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Social Media Strategy Review

OnlineTravelAgencies

Author - Mrinil Mathur With a love for coffee and reading, passion for social media

background. Her diverse experience in social media marketing and digital marketing speaks for itself. She believes in adding value to work every day. An amazing cook, and Angry Birds enthusiast she loves playing basketball too. Follow her @DigitalChhokri.

IntroductionOnline travel agencies are on an exponential growth curve. The new innovative trends, travel schemes and the disposable income with people these days is giving a boost to this industry. People are shifting to online booking from the traditional ticketing feature for almost all sorts of journey. Consumers have now tasted the advantages and benefits of online booking, thus giving ample opportunities to scale up and grow. Online Travel Agency is one sector which holds immense potential to make use of social media channels in the best possible way. Brands can expand their wings to several social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Foursquare etc, with varied range of content like contests, quizzes, food, culture, hotels, combos and so on, making the content interesting and engaging.

While the industry is sprouting on a growth trajectory, the growth of an individual agency social media plays a vital role. It is must to interact with customers and engage them with your brand. Scenic beauty, photographic locations, culturally rich posts grab maximum eyeballs and keep them glued to the brand, but there has to be a concrete plan in place to earn brand advocates for life.

Here five online travel agencies are studied in-depth on two major platforms - Facebook and Twitter for a period of 30 days. The study brings out interesting facts about these agencies and the various approaches used by these agencies on Social Media to generate some interesting conversations and build a strong relationship with their existing and prospective customers.

Social Media Strategy Review – Cleartrip.comCleartrip.com in an online travel portal allowing Indian customers easy booking of domestic travel and hotels. Headquartered in Mumbai, the portal was started in the year 2006 with the aim of making travel easy.

Here is the in depth analyses of Cleartrip.com on two major platforms, Facebook and Twitter studied for 30 days (Aug-Sept).

Audience Analysis

Cleartrip.com has an uneven balance in their gender distribution. The brand is liked more by the males rather than females. There is no specific reason for this gap as content strategy is not biased towards any particular gender, nor the brand favors any gender in their communication. Rather the approach in its content plan is more informatics rather than attractive. Out of all only 27.7% females contribute in posts & other activities and major chunk is captured by males making it 72.3%

.

Cleartrip.com on Facebook

Cleartrip.com has decent presence on Facebook with its followers approaching the mark of 1M, currently they have 947.5K followers with only 2K people talking about it. The average engagement ratio is slightly lower than expected. Brand is regular in posting content on their page and maintains the figure of 7 posts per week religiously.

Stakeholder s contribute 75% of overall posts and remaining 25% posts are posted by Brand i.e. Cleartrip.com

Content Strategy on Facebook

Clear Trip’s content strategy on Facebook is fairly simple with no specific campaigns in the mix. The Brands follows an identifiable pattern for posting content with little or no variations. This simple approach has fetched good amount of followers for the brand on Facebook but engagement still remains a problem. Like all the other brands from the sector, the Facebook Page for Clear Trip receives grievances on almost all the posts which are duly heard and responded. The post strategy comprises of lots of destination based posts, various kinds of offers, travel quotes and posts tailored according to occasions/upcoming events. Cleartrip’s Facebook Page is always sprouting with new offers according to occasions, on various offerings like domestic flights, international flights, hotels or packages for that matter. The deals on offer are tempting enough for the viewers to drop by and check for availability on dates they are willing to travel.

For any OTA brand promoting destinations with engaging content is one of the most

important aspect in the overall strategy. Cleartrip also incorporates this aspect in their mix with picturesque locations and some amazing facts that entice the viewer and push them to explore more.

ClearTrip leverages occasions and upcoming events effectively be it Independence Day

Another approach is to make the most out of the various features the destination has in store by highlighting them and connecting with the followers on an emotional level with listicles like 5 Things you just can’t afford to miss when in Hong Kong. This approach pushes the brand’s proposition subliminally and at the same time promotes the destination out rightly.

or Ganesh Chaturthi , the brand tries to make its presence felt with offers molded as per the occasion. One such occasion during the study period was the Long Weekends which is a potential selling period for all these OTA Brands. ClearTrip posted suggestion for its followers in and around Mumbai for the long weekend with a copy that hits the bulls eye and prompts them to book a vacation with them.

To reinforce the idea of weekend getaways and cash on the concept of extended weekends. The Brand pushed a new offer altogether – Flat 25% cashback on extended weekend bookings which was indeed a delight for the followers to plan on their vacation with Clear Trip.

Apart from this, the Brand also posts interesting trivia about different locations around the

world. Such facts are meant to keep the followers engaged and connected with the page.

