitter is less popular within hotels in Prague as just 48 out of 102 of them have Twitter account. The biggest amount hotel users on Twitter is four star hotels with 64 per cent, then 5 37

38 star hotels with 51, and Twitter is the least popular between 3 star hotels with just 31 per cent present. (figure 20, p.38) Existence of Twitter account star hotels 4 star hotels 3 star hotels Have Twitter account Do not have Twitter account Figure 20. The existence of Twitter account Google+ is the least used by four and three star hotels, meanwhile five star hotels prefer Google+ to Twitter with 60 per cent existence on Google+. Only 19 per cent of 3 start hotels presented on Google+ which can mean that not all of them are aware of new social media network from Google company. (figure 21, p.38) The author believes that in future Google+ will be the most worldwide Social Media network Existence of Google+ page star hotels 4 star hotels 3 star hotels Have Google+ page Do not have Googl+ page Figure 21. Existence of Google+ page 38

39 7. ADVICES FOR USING FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND GOOGLE+ 7.1 Facebook At the end of year 2014, Facebook counted 1.39 billion monthly active users and 890 million people out of them are daily active users on average. Moreover, Facebook is presented all over the world, with approximately 82.4% of daily active users are outside of US and Canada. 29. Every day there are about 350 million photos uploaded, and 4.5 billion likes. Around 37 million pages have more than 10 likes, which means that they have 42 more than 10 fans. 745 million users use Facebook also on a mobile device such as phones and tablets. The average time spent for a visit is 21 minutes, though regular users will make several visits per day. On Facebook, 58% of the users are female and 42% are male 30. Facebook can be used efficiently and effectively by businesses in two main ways. Firstly, they can use it for community building by creating conversations, driving awareness and increasing their customer base. Secondly, they can use it as a marketing and promotion tool: through the building of a community they have the opportunity to market and promote their products, services and events. Using Facebook as a marketing and promotion tool can be useful in driving traffic to his or her own website or in promoting a product/service launch or a special offer 31. To start using Facebook and create a business page the very first thing a company will need is a Facebook personal account, as they need one to hook their Page to. It can be the account of one of the person who will take care of updating the Facebook Page, or one created especially for that so that every staff member updating the Page can use it 31. A business Page contains various elements, which are good to know before starting using Pages, in order to use it efficiently from the start: Cover photo: this should represent the hotel s brand image. Profile picture: the best is to use the hotel s logo there. Composer: there the staff member can write to post regular updates such as text, pictures, polls, videos and so on. Friend activity board: there people can see how their own friends who like the Page are engaging with that Page. Moreover, there is the possibility for the company to do various things with their posts. They can pin the most important story of the moment in order to mainstay it on the top of the Page for up to 7 days. This is an interesting way to highlight special packages or special 39

40 prices for rooms or services. They can also highlight other important stories, and hide stories that are not relevant anymore 32. When starting to write posts on a Page it is useful to know what are successful posts that will be liked by potential customers. Posts should be short, between 100 and 250 characters, or visual, pictures and videos get 120% more engagement 32. Knowing those basic things, a company is ready to be active on Facebook and engage with customers. However, to attract more people, especially potential customers, it is good to learn some tips about what to do with a Facebook business Page. Here are five tips that need to be known is that a company should: Offer value. Hotels Facebook page is a great venue for updates on companies business. Offer great value by combining a timely mix of content about companies business (product tips, sales events, behind-the-scenes items and photos) with third-party content, such as links to industry blogs and forums. This builds credibility as a resource of value to users. It is good to try including a regular weekly or monthly feature, such as a discount of the week with a special offer on a product or service. Be strategic with images. Companies do not need to post stand-alone photos of products and/or services. It is better to show them pictures being upload by happy, satisfied customers. In addition, make it easy for fans to tag photos of their own, wherever they use your product or service, and share these as well. Avoid lengthy posts. If companies want their posts to be read by fans, it is better to keep them short, generally between characters. (Even shorter posts of characters are likely to be more easily absorbed by fans.) Focus on engagement. To stimulate users to get involved with business, companies can try asking questions and offering polls that invite a response. At the end of a post, they should invite fans to comment, like or share. When people do respond, companies should keep the conversation going with comments of their own. Connect like a friend, not a business. Facebook is all about the personal experience, so companies should treat customers simply as friends. They need to post news and updates in a simple, informal and fun way 33. This is not a lot to do, but more can be done through Pages to attract people and get new customers. On a Page, a company can also: 40

