Buzzz it amit kaundinya_ximb

Social Media Strategy for Balcaon
Paradise Resort

Social Media Strategy Plan : Buzzz It

Social Media Strategy Plan for
Balcaon Paradise Resort
Report prepared for Buzzz It Competition - Samriddhi 2010

Report Submitted by :
Amit Kaundinya
Xavier Institute of Management,
Bhubaneswar.
Email id: u110127@stu.ximb.ac.in
Mobile No. : 7873223326

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Prepared for Samriddhi 2010 - Buzzz It Competition


Contents

1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3
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2 The Need For Social Media Marketing ............................................................................................... 4
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3 Defining The Strategy ........................................................................................................................... 5
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3.1 Company Website & Blog ........................................................................................................................... 5
3.2 Facebook ..................................................................................................................................................... 6
3.3 Twitter .......................................................................................................................................................... 6
3.4 Linked In ...................................................................................................................................................... 6
3.5 Youtube......................................................................................................................................................... 7

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4 Money Matters ...................................................................................................................................... 8

5 Measuring Your Success .................................................................................................................... 10
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6 Social Media Pointers ......................................................................................................................... 11
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7 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 12
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8 References ........................................................................................................................................ 13
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1 Introduction

Facebook (FB) has 400 million users. 200 million log into FB every day. Average user has
130 friends. People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook.
Statistics from FB press room

In today’s information age a large portion of the time spent by people is on the internet and a
major portion of that time is spent on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linked In,
Myspace, Youtube, etc. While traditional media (advertising on newspaper, Television) is still
the primary advertising mode, internet and social marketing is slowly increasing its share. Do not
be surprised if within the next ten years or so, social media marketing becomes the dominant
form of advertising and marketing your services. Making your brand presence on the Internet
is quintessential for any business of today. The question today is not whether you want to get into
social media marketing; it is how effectively you will position yourself in the social media.

With the annual population of tourists at 1.2 millions, Goa attracts 12% of the total foreign
tourists visiting India. The Balcaon Paradise Resort which is in the business of tourism and
hospitality caters to a global audience. Being a three star hotel, the target audience would be
the upper middle class and the higher class, internet savvy individuals. With its target audience
primarily on the internet, Balcaon Paradise Resort needs to develop a social media strategy on the
internet to favorably position its brand to its end customers. The report presents the steps Balcaon
Paradise Resort must take to enhance its internet visibility and widen the umbrella of target users
by developing a systematic and efficient social media strategy.

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2 The Need For Social Media Marketing

“Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and
scalable publishing techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to
transform and broadcast media monologues into social media dialogues.”

“Does your business need a social media marketing strategy? ”

If the answer to all of the below questions is “Yes”. Then your business definitely needs to take
the social media route.

• Is my business customer centric and spreads with word of mouth from customers?

• Is my business targeting a global audience?

• Do I need to know what your customers feel about your business and accordingly keep
improving and innovating?

• Do I need to spread brand awareness to a large audience at a low cost?

• Is my business targeting the internet friendly audience?

Balcaon Paradise resort being in the hospitality business would definitely respond
with a resounding “Yes” to all the above questions. Hence a social media strategy is
absolutely necessary for the Balcaon Resort.

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3 Defining The Strategy
Defining

“A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all” – Michael
Leboeuf

Given below is the detailed strategy for use of social media for the Balcaon Resort. The most
popular social media networks are classified below and the strategy is woven amongst each one
of them. A successful social media strategy for Balcaon Resort would encompass all the
platforms mentioned below and involve integration of all of them. Remember he, “Whole is
greater than the sum of its parts”.

3.1 Company Website & Blog
Your company office gives an idea of the financial status and represents the personality of
your company. Similarly on the internet it is your website that decides how your customers
will perceive you. It is very important to have a well designed updated website for Balcaon
Paradise. The name of the site should contain the resorts name e.g.
www.balcaonparadise.com. The lively spirit of Goa in the form of its beaches, its people,
temples and churches should come out clearly through the website. Colors used should be on
the brighter side. Avoid clutter as much as possible. Say a lot through pictures instead of
being verbose. Make sure you have testimonials of your loyal visitors in the top frame of
your site.

The website should be accompanied with a travel cum resort blog. Users should be given a
provision to register on the blog, and provide their Goa travel experiences. Guests who
have stayed previously in Balcaon Paradise Resort can share their reviews of the resort. A
blog provides a pull effect and drives your customers to you. The users of the blog will
sense a belonging towards the restaurant, a kind of emotional attachment towards Balcaon
and you are sure to build a loyal customer base. Online communities can be created once
the site traffic increases to around 500 unique visitors daily.

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3.2 Facebook
We recommend registering a business account for Balcaon Resort on Facebook and
creating a business fan page. Facebook advertising is expensive, has a low click through
ratio, and an even lower conversion ratio, we do not recommend this. Instead we
recommend the use of Facebook applications to engage users and build the Balcaon fan
following.

Games should be developed that revolve around the Balcaon Resort. For example, we could
have a treasure hunt game centered on Balcaon Resort. Facebook games go a long way in
establishing the stickiness effect, gluing visitors to your page and positioning your brand
in the mind space of your potential customers.

