The importance of social media in tourism Over the years, social media have become a must do phenomenon.Today, they are no longer only used by Millenials but by just about everyone.As you may know, there are a lot of social media but Facebook remains the most influential social media when promoting anytype of commercial business, so never overlook the importance of social mediain tourism. Before dealing with the upsides of using Facebook, let’stalk a little bit about figures. Facebook is most popular social network with 3 billionmonthly users and more than 1.7 billion daily users.  42% of Facebook userspublish more travel related posts than any other topic. It is consideredas the king of social media especiallyin the tourism industry. Facebook allows you to be on a social platform where thereare a lot potential clients. It is very easy to use it, however effectivenesstakes experience and strategy. Through Facebook, hotels can easilyprovide relevant and consistent information andcan talk to clients, answering questions and fulfilling requests. It is a greattool to interact with users whoare looking for a hotel and they consider your hotel as an option. Do not forget that when you interact with users who publishposts on your wall, you are increasing your chance to gain visibility. In fact, when they post somethingon your wall, it appears on their friends’ newsfeed so their friends might likeyour page as well. Social media can also be used as a customer service through which guests askquestions and give their opinion whether it is good or not and you, as amarketer, answer directly through your account. Never forget that their feedback is essential since it will help youfigure out what works and what you have to improve. Ultimately you can retaincustomers and attract new ones. Never forget that people attribute more importance to whatpeople say about your hotel than what you say about it.  That is the valueof user generated content (see our blogpost about user generated content and how it can skyrocket your marketing). Promoting your hotel and spreading your message on socialmedia, costs very little. However, to be effective and achieve conversions, youhave to diversify the content youpublish. Do not lust publish hotel related photos, you need to publish informationthat your potential clients find useful in general (not just for your hotel).  Sometimesyou need to create competitions, or reward user generated content (for examplereward existing customers who post their photos and experience during theirstay, with a discount voucher for their next stay). Whatever the kind of content you decide to publish, yourposts have to be consistent, interesting and compelling. Your content has to beas direct as possible and has to catch users’attention. Quality content can make you gain a lot of visibility andincrease your profit on a long-term basis. Facebook is your best opportunity to create relationships with your guestsand create a community. Once youhave created a community, you will easily find advocates who will shareyour content withthey own friends or community and they will become your hotel’s promoters. Today, people mostly use social media on their phone. In fact, almost 72%use social media on their phone. It allows them to be online all the time andit allows you, as a marketer to communicate with them whenever you want andwherever you want.  Take note however, people tend to book hotels for holidaysduring late afternoon hours, so you most converting content should be boostedduring late afternoon hours, and remember, time is different in different partsof the world. Finally, always keep in mind; your social marking activity mustconvert.  If you do not get sales from social media, you must be doingsomething wrong.

According to Facebook, nearly a third of SMBs did not operate at all during the pandemic. Those that have been able to keep their doors open during the pandemic are up against two major challenges: Having enough cash to run the business and enough customers to keep things going. To help ease the economic disruption caused by COVID-19, Facebook has launched Facebook Shops, a mobile-first experience that allows businesses to easily create online stores that live on the business’ Facebook Page and Instagram profile. Business owners can choose the products they want to feature, or upload collections with up to 30 items, and then customize the shopping experience with their choice of fonts and colors. Once up, customers will be able to browse, save or order products directly in the app and businesses will be able to communicate with customers about products in their Facebook Shop via Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. CEO Mark Zuckerberg called Facebook Shops “easy to create,” “native” and “fast” – offering a consistent shopping experience across Facebook’s family apps. The new tool is free to set-up but Facebook’s Vice President of ads Dan Levy said that Facebook will charge a “small fee” on each purchase made through the ecommerce platform – he said the real monetization benefits for Facebook come through driving more advertising since Shops can be featured in News Feed and Stories ads. “We’re uniquely positioned to be a champion for small businesses,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg during a Live video announcing the launch of Facebook Shops. The company mentiones that it has more than 100 million SMBs using Facebook services, “Most for free,” said Zuckerberg. But he confirms a majority of Facebook’s revenue comes from the small businesses that advertise on the platform. Saving SMBs by giving them direct-to-consumer ecommerce tools impacts Facebook’s own business model. Zuckerberg said he worked directly with the team that built Facebook Shops and that new features are coming, including an Instagram Shop which will be available this summer. Facebook is also adding a shop tab to Instagram’s navigation bar. The company is working on Live shopping features that will allow businesses to sell products during Live video events and loyalty programs connected to Facebook Shops. The ecommerce platform will eventually integrate Facebook’s AI technology to personalize the shopping experience and include AR capabilities. Facebook has also partnered with multiple ecommerce solutions, giving businesses the flexibility to use a variety of tools within Facebook’s ecommerce ecosystem. Zuckerberg called the launch of Facebook Shops the biggest step the company has taken to enable commerce across its family of apps.

