Would You Book A Cruise Through Facebook?

This has been something I’ve thought about discussing for a little while now because social media has basically engulfed the entire civilized world.

I’ve worked for Cruise.co for almost 18 months now, but as my clients will know I’ve been a Cruise Specialist for much longer, and I’ve seen the huge rise in social media advertising through the likes of Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter, among several others.

At Cruise.co we have a heavy social media presence and a massive online standing when it comes to our specialist subject, Cruising of course!

We (all the sales team) have our own Facebook and Google Plus accounts which we use on a daily basis to promote ourselves, our service, great deals and just generally interesting news that gets tongues wagging, Like and Share are our two favourite words!

Ultimately our mission in simple, global cruise agency domination! And where better to dominate first? The worlds biggest billboard, the world wide web!

But just how reliable is internet booking? Can you trust everything you see online?

The answer is definitely not!

But people have trusted online booking engines for years. Cruise.co’s being one of the most used travel websites out there when it comes to cruising.

So now that times are changing, and the emphasis moving toward social media advertising, the question is, would you use social media streams to physically book a holiday?

The biggest name in social media of course is the household brand that is Facebook. A behemoth of the cyber world.

We promote our own offers on Facebook two or three times a week, but personally I get a lot of Likes and Shares, and some nice (some not so nice) comments from people who are clearly fans (or not) of cruising.

But hardly any of these turn into actual enquiries or bookings.

Why not I ask myself?

Do people like the content? Yes.

Are they interested in cruising? Yes.

Have the visited our website? More than likely.

So why are they not enquiring?

Hmmmm……..

Got to ultimately boil down to two things………

Age and Trust.

Why age?

Well we market to 45 years and upwards – probably the smallest minority on Facebook thanks to it coming to life in the last 10 years. So folks that are not so o fay with computers and technology have probably missed the boat (youch what a pun).

Trust because, to be quite honest, it may come across as an unsafe way of booking. Not because the page is dodgy. But because there are a lot of unsavory types on Facebook, and I guess most people assume they are just trying to steal their identity!!

So what can improve this attitude? How do we get people to enquire through Facebook to the point of being genuinely interested? Will there ever be a point where this happens?

Any suggestions welcome! Would love to hear peoples ideas and opinions on this subject! I’m sure I will blog about this in the future as it’s an integral part of not only my job, but life in general!

Thanks for reading and as always, until next time……………………….