3.3 Twitter
Twitter is the micro blog of your company. The Balcaon Resort twitter profile needs to be
created and verified. The PR head of the resort should tweet the latest news and happenings
of the Balcaon Resort (special offers, PR reports, etc.). Refrain from posting any personal
opinions or comments. Tweet just the facts of the resort, the latest updates, etc. Follow
peers in your domain to understand the latest happenings in the hospitality industry. We
recommend the use of TweetDeck to eliminate the noise in tweeting and to facilitate the
tweeting process.

3.4 Linked In
LinkedIn is a website for the professionals. We recommend a profile being created for the
Balcaon Resort (and not for a representative of the resort). This is because the restaurant has
a perpetual entity. LinkedIn allows you to get recommended by professionals who have
had associations with you. Hence potential customers can be attracted seeing
recommendations of your current customers. LinkedIn serves as a good platform to attract
corporate clients to organize events in your resort and to establish long term
relationships.

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3.5 Youtube
Viral marketing is the need of the hour. There is nothing better to attract users than a viral
video. YouTube provides you with a large user base with whom you can share your videos.
Create a separate channel on YouTube and upload videos of events, functions, activities
taking place at the Balcaon Resort.

As mentioned earlier, all the services mentioned above should be used in an integrated
mode and not individually. As that would produce compounded effect. Integration basically
means integrating your website, Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and blog accounts together
such that updates on one of the platforms, updates on the rest. This can be easily done
through plug-ins that are freely available.

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4 Money Matters

“Its all about the money, honey”

The table below gives an estimate of the funds needed to kick start the social media campaign
and the operating costs that would be incurred. Fixed costs are onetime costs for the setup.
Operating Costs are monthly costs

Sr. No. Social Media Service Fixed Costs Operating Costs
Used (in Rs.) monthly (in Rs.)
1 Hotel Website 75,000 3,500
2 Facebook 30,000 20,000
3 Twitter NIL NIL
4 Linked In NIL NIL
5 Online Communities 15,000 2000

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The One Year Growth Strategy

Cost figures mentioned above are based on my experience (3 years) in the Social Media Marketing and
Search Engine Optimisation Business.

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5 Measuring Your Success

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be
counted counts” – Albert Einstein

Social media is not magic. There is no abracadabra spell that could turn your brand into a
“ROCKSTAR” within a small time. Keep realistic expectations. Expecting users to flock
on your face book page or your followers on twitter matching that of SRK are unrealistic.
And even doing a match of the revenue growth of your business after 2-3 months of kicking
off your social media strategy and expecting significant change is a highly unrealistic
expectation.

The results of social media are generally intangible but very important for a business
nonetheless. Social media is more of user engagement, user emotions, user relationship and
less of numbers and facts. All said, finally business is about numbers, we need figures to
plan our next move, to redefine our strategy or to strengthen it.

Social Media Tracking Tools :

1. Priced Social Media Tracking Tools: Tools like Spiral 16, Radian6 and BrandsEye are
available in the market. These are highly priced, upward of $ 600 monthly and we do
not recommend these. However all tools have a trial usage offer, which can be tried
out and if found beneficial can be thought of purchasing for a small period.

2. Free Social Media Tracking Tools: SocialMention is a free social media tracking tool
in which you can search for your brand and find the strength, sentiment, passion and
reach for your brand.
Google Analytics : This is the best analysis tool when it comes to analyzing your
website traffic. It provides demographic analysis, user bounce rate, repeat users, set
performance goals, find traffic sources overview,etc.

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6 Social Media Pointers

Ten pointers that Balcaon Resort should keep in mind for effective Social Media Marketing:
1. Ensure proper moderation of the blog, any comments, posts, tweets, which hurt the
general sentiment of the public or that smell of controversy, should be kept out.
2. Answer questions asked by users on the social media circuit. Do not dismiss any question
as silly and any user as a worthless one. Remember you are on the social media circuit to
answer those very silly questions.
3. Social Media is evolving fast and one needs to be adaptable and flexible enough to
move with its pace. What once was a rage (Orkut) has now fizzled out. You need to
constantly (every 3 months) review your social media strategy. If there are certain areas you
are not doing well on the social circuit, consider eliminating it from your strategy or doing it
differently. Play to your strengths.
4. Do not expect quick results. The results of social media marketing take some time to
show in; do not get frustrated with slow results. Have confidence in the strategy, invest
proper resources and the results would follow.
5. Treat everyone on your social media circuit with respect and importance. You never
know who might turn out to be a potential customer.
6. Help one and all. Even if some user on the social media circuit is not your customer, offer
all possible help in your capacity. You may just win over a customer.
7. Innovate. A stagnant website will not interest users. Keep updating your website with
relevant content. Just like your office needs renovation every once in a while, so does your
website. Consider redesigns of the website every 2-3 years. While it is important to be in
alignment with your competitors services, make sure that you have that extra edge that
differentiates you from your competitor.
8. Enjoy the social media process. If you do not like interacting with people on the social
circuit, then hire someone to do it. If you do not enjoy what you do, it is not going to work.
9. Protect confidential information.
10. Speak the values of the company. Whatever you blog, comment, tweet should be in line
with the company values and not personal opinions. On the internet once you do it you
cannot undo it.

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7 Conclusion

A Snapshot of the Strategy

*Traffic figures above are daily unique traffic on the website and blog.
*Followers are the combined follower base of Facebook, communities and twitter.

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8 References

1. http://goagovt.nic.in/gag/platou.htm : Reference for tourist population statistics.

2. Wikepedia : social media definitions.

3. Facebook.com : Facebook statistics.

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