Managing Virtual Communities for Touristologists (Going deeper with The Strategic Triangle Part 2)

As I always say paraphrasing Alan Kay: People (Travel companies) who are really serious about social media should make their own communities.  You can read about the advantages that this action can mean here.

One thing is to create a virtual community; another very different thing is to manage it… successfully! Let’s see some advice from Touristology…

As you know the Strategic Triangle is one of the bedrocks of Touristology. We reviewed the first and the second rule in order to learn how to increase the relationship between your customer and your enterprise here. In the third rule, we have the idea of creating a sense of membership.

Once you have your community you can combine it with your loyalty or reward program the “ins and outs” of which we explained here.

So, Jordi! Do you really think that communities are important in Tourism? Of course! Individual tourism is OK but in order to make a profit you need to deal with groups. Even better, if you are able to generate synergies between them.  For that reason, the matrix of segmentation explained here (fans, pro-am, a professional) is a must for specialized tourism!

It is definitely worth it! If your customers have a feeling of belonging you are using Maslow’s pyramid principles. It will be more difficult for them to choose your competitors over you.  Leaving you, also means leaving the community they love! Tele-evangelists are masters in this kind of community creation. Learn from them!!!!

There are, at least, three effective ways to create a sense of community. Let’s study the first… 
1) Promote, invigorate contacts between your customers. 

A) Make it clear that this is good for them. They can group together and get a discount OR gather enough critical mass to ask for a customization of the service. For instance, a special singer for a dinner….  

B) Organize contests about them, where their pictures, their comments…will appear. They will love to share them in SnS (Social Networking Sites)!!! Here we explained the successful idea of liftopia using a facebook app which allows its users to show off about all the ski-resorts they have gone skiing at!

C) Practice Edu-Commerce (Educational principles for improving your business). Empower your customers with knowledge, tools and authority. Usually they know more about your products and services than you! Then, let your customer show off her/his knowledge!

Select carefully the people, the message and the environment where you communicate. The best way to do that is to review the book “The tipping Point” By Malcolm Gladwell

Learn how to combine the work of professionals and amateurs or Pro-Ams as Charles Leadbeater describes in his essential book “We-Think”.

In this way, inside your community you will offer recommendations from the triumvirate: Experts (because they get votes from the community), My friends (because I choose them), People like me (because they share the same taste).

The second effective way to create a sense of community is…

2) This is not a company… It is a family! 

Show your workers welcoming your customers. A case in point is the Hotel Rival created by the former singer of ABBA Benny Andersson. By the way, also the creator of the song! A good attempt to become a super2 if you know what I mean... 

Last but not least, we have the third effective way to create a sense of community

3)  We are the chosen ones. The others are out of the paradise!

Learn about the experts in this task:  Apple, Harley Davidson…

Or you can go to this post where we talked about JDVhotels.com and its brilliant idea of designing hotels based on a magazine (one of the best ways to deal with a specific life-style). For instance, “Rolling Stones” magazine, if you are or pretend or would like to be a musician. This is a hotel for Musicians. Come here, it is like identity refreshment!

In all these cases, a well managed community can be an effective way to increase the relationships between you and your segment, achieving customers which will return often, buy higher margin services and promote your hotel or tourist destination. 
Of course, this is not an easy task! It is necessary to stress the word managed! Who believes that communities will grow alone? They are like a garden you have to seed, you have to cultivate, you have to pull weeds, empower leaders inside the community, design and implement the right technology…
For that reason you will need... That's right! A good Touristologists!!!