Cleartrip also posts quotes on travel by famous travelers and even followers. The idea is again to keep the engagement metric up and running. The quotes are meant to touch upon the traveler instincts in a human being and in turn push them to travel more with Cleartrip.

Cleartrip.com on Twitter

Cleartrip.com joined twitter in September 2008, surprisingly they don’t have much of the early movers advantage on the platform. The Brand has 9000+ followers on Twitter which is on the lower side as compared to the others in the sector. The Brand is very inconsistent on Twitter, there are periods of irregularity. Some days the frequency is as low as 2 tweets then there are days which see 10-12 tweets without any logical connects. The Brand retweets content which is irrelevant to the followers and their business proposition as well. Unlike other Brands from the sector, most of the tweets are text based and only some of them are contextual. Either Twitter is not a priority for the Brand or they have completely misjudged the utility of the platform.

Content Strategy

The Content Strategy for Cleartrip on Twitter is very poorly planned. Amidst few relevant updates, there is a clutter of irrelevant retweets, updates which are loosely related to travel. While brands strive to synchronize their activity on various social media platforms , here there is no connect between the content posted on Facebook and Twitter barring a few offers and infographs. As mentioned, the frequency of posts is inconsistent. Probably Cleartrip plans to win over followers with content from various streams and they want to leverage the medium only for educating customers on the various aspects of travel. Most of tweets are based on special offers from the brand i.e offers on domestic flights with

a specific partner, on a unique destination/occasion. The tweets have a call to action for the followers to avail the offer.

Then there are tweets on travel quotes and generic quotes as well. These tweets though unrelated managed to get a fair amount of engagement from the followers on Twitter.

Unlike other brands from OTA , Cleartrip promotes destination with a link to third party news website the idea is to pin point a destination with a credible source of reference. Again this would create awareness and buzz about the destination and at the same time it will leave a subtle reminder for the brand.

Even on occasions like extended weekend, the brand prefers to stick to educating tone rather than pushing offers like they do on Facebook. The approach is to sustain buzz and hype around a theme and connect with the followers at a subliminal level.

Online Buzz

Surprisingly, Twitter seems to be more favorable platform for Cleartrip, as most of the mentions and digital impressions occur here. 60% of mentions are noted on microblogging network Twitter and remaining 40% mentions occur on social network Facebook. The reason for greater number mentions on Twitter is their customer service. Brand listens to the queries of its followers and gives its best to resolve it. It is good to see the efforts they put in to build a strong customer relationship management on Twitter.

Sentiment

Sadly Cleartrip.com receives a high amount of negative sentiments on Social Media. There is not much difference in negative and positive sentiments. The amount of positivity received is 55% and amount of negativity received is 45%, which too much for any brand. The reasons for this negativity are majorly booking related and transaction related.

The are several features which garner positive and negative sentiments for a brand, like Pricing, Branding and advertising, after sales etc. but for Cleartrip.com pricing and branding & advertising receives almost equal number of mentions – 43.9 % and 40.1% respectively, with after sales service not far behind at 16%.

Conclusion

Cleartrip.com is a known name in the Online Travel sector with a long list of loyal customers and fans. The Brand on Facebook is doing well with the varied mix of content but they really need to work hard on their content strategy for Twitter. The content strategy as a whole requires an aggressive push, self paced campaigns focused to meet short to long term objectives is the need of the hour. While Cleartrip.com is doing great on the customer relationship front, the brand also needs to focus on driving traffic , lead generation from Social Media. Social Media Insights on the engagement levels for different posts will definitely aid in defining the way forward for the brand.

Social Media Strategy Review – Goibibo.comGoibibo belonging to Ibibo Group is one of the top 3 travel aggregator site in India. Ibibo was started as a social network in the year 2007 and later got diverted into e-commerce with the launch of Goibibo.com, a travel portal, in the year 2009.

As the company has a history of being a social network platform itself, understands the importance of social media and therefore utilizes it optimally. They may not be equally present on all the social platforms, but have considerable amount of engagement activity across their platforms.

Here is the in depth analyses of Goibibo on two major platforms, Facebook and Twitter studied for 30 days (Jun-Jul).

Audience Analysis

Gender distribution of Goibibo’s audience is uneven with major portion being male. About 65.7% of posts are contributed by males and only 34.3% of them are by females. There is no definite answer to the question that which gender travels more, both males and females are equal travelholics, but while considering families, females are the deciding factor and males are the decision makers. Therefore this reason can be attributed to the big gap seen between the two genders. There communication strategy includes no gender bias approach.

