A brief presentation of Social Media online activities from international key player DMO Abstract The widespread use of Web 2.0 applications and the increasing number of social media applications are producing radical changes in tourism destination promotion. Destination Management Organizations (DMO) must be able to adapt and meet the challenges placed by new interaction and communication paradigms in the tourism sector. This poster synthesizes a study done in which we analysed a set of national DMO and outlined and compared the use of social media applications in their communication activities. Shared practices and trends were identified and deconstructed according to a set of indicators and results enabled us to believe that, despite the differences in size and structure, there are some trends and shared practices worth adopting and exploring when designing social media communication strategies. The model includes the following phases and modules: • Phase 1-Analysis – Includes the mission and internal analysis modules; • Phase 2-Formulation – Composed solely by the strategy (design) module; • Phase 3-Implementation – Includes the implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and analysis of results modules. This phase has also an additional tuning module. In this study, we only focused our attention on work done in the monitoring module suggested in the model through the application of the observation grid, in order to understand the use of social media, in a set of chosen national DMO. Data collection >> direct observation and registered in an observation grid. Fig. 1 | Phases and modules of the model Vitor Roque 1 , Rui Raposo 2 1 Polytechnic of Guarda – Portugal | Research Unit for Inland Development (UDI·IPG). 2 University of Aveiro – Portugal | Center for Research in Communication, Information and Digital Culture (CIC·DIGITAL) ESCM - 3 rd European Conference on Social Media | 12 - 13 July 2016, Caen, France Methodology The study is centred on a model for guiding DMO willing to integrate and/or to enhance the use of social media in their communication and promotion-related activities (Roque and Raposo (2015)). The model is based on a three-phase scheme, in which each phase may include one or more modules with inherent and flexible tasks, activities and guidelines (Fig.1). Implementation Mission Formulation Analysis Strategy (design) Implementation Monitoring, evaluation and analysis of results Internal analysis Tuning? yes no DMO name Blog Twitter Facebook Google+ Flickr Youtube Pinterest Foursquare Portugal (PT) (http://www.visitportugal.pt) x x x x x x Spain (ES) (http://www.spain.info) x x x France (FR) (http://www.rendezvousenfrance.com) x x x x x x Italy (IT) (http://www.italia.it) x x x x x x Greece (GR) (http://www.visitgreece.gr/) x x x x x x x x United Kingdom (UK) (http://www.visitbritain.com) x x x x x Deutchland (DE) (http://www.germany.travel) x x x Austria (AT) (http://www.austria.info) x x x Norway (NO) (http://www.visitnorway.com/) x x x x x Malaysia (MY) (http://www.tourism.gov.my) x x x x x Australia (AU) (http://www.australia.com/) x x x x South Africa (ZA) (http://www.southafrica.net) x x x x Brazil (BR) (http://www.visitbrasil.com/) x x x x x - uses the application Table 1 | Social media applications used by the DMO. Criteria used for selecting the sample of national DMO were: • All continents would be represented by, at least, one DMO; • The sample would include the European Mediterranean DMO that compete for the same type of tourists that Portugal does; • The geographic distribution of the European DMO would include representatives from northern, central, and southern Europe. Criteria used for selecting the Social media applications were: • Social media applications used by at least two DMO from the list of selected DMO; • Reference on the DMO’s official website. The chosen DMO and social media applications determined are in Table 1. Calculation of the interaction was carried out by using the following formula Boyd & Ellison, 2008; O Connor, 2011; Stankov, Lazić, & Dragićević, 2010; Zouganeli, Trihas, & Antonaki, 2011): >> Two different observation periods in terms of tourism were considered, a low season period (November 2012,16 to 22 - P1) and a high season period (December 2012, 14 to 20 - P2) during which each observation period lasted one week. The results for the Facebook application are shown on Table 2. P1 P2 P1 P2 P1 P2 P1 P2 P1 P2 P1 P2 P1 P2 P1 P2 P1 P2 P1 P2 P1 P2 P1 P2 P1 P2 P1 P2 TOTAL % Portugal Spain France Italy Greece Norway Malaysia Australia TOTAL Brazil South Africa UK Germany Austria number 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0,26% like 0 0 0 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 24 0 24 comment 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 share 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - - 24,00 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 24,00 0,00 24,00 number 29 38 10 11 3 3 23 28 22 17 8 5 5 5 3 2 5 13 3 2 6 8 0 1 17 14 134 147 281 73,56% like 3755 4195 17726 