Vacation.com has strengthened its social media presence since launching a three-pronged initiative at its June International Conference in Las Vegas that included Facebook, Twitter and a blog. The agency group reports growing participation and uses all three mediums to communicate with member agencies while developing a dedicated Twitter following and maintaining an active Facebook page. Vacation.com says it has cultivated a strong following on both Facebook and Twitter that includes a mix of members, consumers, industry representatives and other travel professionals.
“At Conference, our members were eager to learn how to use social media sites to establish their online voice and promote their services,” said Kerin Kolonoskie, Vacation.com’s senior manager of creative services and design. “Since then, they have enthusiastically embraced the unknown and turned it into an actionable marketing plan, using these modern technologies to reach prospects and clients in a new way.”
The Vacation.com blog continues to be a popular online destination with dedicated postings from employees as well as communications from industry executives. Recent posts included Vacation.com’s response to United Airlines and a message to members from Dondra Ritzenthaler at Celebrity Cruises.
Vacation.com also launched a new social media feature in connection with its Engagement marketing program. New e-Engagement emails, featuring offers from Preferred Suppliers, now include “share on” functionality, allowing consumers receiving the email to automatically post the promotion to their Facebook walls or Twitter pages.
Through this new enhancement, a recent e-Engagement message featuring a seven-day Windstar Mediterranean yacht cruise was shared by nearly 250 recipients, resulting in more than 400 additional people viewing the offer.
“Consumers are bombarded by advertisers 24/7,” added Kolonoskie. “But when a friend recommends something—like the Windstar promotion—people stand up and take notice. That’s the strength of viral marketing, and now our members can easily benefit from it through our Engagement program for free.”
Anyone can follow Vacation.com’s Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/vcom1, the blog found at http://blog.vacation.com/ or become a fan of its public Facebook page at www.facebook.com/vacationcom.