Cruise Buzz

2014 is going to be the Year of Discovery

I stumbled upon a blog post from Adam Goldstein, President and CEO Royal Caribbean International that marked the first entry of the brand’s entry into the the world of blogging (read that post here). Goldstein wrote on April 2009 that…

Clearly I (and my fellow leaders of our brand) need to make ourselves available online on a regular basis. This blog should serve as a forum for me to address overarching questions…

Since then, there have been countless blog entries plus a full compliment of social media updates from Goldstein and team members of the cruise line who join other industry giants in the quest to connect with their audience online. (By the way, if you are looking for a list of cruise lines’ social media and blog accounts, click here).

When I was just getting started using social media, I got the impression that most cruise line brands did not have a lot of patience for the the medium. However, that is not the case today. Skift, a travel industry intelligence company recently published a report about The Ten Most Followed Cruise Brands on Facebook. The article highlights fan counts and compares how the top ten cruise lines engage with their audiences online (congrats to MSC and Princess for setting the bar).

One cruise line that is making waves in social media is Viking River Cruises.  In another article posted by Skift, the river cruise company was acknowledged for their efforts at building their brand (read Q&A: Viking River Cruises on Building Brand and Activity Awareness to learn more).

2014 is going to be the year of discovery

Cruise lines are spending time online posting specific information about their brand, answering customer inquiries, and responding to customer service issues. By the numbers of posts, fans, followers, likes and comments it is clear that the audience is finding value in the cruise line’s presence online.

However, with so many people engaging directly with cruise line brands on blogs and via networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube, there has got to be a way for people to sift through the vast amounts of information.

I predict that 2014 is going to be the year of discovery. Those people that can  sift-through and curate the best cruise related information on the web are going to provide a much needed service to the industry.