IG Today Instagram is a social media platform that has traditionally traded in likes. Balancing the needs of artists, brands, and the average user is difficult however cyber safety comes first. It is apparent that a large amount of today’s current population highly depends on Instagram “likes”. This has been evident not only in businesses and brands however also in regular users’ daily lives. The IG Effect To begin with, users have focused on likes, comments, mentions and followers on Instagram as a method of measuring their popularity or brand recognition or even self-esteem for some regular users. It is apparent that this “obsession” or “addiction” has had a significant negative impact on their mental health. Unfortunately, many young Instagram users have mentioned that the platform brings on feelings of anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, loneliness, isolation or also the need to compare. It is understandable that in todays current era, social media Instagram users are comparing themselves to large brands and influencers and are feeling the need to compete. For example, exposure to thin bodies from influencers with thousands and millions of likes on their photos has had a negative effect on body and weight dissatisfaction as well as eating behavior. The IG Solution This has been a serious and worrisome issue for Instagram and a potential solution for “hidden likes” has been considered. The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri considered that hiding likes could be a step taken by Instagram in order to increase the safety of users experience within the platform. Although, this may be a big step closer to end negative mental issues it would also protect influencers who are judged and followed by a large number of users on daily bases. Even though likes could be potentially hidden from the public view, users will be able to see the amount of the likes they have received making sure that this change won’t affect measurement tools for businesses and creators. According to Adam Mosseri, “The idea is to try and depressurize Instagram, make it less of a competition, give people more space to focus on connecting with people that they love, things that inspire them.” It is apparent that many people are questioning how will this potential step affect Instagram influencers and businesses. In regards to mental health and a safer method of communicating online, this could be a very positive potential change. Instagram stories do not have public metrics however, are extremely successful for increasing popularity with regular users, brands and influencers. Therefore, this could possibly allow users to focus on their content creation and creativity rather than numbers. Although, this could have a potential difficulty for brands collaborating with influencers it could also end the stigma of negative psychological experiences and dependence as well as help brands aim for reach and engagement rather than numbers (likes). Brands could begin focusing on creating customer loyalty and partnerships with influences aiming for on-brand content and authentic relationships with followers. Overall, this potential step of “hidden likes” reflects to making Instagram a safer and healthier social media platform for people to spend time and communicate between each other as well as mental health comes first. Business, brands and influencers could consider focusing on their action metrics and quality of content rather than vanity metrices such as likes. Although Instagram is a popular, well-known and exciting platform in many users lives it is important that anyone online feels safe and comfortable. Instagram stands against online bullying and this is one of their policies. They are committed to protect every user from bullying and have adapted features and tools in order to make sure you are safe.

Why branding is a modern business necessity. The golden years of advertising in the 20th century was a result of the increase in the number of growing businesses that needed to stand out from their competition and consequently highlighted the importance of the brand image in terms of the perceived product image and the emotions triggered by it. Once again, in recent years, and more importantly in the after-covid19 era, the increased digitalization resulted in a similar situation as well as in a higher digital competition between the brands. Even though the concept of branding used to be a luxury in which mainly the big brands like Coca-Cola and Pepsi acted upon, today it has become a necessity for every business to create a brand through a modern digital branding strategy. In simple words, nowadays advertising is cheaper than the ‘60s thanks to the digital platforms like Facebook and Google in comparison with the expensive traditional advertising like TV and billboards. Also, the competition is much higher taking into consideration that every business has an e-shop that generates the majority of their conversions and thus a larger percentage of their revenue than traditional sales channels. So, every business needs to make a step forward from the competition and create a competitive advantage by connecting the product with an emotion and thus, creating a brand. In a more precise definition, “a brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers” (American Marketing Association). So the brand is the result of the branding strategy, as “branding is endowing products and services with the power of a brand” (Kotler & Keller, 2015). Comparing the market in the 1960s to the current one, imagine that you are in a city. In the ‘60s you would need to drive to purchase goods and services limited only to the city shops, while in today’s market you can purchase anything you like from any store in the world with just one click. In parallel, instead of advertising your products/services in the limited audience of your city or country since there you would find your potential customers, you can now reach further out to the rest of the world utilizing digital and social platforms. Thus, it is essential to distinguish yourself from your competition by creating a brand that will make your products familiar to your target audience and link their use with the emotion they create. This will give them a reason to select your products over the competition’s, by stating clearly what your brand is and is not. By developing and applying a branding strategy, you will be able to attract and retain loyal customers by delivering a product that is always aligned with what the brand promises. Lastly, even if your products are similar to other competitive products, the brand you create will always be unique.