41 Offer unique products and/or services. Set up a Facebook URL that reflects the business name. Create a custom branded Facebook application. Use applications that allow to offer special discounts to the fans. Experiment with Facebook Ads to get more fans (more about Facebook ads in chapter 4.2) create fans various groups in order to segment the status updates. link other Social Media to the Facebook Page 34 All those tips will help a company to grow their fan base, make fans engage with the company, moreover, even make those fans become customers, if they were not already. If a company s Page is interesting, users will become interested by the company itself, which means in tourism, that when organizing a trip, they will be more likely to choose this accommodation if the Page is attractive and has interesting posts. Figure 22, p.41, illustrates an example of Facebook page for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Figure 22. An example of Facebook page 41

42 7.2 Twitter In 2014, there were over 645 million Twitter accounts, 289 million out of them are active Twitter users. Average of 58 million tweets posted per day. The top 3 countries connected on Twitter were the United States, Brazil and Japan 35. It is then interesting to know what people do share on Twitter, how they access it and how they decide who they will follow. 72% of the users will post personal updates, followed by 62% who will post work updates and 54% who will post general life observation. 55% will share links to news stories, while 53% retweet others. 78% of the users access Twitter through the mobile devices. 69% of users will follow people that were recommended by their friends, 47% will search on Twitter who they want to follow depending on their interests, 44% will follow users suggested by Twitter, and 31% will follow users that were promoted % of twitter users will share photo, while 28% will share also videos and just 24% will tweet their location. 24% of users check Twitter several times a day, 12% will do that once a day 37. For companies that are new to the world of Twitter, it is important to learn some vocabulary, as Twitter uses its own jargon, most of it which were created by the users themselves. Here is a list with definition of those important terms to know before starting: Tweet. A tweet refers to a single Twitter post. It is also used widely as a verb to express the action of posting. Hashtag (#). When users wants to designate related messages, they come up with a short term and prefix it with the # symbol, called hashtag in the Twitter world. Hashtags can designate various things such as events, groups of people, trendy topics, and so symbol followed by a user name is a link to that user page. also are a way to send a public message to a user. It will appear on your page for everybody to see it, and the other person will be informed that he/she got a message. Thus, it is a key tool on Twitter, helping you discover new people. Retweet. It refers to the action of sharing other users tweet and giving them credits. Retweets, also shortened RTs, help important messages work their way around Twitter. Being retweeted a lot is a sign of influence on Twitter. When someone posts interesting tweets, other users will retweet those tweets to share them with their friends. 42

43 DM. This refers to the private message option of Twitter. DM, direct message, fit the usual 140-character mold. But in order to send a DM to a user, this user has to be following you 38. When creating a business Twitter account, few things are good to do first, to ensure the company has a good start. Before posting any tweet, it is necessary to take the time to observe people on Twitter and especially to understand the ways people talk about company, as Twitter is a great medium to have conversations. Twitter also gives an accommodation to the opportunity to show the personality behind the organization. This will help to grow conversations and develop relationships. However, users do not want to talk with nameless entity. Therefore, the company must decide who will take care of Twitter. It can be one or more persons, but those need then to be identified using the 160-charactio Bio in order for the users to know whom they are dealing with. Moreover, when answering to someone it is then good for the person writing to sign messages with initials, in case more than one person takes care of Twitter. An even more important thing is to make sure the company is findable through the Twitter search. For this, the hotel name must be written in the Name field 38. After that, the company is ready to tweet and be active in the conversation with the other users. There are four main tips to apply for a business to drive awareness, attract potential customers, and make users follow the company. A business account should retweet two interesting tweets per day. Retweeting being an essential part of the way people hold conversations on Twitter, to show to their followers that they are interesting which is a good way to build relationships. A company should follow 10 new people per week, which helps to get more followers, especially users that follow the tourism industry s experts. Moreover, a company should follow almost everyone that follow their account, as when doing so it opens the DM channel, which can be very useful for customer support. It is good to write at least 3 new tweets every day. Those can be business related, promotional, something fun and interesting, and so on. A company should not forget to use the hashtag # symbol to ensure their tweets appear in trending topics 38. It is also important to mention 4Cs rule, which applied for companies using Twitter: 43

