Case study Schweiz Tourismus

Switzerland Tourism appeals to a heterogeneous target group: domestic tourists and travelers from Europe and distant markets are persuaded to travel to Switzerland through various communication measures. The heterogeneous target groups bring with them different expectations and interests in social media content. To meet these different needs, Switzerland Tourism provides over 30 profiles on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok with content in 15 languages. The profiles are operationally managed by the marketing teams of the respective markets. The Social Media team in Zurich is responsible for the strategic orientation and global topic planning. This setup allows content to be customized for the various target groups, but also brings with it some coordination requirements and challenges. 

Webrepublic was commissioned to support Switzerland Tourism in developing a social media strategy to ensure more efficient processes, measurable results, a uniform brand presence, and the highest possible relevant content for the users.

• Common vision and objectives: all social media managers use the same metrics to measure and optimize the success of their actions.
• Added value for the target group: the content is adapted to the needs and interests of the target group and divided into newly defined content categories.
• More efficient processes: foresight planning, regular exchange, and binding quality criteria simplify cooperation.

Measurable goals along the customer journey

A comprehensive status quo and competitor analysis supports the project. Webrepublic examines and compares the profiles of Switzerland Tourism with over 100 Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, and Twitter profiles of the most important competitors. The analysis shows that the individual market pages of Switzerland Tourism have significant differences in the quality and performance of the content. 

In the subsequent workshop, Webrepublic and Switzerland Tourism jointly define measurable goals for the social media channels, which apply to all markets. Thanks to the tailor-made dashboard, every social media manager keeps an eye on the defined key figures and targets. The dashboards also enable the social media team in Zurich to create reports with just a few clicks and to recognize positive and negative developments in the markets at an early stage and to react accordingly.

Newly defined content categories

To address each target group with the content relevant to them, Webrepublic develops appropriate content categories tailored to the travel behavior and interests of the target groups. The content categories are assigned to target groups with different priorities.

The following example shows the implementation in practice: on UNESCO World Heritage Day, as part of the "Dream now - travel later" campaign, three posts with different priorities were created.

The social media content is produced by Switzerland Tourism in Zurich and then shared with the markets, which publish the articles independently. The new, modular editorial plan summarizes all planned social media contributions. The content categories show the markets what relevance a contribution has for their specific target group. Posts with high relevance must be published; publication is optional for less relevant contributions.

• Data-based success: The most important figures are displayed in real-time on the market dashboards. For the team in Zurich, comprehensive evaluation and performance measurement has become much easier since all markets use the same metrics. This leaves more time for detailed analyses and optimization measures.

• Relevance increases commitment: Editorial planning is consistently oriented to the interests of the users. The relevance of the content is ensured by optimizing the posts for market-specific needs. As a result, the organic engagement rate on Facebook doubled within six months.