The use of Facebook by Alton Towers

[andeyhart]

But TLC is mainly aimed at enthusiasts, who already know what the park offers. The main facebook and twitter feeds are aimed at the general public, who don't know what the park offers. They should be advertising all aspects of a day out, some pictures of people enjoying themselves on a nice day, following them around the park and advertising what's available where they are.

Agree. But any theme park is going to use 90% of its advertising material to promote its new attraction/s. In Towers' case, that's all CBeebies based this year. Last year, it was Galactica/Rollercoaster Restaurant.

It's still closed season as well. There should (hopefully) be more general messages regarding more widespread attractions once the park is open.

 

[Coaster]

Agree. But any theme park is going to use 90% of its advertising material to promote its new attraction/s. In Towers' case, that's all CBeebies based this year. Last year, it was Galactica/Rollercoaster Restaurant.

It's important to build interest in the park rather than just full-on promotion, things like posting pictures of the park, or construction updates of new rides can generate interest and custom but don't come across as in-your-face "buy this now" style marketing.

Alton Towers's social media is unappealing because it's just constantly trying to promote and sell.

 

[Croftybaby]

I see they are now advertising a "Up to 20% off" sale now straight after the "Up To 25%" one ended which in turn started the day after the "Up To 30%" off sale. YAWN

 

[Benzin]

It's like the DFS sale, it never ends!

 

[MattyH]

Replace the word song with sale and it works...

 

[andeyhart]

It's important to build interest in the park rather than just full-on promotion, things like posting pictures of the park, or construction updates of new rides can generate interest and custom but don't come across as in-your-face "buy this now" style marketing.

Alton Towers's social media is unappealing because it's just constantly trying to promote and sell.

You've taken my comment out of context. I'm not advocating the continuous sales push we've seen from Towers on social media. I was responding to someone who seemed surprised that the majority of the marketing material this year is CBeebies based. I pointed out that, as all new 2017 attractions are CBeebies oriented, it made sense that most marketing material is aimed around this. Next year, it'll be focussed on SW8.

But one thing I will say - ALL businesses use social media to promote and sell. Towers could certainly be more subtle, but it ultimately makes no difference. "Building interest in the park" isIn the cold light of day, Alton Towers is a business - therefore its primary aim is to make money. Sales may be annoying, but they do work.

 

[James]

They're even copying DFS adverts language.

Our Short Breaks sale MUST end today. With up to 25% available on all breaks, including school holidays and our brand new CBeebies Land Hotel, there's no better time to book!

The social media pages come across very desperate. They seem to beg for custom and don't try to engage with their audience. When they do post something not related to sales, it's either not interesting or they spam your news feed (posting 4 or 5 CBeebies posts in quick succession, for example). Where's the fun and magic? It's all very soulless.

 

[rob666]

ALL businesses use social media do they?
Bit of an overgeneralisation there surely Andy, I could name you several thousand businesses that don't, including mine!
The majority of small businesses, especially those run by the old git generation, don't use social media at all.

 

[andeyhart]

ALL businesses use social media do they?
Bit of an overgeneralisation there surely Andy, I could name you several thousand businesses that don't, including mine!
The majority of small businesses, especially those run by the old git generation, don't use social media at all.

I was talking about major businesses mainly. No disrespect, but you can't equate any small business with one the size of Merlin. The huge majority of big companies and businesses, regardless of whether they are run by the "old gits" generation or not, would be hopelessly in the dark ages without social media these days. Whether they like it or not, they have to adapt to the demands of the modern consumer, many of whom use social media platforms. And if we are talking about small businesses, even a fair few of them now, at the very least, have a facebook page.

And even if they're not on social media, the main point of my previous post remains. A business' primary aim is to make money.

 

[Error]

It's like the DFS sale, it never ends!

Don't forget SCS, mind you she is a hottie so i can forgive that.

 

[bluesonichd]

This is called social media, so being social means interacting with your audience, not just bombarding them with advert after advert.

 

[andeyhart]

This is called social media, so being social means interacting with your audience, not just bombarding them with advert after advert.

But they do interact. Their twitter team are normally fairly fast in interacting with guests, and a lot of questions on facebook are answered. Plus there have been updates regarding the new developments in CBeebies Land, it's just unfortunate none of us are the target audience for that, so we aren't bothered.

I agree, 100%, they over promote their special offers in a way that seems desparate and tedious, and there should be more content on rides and attraction developments, but then too much of that, with next to no mention of special offers, wouldn't work either. Their facebook page is, ultimately, a marketing tool. They just need to massively tone it down.

 

[Benzin]

There's a very different thing between basically answering questions and pushing for interaction... Especially when most of these answers are just cut & paste jobs...

Stuff like their old "pic of the week" is a great example of pushing guests to interact with them, proactive rather than reactive stuff needs to be done in addition to sales stuff...

 

[Coaster]

You've taken my comment out of context. I'm not advocating the continuous sales push we've seen from Towers on social media. I was responding to someone who seemed surprised that the majority of the marketing material this year is CBeebies based. I pointed out that, as all new 2017 attractions are CBeebies oriented, it made sense that most marketing material is aimed around this. Next year, it'll be focussed on SW8.