15071 255 238 2269 2520 11616 11304 39545 32338 717 928 134 73 11419 10007 155 80 208034 492608 0 9 6692 5640 302317 575011 877328 comment 149 192 561 466 22 13 117 169 353 262 1091 902 66 96 12 8 269 218 13 4 4839 16460 0 0 213 193 7705 18983 26688 share 1038 1192 2469 2445 60 85 435 467 2300 2155 5355 4702 125 199 12 0 2159 1170 29 4 31056 70272 0 0 1323 1227 46361 83918 130279 170,41 146,82 2075,6 1634,73 112,33 112,00 122,65 112,71 648,59 807,12 5748,88 7588,40 181,60 244,60 52,67 40,50 2769,40 876,54 65,67 44,00 40654,83 72417,50 - 9,00 484,00 504,29 2659,57 4611,65 3680,77 number 7 8 0 0 1 4 6 12 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 19 27 46 12,04% like 424 470 0 0 23 84 195 342 0 156 0 0 0 0 0 0 2530 633 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3172 1685 4857 comment 10 11 0 0 1 1 7 12 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 80 19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 98 47 145 share 215 287 0 0 3 27 66 136 0 42 0 0 0 0 0 0 645 110 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 929 602 1531 92,71 96,00 - - 27,00 28,00 44,67 40,83 - 202,00 - - - - - - 651,00 381,00 - - - - - - - - 221,00 86,44 142,02 number 10 9 0 0 3 6 0 0 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 0 9 5 0 0 1 1 2 0 31 23 54 14,14% like 353 335 0 0 36 50 0 0 375 92 0 670 0 0 0 0 373 0 57 34 0 0 30 0 90 0 1314 1181 2495 comment 14 16 0 0 6 4 0 0 12 3 0 35 0 0 0 0 3 0 5 5 0 0 2 0 5 0 47 63 110 share 196 154 0 0 5 4 0 0 89 0 0 112 0 0 0 0 31 0 14 7 0 0 11 0 13 0 359 277 636 56,30 56,11 - - 15,67 9,67 - - 158,67 95,00 - 817,00 - - - - 135,67 - 8,44 9,20 - - 43,00 0,00 54,00 - 55,48 66,13 60,02 number 46 55 10 11 8 13 29 40 25 19 8 6 5 5 3 2 13 15 12 7 6 8 1 2 19 14 185 197 382 100,00% like 4532 5000 17726 15071 338 372 2464 2862 11991 11552 39545 33008 717 928 134 73 14322 10640 212 114 208034 492608 30 9 6782 5640 306827 577877 884704 comment 173 219 561 466 29 18 124 181 365 269 1091 937 66 96 12 8 352 237 18 9 4839 16460 2 0 218 193 7850 19093 26943 share 1449 1633 2469 2445 68 116 501 603 2389 2197 5355 4814 125 199 12 0 2835 1280 43 11 31056 70272 11 0 1336 1227 47649 84797 132446 133,78 124,58 2075,60 1634,73 54,38 38,92 106,52 91,15 589,80 737,79 5748,88 6459,83 181,60 244,60 52,67 40,50 1346,85 810,47 22,75 19,14 40654,83 72417,50 43,00 4,50 438,74 504,29 1958,52 3460,75 2733,23 interaction p_TOTAL p_text Period 2 (P2) - 14 to 20 december 2012 Period 1 (P1) - 16 to 22 november 2012 p_TOTAL p_link interaction p_link interaction p_text interaction p_image p_video interaction p_video p_image Table 2 | Interaction developed on Facebook. Main conclusions The sample of DMO considered in the study includes representatives from all continents, predominantly from the European continent. In terms of the presence on the web, it was found that DMO tend to not follow standard rules when choosing their web address names or domains. This is clearly visible in the addresses of the official websites of Germany (http://www.germany.travel), UK (http://www.visitbritain.com), Malaysia (http://www.tourism.gov.my), and South Africa (http://www.southafrica.net). Moreover, the names used by the DMO, in their social media applications, do not, in most cases, follow any visible rules. The Germany DMO is a good example of this visible problem: Blog – germany.travel/en/news/news_startseite.html; Twitter – @GermanyTourism and Facebook – facebook.com/visitgermany. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were the social media most used by the DMO to communicate with their public. In terms of the number of publications in Facebook and Twitter, for example, there were quite different values and, in the case of Facebook, there were also quite different values in terms of the generated interaction with users. >> It is possible to say that all observed DMO used social media applications in their marketing and communication strategies, nevertheless, and according to the results, we can assert that the return in terms of interaction with users was quite different. References BOYD, D. M. & ELLISON, N. B. 2008. Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 13, 210-230. O CONNOR, P. An analysis of the use of Facebook by international hotel chains. International Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education (CHRIE) Conference, 2011 Dever - USA. ROQUE, V. & RAPOSO, R. 2015. Social media as a communication and marketing tool in tourism: an analysis of online activities from international key player DMO. Anatolia, 1-13. STANKOV , U., LAZIĆ, L. & DRAGIĆEVIĆ, V. 2010. The extent of use of basic Facebook user-generated content by the national tourism organizations in Europe. European Journal of Tourism Research, 3, 105-113. ZOUGANELI, S., TRIHAS, N. & ANTONAKI, M. 2011. Social media and tourism: The use of Facebook by the european national tourism organizations. Tourism Today, 11, 110-121. The modules flexibility enables them to be regarded as independent units, which means that they may be adjusted according to the nature, size, and structure of each DMO.