A methodological framework to assess social media strategies of event and destination management organizations

ABSTRACT

Social media have become an indispensable tool for promoting events and tourist destinations, but some tourism organizations are still unable to exploit their full potential. The present research addresses this issue and proposes a methodological framework that could help managers increase users’ online engagement with tourist events and destinations’ social media sites. In two distinct studies, this research identifies content- and format-related characteristics that trigger users’ engagement, here assessed in the form of message liking, commenting, and sharing. Study 1 examines the messages posted on the official Facebook page of a religious event celebrated in a Southern Italian region. Study 2 examines a sample of tweets posted on the official Twitter pages of the same region’s main tourism promotion agency. The results identify features that may increase the effectiveness of social media managers’ promotional efforts, and also highlight differences across the two platforms.

摘要

社会媒体已经成为宣传活动和旅游目的地不可缺少的工具，但一些旅游组织仍然无法充分发挥其潜力。本研究针对这个问题，提出一个方法框架，可以帮助管理者增加用户对旅游活动和目的地社交媒体网站的在线参与。在两个截然不同的研究中，这项研究确定了触发用户参与的内容和格式相关特征，这里以消息喜欢、评论和共享的形式进行评估。

研究1考察了在意大利南部地区举行的宗教活动的官方脸谱网页面上发布的信息。

研究2检查了在同一地区的主要旅游促进机构官方Twitter页面上发布的推特样本。

这些结果确定了可以提高社交媒体经理人促销效果的特征，同时也突出了两个平台之间的差异。

KEYWORDS:

• Social media
• Facebook
• Twitter
• content analysis
• tourist destinations

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Martina Ingletti and Silvia Pellegrino for their assistance in data collection and codification.