Why Being Social on Facebook Isn’t Enough for Travel Brands
Photo Credit: The user base of Facebook's diverse distribution channels at the end of 2014. Facebook / Facebook
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Zuckerberg and his team hope to further connect the dots between the activity on social, online, and real-life by holding the proverbial social-ROI carrot over marketers' heads.
What do travel marketers need to know about Facebook's operations in 2014 and what the social network is focusing on in 2015?
One of the things that clearly emerged from Facebook's fourth quarter and full-year 2014 earnings call with analysts last week is that being social is no longer enough, and that Facebook is investing in advertising technology, mobile, and video to make marketing through Facebook more effective for partners and to increase its own monetization.
Coming just a few weeks before Facebook's 11th birthday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg talked about these investments and it became apparent that Facebook's audience growth is plateauing -- excluding Instagram and WhatsApp -- but at the same time, it's becoming a more sophisticated marketplace and storytelling platform.
Sandberg called out Thomas Cook and the sales-driven approach the tour operator used on Facebook to reach existing and potential customers in Belgium. Sandberg used the Thomas Cook
