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How Lonely Planet is winning the battle on social media

March 05, 2013 | Online Travel

Besides the obvious opportunity to share content online, the Internet also gives travel brands the chance to engage with the travelers reading their tips. It appears; however, that outside of forums, few brands are truly talking to their readers.

It’s no surprise that Lonely Planet has the most followers on its social media channels. With just over 1 million followers on Twitter and “Likes” on Facebook, LP is the most popular brand online and launched a Thanks a Million campaign last week to celebrate reaching the milestone on each account. In addition to its primary account, Lonely Planet has Twitter accounts run out of London and Oakland for additional social media work.

Although Lonely Planet is the most followed guidebook brand on social media, it is not the most active.

Rough Guides is more active, tweeting almost two times the amount that Lonely Planet does in a two-week period. Rough Guides tweeted 317 times in that period, or approximately 23 times a day, while LP tweeted 187 times in that period, or 13 times a day. RG is ambitious, but it is dreadfully late to making a real go at the digital game, despite being early on the scene with a strong website and strong social community (which it jettisoned when it ditched a partnership with IgoUgo). And nobody is sure how much longer Penguin/Random House will keep publishing the brand.

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