44 Consuming content. By following the right accounts, including those of industry experts, news sources, customers and competitors, hotels can get access to must-know information quickly with Twitter. Creating content. Hotel representatives can establish thought leadership by creating content through the lens of their selves or their business as an experts. Whether they use Twitter to link to content that they have created elsewhere (such as through a blog or being quoted in an article) or through short (140 characters or less) tips that they distribute through Twitter, their knowledge can raise their profile and gain their followers and customers. Curating content. Hotels can gain a strong following without doing the heavy lifting by sharing information that they find elsewhere - either online or through other twitter followers - that is of interest to current and potential customers and clients. Communication. Twitter is an easy way to connect with current and potential customers, by tweeting directly to them, or using their Twitter handle to thank them or highlight them. (figure 23, p.44) Figure 23. An example of interaction Holiday Inn with customer via Twitter 44

45 By following those few important tips and 4Cs rule, the company should already have a good start and be able to attract potential customers. In order for users to find the company it is also a good idea to a link to the Twitter account on the company website so that customers visiting the website can know about the Twitter account. To keep users interested, hotels should not post only about the company. The staff taking care of Twitter should think of it as a way to exchange mutual interesting information. Therefore, instead of tweeting only about the company, they can also post inspirational quotes, third-party links, pictures, resources and tips that would be of interest to people following the company. As a tourism company in Prague, interesting tweets could be about Czech Republic, Prague, what to do in the area, weather forecasts, tourism news, Czech culture and cuisine, and so on. Then when tweeting about the company, it is also good to vary the type of tweets, with posts such as news, deals, special offers, events and so on. Moreover, the persons taking care of Twitter would raise the interest of the followers by tweeting personal updates, even if work-related. This kind of tweets makes them feel like being part of the company, part of a community 38. When a company is actively using Twitter, it will happen that users come to give feedback, those being negative or positive. It is then the time for the company to show that they can offer solid customer support even through Twitter. The good thing is that when a customer will write a feedback with about hotels, they can then answer publicly, demonstrating their company s responsiveness. When customers come to ask questions this way, it is a possibility that more people would have the same question, so it is a good idea to show the answer publicly. Of course, for some more private issues, the DM option can be used. In addition to and DM questions and feedbacks the company gets, it is wise to have a look on Twitter search and respond to complaints about the company, as usually the name of the company will appear in the tweet Google+ Google+ is the second most actively used social network with million active users 36 and 20 million out of them are unique mobile users 39. All Google tools are linked to each other. If someone uses one of the tools, he/she can use all the other tools with the same account. Out of those million people, 300 million are active in Google + stream. Moreover the Google +1 button, which is the way a Google user shows he likes a publication on the web, is served more than 5 billion times per day

46 Google + is all about people and the relationships between people. For hotels, it is a way to connect with customers. Moreover, it makes hotels more findable on Google search, as Google indexes it. A great tool that is unique to Google + is Hangouts. It allows representatives of companies to have live videos conversations with their customers or clients, with up to nine people at a time 41. To create a Google + page for a company, a personal account is needed. Either one person of the staff can use its own to hook the page to it or a special personal account can be created for the purpose. Then, when creating the hotel s page it is good to fill the information sections with as much details as possible, as it will be directly linked to Google + Local, Google Map and all other Google tools. To start using Google +, there are tools on Google + to guide businesses and help them. The first thing to do when the page is filled and ready is to start the conversation by writing the first post. In addition, it is good to advertise on the company s website that there is a Google + account, a badge can be create for that. It is also a good way to make people who already know the company follow its Google + account and add it to one of its Circle. To get more followers, it is also wise to search for other companies or people involved in the tourism industry and add them to the Circles. The top 5 tips to follow when starting with a Google + page are: Set up both a personal and business page profile. After company post content on its business page, switch to the responsible person s account to give to business post a +1 and then share it. It is likely that responsible person s profile has more followers than company s business profile, so it can automatically increase the chances of company s business post being seen. Use hashtags. Hashtags are no longer confined just to Twitter. You will notice they are appearing in every social media channel because more people now use them in search terms. Google+ will help company find the right hashtag for the post. After writing a post, it is needed just to type a word or phrase in and it will show a selection. Two to three hashtags is enough. Follow trending topics and memes. Social media channels have created hashtags for special events and trending topics. Company will make new connections for example by joining any hashtags such as #fanpagefriday or #throughbackthursday. Company can predict trends by looking at a calendar of national/international holidays and major 46

