Social media is becoming increasingly important for promoting tourist destinations; that a hotel has a profile on facebook or a destination on tripadvisor is present and well rated is not sufficient anymore.

For the eTourism expert Stefan Niemeyer a successful social media strategy not alone deals with the choice between Facebook, Google+ or Twitter. Social media rather form platforms on which trust is created.

If you thanks to social media find out that a friend does appreciate a specific hotel, it is more likely that you book this instead of another you find less "personal" information or cannot find any at all. Thus, the question arises: "How can we use social media intelligently, so that the guest finds trust? That he wants to experience it?", Niemeyer reasoned during his keynote "Social Media Redloaded" on ITB 2014. In the following he pointed out that "trust is the currency, to be noticed in travel planning."

Before answering these questions himself a little later, Niemeyer mentioned a set of figures. The trip planning is always intuitive. 24 days is actively searched for a destination, passively 85 days yet.

An average of 37 different Google searches are being undertaken and 25 websites are consulted. Who is planning a trip, get a whole lot of different impressions. Eventually he or she sticks with one destination / operator / offer.

Here, the question arises how to use themes, in order to become oninion leader. "How can writers trigger with a theme of enthusiasm? How can they guide a person on a path of trust that finally lead onto the booking?"

Trust begins with an inspiration

This path of trust begins with the inspiration: Meanwhile colorful pictures are not sufficient any more for pr matters. Rather, it is the honesty of the story, which opens the hearts of the people. "It is not the devices, which decide about the success of the guest. There are the right content and the right moment." Niemeyer expressed as an imperative: "Proof you match with my interest"

According to him, the online magazine of fourseasons is a good example: presentation and content are very different depending on the target group. For business customers, the style differs from that for honeymooners. The Storytellung must match the guest and not vice versa.

It is also important that both the hotel and the destination are present by human beings. Here he reference on the German holiday region of Berchtesgaden, which contact linkedin profiles directly to their Google +. Who searches for a destination, automatically find the people who are responsible for it. And has the same personal contact.

"Ordinary people include"

However, it is not the official contact person, but "ordinary people", you trust the most. . Therefore, it belongs to the chance of social media, to participate in other travellers the work on the content.

In the online campaign 100% pure New Zealand were guest post even texts on the website. Hamburg - tourism can report on their city locals. They point out what attractions are worth. And visit Manchester officiating the famous musician Annie Lennox as the authority, which shows the top 5 attractions and thus also personally vouch for the quality of the program.

On the top, the reservation platform airbnb.com has driven this social aspect in the field of tourism. The competitor uses social media to build trust between hosts and guests. This is particularly important in the area of private accommodation service, finally letting strangers into the home. So mutually assess the hosts and guests.

Who is logged in with Facebook sees a potential host is once again friends with what friends. Hosted blogging about their city and imagine by photo or video. Everything was experienced on the ground, should be shared with others. If I show you the guest, that its content is valuable, these will provide love.
Create opportunities for reporting

If social media is helping that someone makes a booking, then it comes to the last point Niemeyer is addresseding: "The guests must be given opportunity to report on the experience itself". Here, too, he mentioned a few examples. The portal Blogville, the Italian holiday region Emilia-Romana Bloggern allows, to tell about the experience.

Or turn www.Airbnb.com. guests can 6 - seconds video upload. This have been assembled by a Hollywood Director and processed into an Imageflm. So the goal of successful social media campaigns is that they even reproduce. Who wants to achieve the goal you must create experiences - report of these experiences

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Roland Wildberg is Travel Writer and Correspondent based in Berlin, Germany. He started as an Editor for the National daily 'Die Welt' (tourism section), later on switched to a freelanced career and nowadays mainly publishes on the Web. Observing the hospitality industry has always fascinated him as it looks like the perfect combination of sleeping and writing – work-live-balance at its best.