Decision-making based on social media marketing

In this chapter, the most important findings regarding decision-making based on social media marketing are introduced as they were perceived by the interviewees. According to the findings, several notions arose concerning the decision-making based on social media marketing in DMOs. The mentioned issues included the notions that the management understands the role of social media marketing (I1, I2, I3, I4, I5, I6 and I8), the DMOs utilize social-media marketing in decision-making (I1, I3, I6 and I8), social media is utilized in marketing planning (I1, I5 and I6), partner companies in the destination are kept informed in terms of plans regarding social media marketing (I2, I4 and I8), as well as measuring the financial value is in the interests of the board (I2, I3, and I5). Other issues mentioned were that social media measurement will increasingly be a tool for the management (I1). In the table below, the key points concerning the findings are presented and described in more detail.

Table 11. Factors relating to decision-making based on social media marketing

The management understands the role of social media marketing

According to interview findings, it was mentioned in nearly all the interviews (I1, I2, I3, I4, I5, I6 and I8) that the management understands the role of social media marketing in marketing of the destination. Especially three interviewees said social media is (I1) or will be (I4) utilized in decision-making and budgeting (I1, I4, I6) as well as in investments (I8). One interviewee states that “probably in budgeting and like marketing planning and well really in everything, it’s such a central part of everything we do, I don’t really come up with anything where it’s left out like that. Or where you could exclude it.” (I1)

When discussing with one of the representatives of the DMO (I2), it appeared that the board is aware all the time how the DMO is doing. The board’s role is to take care of the big picture:

“It (decision-making) may be related to our regular reporting, so that our board is always aware of how we are doing.” (I2). Also, the board listens to the CEO when making decisions concerning social media. In addition to this, one interviewee (I4) adds that with social media data, especially analytics, the board management is convinced about decisions: “And the goal really is to take, like, words to the board level so that we get the understanding - to increase the understanding, and then to point it out as the direction of action through those social media indicators” (I4). Also, I6 states that continuous efforts are made for increasing the budget for social media: “...generally from the digital side, the efforts are made continuously to grow the budget to a certain extent, that it does not necessarily apply to social media always but, at least to the digital side certainly...” (I6).

I1 I2 I3 I4 I5 I6 I7 I8

Utilizing social media discussions in

decision-making x x x x

The management understands the role of

social media x x x x x x x

Social media measurement will be the

tool for management x

Social media is utilized in marketing

planning x x x

Measuring the financial value is in the

interest of the board x x x

Informing the partner companies about

the plans regarding social media x x x

Two interviewees had similar types of thoughts concerning justifying the actions to the board/management of the DMO. Here are some thoughts concerning of the interviewee especially concerning the use of analytics:

“But it is considered really important, analytics is important in that it can justify our role to our member actors, that is, we can show our part of what it is that our work is relevant to their awareness building or use of product-related content.”

(I8).

Another type of finding made in the interviews is that decisions in social media are made regarding the use of resources. Interviewee I4 states, that especially timely resources can be justified, when those working with marketing in DMOs are able to demonstrate how much time has been spent on certain operations.

“And yes, those are the choices, let us say about just moving something in-house. As you can see, it does not come from a two-hour weekly work, but requires eight hours at a minimum. In a way, with these results, I hope that we can also support such resources and other decision making.” (I4).

One interviewee stated opposing thoughts concerning the top management’s (or board’s) role in social media marketing. According to the interviewee (I7), also the management must understand the role of analytics and strategic management. There is no point in collecting social media data if the management is not interested:

“So, if the whole organization's decision-making is spoken of, yes, there never has been a question of what those numbers have been, that is to say, it would be quite different to put pressure on them if they were interested, but if I don't know if analytics and figures are going to be utilized, so it is also useless to pay for collecting them.” (I7)

Utilizing social media discussions in decision-making

In the interviews, several representatives of DMOs (I1, I3, I6 and I8) said they utilize social media discussions in decision-making. Interviewees I1 and I6 said they tend to sense what happens in social media. “Well, yes we smell quite a lot of that and talk about what's up there, what's happening there, based on what, the solutions, or the decisions we make about the next step” (I1).