Goibibo on Facebook

Goibibo.com is actively present on Facebook, with 1466495 followers and 3615 people talking about it. Brand’s communication strategy is not dedicated only towards travel but incorporates all secondary aspects associated with traveling like food specialties, shopping, accommodation, places to visit, culture etc. This kind of strategy has been very effective in reaching out to their followers and prospective customers.

Brand is very regular in content posting with an average of 5 posts per day. Daily content bucket will include variety of topics as discussed above. Stakeholders contribute 73.8% of overall posts and remaining 26.2% posts are posted by Brand i.e. Goibibo itself.

Content Strategy

Goibibo’s content strategy on Facebook has a brilliant mix of content varying from offers to food, destination based posts, and basic response based activities serving the purpose of customer awareness, engagement and persuasion as well. All the posts receive fair amount of engagement and response from the users. Although the comments section for these posts is flooded with customer grievances, the brand makes it a point to respond to each and every query thus maintaining the sanctity of the medium. As mentioned Goibibo posts information about the recent offers on the website to keep the customers aware about the benefits of booking with them.

The Brand also promotes the download of Goibibo Mobile App to increase mobile transactions which are more persuasive and mark customer convenience on top.

Goibibo has been instrumental in running occasion based campaigns in the past , one such campaign was GoFotoCon a photography contest which created a lot of buzz about the brand in Social Circles. The winners of this contest were announced on World Photography Day

To keep the engagement alive and make the Facebook environment more congenial for the fans and followers Goibibo conducts basic response based activities which serves multiple purposes like consumer insights , spreading awareness and building a comfortable relationship.The Brand understands the importance of compelling content in this realm of new age marketing. So the posts talk about customer’s interests and choices. Within this content lies the proposition of booking holidays, trip to xyz destination for the amazing scenery or the sumptuous food.

Another interesting aspect of Goibibo’s content strategy is that they use the medium to address all kinds of stakeholders be it customers, investors, board members or the media.

Goibibo on Twitter

Goibibo has been active on twitter since 2009 and they have decent number of followers 6900+. While the brand has been one of the early adopters to Twitter. They have scaled up their efforts on Twitter recently which is a great sign. The Frequency of tweets per day is 4-5, which is a good number event the style of communication is tailored according to the medium. The Brand utilizes the medium to the best of its potential by getting into real time conversations with customers, retweeting relevant tweets from its stakeholders and partners.

Content Strategy

The Content Strategy for Goibibo follows a similar theme like that on Facebook but the messaging and execution varies according to the medium. A variety of tweets come into the foray which include offers, destination reminders, partner promotions and occasion greetings like Independence Day, Ganpati, Goibibo turns 5, Teachers Day and so on

The Brand tweets a lot about existing offers inciting the desire to book amongst followers. The offers vary from % discounts to fares starting at Rs wxyz*

As mentioned Goibibo also promotes partners offers which is a kind of co-branding initiative, this also helps them to tap on to the follower base of these brands.

To promote the spirit of travel, fuel more bookings Goibibo uses witty travel quotes , destination reminders on a timely basis which helps them in striking the right chord.

The Goibibo turns 5 was scaled up to a big event on Social Media by aligning the messaging and offers according to the theme of celebrations. The offers received a fabulous response on twitter as well.

Goibibo has stepped ahead and resorted to a 360 degree approach to ensure more conversions through twitter. They also post their latest TVC’s on twitter to ensure that their efforts to reach out to the people are seen everywhere on Social Media

Online Buzz

Microblogs like Twitter gets most mentions about Goibibo. 63% of the mentions and digital impressions occur on Twitter and 37%mentions occur on Social Networks like Facebook. This is a little surprising because brand has greater follower base on social network Facebook than microblogs like Twitter. This can be attributed to their unique style of communication on Twitter which garners more engagement and mentions as well.

Sentiment

Goibibo receives fairly positive sentiments from its audience on Social Media. The Negative Sentiments amount to 25% as opposed to the positive sentiments which goes up to 75%. The Negativity comes from the flooding of Timelines with customer grievances but the brand capitalizes the opportunity with a great sense of customer relationship management almost all the queries are replied back with tentative solutions and apology which converts the negative sentiments into winning customers hearts. The other source of positive sentiments is lively and refreshing content strategy which keeps the environment amicable for conversations and connections.

Conclusion

Goibibo has been evolving on Social Media as per the need of the hour. The Brand just turned five but it displays maturity like any other legacy brand. The brand just needs to keep a track of their online activities, figure the slight lags here and there, and modify their strategy a bit as required. The Content Strategy for Goibibo has been remarkable although the engagement levels on Facebook are fairly low as compared to Twitter but they are trying hard to connect and engage with their existing fans/followers base. Goibibo leverages the beauty of two way communication to respond to customer grievances in real time thus nurturing a community of future brand advocates.

