HOTELMARKETING.COM

Social media and travel: Mania or mainstream?

May 26, 2009 | Internet Marketing

Douglas Quinby, senior director of research for PhoCusWright, discusses social-media mania and how it affects the travel industry. The emphasis here shifts from selling, searching and consuming products to connecting with others and exchanging content.

This isn’t your grandma’s Internet anymore. Social media is more than just a collection of social networks or new technologies. It’s really about a fundamental shift in how people are using the Internet. I think of the old Web—or “Web 1.0”—as the simple migration of conventional media and commerce models to the new Internet channel. Webmasters publish content just like newspaper and magazine publishers. Retailers sell their products online, just as they do in their stores. And “surfers” (remember that term?) would seek information on search engines and consume content.

Enter Web 2.0, or what I prefer to call the “Social Web.” The emphasis here shifts from selling, searching and consuming products to connecting with others and exchanging content. “Surfers” and “consumers” have become generators, collaborators and commentators. There’s no better example of how the Web has changed than to look at how the ranks of the 10 most visited Web sites has shifted from 2004 to 2009. While several big names remain the same—Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, Amazon, eBay—there are some very big differences.

So who’s out in 2009? Search engines, portals and content publishers like Ask Jeeves, Terra Lycos, About and Monster. Who’s new in 2009? Social networks (MySpace, Facebook), video sharing (YouTube) and Wikipedia, the collaborative online encyclopedia.

Get the full story at Travelpulse

Visit our sponsors: