Social Media – from Eastbourne to Trinidad & Tobago
The View, Coco Reef Resort, Tobago
Freshly back from my fourth visit to Trinidad and Tobago, I wanted to share what I learnt about how these beautiful Caribbean Islands are using social media for business and how this compares to us over here in the UK.
When I reflect back to planning our first visit in 2002, it took us ages to research and plan where we would stay. The internet was alive and kicking albeit on dial-up, and information from the Islands was quite basic. Finding accommodation and seeing reviews to ensure a good experience was quite a challenge then.
Moving forward to today, planning a visit could not be easier. Thanks to review sites and social media you can get a real flavour of the selection of resorts on offer, with testimonials from customers guiding you in your decision making process.
It was great to see so many local businesses in Tobago on Facebook and Twitter, and the use of hashtags to join up conversations was excellent. Tobago’s economy relies greatly on Tourism and social media has been embraced to showcase the beauty of the Island with great effect. We stayed at the beautiful @CocoReefTobago resort which I can highly recommend for anyone thinking of visiting Tobago.
A lot of smaller businesses don’t have a website, so Facebook seemed to be the basis of most promotion, and in this way this was quite a big difference to the way we use social media in the UK.
It was interesting that some of the mistakes made by businesses over here in regards to Facebook were also made in Trinidad and Tobago, particularly with businesses using profiles instead of pages to promote their goods and services.
Kiddies Carnival Saturday 14 February, Port of Spain
We always go to participate in Trinidad’s Carnival, famously known as the Greatest Show on Earth. Carnival is not just about the actual parades on the Monday & Tuesday, it is an entire season which always begins after Christmas. Trinidad’s Carnival is a pre Lenten celebration so the dates change each year according to when Easter is.
There are an amazing amount of Fetes which take the form of breakfast, day, or all night parties varying greatly in costs to attend. These parties happen all across Trinidad in the run up to Carnival, and the stars of carnival music, Soca, and DJs can be enjoyed throughout the season.
Carnival is big business. Social Media plays an increasing part in the promotion of the fetes and other Carnival events throughout the season.
Massy Trinidad All Stars
Winners of Panorama 2015
There are a number of national competitions which culminate into ‘finals’ in the days leading up to Carnival, covering the best Steel Bands, Costumes, Soca artists and Calypso singers.
The most popular platforms used in Trinidad to promote carnival were Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Hashtags such as #pretrinicarnival, #TrinidadCarnival2015 and #weon2015 helped build the excitement in the run up to and during the carnival itself.
Social Media is helping to bring the wider global carnival community together and certainly made a big contribution to the enjoyment and build up. 13 years ago, you would not have been able to jump on YouTube and learn the songs before you travelled, and reminisce once back home.
Carnival season now continues throughout the Caribbean, the US, Canada and of course our very own Notting Hill Carnival on August bank holiday.
Good Trinidad carnival social media accounts:
https://www.facebook.com/carnivaldiary
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Trinidad-All-Stars-Steel-Orchestra/26536277151