Social Media Strategy Review – Make My Trip .comHeadquartered in Gurgaon, Make My Trip was founded in the year 2000. The e-commerce portal for travel provide services including flight tickets, domestic and international holiday packages, hotel reservations, rail and bus tickets etc. The brand is considered as one of the best online travel portal.

Here is the in depth analyses of Make My Trip on two major platforms, Facebook and Twitter studied for 30 days (Aug-Sept). The brand seems to be fairly present on various social networking platforms.

Audience Analysis

Despite of the tone of neutrality in their communication, target audience of Make My Trip is oddly distributed. 63.2% of posts are furnished by males and remaining 36.8% posts by females. Content posted by brand showcases different exotic locations, adventurous activities etc. which seems to attract both the genders equally. It looks like overall this sector has slightly higher male travel enthusiasts or travel decision makers than females.

Make My Trip on Facebook

Make My Trip has a good presence on Facebook, better than its major competitors. Currently they have approximately 1.4 cr followers and nearly 9K people talking about it. Brand is not regular posting content. On an average they share 2-3 posts per week. The content bucket of Make My Trip is majorly filled with exotic travel destinations and offers, perfect recipe to grab more eyeballs. Stakeholders contribute 89% of overall posts and remaining 11% posts are posted by Brand i.e. Make My Trip itself.

Content Strategy

Make My Trip’s content strategy on Facebook is very simple without much variations in the mix. Off late the content mix for the brand contains three kinds of posts one which talks of contests, the other wherein offers to specific destinations are promoted out rightly and then there are posts which subtly promote destinations without giving out offers. Most of the posts receive a fair amount of traction from the followers on Facebook. Like any other OTA brand from the segment the comment box for the posts are flooded with grievances from the customers. Having said that, the Brand really takes all the grievances seriously and is very active on the service recovery front.

Here’s a post on #DiscoveringIndia contest where in a picture from an exotic location is posted and the fans have to guess the location. This is an interesting way to engage with followers cause this draws their attention towards a specific destination which they can book with Make My Trip at the same time it leaves the scope of a top of the mind recall in case they plan something around this in future.

The Brand also shares contextual articles from content portals which report listicles on holidays, weekend getaways , travel et al , this I believe is a great way to convert the buzz created by third party content towards tangible action in favor of the brand.

As mentioned the brand promotes destinations in two different ways , one of them being a subtle push which displays travelogues or accounts from travelers on specific destinations without giving any offers to book , the posts are framed to educate the followers about the destination, tickle their travel senses and leave the action to them.

Last but not the least, there are posts which exhibit the extravaganza in a destination with high definition pictures and an offer which anyone cannot resist. The pictures highlight the several shades the destination has in store , the package cost is devised in such a way that the followers find the value for money quotient the moment they look at it.

Make My Trip on Twitter

Make My Trip joined twitter in April 2009, considering the other brands in the OTA sector they have a fairly high number of followers i.e 15,000+. The Brand is very active on Twitter, their timeline is abuzz with a variety of tweets which definitely adds to the engagement levels for them. The frequency of tweets on a general basis is close to 3-4 but on the day of contests Make My Trip tweets more than 20 tweets a day. At the outset it’s very evident that the brand leverages Twitter way better than Facebook. Make My Trip has been very successful in their attempt to make the most out of the medium at hand by conducting regular contests, inviting participation from the followers and responding swiftly to all the queries and grievances from the customer.

Content Strategy

The Content Strategy for Make My Trip on Twitter is similar to their approach on Facebook but as mentioned the brand is more active on twitter in terms of frequency and response. Probably they understand the Twitter is all about winning over conversations in real time and the fact that hashtags serve a better purpose on Twitter than on Facebook. Broadly content mix can again be categorized into contests, offers on destinations, subtle push for specific destinations, tweets based on occasions.

The Brand promotes destinations with enticing offers and beautiful pictures which fuel the desire to book as soon as possible. Such Value for money offers serve as a constant reminder to the followers to switch to Make My Trip when they think of a trip.

Make My Trip also posts tweets which subtly promote the key features of a destination, the content is loaded with information on the destination, itinerary one should follow, the places to visit and so on without really giving out an offer for the same.

The Brand also shares listicles which are related to Travel, Holidays and Weekend Getaways. This not only raises the engagement levels but also results into positive associations with the content.

