Virginia Beach, Va./Vail, Co., May 1, 2012 – BCF, a marketing communications firm specializing in marketing travel, hospitality and lifestyle brands, recently partnered with the Mountain Travel Symposium (MTS) to launch the inaugural MTS | BCF Social Media Survey, querying resort leaders about their current social media practices. Results of the survey were presented at the recent MTS annual conference, held in Squaw Valley, California, prompting a call for industry leaders to implement key findings into prescriptions for change and improvement. The goals of the study were to gauge the effectiveness of social media marketing in the mountain travel industry, to demonstrate how to improve the use of social media and to help ski areas, mountain destinations and lodging properties to calculate a meaningful return on their social media investment.
The MTS | BCF Social Media Survey was created by BCF in conjunction with the Mountain Travel Symposium, the single largest and longest-running annual gathering of mountain travel professionals in North America. Attendees and other industry professionals were surveyed prior to the event in categories including brand comprehension, engaging target audiences, selecting monitoring tools and turning measurement into insight and value, among others. “We partnered with Ralf Garrison and MTS with the goal of helping industry partners approach social media in a strategically grounded and disciplined fashion. At the end of the day, each industry partner should be able to answer, ‘Is my social media marketing increasing my profit or reducing my costs – and if not, what value does it contribute to my organization?'” commented Art Webb, president and CEO of BCF.
Findings from the study indicated that regardless of the size of the social media marketing budget, many in the mountain travel industry feel limited in understanding exactly how to leverage and measure the social media channel. “Given the tremendous change taking place in the mountain travel industry, the survey is timely. We now have a good baseline perspective on what the various DMOs, ski areas and hotels are or are not doing to help themselves,” commented John Runberg, Partner/Director of Digital Strategy of BCF. “While your company type and business structure have tremendous influence on what you can credibly and reliably measure within social media, with the right data and the right tools in place, BCF can help businesses objectively evaluate what is and isn’t working. We can take much of the fear and doubt away and provide an individualized prescription to improve a business’s ROI from social media marketing practices.”
BCF is currently counseling mountain resort entities on this subject in Colorado and throughout the western mountain region.
For more information, contact Mary Pannullo at 757/497-4811 or mpannullo@boomyourbrand.com.
