Even in small islands like Saipan, Tinian and Rota, social media like Facebook has dominated the lives of a big number of the population. Post some news or announcement in your status on Facebook and everybody will know about it faster than you think.
Try saying you don’t have a Facebook account and you will get a weird “hello, where have you been” kind of look.
Business operators have been turning to social media advertising to promote their products and services, and reach out to a large number of potential clients.
Experts say that social media advertising are more engaging and are more targeted to a particular niche. Local businesses here are opening fan pages on Facebook where they invite people to ‘like’ and join the forums and exchanges, an effective way of getting more exposure and creating more brand awareness for your products.
Jim Arenovski, president of Delta Management Corporation- Saipan, said it is undeniable that social media, especially Facebook has provided a unique advertising and marketing tool.
Arenovski said that using the business applications in Facebook you can announce last minute specials and offer, including “web based only” specials, you even create coupons that the customers can print and bring in the business.
He said that although actual adverting on most social networks charge you by the “hit”, you can set how much you want to spend.
“This certainly is a good way of seeing if people are going to your site,” Arenovski added.
Elly Stoilova, web marketing manager for Russia/CIS of the Pacific Islands Club, said PIC has maintained an active social media presence for the last few years.
“Our resort’s four web sites in English, Japanese, Korean and Russian vary in style and content as each is tailored for a specific market,” Stoilova said.
She added that next month, PIC plans to launch a new, modern English web site along with an updated booking engine to further improve online reservations.
Stoilova added that the hotel sales team is active on the hotel blogs in each language as well as on the six Facebook pages they support.
“PIC has followers on Twitter and FourSquare, and utilizes other online sources to extend the word-of-mouth about Saipan and the resort,” she said. PIC also feed updates on news and events in online forums, travel newsletters, travel portals, and independent travel booking sites.
“We truly believe that for us as a hotel located in a remote area, on an island in the Pacific, it is crucial to maintain a strong online presence in order to attract and retain customers. Internet takes us abroad and makes as visible to anyone, anywhere at a relatively low cost. Our local partners and patrons are also online and being able to deliver our news and promotions to them instantly have been very helpful to us as a business and convenient for our customers too,” Stoilova said.
But social media advertising has its pitfalls too, according to Dr. Alan S. Markoff, president of Toothworks Dental Clinic.
Markoff said the issue of social media advertising has been raised and discussed at many dental meetings.
Markoff said that for someone like him “who comes from the old school,” he really does not believe in the concept of professionals advertising.
“I feel deeply that we should do our marketing via the ‘internal” route,’ that is, we have a very competent team that is happy and patient oriented.
That builds trust and confidence. When professionals offer that environment, then people want to refer their family and their friends,” Markoff said.
He said that he had many friends who advertise via the “social network.” He said he attended a very prestigious meeting last March, in Texas, and this subject was debated in depth.
“I was surprised to learn that there is a very large downside to advertising in this manner. The example shared with us was of a patient who had a bad experience in a dental clinic in the U.S. Within 15 minutes she put the experience up on Facebook and over 200 people were made aware of her perception of her experience with this dentist. This can happen with anyone: doctor, lawyer, Indian chief! We all walked out of the room shaking our heads, because no one had even considered the possible negative effects of Facebook,” Markoff said.
He added that one does not even have to avail themselves of advertising via Facebook and/or Linkedin to have an experience similar to this.
“I feel we must all be on our professional toes and treat people appropriately at all times. Be warm, be gracious, and have a genuine desire to help. The patients will find us,” Markoff said. {jcomments off}