While frequency of tweets is one thing which Make My Trip aces on Twitter, the other thing is the number of relevant contests which lead to tangible conversions. One such contest was #PlanMeinTwist where in the followers had to write an imaginary tale on their experiences in a trip to Thailand with several twists the best ones got a trip to Thailand, now this contest resulted into a lot of buzz / conversations around the destination and also helped the brand in co creating compelling content.

Similarly the #MyLongWeekendPlans was a well thought contest which leveraged on the upcoming long weekends and crowd sourced ideas on travel plans. This assisted the brand in gauging the most preferred destinations for a long weekend and some valuable data on people who are planning to book for the same.

As an addition to their efforts on Facebook, Make My Trip on Twitter adopts a resilient approach to make the most out of occasions at hand be it the #HappyTeachersDay trend or the festival of Ganpati celebrated with fervor in Mumbai.

The Brand also uses Twitter to report internal events, one of them being the 9th Birthday of Make My Trip. Tweets showcased the lively work culture and feeling of pride in all the employees which is indeed a good sign for the Brand.

Online Buzz

Contrary to the fact that on Twitter Make My Trip has less number of followers than expected from one of the best travel portal, it receives most number of mentions on the same platform. 64.1% of the mentions are noted on microblogs i.e. Twitter and 35.9% of mentions occur on Social Networks like Facebook. The reason to this can be attributed to their efficient customer service. It is important for a brand to adopt online customer service practices in order to reach out to customers directly and solve their queries. Probably this makes them one of the best travel portals in India.

Sentiment

Make My Trip receives fairly positive sentiments from its audience on Social Media but not to forget percentage of negative sentiments is little disturbing. 31% of negative sentiment, for any reason is not good for any brand’s growth, especially for a brand who is one of the market leader. The source of negativity is majorly the complaints of customers occurred due to minor miss management from the organization’s side or because of some confusion. But the brand handles such situations cleverly by patiently addressing to them, thereby building a strong customer relationship management.

There can be several features which garner mentions both positive and negative but which tops the charts is “Branding and Advertising”. 55.8% mentions occur for branding and advertising. Pricing following the list with 27.5% and then after sales service with 16.7%.

Conclusion

Make My Trip is an ever growing brand, especially on Social Media. Since the brand joined social media on the year 2009, it has strived to match up to the expectations of its audience both in terms of content as well as customer service. The simple content strategy helps them to keep their foot on ground firmly. The dedicated customer relationship management on Twitter as well as Facebook is remarkable. Graph of engagement is not steady, it witnesses constant ups and downs depending upon the content posted. The resilient approach on twitter helps the brand in winning new followers every day all this will ultimately add to the brand equity and tangible conversions in the coming times.

Social Media Strategy Review – Musafir.comMusafir.com is an Internet based travel agency jointly based in UAE and India. It was founded in 2007 by three partners and was inaugurated in UAE in the year 2009. The brand is one of the premium travel agency in UAE and is doing very well in India as well. The brand made their debut on social media through Facebook in late December 2008. The content strategy of Musafir.com majorly revolve around stories of a traveler, reason well understood.

Here is the in depth analyses of Musafir.com on two major platforms, Facebook and Twitter studied for 30 days (Aug-Sept).

Audience Analysis

The gender distribution balance is heavier towards male audience than female. Although the brand tries to maintain neutrality in its tone of communication, the number of posts contributed by males are slightly higher. Out of all only 38.6% females contribute in posts & other activities and major chunk is captured by males making it 61.4%.

Musafir.com on Facebook

Musafir.com has fairly low presence on Facebook when compared to other online travel portals. They have approximately 1.3L followers and only 160 people talking about it. The everyday page likes and other engagement rates are dropping every day. Brand is not regular in posting content but manages to post 4-5 posts per week. The content plan of Musafir.com majorly revolve around stories and pictures of travelers. This strategy is justified as the brand name “Musafir”, pronounced as ‘moo-sa-fir’ means traveler.

Stakeholders contribute only 43% of overall posts and remaining 57% posts are posted by Brand i.e. Musafir.com

Content Strategy on Facebook

The content strategy for Musafir is not clearly defined, as in its really difficult to figure out a pattern for the content which is published. Looking at a holistic view the brand covers a lot of picturesque locations inciting the desire to travel and explore amongst the fans and followers. As mentioned, the frequency of posts is just 4-5 per week but during the study period it was even low. For now the content on Facebook is spread across three disciplinesTraveling the week with series where in every week a theme is picked up and the posts thereafter are in line with the theme. The week from 10th August onwards was dedicated to #CheeseLovers i.e the content posted was in line with the theme, destinations famous for different types of cheese were covered.

