A Critical Examination Of The Positive And Negative Impacts That User-generated-content (ugc), Inclu

The remarkable evolution of the internet from the later part of the 20th century through to the 21st century led to the invention of a new technology termed the Web 2.0 (O`Reilly and Battelle, 2009). The Web 2.0 enables internet users to generate, alter, and share information on websites, as well as uploading pictures and videos. Web 2.0 websites include; blogging sites, online forums, online discussion boards, review sites, social networking and social media sites. Activities on these sites has made individuals creators of User-generated content (UGC), sometimes called consumer generated media (CGM) (Liburd, 2012). With UGC sites, users can post reviews, opinions, facts, impressions, experiences, praise, advice and rumours about organisations, brands, products and services from personal experience (Sweeney, 2008).

Lim et al, (2012) note that information on UGC sites is created and circulated by consumers with the intent of educating themselves about products and services compared to the information provided by suppliers and their marketers. Similarly, Lim et al, (2012) believe that consumers do not only talk about their experience, they create their own version of the product by posting videos, pictures and explanations which has been called Consumer generated content (CGC).

This has an impact on the decision making and planning processes of potential customers (Gretzel et al, 2010). Sweeney (2008) also argues that consumers see information on UGC sites as trusted advice from third parties. It is then used to form personal opinions on the products, services and packages to purchase. As a result, Johnson et al (2012) suggest that information on a UGC site has the potential to strongly affect travel organisations. This is because it may be the opinion of a small percentage of the total tourists who used a product and posting it could influence a large number of potential tourists. One can then agree that UGC sites create different impacts on tourism organisations, especially because online word-of-mouth can have a powerful influence on travel products and services (Blackshaw and Nazzaro, 2006). Relatedly, Xiang and Gretzel (2010) argue that the more travellers use these UGC sites, the more it creates challenges for tourism businesses, destinations and their marketing practices.

From the above, it could be argued that UGC sites create challenges for businesses which fall short of the required standards based on customer assessment. This may be the case as research has shown that, of the 58% of 1000 travellers from the United Kingdom in 2010 who used UGC sites, 33% changed their intended hotel, 15% changed airlines or operator and 12% changed destination (World Travel Market, 2010). Changing initial choices of hotel or airline here are likely because of comments about them which may be true. If this is not the case, the damage will still have been done. As Mangold and Faulds (2009) claim, because one consumer can easily reach thousands of other consumers via social media, the impact of online word of mouth on organisations has been magnified. On the other hand, where users post positive comments which may not be true, the organisations involved stand to gain.

This is because potential travellers may see information on UGC sites as trustworthy and reliable because they are posted by users with first-hand experience (Litvin et al, 2008). Similarly, (Lim et al, 2012) argue that where experiences shared are from satisfied customers, it can have a positive influence on potential consumers, but where it is from unsatisfied customers the opposite is the case. That said, potential customers are more likely to book with a hotel when negative reviews are refuted by positive ones from another customer. But a negative review disproved by a hotel member of staff does not have the same effect (Litvin and Hoffman, 2012).

Apart from the exchange of experiences by tourists, the use of social media has been seen as an opportunity for tourism organisations to have a better idea of the wants and needs of tourists. It is believed that this will enable tourism organisations react to consumer trends in a timely manner by redesigning and updating products and services, which will in turn enable organisations to be more proactive through monitoring consumers` statuses (Gregori, 2011). Likewise, Kozinets et al (2010) note that social media has given marketers the opportunity to exploit word of mouth marketing strategies online. Hotels have also been known to encourage customers to comments on their blogs and receive rewards of vouchers or discounts (Price and Starkov, 2006). However, the reliability of such comments may be questioned especially because of the incentives that follow. In spite of the marketing potential, social media and other types of UGC sites have not been completely understood by tourism organisations (Xiang and Gretzel, 2010). Reasons for this opinion include, lack of consistency in posting and responding to comments, monitoring the reliability of the information posted by individuals and lack of required skills and resources by tourism organisations (Milano et al, 2011).

The issue of reliability stems from the fact that anyone can post information on a UGC site without editing or proper fact checking processes (Kusumasondjaja et al, 2012). As a result, it is difficult to tell the reliable and truthful information from the unreliable and deceptive (Yoo and Gretzel, 2009). Relatedly, Litvin et al (2008) state that information posted online is less credible because it can be posted by any individual. Conversely, Park et al (2007) assert that information posted online is more reliable than information from traditional sources such as travel agents or travel-service providers because they are posted by travellers with first-hand experience. Kusumasondjaja et al (2012) also believe that a negative online review is seen as more reliable than a positive one when the source adds his or her identity. He urges travel review UGC sites to make their websites accessible only to users who add their identity (Kusumasondjaja et al, 2012). This recommendation could require time and resources which the travel organisation involved may not necessarily have or want to invest in UGC sites as seen in the case of Tripavisor.

Even though TripAdvisor, the world`s largest travel website, claim to ensure that comments on their website are authentic because contents are monitored by detectives and sophisticated filters (TripAdvisor, 2012), it appears that is not the case. Recently, a bed and breakfast owner in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland sued and won a claim against TripAdvisor for false criticisms against his guesthouse which TripAdvisor refused to put down (Travel mole, 2012). A hotel manager was allegedly caught emailing his staff to post fake comments on TripAdvisor (Allen, 2012). Similarly, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) had earlier warned TripAdvisor in January to stop claiming that reviews on its website were real, honest and trusted (Daily Mail, 2012). Considering the claim of the B&B owner above that negative comments cost him valuable bookings, it seems that negative reviews online are more detrimental to small organisations in the tourism and hospitality industry. In addition, the fact that Easy Jet and Ryanair keep growing in passenger numbers (Ryanair, 2012; EasyJet, 2012) despite the high number of negative comments on Tripadvisor (TripAdvisor, 2012) shows that these comments may not do much damage to the large organisations in the tourism industry.

Although large airlines are believed to have more resources to be effectively active on social media, research shows that major airlines such as Southwest airlines and Virgin America appear to lack the skills of effective social media usage (Hvass and Munar, 2012). Despite the fact that they have embraced UGC sites, its usage has been for advertisement and limited sales (Clark, 2009). This is mainly done by authoritative and formal postings (Weinberg and Pehlivan, 2011), which is similar to the traditional formal, command and control form of communications used by organisations (Shih, 2009). Other sources also show that travel and tourism businesses see social media as an opportunity for marketing and promotion. The UK accommodation providing company Holiday Brokers believes that social media will take over from email marketing which it describes as outdated (Holiday Brokers, 2012). Likewise, Mr Paul Richer, the founder of Genesys, a consultancy firm which specialises in technology for travel and hospitality states that social media is becoming serious and organisations should be finding opportunities to promote their brands with it (World Travel Market, 2010).

However, such a command and control approach seems contrary to the main interactive characteristics of UGCs (Shih, 2009). The traditional official and formal tone organisations use would not conform to the informal tone used on social media which is like fact-to-face communications with emotions and closeness (Hvass and Munar, 2012). This seems to be a failure to react to current customer trends, especially when positive reviews can lead to more hotel bookings and negative reviews cause the opposite ( Ye et al, 2009). It could then be argued that travel and tourism organisations are ignoring the decision powers that UGC sites have given to individuals. As a result of the above, Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) suggest that organisations need to be less official and more interactive to help build rapport with users. Getting members of staff to post comments on behalf of an organisation with their identity added may enhance interactivity; especially because people normally prefer to communicate with someone they know (Hvass and Munar, 2012).

Nevertheless, airlines have been known to distribute important information via UGC sites when there are flight delays, cancellations, changes in visa requirements and other unforeseen circumstances. Such posting has however been limited to either positive information such as, there have been no delays all day, or negative ones such as weather delays (Hvass and Munar, 2012). Such an approach seems to be a form of promotion or image building through public relations. This can arguably be regarded as using UGC sites for a different role meant for emails and text messages since customers` phone numbers and emails are normally collected by airlines. However, a report in the United States suggests that travel and tourism organisations use social media to build customer loyalty to their brands (World Travel Market, 2010). Likewise, building loyalty by organisations has been facilitated by postings with the identity of the staff or department responsible as seen in the case of southwest airlines on Twitter. That said, anonymous posting by organisations which is a common practice in UGCs has had less effect (Hvass and Munar, 2012).

Despite the passing of information, loyalty building and marketing, Hvass and Munar (2012) believe that there is a lack of posting and response consistency by airlines which use Facebook and Twitter. Similarly, Craig (2010) states that, only about 4% of negative reviews on TripAdvisor were responded to by hotels in 2009. This appears to be ignoring an important aspect of UGC site usage, especially because TripAdvisor ranks as the top social media travel website with 191,585 Facebook fans and 618,419 Twitter followers as of August 2012 (Travelmole, 2012). However, lack of consistency may be due to time (Milano et al, 2011), because it could be time consuming to attend to complaints, disprove wrong information, monitor and load or type contents into UGC sites that customers may not visit (Wilson et al, 2012). Although monitoring UGC contents may not be as expensive as monitoring traditional marketing processes, there is a great deal of time involved which could be more cost for an organisation (Wilson et al, 2012). Relatedly, (Litvin and Hoffman, 2012) note that it takes considerable work to keep up with numerous websites and respond to postings alike, posing the question if it is worth it.

In conclusion, the invention of the Web 2.0 technology and subsequently UGC websites has given individuals more control over their holiday choices. The control over holiday choices has impacted on different types of travel organisations both positively and negatively. Travel organisations, especially large ones, use UGC sites mainly as a means of online marketing thereby using traditional formal marketing techniques on these sites. As a result, tourism organisations appear to be using UGC sites wrongly or using them for the functions of emails and phone numbers. This is because communications on these sites are mainly informal and consistent like daily face-to-face interactions with the aim of building relationships and informing others. Apart from the formal approach, tourism organisations are also less consistent on UGC sites. Consistency is however required to effectively build relationships through interactions and disprove unreliable information when posted by individuals.

Small tourism organisations may not have the required resources such as time and personnel skills to invest in UGC sites. The large ones however appear to have such resources but are not likely to invest them in UGC sites as in the case of Easyjet and Ryanair. This is possibly because activities on UGC sites may not necessarily affect the profit of the large tourism organisations. As a result, they will not be interested in spending more on UGC sites to reduce cost. The same cannot be said of small tourism organisations which appear to lose customers because of negative comments on UGC sites as in the case of the B&B owner in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Apparently, large tourism organisations are ignoring the decision making powers these UGC sites have shifted to tourists by using them as a marketing alternative. A failure to use UGC sites for their traditional interactive and networking functions may render the marketing attempts of tourism organisations less relevant in the future.

This is especially because of the increasing popularity of notable UGC sites such as Tripadvisor, Facebook, and Twitter as important sources of information for tourists. Moreover, using UGC sites for consistent interaction, networking and building relationships with tourists and potential tourists could be a step ahead of the traditional formal marketing approach.