Is Facebook relevant to you?

Is Facebook relevant to you?

12 September 2023

By Frédéric Gonzalo, special collaboration.

During a recent conversation with a business travel manager for a destination, I was asked: should we still be investing effort into our Facebook page?

“The number of impressions or reach is no longer there, engagement levels are steadily declining, and above all, we don’t seem to be reaching our target audience. It’s the consumers who are interacting with us, whereas we’re in B2B, targeting decision-makers, meeting planners, or works councils…”

Does this sound familiar?

What are your objectives and strategy?

Before discussing Facebook and its relevance (or lack thereof), it’s important to clarify your objectives for your digital presence. This will make it easier to understand the difference between strategy and tactics—choices that come later.

Facebook marketing strategy
Example of a marketing campaign, with objectives, strategies, tactics and KPIs”.

When implementing a digital marketing strategy, we must first align our actions with one or more corporate objectives. For example:

  • Increase the number of overnight stays during the week;
  • Maintain or increase occupancy of meeting and convention facilities;
  • Maintain the number of events during a given period but increase average revenue during these events;
  • Attract X number of larger events (250 nights or more, for example).

Assuming you have such objectives in place, we can then determine the most appropriate strategy or strategies. Let’s use the example of increasing the number of overnight stays during the week. Who is the target audience most likely to contribute to achieving this objective?

Choose tactics based on your target audience

If we believe that workers who visit our region for meetings or training courses are the bulk of our target audience, we should choose communication tools that best address this need.

Is Facebook still relevant

Do you think Facebook is relevant to this strategy? Probably not, unless you have a dedicated group (or a Spotted page). Instead, focus on sending a targeted newsletter to the business customers and organizations in your database, with promotions on weekday accommodations or special offers that resonate with this clientele.

The visual above shows what we consider to be the three fundamental pillars of digital marketing today. These pillars ensure that a tourism brand or business has a dynamic presence on the web and social media. However, some pillars are more relevant when communicating with consumers (B2C) than when targeting multipliers or businesses (B2B).

Relying on the right tools for business travel

That’s why it’s important to regularly review your objectives and strategies to determine whether your presence on a platform is still relevant. For business travel, certain tools still seem natural and relevant if you’re looking to reach a target clientele like the one mentioned previously. Examples include a corporate blog featuring articles or news items tailored to this audience, dedicated newsletters (with or without special offers), and a dynamic presence on LinkedIn, if we can find enough of our target members, suppliers, or customers.

Is Facebook a good idea? What about Instagram or even TikTok? Once again, we need to return to the objective we’re pursuing and the strategies we aim to deploy. Existing resources must also be considered. In the abstract, an Instagram account with images of events, weddings, or conventions might be a good idea. But do you have the resources to update this account regularly? And is it the best use of your resources, given other existing priorities?

In short, social platforms evolve rapidly, and it’s not always easy to keep up. But if Twitter wasn’t relevant for you due to the text format, X (its new name) or Threads (from Meta) won’t be any more relevant for that.

Social media is maturing. It’s no longer just the flavour of the month, but it remain relevant in the digital ecosystem. However, consider where your target audience is and how you can best reach them. It may be that your website (and its blog) and sending out a newsletter are still the most effective methods to achieve your goals!

For more articles, visit our blog!

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