The Brand also encourages all their fans and followers to participate in #PhotoSafari Contest which is a long drawn activity and calls for contestants to share pictures of their trip with Musafir. These pictures are then customized in Musafir’s template and shared with the

contestants. This serves the purpose of a positive word of mouth for the destination as well as Musafir at the same time the customized picture acts as a gratification to the customers.

Then there are posts on firsthand experience at several destinations generating the elements of interest and desire amongst travel enthusiasts to take the final step towards a tangible action, book a destination with Musafir. These posts cover a myriad of destinations both Indian and overseas.

Musafir.com on Twitter

Musafir started their quest on Twitter in June 2009 but the Brand has not really optimized the use of Social Media to the best of it potential. As of now they just have 688 followers which is a very low number for any brand from Travel E-Commerce space. Having said that, Musafir is fairly more active on Twitter as compared to Facebook this is evident from the frequency of tweets. Since the brand is still in the stage of community building and increasing the follower base on Twitter the engagement numbers are not very promising either. The Brand has extended almost all the activities on Facebook to Twitter as well maintaining a logical flow in their communication with the stakeholders.

Content Strategy

The Content Strategy for Musafir on Twitter is in line with their efforts on Facebook. The pattern more or less remains the same. Here, the brand tries to connect with users on a personal basis with a relatively higher frequency of tweets. Twitter is all about getting into real time conversations, Musafir is trying every bit to increase their follower base and conversations online. At times, the brand suddenly disappears from the foray when it is most required. As described above on Twitter, The Brand follows a similar approach so the tweets contain a mix of week with travelers, photo safari, exotic destinations, special offers from Musafir, listicles and so on.

As a part of their week with travelers series, Musafir posted a range of tweets which cover destinations popular for cheese right from Netherlands to Sweden to Switzerland. The pictures along with the tweets are very tempting for any cheese lovers and would definitely arouse their instincts to travel to World’s Best Cheese Destinations.

During the study period Musafir dint post any content which reinforces the special offers they have in store on Facebook but the brand has posted quite a lot of offers on Twitter with call to actions to sign up. This helps them in channelizing some amount of traffic from Social towards the website and also building up E-Mail Database.

Musafir also promotes specific destinations with high definition pictures, engaging content with a good grip over the art of storytelling. They do this at multiple levels first by plainly introducing the destination then following up with reasons and experiences which push the customers towards making a travel decision.

The #PhotoSafari is one of the flagship activities from Musafir which calls out to people for sharing pictures about their travel. The customized template gratifies the Musafir customers and at the same time creates awareness about the destination covered.

Online Buzz

As the brand joined Facebook before Twitter and is also far more active on this platform, more number of mentions and digital impressions occur here. 60% of mentions are noted on social network Facebook and remaining 40% mentions occur on microblogging Twitter. The less popularity of Twitter is because brand is not using it optimally. This platform is used only for content sharing and no other engagement activity is performed. The brand does not believe in using Twitter as a channel to build customer relationships

Sentiment

Musafir.com receives no negative sentiments from its audience on Social Media. It is good for a brand if they get 100% positive sentiment. They may have smaller follower base on Facebook and Twitter but it seems like their followers are happy with them. Brand has the wide opportunity here to engage with their current audience and increase overall engagement ratio of the page.

The are several features which garner positive and negative sentiments for a brand, but for Musafir.com the sole reason for cent percent positivity is its Branding and Advertising.

Conclusion

Musafir is still in the early stage of Social Media adoption, while they are trying to make their presence felt they lack a definitive approach to Social Media. Probably the medium is not a priority for them but they really need to understand the importance having a robust social media presence which can serve the purpose of creating buzz, spreading awareness, building customer relationships and nurturing a community of followers who fuel the positive word of mouth for them. The need of the hour is to work on a regular content strategy with campaigns focused on serving short to long term objectives. A well-defined strategy to leverage Facebook, Twitter and Instagram might work in the favor of the brand. Social Media Listening would definitely help in understanding the expectations of target group and how the competitors are faring on Social Media

Social Media Strategy Review – Yatra.com.Started in the year 2006, Yatra.com.com is an India Online Travel Agency and Travel Search Engine. Two years back it was considered as second largest online travel portal in India. They made an entry on Social Media Platforms in the year 2009. Ever since the brand has evolved in their content and communication strategy.

Here is the in depth analyses of Yatra.com.com on two major platforms, Facebook and Twitter studied for 30 days (Aug-Sept).

Audience Analysis

Gender distribution of Yatra.com.com is skewed towards males. There can be varied reasons for this, related or unrelated to their social media strategy. One being their brand ambassador “Salman Khan” and it is well known fact that how crazy girls might be for him, he is the “Bhai” of every guy. Second reason for distributed audience is their mixed content strategy which might attract more of males than females.

