Abstract
Constantly changing nature of social network sites creates the need for continuous process of online benchmarking for identifying practices used by other parties. Facebook as the most used SNS still plays an increasingly important role as a marketing channel for destination marketing organizations (DMO). This paper explores basic characteristics of the official DMO Facebook Pages in order to quantify and present those characteristics in a regional context on the case of two travel markets (EU countries and U.S. states). The results show inconsistent practices in the EU and the USA. When comparing those two markets most similarities in practices are present in general usage of Facebook Pages, while indicative differences are recorded in terms of Page popularity, some posts' characteristics and most evidently in users' engagement. Understanding the Facebook usage practice under the regional spotlight can help DMOs and other service providers to evaluate their activities and if necessary to harmonize it to regional usage practice.
Highlights
Facebook is currently the most used and most influential social network on the Internet and represents one of the most popular websites in Europe and worldwide (Azevedo, 2011; Wells, Link, 2014)
In 2009, 84% of U.S destination marketing organizations (DMO) have created their Facebook pages while only 43% were created by EU DMOs
First and foremost, this study offers a theoretical contribution, as it outlines a regional approach to the analysis of Facebook Pages in the context of travel markets with same geographical and organizational framework of DMOs
Summary
Facebook is currently the most used and most influential social network on the Internet and represents one of the most popular websites in Europe and worldwide (Azevedo, 2011; Wells, Link, 2014). On December 31st, 2017, Facebook had reached the number of 2.13 billion monthly active users (Facebook, 2017), that is almost half of the world’s estimated online population (Internet World Stats, 2018). This arguably makes it one of the biggest media organizations in the history of humankind (Rieder, 2013). For many companies this social network is an indispensable element of the marketing activities (Stankov et al, 2016). Unlike individuals who use Profiles (web pages containing user’s information) to present themselves on Facebook, companies mostly use Facebook Pages. User can interact and affiliate as a fan of a company’s Page in the same way they interact with other Profiles (Cooper, 2010)
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