What (if anything) is Graph Search about?

Will Facebook’s Graph Search help B&Bs?

As part of its continuing effort to convince people that it really can generate the sort of profits that will justify its huge stock market valuation, Facebook is now trailing its latest wheeze: Graph Search. But what is it and what might it mean for owners of B&Bs, guest houses, cottages and independent hotels?

The fundamental motive behind Graph Search is this: exploiting Facebook’s one billion-plus user base to provide you with results that are appropriate to you, based on what people you are already connected to have liked (or, to be more accurate, “liked”) in the past. So, for instance, if you’re travelling to London and want B&B recommendations, Facebook will serve search results for B&Bs that friends (and friends of friends) have been to.

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Facebook’s timeline for B&Bs

Online reputation company Revinate has some interesting things to say about getting the most out of Facebook’s Timeline. Their focus is on hotels, but many of the points they make are equally (if not more) applicable to B&Bs.

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Facebook says, “Ignore clicks”

Like other small businesses looking for new ways to advertise, many BandBers will probably have considered Facebook at some point. They may even have tried it and being disappointed with the results.

However, having commissioned a study from research company Datalogix, Facebook is claiming that online advertisers who judge the success of their Internet campaigns on click-through rates alone are doing it wrong. What they seem to be implying is that Facebook ads should be regarded as more like television ads, where there are general viewing figures but no specific data on how many people rushed out to buy the product being sold.

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How do B&Bs measure the “real” value of social media?

As well as having a very cool name, former Canadian hotel manager (and novelist!) Daniel Edward Craig is an always-astute observer of the hospitality business. Though he focuses more on hotels than B&Bs, much of what he has to say about online marketing is relevant to both.

In a recent blog post, Craig asks how exactly to measure the ROI (Return On Investment) of social media activity on sites like Twitter & Facebook – without indulging in the wild, unsubstantiated claims of self-styled social media “gurus”.

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Social media in travel: what’s it for?

Most people would probably agree that the “social web” is the biggest thing to happen to the Internet since the advent of e-commerce. But, as with many world-changing innovations, it can take a while – and quite a bit of head-scratching – to figure out what the heck it actually represents.

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What price social media now?

Many small business owners – BandBers included – have been experimenting with social media in recent years. Whether or not you believe in it as a sales/marketing tool, it’s hard to avoid hearing people talk about it. The names of the field’s biggest players (for now) – Facebook and Twitter – have become ubiquitous. “Social” is part of our modern culture, regardless of whether it’s going to make vast amounts money for anyone in the long term. Sometimes, a lucid, readable survey of the current state of play can be very useful. Miguel Helft at CNN Money provided just that, taking as his starting point the recent moment when Facebook’s value dropped below $20 a share.

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Social Media & Travel: the latest

As we’ve mentioned before, it’s too early to say what the full impact of social media on the hospitality industry will be. But interesting new statistics emerge all the time.

Internet company funsherpa.com has pulled together data from a wide variety of sources, including emarketing.com, and produced a fun (if slightly eye-aching) infographic on the current state of online travel in the United States. If you’d like to avoid a migraine and just get the salient details, here is a summary of the social media section:

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Facebook: it’s not the ‘where,’ it’s the ‘who’

Ever looked at your friends’ holiday photos on Facebook and thought, “Looks good. If they had a good time there, why can’t I?”

If so, you’re not alone. It looks as if more and more people’s travel decisions are being influenced by friends/acquaintances on Facebook. This isn’t because they’re being sheep-like; it’s because people, very sensibly, will be more confident about visiting a place if it has some positive word of mouth that they trust.

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How to drive direct bookings

Yes, OTAs are incredibly popular. But, as online reputation management company Revinate points out, they’re often the travel equivalent of Yellow Pages. Customers are initially using them to just research hotels’ rates and availability, without actually booking on them. If you can establish a social media relationship with customers at this point, you could still encourage them to book with you direct.

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Facebook: good or bad for bookings?

Facebook’s woes seem to keep mounting. As it becomes more apparent that the social media site was wildly overvalued in advance of its IPO, travel experts are also beginning to question just how effective it is as a booking channel.

According to a recent investigation by HotelNewsNow, six of the major US hotel chains are reluctant to disclose how many bookings they’re doing via Facebook. Douglas Quimby, senior director of research at PhoCusWright, finds this significant: “Generally when companies are reticent about disclosing conversion rates, it’s because it’s going to be pretty negligible. That would be my expectation.”

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