I spent last weekend on the Royal Caribbean ‘Mariner of the Seas’ cruise, and it was simply incredible. If you haven’t been on a cruise before, I’d certainly recommend this one as a good starting point. I really enjoyed the theatrical performances. It seemed as if there was constantly something going on, and that they had artists from every corner of the world.
Being so far away from land there was no mobile signal. They did have a chargeable WiFi service, but who really wants to be online when you’re enjoying a good holiday? Right? It’s a much better (customer) experience when you’re offline, distraction free and completely involved in what’s going on.
Only… what about all those mobile phones? All those great photo & video opportunities. All that social media potential? Most people were moving around with mobile phones. A few well placed hashtags & free access to just a few social media sites would mean an incredible amount of additional publicity.
A quick search on Instagram for marineroftheseas doesn’t reveal much, but I assure you people were busy taking photos & videos of everything from the food, to the rooms & performances. If you want your clients to share their experiences you’re going to need a few things:
- A clearly visible and relevant hashtag or name for them to mention
- Internet access
- An incentive, whilst optional *really* helps to drive more shares (think free massage for most interesting photo or discounted drinks if you post whilst at the bar)
So where do you try to drive social shares? Observe your customers, whatever they’re taking photos or videos of, that’s where you need find a way to drive shares. Don’t over complicate things, sharing should be simple and easy. Just presenting your hashtag or handle on coasters can be enough to get things moving in the right direction.