Yatra.com.com on Facebook:

Yatra.com.com has little more than 1M fans on Facebook and 1.4K people talking about it. The overall page reach is falling a bit but the brand seems to have potential to regain it in less time. The brand on an average maintains 1 post/day. The content plan of Yatra.com.com focuses on Travel Diaries and campaign themed accordingly.

Stakeholders contribute only 91.5% of overall posts and remaining 8.5% posts are posted

by Brand itself

Content Strategy

The content strategy for Yatra.com on Facebook is multipronged. It caters to a wide range of objectives for the brand. This Holistic approach fetches great amount of buzz and engagement for Yatra.com on Facebook. The Brand constantly works on incorporating fresh elements on Social Media and covers almost anything / everything that relates to Travel. The content bucket is a wholesome mix of posts from destination based posts to interactive response based activities like travel trivia, travel quiz and guess the airport. Yatra.com also believes in creating awareness and educating travel enthusiasts with valuable #TravelTips. Another important element is the judicious and appropriate use of occasions to catch followers’ attention a small step towards the realm of content marketing. Besides the brand also posts special offers for the followers at regular intervals with unique imagery of their brand ambassador Salman Khan. Yatra.com also has a robust Social CRM system in place each query/grievance is handled in quick time leaving no stone unturned to win over customers on Social Media.

The tone of communication on destination based posts is very catchy and personal. The choice of words also leaves an everlasting impression in the minds of the readers , this is

followed by a call to action with an enticing offer hence completing the cycle of customer journey in an ideal situation.

The Brand also leverages on the adventure instincts by posting special offers on expeditions which look very tempting and exciting. Again the tone of communication, imagery and the call to action is evenly placed for the customers to hit the book button.

As mentioned, Yatra.com believes in creating awareness and educating the followers with #TravelTips which prove handy for them while travelling.

Yatra.com also conducts interactive and response based activities to engage with the followers on a timely basis. On Facebook they conducts quiz and contests which are

generic like #TravelQuiz and #GuessTheAirport then there are contest specific to occasions like Independence Day , Teachers Day and so on.

Like any other OTA Brand , Yatra.com also post special offers for the customers at regular intervals some of them are contextual as per the occasion while others are partner offers from Banks, Hotels, Cab services etc.

Yatra.com on Twitter

Yatra.com joined twitter in September 2009, the brand has 11.9k followers on Twitter which is a decent number. Yatra.com is fairly active on twitter, the frequency of tweets is close to 3-4 tweets a day which doubles up on the day of contests or special occasions. The Brand listens to Social Media actively and responds to the queries/grievances of their customers in quick succession. The scale of activities conducted on Twitter is a little better than the ones on Facebook although the theme more or less remains the same. It’s just the style and length of communication which is tailored according to the medium.

Content Strategy

Yatra.com’s Content Strategy on Twitter follows a similar pattern as that of Facebook with an extra push towards hashtag based contest which helps the brand in propelling the positive word of mouth across twitterverse. Apart from that the usual content flows effortlessly from one platform to the other , the Brand concentrates equally on both the major platforms which is a good sign cause you never know which one strikes the chord with the audience at some point of time. As mentioned the pattern posts remain the same destination based posts, special offers, travel related contests, travel tips, did you know facts etc.

The contests and activities on Yatra.com focus on molding travel , the content on their blogs and their offerings in an effective mix thus adding much more value to the brand rather than ending up into a mere buzz/engagement activity.

As mentioned above there is a logical connect between the contests and the destinations they are trying to promote, these can be noticed in one of the quiz question which was on the Sin Cities of the world featuring Bangkok.

To further push the idea of booking a trip to one of the most famous sin cities of the world , a post on Top 10 Nightlife experiences on Bangkok was published. This again speaks of the maturity and synchronization in the Brand’s approach on Social Media.

Yatra.com allocates a considerable amount of weightage to the special offers for the customers cause that is one of the primary hooks to drive traffic to the website. The offers vary from generic ones to occasion based offers at times they also have exclusive partner offers.

The contest activities on Twitter are given a major push with hashtags, contest alert , simple hint based questions which incorporate the brand values and the occasion at hand. In this case it was Independence Day.

The Brand believes in Social CRM and leaves no stone unturned to resolve customer issues which indeed adds to the positive sentiments online. The references also leave a positive impact on prospective customers resulting into a WIN-WIN situation for Yatra.com.

Online Buzz

Although Yatra tries to interact with their followers on Twitter in quest to make a strong customer relationship, and otherwise interact with them in contests yet maximum mentions about the brand occurs on Facebook.

