Social Media has exploded in recent years. However the maturity and
sophistication with which organizations engage with consumers through the social tools still leaves much to be desired. Executives see this in the lack of social media ROI. Marketers see this in the difficulty of converting fans and followers into advocates and customers.
Social CRM – customer relationship management – is helping to bridge the gap somewhat. But CRM, however social, is still focused on the business managing the customer. The customer wishes not to be managed but to be engaged.
BloomThink conducted a deep social consumer engagement analysis of a high-touch, consumer focused industry: the Cruise industry. We reviewed 6 large cruise companies for how they have grown in social media reach over the last year and how they are using the social platforms to engage their customers and prospects. We reviewed Carnival Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Princess Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Holland America, and Celebrity Cruises.
BloomThink focused on their Facebook and Twitter interactions and used social media metrics to graph their results.
Emerging from this study was a very clear Social Consumer Engagement Maturity Model with 5 clear stages. All cruise companies we reviewed were at or past stage 2 but none were at stage 5.
BloomThink found that Carnival Cruises were the best example of an organization engaged with their consumers via social media. But even they were not yet doing all that they could.
This whitepaper (also to the right) indicates areas for improvement for that apply to any company starting down the social consumer engagement path. We point out specific areas where leisure travel agents should be tapping into the huge fan and follower base of the cruise companies. We also point out areas where the social media teams of the cruise companies can improve their social interactions with consumers. BloomThink stands ready to help.
As a result of this study a downloadable infographic and maturity model were created (both above).
BloomThink 