Digital Minds Forum

Journalism is changing grounds – more than ever, journalists globally are turning out to making the maximum use of the massive opportunities Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs and various other social media holds. People are increasingly on these social platforms when it comes to up-to-second news, happenings, incidents, debates, raising voices, and much more. Think about the celebrities for example, I mean they are the biggest and their page tops awesome rankings in the Top Page lists in Facebook; they have a massive number of viewership on videos uploaded on YouTube; they are tweeting like crazy on Twitter (mostly from their handheld devices); they have their own interactive blogs and online forums – I mean just like celebrities, journalists too have a whole community around them – So why not get into all these tools and make your voice?

The dramatic change due to increasing rate of technology has opened up opportunities for journalists to connect with the public on an unprecedented level. The rise of a range of social media resources has changed how a story is told and consumed. I really would be thanking for these tools available in today’s world as journalists can get instant feedback on their work, gather meaningful tips, track trends and happenings – and beyond everything, to build valuable relationships with the public which is the foremost importance.

Journalists’ way of leveraging social media to gather stories

1. Get yourself subscribed to RSS feeds

I hope you are aware what RSS feeds are. Get into RSS feeds as it allows reporters and journalists to monitor plenty of sources, in case about thousands of sources – and the best part is – in very little time. By subscribing to the content of industry websites which I am sure you must be aware of, online versions of magazines and other print materials, and even blogs and online forums of industry watchers, journalists won’t even have to leave their laptop. For instance if you find something on an industry blog or something, follow up, verify and quote, and you might probably be the first true media source to report it, you’ll beat most people to the story! You may see now how critical it is to have RSS feeds – you will surely be ahead.

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Many being spoken that the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 hosted in Sri Lanka (which is the venue for 11 matches set to be played in various locations) will bring in an international presence and drive tourism into the country. When I glanced through the weekend papers, I came across that international media and tourism experts say that there will be a boom in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry due to the World Cricket Cup matches held during the months of February and March – But we forgot one thing, aren’t these experts still thinking on short term perspectives? In my article I previously wrote on ‘Sri Lankan Tourism needs to go digital’, I have stated that global travellers are increasingly spending their time searching, reviewing, sharing and deciding on the internet which has become the primary source accounting for 95% of travellers with billions of online bookings made every year.

Putting facts on place, there were 700,000 tourists last year according to the statistics and industry officials predicting the tourism industry gearing for a major boost on this month with estimated tourist arrivals for the 2011 Cricket World Cup alone of 150,000 likely to generate additional revenue of Rs. 200 million. If there is such a world cup fever as we all say which will trigger and bring in tourists to Sri Lanka – where is the digital and social media strategy in place for this massive event? Did the Sri Lankan Tourism come up with a digital strategy such as an interactive website project for this event that will trigger the masses in the viral environments?

All cricket fans are spending time on social media platforms more than ever – Did the Sri Lankan Tourism for instance plan out and implement a social media strategy for the whole cricket? Creating Facebook pages, groups, individual cricketers fan site, upload pictures, talked about how cricket will contribute to tourism, update minutely scores, advertise on FB, create a community interested for this whole world cup thing? What about twitter – Did these so called experts carry out a Twitter strategy – tweeting minutely scores, news, updating about Sri Lanka, quotes from cricketers, promote the tweets, keep ongoing dialogues, etc? These things should have been planned out way before the games begun!

Just a digital and interactive strategy integrated with Facebook and Twitter strategy (and a whole lot of social media resources you can find out there, which I am pretty sure you will not know when I name them) – Is this too hard? I am talking about a long term perspective here – to showcase and build a whole community based on the interests and likeliness of Cricket throughout the world, and promoting Sri Lankan Tourism to its next level! If this is a massive opportunity, why did the sector fail to recognize the potential the digital and social world holds? Why still having thoughts and making trade in the traditional world?

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It’s most obvious after the end of the 30 year old civil war, Sri Lanka which we all call it as the ‘Wonder of Asia’ is gaining very high grounds on the tourism sector. Much is spoken about tourism these days, along with many projects kick started by the Sri Lankan Tourism Development Authority as well as its partners but we are forgetting one critical strategy at place – digital and social strategy.

Many global travellers are now on the internet as we all know – Sri Lankan Tourism needs to take advantage and leverage on this massive opportunity to trigger interest globally and take the tourism sector to the next level.

CE of Mark and Comm (MNC), an integrated strategic marketing, reputation and communications consultancy and a boutique think tank that brings out ideas for today’s environment, Thanzyl Thajudeen says ‘Sri Lanka boasts many ancient assets when compared to other countries that possess many human made assets (which are doing pretty well in tourism) – why can’t we make the most of them and give them a digital drive? I think it’s time that the tourism sector in Sri Lanka consider and give the mother nation what it deserves. This could explore the many hidden treasures and potential in Sri Lanka – places and things that global travellers have never heard of; may it be for those who seek a vacation, an educational trip to learn about the ancient places and get to know history, starting up a business venture, journalists and editors to write reviews of Sri Lanka, a visit to study cultural norms and traditions, to experience adventure in the wild forests; to enjoy the scenery of the waterfalls; to put their feet onto the sandy beaches in Batticaloa and Trincomalee; to visit the famous elephants; to have fun at Hikkaduwa, visit the misty hills and tea estates in the hills through to whatever you find out here in Sri Lanka! The potential is massive as we all know’.

The Internet with no doubt has become the primary information resource for 95 per cent of travellers, with $153 billion worth of tourism bookings made online in 2009 from the US and Europe alone.

According to Damian Cook, CEO and founder of e-tourism frontiers, a Nairobi-based digital marketing consultancy, he states that worldwide, an average of 48 per cent of bookings are made over the Internet, while the rate of online bookings in countries such as the US is as high as 70 per cent.

Thanzyl says that Sri Lankan Tourism needs to be in the present sales and marketing channel – it is not those traditional ones anymore – it’s the digital and social platforms out there – if you have failed to recognize this, the industry might suffer losses – more than this, it will lose the holistic massive opportunity the digital drive holds for the tourism sector.

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