IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA:
HIRING YOUR ONLINE SALESPERSONS FOR FREE
ZONGQING ZHOU, PHD
PROFESSOR
COLLEGE OF HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM MANAGEMENT
NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, USA
WHO IS THIS GUY?
The author of the first textbook on Internet
Marketing specifically for Hospitality and Tourism
industry, a book widely adopted worldwide.
 Create the first Internet Marketing course for
tourism major in the world.
 Can be reached by email: zhou@niagara.edu

Or find me at facebook
 Lindedin
 Twitter
 Or simply google “zongqing zhou” or “周宗清” if you
know Chinese.

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

A category of sites that is based on user
participation and user-generated content.
social networking sites: facebook, LinkedIn
 Messaging sharing site: twitter
 Instant Messaging sites: WhatsApp, Wechat, Skype
 Video sharing site: youtube, youku
 Photo sharing site: flickr, picasa, instagram,
 User rating/opinion site: yelp, TripAdvisor
 Personal publishing: blogging (eg. Google’s blogger);
Sina Weibo

TOP 5 SOCIAL NETWORKS FOR ETOURISM IN CHINA

The digital and social media adoption in China is thus very
different than in the West. Here are a few reasons why:



China is the country with the most internet users, 634 million (45%
internet penetration rate, 50% of the world’s online users);
Chinese spend 25 hours online per week, increasingly connected via
their mobile device;
70% of the bookings are made online
TOP 5 SOCIAL NETWORKS FOR ETOURISM IN CHINA
1.
Weibo is a Chinese microblogging website created by Sina in 2009. It’s one
of the most popular social networking in China. It currently has about 500
million registered users and is a social network that allows agencies, hotels
and resorts to stay close to their customers. It’s also where netizens will
share content related to where they have been and what they did. They can
like, discuss and share the user or brand generated content. Accounts
have a number of followers, showing how influential a user can be. Some
users are more important than others. These are KOL, Key Opinion Leader,
that can greatly influence their huge community about a destination,
activities or services they have used. Chinese tourists put a lot of trust in
user-to-user generated content. The more a user is seen as an expert (like
the KOL) the more the content will have an effect on the choices users will
make when they plan their holidays
TOP 5 SOCIAL NETWORKS FOR ETOURISM IN CHINA
2.
WeChat is a mobile app that allows to send texts, vocals messages, photos
and videos and to share one’s location. It was developed by Tencent, a
Chinese investment holding company that also owns QQ and QZone.
Originally called Weixin, WeChat is the most used messaging app in China
and has started having a strong presence outside its domestic market with
its English version. As of August 2014, WeChat had 438 million active
users with 70 million outside of China, represented in more than 100
countries. Since WeChat is what can be called a closed network, people
can only see what others in their own network share. Chinese
holidaymakers like to share moments, containing text, pictures often
showing their trip in almost real time, where they stay and the people they
are with. For agencies and resorts, this can be of tremendous help to
attract more Chinese tourists
TOP 5 SOCIAL NETWORKS FOR ETOURISM IN CHINA
3.
Youku is a video hosting service based in China, founded in 2003. It allows
users to upload videos of arbitrary length. Youku has partnered with over
1,500 license holders, including television stations, distributors, film and
TV production companies in China that regularly upload media content on
the site. Youku’s video library includes many full length films and TV
episodes. Viewers from around the world can see these films on Youku for
free, though often with Chinese subtitles. On March 12, 2012, two of the
biggest online video companies in China, Youku and Tudou, announced
plans to merge. At the time of the announcement, Youku had 21.8% of
market share and Tudou had 13.7%. The name of the new company would
be named YoukuTudou Inc. The site boasted a cumulative total of
approximately 803 million unique views in the month of January 2012.
TOP 5 SOCIAL NETWORKS FOR ETOURISM IN CHINA
4.
Tieba is is the largest Chinese communication platform
provided by the Chinese search engine company, Baidu. It is
an online community bound tightly with internet search
services, one of the main business of Baidu. The website
functions by having users search or create a bar (Forum) by
typing a keyword, and if the bar has not been created before, it
is then created upon the search. It is very popular among
Chinese people, boasting more than 300 million monthly
active users. Being on this site will make people talk about
your brand, and you can also help people by answering their
questions.
TOP 5 SOCIAL NETWORKS FOR ETOURISM IN CHINA
5.
QZone was founded in 2005 by Tencent. This site allows people to write
blogs, to hold a newspaper, to share and send photographs, to listen to
music and to watch videos. It’s a very complete site. Because it’s really
easy to use, Chinese people like to update their profile at least once a day.
Qzone is rapidly growing: as of November 2013, it already had 623.3
million users and by 2014 it had 645 million. 150 million Qzone users
update their accounts at least once a month. It makes QZone one of the
most active communities. This site is perfect to share experiences while
traveling and to keep in touch with their friends. And it’s perfect for travel
brands wishing to share content and finding out more about what people
think about your organization while living the travel experience.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Why
social
media?
Are you convinced?
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INTERNET EVOLUTION
INTERNET MARKETING STRATEGIES
Web 1.0
Web 2.0
Web. 3.0
Emails
Word-of-mouth Marketing
Mobile Marketing (24/7)
banners
Virtual communities
Collective individualism
Yahoo (directories)
Google (dynamic links/SEM)
One-click communication
Web portals
blogging
What I click is what I want
HTML/Meta Tags
SEO
Media Integration
contents
Social networking
And only God knows …
Push marketing
Pull marketing
Customized marketing
IS IT A FAD?
Who knows?
You judge for
yourselves
FACEBOOK & TOURISM: AN EXAMPLE
WHAT’S NEW

