It feels like winter has been long this year: freezing nights, nippy breezes and having to crank up the heater in the office to keep our fingers from turning blue.
However, there is hope on the horizon. Summer is only a couple of months away, and the days are steadily getting longer once again. One day soon we’ll see a blossom popping up on a bare branch and know that winter is over.
Social media platforms aren’t too different from our seasons – they go through slow, wintery patches and flurries of warm, happy summery moments. One day, interaction on a social media platform may be busy, before scaling back ... only to get busy again.
Flow Communications manages South African Tourism’s social media platforms. These include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. In March 2013, Google+ was added to this list. Google+ is not yet a very popular channel in South Africa, but is set to grow steadily in the future. It’s a social media platform linked to Google, the biggest search engine on the internet. And it’s important that South African Tourism is part of Google+.
According to venturebeat.com, an online technology magazine, “Google+ now has more than 500-million registered users and 343-million active users.” This makes it the second-biggest social network in the world, after Facebook.
Our strategy for the South African Tourism Google+ page is to post and share content that is engaging and interesting, encouraging conversations with consumers and trade. We publish stunning images, interesting facts, tips and good news about South Africa. Our user-generated #picoftheday has seen lots of great interaction and shares.
In June, Google recognised the Love South Africa Google+ page as one worth following. It placed it on a list of recommended pages to follow, which users are alerted to when logging in to Google+. This was a huge compliment for the Love South Africa page and testament to content that is relevant and interesting.
The Love South Africa page has grown exponentially in the past months: at the end of May it had 249 followers; currently there are 7 061. The page has to date received more than 25 000 “plus ones”, making it one of South Africa’s most popular Google+ pages.
“We are excited about the growth of the Google+ page,” says Melanie Feris, head of social media at Flow. “It shows there is huge interest in South Africa as a destination and that we have something very special to offer.”
Social media has opened up marketing to everyone. Millions of companies and individuals use social media platforms to market their businesses or themselves. With so much information out there, you have to really stand out to get your product noticed and your message across. And the Love South Africa Google+ page does this.
The Facebook, Twitter and Flickr accounts of South African Tourism are all also experiencing steady growth, and readers and tweeters continue to interact with and share the content as well as their own.
Follow South African Tourism on social media:
- Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/100161953649945367731/posts
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/SouthAfricanTourism (targeted at leisure travellers) and www.facebook.com/SATravelTrade (targeted at the travel trade)
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoToSouthAfrica (targeted at leisure travellers) and (targeted at the travel trade)
- Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/lovesouthafrica