Thursday, November 18, 2021 - 11:04 by ce-press
When it comes to social media, Cruise Liverpool has a very loyal public following from those interested in the cruise industry, both in terms of the city and also the ships visiting.
The aim and objectives behind the Cruise Liverpool social media platforms include encouraging civic pride among local residents, according to Jennifer Caine, marketing manager Culture Liverpool:: “To be proud of the maritime history and integrity of our city, as the spiritual home of transatlantic travel and as an open window on the city but also to provide an opportunity to educate and inspire our residents about the maritime sector and the vessels that arrive.”
When the pandemic hit, the impact was dramatic on the city but also on loyal followers. Caine wanted to maintain and even enhance the community connection during this time.
“By using our social media platforms, I worked to ensure that the campaigns throughout the pandemic, not only focused on continuing to celebrate and educate our fans on the vessels that arrive, but also to maintain and connect with the public with positive, light-hearted and engaging content.
“During this global pandemic, when we could not leave our homes for large periods of time, the power of the Cruise Liverpool social media took on a new importance as an opportunity to ease stress, anxiety and possible depression for our audience who would be missing their cruises, missing the opportunity to see the vessels on the waterfront, and the positive impact on mental health that our cruises have.
“Throughout the pandemic I focused on highlighting good news stories about cruises, when they could arrive, as well as celebrating other working vessels which arrived at the terminal such as naval ships.
“In addition, I focused on highlighting ‘on this day’ features, highlighting cruises and events that had happened historically at the terminal and focusing on the fact that these things would be back again and we will return to good times.
“In this educational format I’ve focused on working with the cruise vessels themselves to highlight key facts, statistics and share videos and images from on board in ‘behind the scenes’ features to showcase the cruises from an angle the public wouldn’t normally see to hopefully engage and provide diversionary, positive, inspiring content.”
Public engagement has played an important role, such as running campaigns asking the public to share their favourite memories, photos and films of experiences at Cruise Liverpool to help a feeling of engagement, increasing self-worth and providing positive reinforcement. “We wanted the public to feel it has ownership of our channels from around the world. We want everyone to feel they can engage and we will listen to their thoughts, memories and images. Also by sharing content, it helps people to feel that they are being endorsed.”
The numbers speak for themselves. Caine says that since March 20 2020, Cruise Liverpool has had approximately 8.4 million impressions, 553,000 engagements and 7,700 post click links. In September there were about 177,000 searches on Google for Cruise Liverpool with an average review score of 4.5 out of 5.
A big part of the content strategy for cruise is that content is updated live so if a cruise comes in at 0300 it is posted on social medias at that time! “If the public have an enquiry, we answer it and this is an important part of our engagement strategy. We want the public to know we are here with information and support which is reflected in our engagement and increasing profile,” explained Caine.