Google partnership with social media
THE FUTURE IS HERE: FOURSQUARE

Social media FourSquare is a location-based
sharing program. The basis of this site is for users
to use their mobile devices to check-in to places
they visit. For example, if Joe smith goes to
Starbucks, he would ‘check-in’ to Starbucks on his
phone. This would automatically update Joe’s
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts. Joe
would also accrue points for his check-ins.
Eventually, when he has the most points per place
he would then become the’Mayor’ of that
destination. Foursquare and Twitter are in the talk
for partnership.
THE FUTURE IS HERE (CONT.)

This is still in the web 2.0 phase. However,
where it is beginning to cross over is it’s impact
on real life. Companies can run promotions at
their store and give away a gift to their ‘Mayor’.
For example, Starbucks could give Joe a free
cup of coffee each week just for being the
Mayor. Joe promotes Starbucks to hundreds of
his friends and followers on social media sites
and Starbucks encourages sales through the
point accruals.
THE FUTURE IS HERE (CONT.)

Google and Twitter have just announced a partnership in which tweets will
show up in Google searches. This article investigates how that development
should impact on your social marketing strategies. If you were active on
Google between 2009 through 2011, you might remember how much easier
it was to find Tweets on Google’s search engine. Now Google and Twitter will
partner again sometime within the first half of this year.

Due to the time it takes Google to crawl Twitter, there is a delay between the
time a Tweet is posted and when it becomes visible on the Google results
page. With this new partnership, the search giant will have immediate
access to Tweets, allowing Google search users access to prominently
displayed Tweets posted in real-time.
INTERNET MARKETING STRATEGIES: AN
INTEGRATED APPROACH
Website as a marketing tool (contents)
 SEO and SEM
 Social Media Marketing
 Customized/user-generated social network
marketing

THE NEW AGE OF INTERNET MARKETING
社交化（人气化）(social buying)
 顾客至上化 (customer is the king of all kings)
 个性化 (individualization and personalization)
 （商家和顾客）互动化 （Interaction)
 透明化 （transparency）
 产品换代加速化 （short product life cycle)
 竞争加速化 （increasing competition）

THE HUB OF YOUR BUSINESS
ISSUES
Privacy
 Ethics
 Legality

QUESTIONS??