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The use of Facebook by Alton Towers

jon81uk said:
I don't get why it was inappropriate? They then posted two more pictures not zoomed in as far. Did you guess what it was?
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Just looks like a censored image that you see on day time TV aired before the watershed ;)

Looks like they quickly added the zoomed out photos to save embarrassment due to some of the comments posted and also looks like they remove that image from FB but still showing on Twitter.
 
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They are getting better but I still find some of what towers post too boring and far to much advertising, rather than engaging and fun!

Take a look at some of the random stuff thorpe post, they get way more likes and shares than an advert for the CBeebies hotel or annual pass. However I doubt Towers would ever post things like that because they are too "off brand".


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I think the Towers Street Facebook page is a good example of how the park should be using their own. I've noticed lots of informative, engaging posts which certainly make me desperate to go back instead of boring adverts...like this one!
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Just been having a casual browse around Towers Facebook page. I don't often see their updates as unliked the page many years ago, plus was banned from commenting some hard truths haha!

Anyways, has anyone else noticed the huge negative backlash from the GP? We know enthusiasts have done a lot of moaning on forums the past few years but the GP have mostly always seen the park through rose tinted glasses.

I'm looking through every single post and the comments on each are just complaints and moaning on every single one. All from Scarefest and Fireworks. I've never seen anything like it before.

Says a lot about how the GP view the park at the moment.
 
Facebook pages are more used to start discussions rather than advertising in my experience. I think they are suited to twitter where they can pump out the daily updates. However i think they could do so much more with their social medias as a whole. Feels like they have a social team in london and one guy in AT who just takes pictures now and then
 
The sad thing is they have chipped away so much of Scarefest that this year really is the poorest effort so far. Look back at how much has gone over the years. It does seem the general public have become aware of this. Talking about negative feedback the Thorpe Park Trip Adviser reviews are quite a read and really show the state our theme parks are in.
 
There seems to be a lot of negativity at the moment in people's comments about the scare mazes and lack of any actors in the park. However, dont forget, most people who had a bad experience will be more likely to comment, while those who have a good experience dont bother. So for every 1 bad post, there may be 9 people out there who did enjoy their day, but just havent said it on their feed.....
 
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To be fair on their Facebook page, since this thread was last active their posts have improved considerably. There's less of the hard sell and more interesting posts, just like we said there needed to be.

I almost feel sorry for the people who have the thankless task of running social media pages. I doubt they're paid much, and they really are the on the front line as people get very confident when they're hidden behind keyboards. They often get lashed at as if it's the park management sat there at the other end behind a Dell running the page! I also find on the Towers page in particular they really do bend over backwards to help people and deal with complaints.

It's often hard to tell if a page is being bombarded with more negative feedback or not due to the amount these pages attract no matter what they do. But I too have noticed far more moans and groans on there recently. After you skip past the usual lies from idiots posting things like "OMG my harness broke on Oblivion when I was upside down and they did nothing about it" (actual comment I kid you not!), there are plenty of thought out genuine concerns on there.

All season a significant proportion has been predominantly about short opening hours. Closed rides is another very common one as is building hotel capacity whilst the park offer decreases, hotel prices and scarefest atmosphere. Interestingly, it's not prices people seem to be moaning about, more VALUE as they don't mind paying for a good day out but feel Towers is declining and taking the piss out them.

Another interesting one is the Merlin Passholder page, where on the announcement by Varney to pull money out declining park line ups and build more hotels sparked a furious reaction. At points it was almost a mirror of the fan forums with the points being made.

So basically guys it's not just us.
 
I personally think that Towers' social media team should look at Thorpe's social media team and try to replicate what they're doing. Towers' social media is mostly about trying to sell things other than the odd SW8 episode with Elliott Crawford. Thorpe's social media team actually posts some pretty funny stuff on their channels.
 
They also post a lot of rubbish, but then a lot of companies do to try and get hits...

Social media is a very difficult thing for any company to actually get right...
 
I think towers do social media pretty well personally. After all it is a business and they have to advertise to sell and get people through the gate. They tend to also be good at responding.
 
GaryH said:
I think towers do social media pretty well personally. After all it is a business and they have to advertise to sell and get people through the gate. They tend to also be good at responding.
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I suppose so. They've always responded promptly to my Facebook messages.
 
Returning to a topic from a couple of years ago, is anybody else somewhat disappointed at the social media from the resort during this crisis? Aside from some minor input from the fansites, Shawn Sanbrooke, an initial attempt to get the hashtag #AltonTowersTogether going and encouraging people to send in their own art work - there's been very little of note created by the resort themselves.

From joyous drone flights over the a variety of parks including Liseberg and Efteling, to Europa-Park's bi-weekly mini series about the park and Rulantica, to Walibi Holland's hilarious stunts, Disneyland Paris' show content and Gardaland's fan videos and mascot videos to the Zoom meeting between the various mascots around Europe from Mickey Mouse to Road Runner and Astérix .. Alton have really done so little.

In fact, it's a real shame.

I assume, unlike parks abroad, Alton just put everyone on furlough and rendered any ability to create content to zero.

At least Chessington had to maintain their animal keepers so could do a few live feeds...

I guess Alton have such a non-diverse theme park these days, there is perhaps little they could do anyway.
 
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Not disappointed at all, in all honesty didn’t even imagine they’d do anything either.

It is a shame as there has been plenty of missed opportunities they could of done given the anniversary year.

Someone in the team will be thinking what they’ve done is “better than nothing”
 
I’m not necessarily disappointed by the content they’re putting out, but I do think the marketing team need to re-think their social strategy after this. I give credit that their posts are professional, and done arguably to a good-ish standard (except for the odd Movie Maker video). But if you really want to storm social media within the different age demographics, you’ve got to understand the background profiles of the people using them and why they’re using them. And understand the audience you’re targeting.

It’s usually the big bosses who don’t want to take much risk when it comes to social media, from my experience anyway. A great example of a brand doing exceptionally well with social is KFC. Their Twitter breathes humour, uniqueness and creativity, relevant to the platform (Twitter is used for this sort of stuff when you think about it), and is predominately used by the young adult generation. I’d argue perhaps a brand like that lost more young people to its larger competitor, so it’s stepped up its social game to be more prevalent amongst the age group it’s probably trying to tempt to visit. Humour resonates more in this field. Whereas Facebook has a wider range of people using it, from different ages and backgrounds, so you’ve got to get a clear balance and remain a bit more professional on that kind of platform as to not pump out content suitable for only one age demographic. More universal in a way.

Some businesses don’t make social media as big of a deal as they potentially should. Get it right and you’re resonating more with your audience and sticking your brand at the forefront of people’s minds and conversations. The use of social media all depends on the types of people you’re trying to target, e.g. chucking Mean Girls references in to a post when you’re trying to tempt those aged 65+ to visit somewhere or buy something, probably won’t work.
 
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