Week 12 - Social Media

This appeared on my wife's Facebook newsfeed, its going to cost me $20.

 

To celebrate my week off between semesters my wife and I are going to Las Vegas.  We’re really excited to check out Sin City, but we’ve never been and have had to spend a lot of time researching.  To this end, social media has played a very integral role in the planning of our Vegas trip.

The first step in planning a Vegas trip is choosing the hotel.  We wanted a hotel with a really cool room, nice pool, and all for a good price.  We ended up reserving a room at the MGM Grand.  After booking our room we elected to be on an email distribution for Hotel deals & info, but we were also encouraged to join their Facebook page and twitter account.  So we joined these streams of social media and over the last few months have received lots of information about the MGM Grand and everything it has to offer.  Before you know it I’m sharing pictures of meals I think my wife would enjoy, we’re talking about shows, and various package deals at the restaurant.  MGM is winning more of our vacation dollars before we even step foot in the hotel.

MGM’s social media messages revolved around deals and attraction info.  And every communication has a really fun carefree vibe.  Their messages were most commonly communicated through pictures.  In fact, every Facebook post included a picture.  Using a picture is a very effective way to catch a consumer’s attention in a crowded newsfeed.  This type of advertising is also very effective because it’s reaching you in a setting where you’re choosing to consume information.  When you log on to these sites you’re choosing to hangout and digest information.  MGM has never once sent me any junk mail and their email spam is very minimal.  I don’t think these forms of advertising are becoming obsolete, but they’re definitely falling out of favor.  I think companies like MGM are realizing there are more effective ways of reaching the consumer.