IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA: HIRING YOUR ONLINE SALESPERSONS FOR FREE

ZONGQING ZHOU, PHDPROFESSOR

COLLEGE OF HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM MANAGEMENT

NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, USA

PRESENTED ATISTTE CONFERENCE

OCT, 2010

WHO IS THIS GUY? The author of the first textbook on Internet

Marketing specifically for Hospitality and Tourism industry, a book widely adopted worldwide.

Create the first Internet Marketing course for tourism major in the world.

Can be reached by email: zhou@niagara.edu Or find me at facebook Lindedin Twitter Or simply google “zongqing zhou” or “ 周宗清” if you

know Chinese.

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA? A category of sites that is based on user

participation and user-generated content. social networking sites: facebook, LinkedIn Messaging sharing site: twitter Video sharing site: youtube Photo sharing site: flickr, picasa User rating/opinion site: yelp Personal publishing: blogging (eg.

Google’s blogger)

SOCIAL MEDIA

Why social media?

Are you convinced?

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INTERNET EVOLUTION

INTERNET MARKETING STRATEGIESWeb 1.0 Web 2.0 Web. 3.0Emails Word-of-mouth Marketing Mobile Marketing

(24/7)banners Virtual communities Collective individualismYahoo (directories) Google (dynamic links/SEM) One-click

communicationWeb portals blogging What I click is what I

wantHTML/Meta Tags SEO Media Integrationcontents Social networking And only God knows …Push marketing Pull marketing Customized marketing

IS IT A FAD?Who knows?

You judge for yourselves

FACEBOOK & TOURISM: AN EXAMPLE

WHAT’S NEW Google partnership with social media

THE FUTURE IS HERE: FOURSQUARE Social site FourSquare is gaining incredible

popularity. The basis of this site is for users to use their mobile devices to check-in to places they visit. For example, if Joe smith goes to Starbucks, he would ‘check-in’ to Starbucks on his phone. This would automatically update Joe’s Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts. Joe would also accrue points for his check-ins. Eventually, when he has the most points per place he would then become the’Mayor’ of that destination..

THE FUTURE IS HERE (CONT.) This is still in the web 2.0 phase. However,

where it is beginning to cross over is it’s impact on real life. Companies can run promotions at their store and give away a gift to their ‘Mayor’. For example, Starbucks could give Joe a free cup of coffee each week just for being the Mayor. Joe promotes Starbucks to hundreds of his friends and followers on social media sites and Starbucks encourages sales through the point accruals.

INTERNET MARKETING STRATEGIES: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH

Website as a marketing tool (contents) SEO and SEM Social Media Marketing Customized/user-generated social

network marketing

THE NEW AGE OF INTERNET MARKETING

社交化（人气化） (social buying) 顾客至上化 (customer is the king of all

kings) 个性化 (individualization and

personalization) （商家和顾客）互动化 （ Interaction) 透明化 （ transparency ） 产品换代加速化 （ short product life

cycle) 竞争加速化 （ increasing competition ）

THE HUB OF YOUR BUSINESS

ISSUES Privacy Ethics

Legality

QUESTIONS??