Volume 12, Number 3, 2017
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Research Papers:
THE VISUAL TURN IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Ulrike Gretzeĺ
This
paper describes recent changes in social media platforms and camera
technologies that are ringing in a new era of social media practices.
It specifically portrays the premises and promises of visual content
sharing platforms such as Instagram, livecasting platforms like
Periscope and the multi-media messaging app Snapchat. It argues that,
as a result of shifts in the social media landscape, new social media
marketing approaches are needed. It outlines opportunities and
challenges for tourism marketers in taking advantage of new visual
trends and calls for a better understanding of tourists’ visual content
creation and visual social media use behaviours to inform tourism
marketing practice.
FROM COMMENTS TO HASHTAGS STRATEGIES: ENHANCING CRUISE COMMUNICATION IN FACEBOOK AND TWITTER
Teresa Tiago, João Pedro Couto, Flávio Tiago & Sandra Dias Faria
Web
2.0 allows firms to implement innovative forms of communication and co-
creation with customers. Despite the value of social media for tourism,
few researchers have analyzed the content strategies of cruise lines on
Facebook and Twitter. This study contributes by introducing a new
approach to content strategy development, proposing a concept for firms
to enhance their social media activity - STAR model – applied to three
major cruise lines’ social media activity. Digital activity was proven
to be quite different among company websites, Facebook and Twitter, and
among the Norwegian, Princess and Disney Cruise lines. Companies tend
to have its own base of fans and followers, but these have a common
language, reflected in their hashtags. Results show that to have a
content-oriented strategy that maximizes engagement in social media, a
cruise line should share rich multimedia content that leverages
storytelling values and that can be used on multiple platforms.
THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON TRAVELERS 2.0
Emmanouil Stiakakis & Maro Vlachopouloú
Social
Media (SM) are one of the latest and most typical examples of
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), which have been
widely adopted in the tourism industry at all stages of a trip. The
objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of SM on travelers
2.0, as well as their views concerning relevant issues. A survey was
conducted to analyze the behavior of travelers 2.0, using a sample of
250 individuals from October to November 2013. The research findings
revealed that the reasons for which travelers 2.0 use SM depend on each
stage of the trip. Travelers 2.0 are influenced by the different
elements / services provided through SM, but to a different extent; as
this influence increases, it is more likely that holiday plans will be
altered accordingly. Despite the influence of SM on travelers 2.0, they
still have not gained their confidence and trust.
Aspasia Vlachvei & Andreas Kyparissis
The
objective of this study is two-fold: first, to review the academic
literature pertaining to social media strategies, in case of museums,
and second, to provide and empirical analysis of the role of social
media within marketing and communication strategies. We use first the
suggested by the literature metrics, to evaluate the museums’ efforts
and to measure the stakeholder engagement, and second a content
analysis is conducted, in order to explore how museums use their
Profile on Facebook to support their marketing and communication
strategies. In order to achieve the above research aims, we use data
from Facebook pages of the four main museums of Thessaloniki, Greece
over a whole year 2014 period. According to our results, museums’ main
efforts focus on promotion, communication and word of mouth, while they
don’t support enough yet innovation (through motivation of fans to
suggest new products and services, or co-creation) and reputation (by
motivating dialogue with fans and monitoring comments.
MUSEUMS & CULTURAL HERITAGE VIA SOCIAL MEDIA: AN INTEGRATED LITERATURE REVIEW
Chris A. Vassiliadis & Zoe - Charis Beleniotií
Museums
are increasingly using social media to include newer active experiences
and entertainment. Not only does this digital shift provide a cost-
effective, targeted and direct communication with the audience, but it
also expands the museum experience beyond the borders of time and
place. Although social media has triggered the attention of scholars,
no previous study has classified the main ways in which social media
affect museums. Drawing on a review of 54 papers this paper both
categorizes and presents four major effects. The first effect relates
to the opportunities of social media to museum experience and
communication. The second effect is the social media enhancement to
museums’ learning process. The third effect analyses patterns of social
media use in museums. The fourth effect involves both the problems and
the barriers attendant to social media integration in museums. This
study contributes by presenting new theoretical insights, research
topics and managerial implications.