Social media was about lead generation, now it's about ROI: Arun Rawat, Skyscanner

Arun Rawat - Senior Growth Manager, Skyscanner lists down some tips for travel brands on how to approach social media.

According to market research company, eMarketer, around 46 percent of the travel companies are advertising on social media as per 2016, which is around 12 percent increase over 2015. Travel brands on digital have increased significantly giving rise to new trends.

Arun Rawat - Senior Growth Manager, Skyscanner, cites, "There has been an increase in the use of social media by travel brands because they have realized the true potential of the channel. Today they are leaving no stone upturned to capture user's attention and hence grow their brand."

He lists down some tips for travel brands on how to approach social media:

1. Travel brands in the last few years have moved from a query resolution channel to a much more evolved approach.
2. Content on social media can be divided into creative and analytic. There needs to be a fine balance between the two, you can expect good RoI.
3. The product should always be the key, the user has to be satisfied with the product and then he/she will come back. Pushing the product on to the user is essentially bad for a brand. If the product is good, the user will admire it and become its advocator, also refer their family/friends to use the product and that is how the user base will increase.
4. If a user has decided to uninstall your brand app, don't bombard him with messages with install again. The reason being, the user has taken a conscious call and now if you keep sending them messages, they might get irritated and may start hating your brand as well.
5. Social media was earlier about lead generation and now it is more about ROI.
6. Today social media is more about videos and less about images. So brands should make the most out of it to target their audience.
7. Influencer marketing is a very relevant marketing channel for travel brands. At Skyscanner, we keep in touch with our influencers regularly, in terms of knowing the travel schedules and partnering with them, by providing flights or hotels.

Arun Rawat - Senior Growth Manager, Skyscanner spoke on social media marketing for travel brands at #SamosaTalks organised by Social Samosa. You can watch the entire session below.