75.9% of mentions occurs on social network Facebook and remaining 24.1% mentions occur on microblogging site Twitter. The prime reason for less popularity on Twitter is because the brand tends to use this platform solely to repost the Facebook content and reply to the queries and complaints directed to them.

Sentiment

Yatra.com.com receives 12.4% of negativity from its audience on social media owing to several reasons like issue in invoice, refund, booking concerns etc. Brand also receives 87.6% of positive sentiments by its followers and fans. Yatra.com is trying to reduce this small amount of negativity by generating interactive content and developing a team of customer relationship.

The brand receives mentions and digital impressions because of several features, but the major percentage,74.1, comes from Branding and Advertising. Pricing fetches 19.8% of mentions followed by After sales service(6.2%).

Conclusion

Yatra.com has been phenomenal in their approach to Social Media. The content strategy for the brand has been very successful in engaging with the existing fans and followers. The balance of content between Facebook and Twitter keeps all options open for the brand. What they really need work on is to expand the reach of their existing campaigns which would happen if they spend some more time on community building. A standalone campaign which addresses to the objectives of Fans/followers acquisition might work for them. Social Media Monitoring and Listening can help the brand in opening up newer avenues on Social Media. Overall, Yatra.com has managed to pull off a commendable show in managing and optimizing their Social Media presence.

Comparative AnalysisAbove, five top five online travel portal brands were analyzed individually. With the advent of new technologies and increasing demand of facilitated travel, companies in the travel sector are innovating in their approach towards the services offered as well as the communication.

The sector is overall active on Social Networks and Microblogs, creating a considerably good amount of digital impressions across social media platforms.

Number of Posts

Out of all the online travel portals studied here, only MakeMyTrip.com is regular in posting content on various social media platforms. They maintain a frequency of 1-2 posts per day. The content bucket of MakeMyTrip.com includes a variety of contests promoting travel destinations. This is one of the major reasons for the brand’s positive sentiments and the amount of digital impressions they have. The brand which is least active on social media is Musafir, sharing only just 4-5 posts per week. Brands like Goibibo, Cleartrip and Yatra maintain a decent pace in posting content.

Source of Posts

Out of the two platforms studied here, microblogs like Twitter is the first choice of content sharing for three major online travel portals i.e. MakeMyTrip.com, Goibibo.com and Cleartrip.com. As mentioned earlier also, MakeMyTrip.com leverages Twitter far more than Facebook by conducting regular contests, interacting with participants and answering queries on a daily basis. Overall, 64.1% of the content is shared on Twitter by MakeMyTrip.com.

Brands like Yatra.com and Musafir.com are more active on social networks like Facebook. Yatra.com shares 80 of their content on Facebook and only 20% of it on Twitter. On Facebook, Yatra.com maintains a frequency of 1 post/day and their content. This does not mean that they are not active on Twitter. They are fairly active on Twitter as well and conducts contests with the similar theme they use for Facebook communication and contests.

Gladly few brands are using Twitter as a channel to develop customer relationships by quickly addressing to their queries.

Features Distribution

All the brands studied here receive sentiments, mentions and digital impressions majorly because of their quality. Goibibo.com leads the chart with 75.9% mentions about quality, followed by Musafir.com with 75% of mentions. Other brands like MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip and Yatra are also not far away with this race. Branding and Advertising is the other factor for which brands are majorly talked about. Musafir.com and Yatra.com are two brands who garners impressions about Branding and Advertising.

Sentiment

All the brands receive positive sentiments across digital platforms, but Cleartrip and MakeMyTrip receives a disturbing amount of negativity across social media which is not good for any market leader. Sadly for Cleartrip, there is not much difference between positive and negative sentiments received. The brand receives 55% of positive sentiments and 45% of negative sentiments.

Surprisingly, although Musafir is irregular in its content posting, it gets 100% of positive sentiments. Although the brand has a smaller follower base, they are trying to keep their followers happy.

Conclusion

These brands studied here have distinctive yet similar communication strategy. Overall industry may grow, but some of the individual brands are still newbies to social media as well as the communication plan. At the same time Goibibo has evolved in the approach and innovated in their activities on social platforms. Yatra has been phenomenal in their social media activities and are masters in engaging with the audience.

Overall the online travel sector has a vast scope of the experiment and introduce new technology and variety in their communication plan. It is good to experience that some brands are utilizing Twitter as a platform to establish a solid customer relationship management system and the remaining have immense potential to adapt to it. After all this, industry being lively and energetic, is still not leveraging the various benefits of social media platforms. There is a huge opportunity for all the brands studied here to get set and rolling.

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