“Our aim is to continue to grow the number of followers while maintaining our high engagement levels. Our social media channels provide a two-way dialogue, giving our fans the opportunity to interact and connect with us on a regular basis.”
Both Taj Dubai and Fly Dubai asserted they do not hire influencers to just collaborate with them on projects.
So, how do hotels and airlines select the right influencer for their brand from a sea of choice? “It is very difficult these days as everyone can become an influencer. Follower count does not necessarily translate to influence anymore.
“Everyone with an opinion about your product or service that posts on social media has the power to influence their friends, family and co-workers. We tend to partner up with ambassadors of medium-size follower counts but with higher engagement, relevance, substance and creativity to their posts,” Dixon said.
On the influencer side of things, Nadine Du Toit told Hotelier Middle East, "I need to identify with the brand to collaborate with them. It's been an amazing journey working with brands that people can identify with."
But not everyone is keen to join the influencer bandwagon. At sister title Caterer Middle East’s advisory panel for its upcoming Food & Business Conference 2017, there were dissenting voices.
Jumeirah Restaurant Group general manager Emma Banks said: “Most of us, when we launch menus or you do something, you invite them all in and you hope they have a positive experience, talk nicely about you and post nicely about you.
“Do we have a budget for them and do we physically pay them? No. And I have been approached by people charging AED 15,000 (US $4,084.41) or whatever and it’s just at the moment an absolute ‘no’. And I hope we all hold the line on this because it’s the thin edge of the wedge.”
M Management Company managing director Alex Economides launched Mythos Kouzina & Grill and Nola Eatery & Social House said he remained unconvinced about using social media influencers.
At the advisory panel, he commented: “I think you’re fooling yourself [if you work with influencers]. If you pay to get good comments and to get likes, and position yourself to look as if you’re great and maybe you’re not really that great.
“Getting the real raw feedback from the customer is so important in driving your success — if you don’t have raw feedback, you’re not going to be successful. You could be doing badly and yet you have nice, rosy comments — it’s like you’re shooting yourself in the foot.
“All you’re doing is damaging your business by lying to yourself.”
Rüya Dubai executive chef Colin Clague commented: “We had a table last week who came for a free meal and they were social media influencers, and they were posting pictures saying ‘here we are at Rüya’ — they didn’t post a single picture of the food.”
Despite the varied opinion on social media influencers, the fact is that they seem to play a significant part in the future of the industry.
According to a statistics report from Salesforce, 70% of brands are increasing their social media spend this coming year. That’s not all — according to The Social Media Revolution, user generated social posts account for 25% of search results for the world’s top 20 brands. And the more people mention your brand on social media, the more popular and relevant, that brand will be on Google’s search engines.
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