Social Media Marketing Campaigns

The topic I found the most interesting in the Issues in Tourism class is social media marketing campaigns. Social media marketing is a strategic way to use different platforms to promote a company and their products. This term provides companies with a strategy to reach potential customers and connect with existing customers.
There are variety of techniques that are used to spread promotional messages on social media to encourage all viewers responses and behaviors in targeted consumer segments. It refers to the activities of different customers gathering and sharing online information. “Social media is a crucial tool for success in business today. People are already talking about the business using social media, companies could establish good relations directly to the customers” (Jashi, 2013).
Social media is one of today’s biggest forms of communication and it has not only changed the way people interact every day, but also communicating with companies. The impact and usage of social media marketing strategies are very crucial for satisfying the tourist demand around the world. Social media marketing is also free; however, many of the platforms charge for specific services. By measuring the performance of social media marketing activities are easier than traditional marketing as consumer interactions leave digital traces.

Social media marketing campaigns have the advantage of appealing to a broad audience at once. For example, a social media marketing campaign could take interest in current and potential customers, employees, bloggers, the media, the general public and other stakeholders, such as third-party reviewers. For this paper, I chose to write about social media marketing campaigns involving South Africa, India, and Bangladesh.
I am interested in social media marketing campaigns because I use social media all the time whether it is Facebook or Instagram and I always see campaigns pop up on my newsfeed; therefore, I feel like it is the easiest way to promote your business. One of my favorite things about social media marketing campaigns are that it provides an opportunity for the public to find new web content and click to your website. Also, social media marketing will bring in more sales for the business by advertising on the websites. For example, Twitter ads can target potential customers by location, age, and industry.
For the literature synthesis, I was able to find research papers about social media marketing campaigns about countries from all over the world. I found a paper on research gate, tourism.gov, and researcher’s world through Google. It took time to find papers for this certain topic because tourism marketing is so broad. I found ones that were interesting in my opinion.
My first paper I found for social media marketing campaigns was South African Tourism and the campaign I was interested in is #MeetSouthAfrica. South Africa is one of the most geographically varied countries in the continent. The main focus on why South Africa contains tourists is the safaris and the adventure. In April of 2013, some international travel bloggers wanted to participate in the campaign.
They traveled in South Africa covering all nine provinces. The aim for the campaign was to market South Africa as a tourist destination on the social media platforms. Five months later, the campaign has already had over 9000 tweets on Twitter, over 2000 photos on Instagram, and over 32000 views on Facebook.
The campaign was officially launched through Instagram by October 2013. Tourism is an important opportunity for South Africa and tourism provides employment as well. “If one quarter of the 8500 tourist accommodation establishments in South Africa began to offer live entertainment to guests, at an average of three entertainers per group, thousands of entertainers can be employed within days” (“Tourism in South Africa,” 1996).
My second paper I found for social media marketing campaigns was India Tourism and the campaign I was interested in is “How KFC India Boosted its Social Media Prescence”. It describes how KFC in India has boosted its social media presence in the whole country. I did not know that KFC is the most famous restaurant chains around the world. The campaign’s main goal was to increase their sales in India and target the younger audience by involving apps.
India is a country with different cultures and religion. Another campaign is “Design your own bucket” KFC campaign was where customers came up with their own creative KFC buckets. Also, another one of my favorites was “Radio KFC RJ Hunt” and it promoted the KFC in house radio channel.
The results that were found in this campaign study were KFC’s Facebook page increased from 6.2% to 93.8%. Also, KFC was identified as the five fastest developing social media brands that are taken place in India. “The Tourism industry of India has immense potential to reap economic benefits, if this precious fruitful response is utilized effectively and efficiently” (Mir, 2014). Tourism in India is growing more each day and I feel like tourists visit because they want to experience the culture it has to offer.
My third paper I found for social media marketing campaigns tourism in Bangladesh with Geeky Social. It is considered one of the best agencies in Bangladesh in which the marketers are certified in LinkedIn and Facebook. “The world thinks of Bangladesh as poor, flood-ravaged, and more of a disaster zone than a travel destination.
In some respects, the world is right but hiding behind these images is a country with a rich history, a strange beauty, and some interesting attractions but it is not, however, a destination for everyone” (Nazrul, n.d.). Bangladesh is a country with different beaches, wildlife, culture, natural beauty, religion, architecture, and river cruises. For example, “Bangladesh’s include Patenga, Parki, Cox’s Bazar, Teknaf, Saint Martin island and Kuakata. Among these Cox’s bazaar, Teknaf and Saint Martin attract more local and foreign tourists.
The tourists who want to stay relax, rescue from mental problem, physical fitness for body disorders and visit for open air are included in this target group” (Sarker & Begum, 2013). With the beaches authority should establish more hotels, motels and security. Authority can encourage local people to participate for their own economic benefit. The local authority should upgrade the structure of the different beach sites.
I agree with the paper about South Africa and #MeetSouthAfrica because it seems like an effective way to reach out to tourists on why it is an amazing opportunity to visit South Africa and to get the experience. I agree with these social media marketing campaigns for India because the country’s economy is growing quickly. I also agree with the tourism in Bangladesh considering Bangladesh is a developing country and it has lots of the tourist’s products, but all of the products are not attracting foreign tourists. In my opinion, Bangladesh can increase the number of receipts and tourists by using a niche marketing strategy.
In conclusion, all three locations have a part in tourism from all over the world, especially in South Africa, India, and Bangladesh that are discussed in the paper. The South Africa campaign, #MeetSouthAfrica, is a great opportunity to show the world what it is in this country. There are features on how South Africa is attractive, which is the wildlife, different cultures, outdoor activities, hunting, beautiful scenery, and the sunny climate. The bloggers posted photos and videos on the website of what South Africa has to offer and the more they post, the more views and followers they get.
India’s KFC campaigns were also a great way to promote their own business and to boost their social media sites. KFC thought of more than one campaign to get more revenue, such as “design your own bucket”, “How KFC India boosted its Social Media Prescence”, and “Radio KFC RJ Hunt”. Their mission is to target the younger audience and it is increasing revenue with KFC. With KFC having this much of marketing campaigns, their sales increased.
Bangladesh’s Geeky Social is considered one of the best social media marketing agencies with marketers that have the best experience in the tourism field. Bangladesh has beautiful touring sights and historical places to tour which are able to get the attention of the international tourists.