Simpliflying spent some time analysing the data from a recent EyeforTravel report understand how travel companies are approaching social media in 2012.
Here are some interesting findings from the study, Social Media and Mobile Strategies for the Travel Industry 2011:
- Location-based services such as Foursquare will be huge this year. Almost half of all the airlines surveyed wish to increase their presence in location-based social networks in 2012 (they're going to get you while you travel!)
- Over 70% of travel marketers are using social media to "build their brands" - a typically "fluffy" or qualitative goal which often can't be measured in concrete terms
- More marketers (56% vs 45%) are confident of having unlocked useful data to measure ROI on their mobile strategies vs general social media strategies.
- Almost 60% of marketers are either sure of the conversions to booking rate via Facebook or have a fair idea, which is rather impressive.
And here is the obligatory infographic: