Social Media and Destination Branding: How Mediterranean Tourism Destinations use Facebook Paper presented in Academy of Marketing Conference, Liverpool, UK, 5-7 July, 2011 Evgeniya Chernysheva Technological Education Institute of Piraeus, Greece George Skourtis University of Piraeus, Greece Ioannis Assiouras Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece Michalis Koniordos Technological Education Institute of Piraeus, Greece Abstract This paper aims to provide insights regarding brand building elements in tourism destination management through Facebook groups and pages. The question thus rises if and how the groups and pages related to tourism maximize their utility as marketing tools. A total of 370 related to tourism groups and pages were found in Facebook which correspond to 23 Mediterranean countries. The findings of the study underscore the wide diversity of groups in range of videos, photos, members for each country. The results suggest that only Greece, Cyprus, Spain Portugal and Malta had a link for social network in their official website, in order to promote their national brands. The rest of the countries (18) didn‟t maximize the utility of Facebook as an important marketing tool. Implications of the findings are discussed and directions for future research are provided. Keywords: Social Media, Facebook, Destination Branding Track: Tourism Marketing