INSTAGRAM  launces reels in an attempt to keep you off TikTok Instagram is hoping to lure some creators away from TikTok with the rollout of a direct competitor, Reels, which is launching in more than 50 countries, on both iOS and Android. Similar to TikTok, Reels lets people create short-form videos set to music that can be shared with friends and followers and discovered while browsing the app. It’s the newest opportunity for Instagram to bring in users, increase the amount of time people spend in the app every day, and establish itself as a video entertainment platform. Reels allows people to record videos up to 15 seconds long and add popular music, as well as an array of filters and effects, over top of them. For creators looking to use Instagram Reels as a new way to build a following, Instagram has revamped its Explore page to create a specific landing spot for Reels at the top of the screen that people can vertically scroll through — similar to TikTok’s “For You Page.” Both private and public options are available. If you want to become the next Intagram Influencer, having a public profile will allow your Reels to be widely discovered. For people who want to share with friends, Reels created under private accounts will only post to a person’s Feed and Stories. The feature lives entirely inside of Instagram; it’s not a new app. The launch of Reels comes as TikTok faces a potential ban in the United States by President Donald Trump or a possible partial acquisition by Microsoft. ByteDance said that Facebook was among the troubles in its path, accusing the company of plagiarizing its product with Instagram Reels. Robby Stein, Instagram’s product director, said that while TikTok popularized the short video format, the two products are different. “I think TikTok deserves a ton of credit for popularizing formats in this space, and it’s just great work,” Stein said. “But at the end of the day, no two products are exactly alike, and ours are not either.” That’s a familiar line to people who remember when Instagram first launched Stories in 2016, and the company was accused of creating a Snapchat clone. Stein said that his team received “very similar feedback when we launched Stories.” But Instagram Stories quickly surpassed Snapchat in daily users and has continued to be a massively successful product. That history of success is one of the strongest reasons for Instagram’s team to think it can pull Reels off. TikTok did it first, but maybe Instagram can do it better. Part of that strategy is focusing on what Stein believes Instagram does best: creating easy-to-use technology for whoever wants to make a video. When opening Instagram to make a Reel, people will be able to slide to a new section of the camera that comes with an assortment of tools. Reels can be recorded either all at once or as a series of clips, or people can upload videos from their photo gallery. The camera’s new features are similar to TikTok’s, with options to mess with the speed, apply special effects, set a timer, and add audio. Instagram’s product team is “really positioning Instagram camera around a few core formats,” according to Stein. Stories is designed as more of a social feature — quick little snippets people want to share with their followers. Reels is designed with entertainment in mind, an area that Instagram wants to really focus on. Part of that focus includes the redesign of Instagram’s Explore page. More than 50 percent of people use Instagram’s Explore page in a month, Stein said, and now there’ll be a dedicated hub for Reels. This is essentially Reels’ equivalent of the “For You Page” on TikTok, a place for creators to possibly go viral or find new followers. “We’re going big with entertainment and [making Explore] the permanent place for you to go lean back, relax, and be inspired every day,” Stein said. “It’s our hope that with this format we have a new chapter of entertainment on Instagram.” Reels’ biggest difference from TikTok is its tie-ins to the overarching Instagram ecosystem, Stein says. People can send Reels to their friends directly on Instagram and they can use Instagram-specific AR filters and tools — everything that people want to do is part of an existing network. TikTok and Instagram are more than camera products, though. They’re communities for established and burgeoning creators. Stein said the company’s main goal is to “support the entire creator ecosystem,” including giving creators the ability to scale their reach on the platform and adding new tools to make their videos pop. For now, though, Instagram won’t be paying popular creators for their videos, as TikTok has started to offer. Unlike TikTok, INSTAGRAM has no plans to pay creators yet Instagram already allows for influencers and creators to earn revenue through brand deals and sponsored posts, but Instagram doesn’t directly pay people for content. TikTok didn’t either until very recently. The company announced last month that it’s starting a $200 million fund in the US to pay top creators for their videos. TikTok is hoping to expand that fund north of $1 billion. The message is simple: we want you to stay on TikTok and create for TikTok, and we’re going to pay you to do it. Stein had “nothing to share” for now about direct payments to creators, but he stressed that allowing people to monetize is important. There are a few other features that Reels will not have at launch. People won’t be able to “duet” with each other — a core TikTok feature that lets people interact with, build upon, and remix videos. Instagram also won’t allow people to upload songs directly into the app’s system. Musicians looking to use the app as a place to make a song go viral “can add original audio by just recording and that can live on later,” Stein said, adding that “other people could use it and