Content Analysis of Australian Tourism Facebook Page: A Case Study of Government Use of Social Media - Research Paper Example

? Contents Contents 2 Social Media and Tourism Australia 3 Australian Tourism fan page on Facebook 4 Workflow & Moderation 5 Research Methodology 5 Analysis of Findings 7 Tourism Australia’s Objective 7 Topics of Discussion 7 Australia’s new 7 Wonders 8 Photos and Videos 9 Making Tracks & Videos 9 References 11 Social Media and Tourism Australia Gov 2.0 is not just about Government agencies using Web 2.0 technology as the name might be suggesting. Hence, we can say that Gov 2.0 is not primarily about social networking or use of technology. It is representative of a shift in paradigm of administration towards a more communicative, cooperative form of management in which information is open and shared along with a sense of mutual respect and acknowledgement. Social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. have changed the way people communicate and interact casually as well as professionally. The Government agencies also need to change accordingly if they want to stay in touch with their people. Although, the world was very fast to adapt to various social networking sites and the social media overall, the government agencies took very little steps towards using it (Maio, 2011). The social media has changed the way people go about their daily routines and it has also changed the relationship of a government and its citizens. Hence, various government agencies are constantly trying to have a presence in the social media. The tourism industry of any country needs tremendous support from the government and mostly governments are responsible for administering it. Tourism relies deeply on information sharing. Tourists before deciding on a particular destination research about it a lot through various means. People who travel for leisure take a lot of time on decisions regarding destination and stay details. More importantly, an interesting point to mention here is the fact that the industry of tourism comes under the services sector and hence, people here rely more on experience rather than information. Therefore, the principles of experiential marketing apply here more which would imply that marketing through word-of-mouth would be the best option. Social media is all about consumers sharing experiences and it can serve as a major source of marketing a certain destination. A facebook page that promotes tourism in Australia would not only provide invaluable information on Australia and its various outstanding locations, it would also persuade the consumers in making the decision. Consumers share videos, photos of various Australian locations that they found fascinating and they also share their experience with other visitors of the page, providing information and persuading at the same time. Australian Tourism fan page on Facebook Tourism Australia’s fan page on Facebook was launched in 2008. The page has more than a million fans now who constantly share their experience and their love for Australia with the rest of the world. Facebook has become a popular location for consumer interaction regarding various products. Thus, it also offers similar advantages to the Australian Government looking to promote tourism in Australia. Social networking sites, particularly, Facebook offers an easy platform to the citizens for communication with government authorities. The government can maintain a more active relationship with the citizens, increase level of trust, besides providing a reliable and easy mode of communication. Facebook can also help in filtering citizens, so that a certain specific audience can be reached. Moreover, campaigning, raising awareness and increasing the involvement of citizens is a lot more easy using fan pages of Facebook while the government can monitor the content of the page, services delivered, video, audio, interactive applications, polls, and other content. The content on the page could be published elsewhere with government consent on other sites and social media. The page see Australia is an excellent example of Government using Facebook to promote tourism in the country. The page allows the citizens to talk and discuss things they love about the country while sharing various travelling tips with others. The page has crossed a million fans out of which 500,000 of the one million are Australians. One of the biggest achievements of the page is that it not only harbors Australians; the rest of the fans come from different countries around the world and the gender of the fan base is also evenly divided between males and females. Fans post hundreds of videos, photos of their favorite locations and possible tourist spots of Australia every day showing their interest and involvement in the page. Workflow & Moderation As mentioned earlier, the page came into being in 2008 by Tourism Australia, which is a government organization. The page is moderated under the terms and conditions of Tourism Australia. The basic purpose behind the creation of the page was to bring together people who are planning to visit, have visited, or are in love with Australian locations and like spending holidays there. The page provides general information, travelling related tips, besides providing beautiful images of locations and videos that help the visitor live the Australian experience. Tourism Australia keeps a strict check on the postings made by fans, however, it refrains itself from the responsibility of postings made by fans on the page. Moreover, the page does not take ownership of the photos, however, it clearly states that those who share their photos and videos on the page give Tourism Australia a non-exclusive, royalty free, and worldwide license to use modify, delete, form, add to, or publicly display or reproduce the photos and videos posted with no limitation to the alternative electronic media available as well as multiple other pages, network sides, etc. Research Methodology The methodology of research involved a content analysis of the facebook page ‘seeAustralia’ moderated by Tourism Australia. The research was simply focused on trying to find the content available on the page and the wall posts to analyze the discussions going on along with an analysis of the framework available online that helps in keeping a track of visitor activity. On November 3, 2011, the page had 1,885,168 fans along with 35,423 people who were talking about it. The wall posts are updated regularly with an average of at least one wall post each day and sometimes even more than that (Tourism Australia, 2011). We can also divide the wall posts into various categories depending on the kind of information or discussion they contain. The research also includes an analysis of the other form of content available on the page such as discussion boards, videos, polls, photos to find if the creation of the page is in synchronization with the objectives of Tourism Australia. The research also tries to find out the type of interaction and communication present on the page. Analysis of Findings Tourism Australia’s Objective The facebook page seeAustralia has been created