Don’t be boring
But for all the benefits that instant messaging and interaction with potential clients brings — there are pitfalls. The sheer amount of interaction going on over the web means there’s a danger of overloading. How do you keep up with it all and whose responsibility should it be? Marketing? Sales? PR?

Advice from Kubler is that social media strategy should not be “left to the marketing people”. “They will use it to post PR and marketing messages which makes people switch off. You would not buy a newspaper that was only full of press releases would you?” he points out.

In terms of what you should be putting out there to your followers Kubler advises: “Keep it real. Your ‘online/social media’ image should match your company’s ‘offline’ image”.

And above all: “Don’t be boring”. “Social media is an exciting and fun medium and you need to come across as exciting and fun.”

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Basel Abu Alrub, general manager at Utravel in Dubai has built up over 2,000 followers
on his company’s Facebook page. He agrees that the key is not to “bombard” followers with PR chat.

“I do not believe in bombarding our followers with special offers that could in the long-term harass them. We keep our messaging simple, sweet, interesting, and informative and this in turn will guarantee to make us a more interesting brand.”

Or is it all just hype?
Despite the growing buzz surrounding social media, there is still a lack of solid evidence about what the return on investment of it actually is; and its value as a sales channel remains as yet unproven.

Kubler admits that there are “still some difficulties in measuring ROI from social media activities” but he argues “social media is definitely not just hype, but a fundamental change in the way people communicate and society consumes information.”

So if your customers are not exactly clamouring to talk to you on Twitter or Facebook yet — should you still be investing in it?
Alrub says yes, as social media acts “indirectly as a driver of sales”. “The way it works is simple: engaging your community using constant and systematic messages about travel will keep you top of mind.

When people are ready to buy a package from a travel agent, they are more likely to seek those who are at the forefront of their social circle, and the agent their friends ‘like’ on Facebook or ‘follow’ on Twitter because they are familiar with this agent.”