Social Media Boosts Tourism Revenue in Mallorca

The internet is spreading into ever more areas of life. Facebook and social media dominate the web, and the unimaginable mass of potential customers is pushing many businesses that had previously hesitated to spend marketing budget on social media into the fiercely competitive world of ads, Google and search engine rankings. In Mallorca too, more and more tourism-related businesses are deciding to use social media and online marketing to retain customers and win new ones. Restaurants, cafes, bistros and small shops, as well as bike hire firms, car rental companies and web-based business ideas, are all making use of and benefiting from social exchange on the World Wide Web. What was once a monologue between business and customer has become a dialogue, and likes and followers now set the trend online and, to some extent, drive revenue, depending on how active each business is on social media.

Web 2.0 means making the most of the social media resources available.

The Web 2.0 user rates and comments on social networks. In a recent survey, more than 44% of internet users said they use social media actively every day. Within just a few years, what was once a passing fad has become the fastest-growing sector of the online economy.

What matters at the start of a social media campaign is the business owner's awareness that the desired results will not come overnight, because the brand, business or product must be integrated carefully and in tune with the flow of the social networks. Depending on the sector, product or price bracket, it takes a well-thought-out strategy to give your social media campaign enough flavour to attract attention on the networks and avoid getting lost in the no man's land of the information overload. As a small business owner, the question is whether the personal effort of continuously maintaining your social media activities pays off, or whether hiring an external social media manager makes more sense.

These days, websites are indispensable as a calling card, yet the direct, measurable revenue generation via a website, expressed in figures (ROI) using the appropriate marketing tools, is carried out by only a minority of small firms and sole traders online. As a rule, these are the search results, or websites, that appear on the first two pages of a Google keyword search.

Without a key and signposts, the internet user gets lost.

Google is a vast maze. Without the right keys and signposts, you cannot find your way to your intended destination. Keywords, or key terms, describe your business. An Italian restaurant in Mallorca, for example, would send signposts such as "restaurant", "Mallorca", "Italian", "pizza", "spaghetti carbonara" or "Italian specialities" to the search engines Google, Bing or Yahoo, so that the internet user and potential website visitor can find their way to the Italian place around the corner. The better and more detailed these signposts are, the more relevant the search engines rate the website, and the higher the page rank climbs. It is worth bearing in mind, however, that a website without interesting, unique and user-friendly content will not rise in the rankings even with the best keywords.