by Tourism Australia and it is part of their Gov 2.0 initiative. The main objective behind building a fan page of a country is to encourage more tourists and travelers to plan their vacations in Australia. The idea was to promote people to talk about the things they love about Australia and share their experience among one another. The managing director of Tourism Australia Mr. McEvoy says that thousands of page fans upload videos, photos, and stories everyday making it the ultimate holiday slide night everyday. As mentioned earlier, tourists choose spots mostly based on the information they have gathered as well as the experiences that others have shared with them. Word-of-mouth is the best tool for sharing experiences and passing on information and social networking sites are most effective in spreading word-of-mouth; this is exactly what seeAustralia facebook page is doing for Tourism Australia. The moderator, Tourism Australia only posts startup content to begin discussions while the fans jump in the conversation and do most of the follow ups, adding more relevant photos and videos. Industries like tourism that rely on experiential marketing need platforms like Facebook for promotion as they have an integral role in sharing experiences and information in the most unconventional casual manner possible. Hence, seeAustralia is an important aspect of marketing Australia as a tourist destination which is the ultimate motive of Tourism Australia. Topics of Discussion Wall posts are an important source of finding out the topics being discussed on the fan page. The wall of a facebook page is in the center of the page where a person can write his thoughts, share content such as photos, videos, etc. (16). The page is publicly viewable by anybody holding a facebook account and anyone who become a fan can write on the wall. As mentioned earlier, Tourism Australia acts as the page’s moderator and they have applied post moderation, which is applicable to wall posts, notes, discussions, and comments. The info section of the page describes all the rules and regulations that apply while posting on the fan page or uploading any video. We analyzed Wall Posts starting from November 4, 2011 up to August 30, 2011. Tourism Australia regularly posts interesting and beautiful photos, videos, of Australia tourist destinations and also posts an interesting comment, one that stimulates discussions and involves all fans in the discussion. The wall posts not only keep the fans involved with the page encouraging them to comment or share their experience of the location, they also provide information to the new users of the page during those discussion. Moreover, some of the wall posts are only questions urging the fans to answer it. The questions are obviously regarding an Australian location and at very few times, they have been absolutely informative, informing the fans of an event or a campaign going on in the country. Australia’s new 7 Wonders New6Wonders Foundation has launched a new campaign by the name New7Wonders of Nature Campaign, which is a worldwide campaign to find the seven most wonderful natural sites in the world using public vote. Two of Australian natural spots, Uluru and the Great Barrier Reef have also been nominated for voting (Tourism Australia, 2011). Tourism Australia is using its facebook fan page seeAustralia towards it advantage asking its fans and new users to vote for the destination. In order to convince the fans or outsiders who have never been to the location, they have also posted spectacular videos of the location, while a tweeting option is also available on the page. Photos and Videos The page allows fans to upload their photos and videos that they love about Australia. The administrators of the page also post interesting facts and beautiful places to keep the fans engaged with the page. By the end of each week, i.e. on Friday, Tourism Australia posts one complete album by the name ‘Friday Fan photos’ that which consists of favorite fan photos of Australia. The favorites have been selected based on the ‘likes’ that each of the posted photo receives. The fans enjoy the posts a lot which is evident from their comments and involvement with the albums. There are total of 98 photo albums consisting of various Australian locations that spectacular and are interesting tourist destinations. The videos section of the page consists of numerous videos, which could be categorized as both informative as well as entertaining. The idea behind posting videos is to lure people to watch them so that not only they get fun out of it, they are also well informed and Tourism Australia’s purpose of inviting tourists to visit Australia and improving the number of travelers is also fulfilled. Making Tracks & Videos Making Tracks is another initiative of the page administrators to include all sorts of activities on the page with the theme ‘Australia’ in the background. This section of the page promotes Australian talent, culture, and heritage. Making tracks brings together four contemporary Australian musicians with four classical musicians from the international Youtube Symphony Orchestra. Each pairs makes different tracks across Australia while experiencing its landscapes, people, and stories. This is a remarkable initiative of the page with the concept of experiential marketing in mind. The section tries to promote the Australian experience, it scene tic beauty trying to bring in more travelers and vacationers to spend their time in Australia by sharing the experience of others through videos posted by the ‘Making Tracks’ teams. Due to various activities available on the page and its content, seeAustralia has been a huge success and has been able to achieve its purpose of stirring in interest from all around the world regarding Australia. We can call the page a success and it would continue to function because it has not only fans from Australia but fans from all around the World. If we discuss numbers, there are 490,0000 Australian fans, 75,000 from USA, 48,000 in Italy, 36,000 are from UK, 27,000 belong to Germany, 25,000 to France, and 18,000 belong to Switzerland. Moreover, the page is also a success among both the genders because if we take a look at the gender distribution of the fans, we find that they are more or less evenly distributed with 45% males and 55% females. Another indicator of the page’s success is the fact that it generate 850,000 impressions per day on average and Tourism Australia utilizes the page continuously for various relevant marketing activities; one example of which is the New7wonders campaign and the There’s nothing like Australia campaign. The fans of the page share their great Australian holiday stories among each other while stimulating interest and promoting Australia as a holiday and tourist spot. References Maio, Andrea Di (2011). Australia’s Government 2.0 Future, what will Australia’s governance look like in 20 years? Retrieved on November 2, 2011 from < http://www.gov2au.net/> Tourism Australia (2011). Retrieved on November 3, 2011 from Tourism Australia (2011). The New 7 Wonders of Nature Campaign. Retrieved on November 4, 2011 from Read More