Two interviewees (I3 and I8) think that knowing the customers is the prerequisite for the management of the organization and the whole destination. They also said that they learn to know the needs of the customers through social media. “

I would still say that when you are doing market research, you are looking for data in the market research, whether people are interested in cross-country skiing or not, even though you learn to recognize - to know those cross-country skiers, it may come from social media. Because I believe that the social media sentiment and information can complement, for example, data made through market research.” (I3)… “Then- if you get that feeling - customer understanding there, then you support that decision with the data you get from both the market research and social media.” (I3)

The interviewee continues at a later phase: “So this may be real deep right now, but I think you will leave a trace of that interaction where we can make better decisions as an organization. Where we are taken to as a destination is not just based on the data, but also based on the feeling we receive from that customer.” (I3)

So, according to the interviewee data and vibes received from social media are two different things, nevertheless, they should go hand in hand in decision-making.

Also I1 states in the interview, that “with social media it is the easiest to get information about travelers and their thoughts.” (I1) In some DMOs, social media may not be utilized to a great extent at the time of the interviews. However, an interviewee (I4) predicted that the role of social media will increase in their decision-making in the future.

Social media is utilized in marketing planning

Some DMOs (I1, I5 and I6) mentioned that they utilize social media channels when planning their marketing. For example, one interviewee told in the interview more closely about the utilization of marketing planning. Important factors included “finding the themes that are interesting to the audience” (I5), “continuous interaction with sales and marketing concerning the development areas for communications for social media“ (I5), as well as “executing projects to help reaching the target groups and getting sales” (I5).

In addition to this, the interviewee said that ideas for developing services and so on come from social media (I5), when (I6) said that “social media channels are helpful in the development of the future.” The same interviewee added that the results from social media are utilized when taking things further (I6), referring to decision-making and development of marketing operations in the DMO in question:

“Well, of course, it always affects no matter what, or it may affect what kind of focus is taken .. taken to certain things. In a way, things to grab or change may become apparent through social media, then I may end up talking to

managers at the end of the year, or sometimes in the middle of the year, to ask for a permission to take a particular line somewhere.” (I6)

Measuring the financial value of social media is in the interest of the board

Some interviewees (I2, I3 and I5) mentioned in the interview, that measuring the financial value of social media is especially in the interests of the board. Also, numeric data is presented to the board. One of the interviewees describe the situation in the following way: “That is, they go hand in hand in a way, not that if you are trying to sell an idea to a board or stakeholder at a general meeting, so often that idea has come from such social media communication.”…

“We should start working on this, we have to look for that data in the numbers to find out if this holds true?” (I3)

Informing the partner companies about the plans regarding social media

In some interviews it turned out, that not only the role of the board or investors are important when making decisions about social media marketing. According to the findings, DMOs co-operate closely with local tourism businesses in terms of content production, for example.

These issues specifically stood out in three interviews (I2, I4 and I8). These are some of the thoughts of an interviewee (I2) in involving them in marketing actions:

“And then that is how the companies in our area are told that what, for example, what has been done and what has been achieved. It has been opened up so that with 2000 € stake such a thing was achieved”.…“Because you also need this content specifically from companies and in order to gain an understanding of what our social marketing is, so how they can be involved or how they should be involved.” (I2)

Interviewees I4 and I8 add also that justifying the actions for partner companies within the destination is easier with social media data, when there are different views concerning the postings in a social media channel. For example, I8 states the following:

“That is, we also do this kind of content statistics all the time, what kind of posts have been made and by whom - what kind of companies are involved.”…”So if this is our own statistics, which we obviously don't get anywhere, that we need to dig it up to keep book about it, then we use this for our internal communication;

some companies may think that now someone else who is involved with less investment has gained more visibility than me…”So then, after all, we dig up our own like numbers and say, well, in fact, you have both been given the same amount of visibility” (I8).

Social media measurement will be a tool for management

One interviewee (I1) also states that social media will be a tool for management even more in the future:

“Well now we use the information we research from there, who we target, where to market, what things work, this information, but in the future, when we build it better, then measuring it will be a part of our leadership, our management tool and in a way, like an instrument of lobbying and all that is capable of showing those results, the results are better then, than if we do that and use the euros so much, the result will be, of course, of being able to utilize, much better. That the current knowledge of what is - is not enough. And that is why the job is started, no measurement process is started for fun.” (I1)

To summarize, in general, the interviewees said that the importance of social media is well understood in the top management, however, involving social media in decision-making may not be very organized.

5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS