Engaging consumers in the digital era: An analysis of official tourism Facebook pages in India

Sa？etak Digital Communication has provided an alternative and dynamic platform for interaction and socialization. Digital channels like social media and mobile phone are increasing their penetration into day to day life. According to a survey by (Digitalinsights, 2015), Indians are vigorously using different social networking sites and 88% of users share content on their social profiles. The interactive nature of social media has evolved the customer-approach of marketing from passive observers to active participators. Tourism Sector being an information intensive industry is significantly affected by social media, especially in destination promotion and marketing, providing information and generating awareness, influencing decision making and online purchase behavior. Thus, many researchers and marketers are concentrating on customer interaction and communication through social media and strategies to enhance customer engagement. This study aims to investigate which kind of content, media and posting day would engage consumers more on Facebook. Uses and gratification framework was used as the basis of the study. Official State Tourism Facebook pages were reviewed and a comparative analysis among the top three states on the basis of number of fans was done. The data was gathered manually from 15th Jan 2015-15th March 2015 and 15th Jan 2016-15th Mar 2016 and 430 posts in total were analyzed for this study. Consumer engagement was measured by the number of likes, comments and shares on the post. The results showed that large number of fans does not necessarily results into higher engagement index. The posts showing attractions have the highest engagement level. Also, it was established that single pictures have higher engagement index as compared to multiple pictures and videos. However, no relationship was found between the day of posting and engagement index