47 events, e.g. #supermoon or #happyeaster and create relevant content in advance. You want people to +1 company s content, it is the same as retweeting works, so that company s page has a wider audience. Ask for follows. Approach with caution. Companies do not want to appear as though they are desperate for followers, so when companies ask people to follow their Google+1 business page add a strong call to action, says Martin Shervington at Social Media Examiner. He suggests to include a message highlighting the specific benefits of following hotel. For example, Please circle our Google+ page to get great social media tips. Follow others. Following other Google+ pages is another way to grow amount of followers for company s business page. Start with other Google+ business pages in the same geographic area as company is and create a circle on company s page just for those businesses. When people see a company is connected to people they know, they are more likely to follow this company back. Those tips are the minimum for a company to do on Google + to make the conversation go on, and to attract customers. Of course, more can be done to do better and have more influence on Google +, and attract more potential customers, such as: Making use of enhanced images and video galleries. Linking all the social media used by the company using the Recommended Links section, so that Google + followers can find the company on other social media. Posting regularly and keeping up the e-marketing efforts in order to secure the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) benefits that come along with popularity on Google +. The company should always keep in mind that Google is the most important search engine in the world. Attending public Google + Hangouts hosted by the hospitality and tourism industry experts in order to build relationships and expand the company web presence. Circling back users who follow the company to expand the reach of the company s Google + page. Figure 24, p.48, shows the good example of usage visual beauty on Google+ from Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack. 47

48 Figure 24. An example of Google+ hotel s page 48

49 8. Conclusion and recommendations Although most accommodations in Prague have a Facebook and Twitter accounts for their customers, half of them are still not using Google+. It is very helpful for hotels to be present on Social Media websites as it will help the company to drive more traffic on the accommodation website, increase communication with customers, improve online influence, reach more potential customers, and get higher ranking in the search engines results, thus linked to search engine optimization. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ have all together billions of members, which makes them very useful for businesses for e-marketing. For tourism companies it is a huge amount of potential customers. Moreover, all those social media are easy to use for companies and a lot can be done with them. Thus the author recommends to Prague accommodations to start creating and using business profiles on those main Social Media and to try to use their ads. Besides, e-marketing on social media is now growing fast. Thus it is recommended to use social media to not be left behind. Social media will continue to develop for businesses, and concerning hospitality companies new applications on Facebook for direct hotel bookings are appearing. The customer behavior survey, although mostly a Russian point of view, showed that nowadays the Internet is a very crucial part in the research for information when organizing a trip. Moreover, customers reviews are considered important to read to get an opinion about an accommodation. Thus a company should always monitor its reviews, at least on Google +, and answer each of them, especially negative once. Not answering negative feedbacks can do bad publicity for a company, as word-of-mouth can go fast through the web. Furthermore, customers share a lot before, during and after their trip, through social media. They share information, opinions, pictures of the accommodation and destination. Thus, it is good for the accommodation to be present on the social media used by their customers to get into the conversation with them while they share about the accommodation. 49

50 REFERENCES 1. Fink, A How to conduct surveys: a step-by-step guide. 3rd edition. Thousand Oaks: Sage Altinay, L. & Paraskevas, A Planning research in hospitality and tourism. Amsterdam: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. 4 Rowley, J E-business: principles and practice. Hampshire: Palgrave 5 Kotler, P., Bowen, J. & Makens, J Marketing for hospitality and tourism. 4th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. 6 9 McCabe, S Marketing communications in tourism and hospitality: concepts, strategies and cases. Oxford: Elsevier. 10. Middleton, V., Fyall, A. & Morgan, M Marketing in travel and tourism. 4th edition. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann. 11. Cooper, C., Fletcher, J., Fyall, A., Gilbert, D. & Wanhill, S Tourism: principles and practice. 4th edition. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall. 12. Page, S Tourism management: managing for change. Amsterdam: Butterworth- Heinemann. 13. Hudson, S Tourism and hospitality marketing: a global perspective. London: Sage 14. Charlesworth, A Internet marketing: a practical approach. Oxford: Butterworth- Heinemann Zarrella, D The social media marketing book. Cambridge, MA: O Reilly Media. 17. Twitter.com/about 18. Social Media in Travel 2011: traffic activity and Sentiment. TRAVDEX The Teavel Technology Trade Show Produced by PhoCusWright. July "Statistics Facebook." Facebook. Statistics for December 31, VanDerVeer, E. A. Facebook: The Missing Manual. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, Page xiii. Print Hattersley, M Google+ Companion. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley.23 50

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52 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Bachelor s thesis survey 52

53 53