But one thing I will say - ALL businesses use social media to promote and sell. Towers could certainly be more subtle, but it ultimately makes no difference. "Building interest in the park" isIn the cold light of day, Alton Towers is a business - therefore its primary aim is to make money. Sales may be annoying, but they do work.

No they don't, the best way to use social media is to generate engagement with people who view the page, some promotion is fine but constantly trying to sell hotel breaks etc. makes the social media pages less appealing and therefore will reduce the amount of time people spend on the page etc.

Look at how Thorpe post things like "which row is the best on Swarm?" Things like that create engagement with the target audience and encourage interaction, it's a much better use of social media than "sell, sell, sell" and the method is used by plenty of businesses.

 

[Croftybaby]

Totally agree, How often do you see Heinz Beanz post about Half price beanz? it's always about how you can eat beanz. Just had a look at Tesco FB (eghhhh) and there scrolling through there is no mention of and special offers. It's all ideas about how you can make meals etc.

My Business uses FB to promote the brand, the brand then generates sales, no begging for business. Sure have some special offer on but make them legitimate and couple them with content that generates views/clicks or just remembers you to your customers for an interesting reason.

Looking forward to the Up to 15% off sales

 

[andeyhart]

No they don't, the best way to use social media is to generate engagement with people who view the page, some promotion is fine but constantly trying to sell hotel breaks etc. makes the social media pages less appealing and therefore will reduce the amount of time people spend on the page etc.

Look at how Thorpe post things like "which row is the best on Swarm?" Things like that create engagement wwih the target audience and encourage interaction, it's a much better use of social media than "sell, sell, sell" and the method is used by plenty of businesses.

But the example you've given is still an example of social media marketing and advertising. "What row is your favourite on The Swarm" is obviously a fun conversation starter for enthusiasts and fans of the ride, but it still subliminally advertises The Swarm. Social media is a marketing tool. Again, I'm not saying its sole aim should be to promote, but that's still its primary purpose. Interaction is only being initiated in the hope people will actually buy the product.

Again, I can't reiterate enough that I'm not a fan of Towers' soulless method of relentlessly pushing sales. I can, to an extent, understand it, as since the crash the sales push has gone into overdrive, plus Merlin is clearly a hugely profit driven company. Reading the comments section on Towers' facebook page, aside from the understandable complaints regarding price, a lot of the requests are concerning bookings, opening times, special requests etc. A lot of the general public seem to use the facebook page for purely functional purposes, so I'm not totally surprised Towers have adopted a bland, lifeless approach with their social media pages to reflect this, which is a shame. They could definitely be more adventurous with their social media outlets.

 

[Coaster]

But the example you've given is still an example of social media marketing and advertising. "What row is your favourite on The Swarm" is obviously a fun conversation starter for enthusiasts and fans of the ride, but it still subliminally advertises The Swarm. Social media is a marketing tool. Again, I'm not saying its sole aim should be to promote, but that's still its primary purpose. Interaction is only being initiated in the hope people will actually buy the product.

Exactly! It's subliminally advertising the ride but not in-your-face "buy this now" - which is what I'm getting at. Alton Towers' Facebook is bland and unappealing because all they're doing is trying to sell stuff, the most effective marketing (IMO) is that of creating interest, which in turn will sell the product. I'm not suggesting that there should be no sales posts at all, it's all about balance and Alton have got it way off IMO.

 

[andeyhart]

Exactly! It's subliminally advertising the ride but not in-your-face "buy this now" - which is what I'm getting at. Alton Towers' Facebook is bland and unappealing because all they're doing is trying to sell stuff, the most effective marketing (IMO) is that of creating interest, which in turn will sell the product. I'm not suggesting that there should be no sales posts at all, it's all about balance and Alton have got it way off IMO.

I would agree. And I've never felt otherwise. Like I said, I only commented initially when someone seemed surprised there was so much CBeebies advertising on the main facebook page, but not for any other area.

As a side note, from past years I've noticed Towers get a bit more creative on facebook when the park is actually open and all the sales have ended. There's always the worst sales pushes just before the park opens.

 

[GaryH]

Obviously hotel bookings are down this year, and with good reason - the park should be trying to attract people to stay over, but not with the prices they were initially charging. I'd be well p'd with them if i had booked initially in the up to 30% off sale in January because I bet the prices are cheaper now!

In the past there was 1 sale in January, prices were heavily discounted AND you could pay a deposit and pay the rest a few weeks before arriving - this also being a huge contributing factor as to why people aren't booking anymore. Me included!!

 

[Rob]

Oh well would you look at this - Alton Towers make a non-sales orientated post on Facebook about the theme park re-opening and get over 1200 likes and 231 comments; over 10 times the amount of interaction that their standard 'look at these offers we have, sell sell sell' posts tend to get.

Alton Towers and Cedar Point have a very similar number of Facebook likes/followers but it does not take a genius to see which park understands how to best utilise social media and which just wants to push the hard sale.