How social networking (Facebook and Twitter) can be used for tourism marketing

Social networks have their origin in a man called Randy Conrads. In 1995, he created a
website called Classmates.com, the world's largest online community (RedWeek, 2011). His
main aim was to facilitate people to regain or maintain contact with classmates from school,
college or university. This network became very popular and the creator received many prizes
like the eBusiness Reports 2001 Entrepreneur of the Year (Andriyenko, 2011).
Classmates.com is one of the top 15 most highly trafficked websites on the Internet, with 38
million members and 2 million visitors each day (RedWeek, 2011). Nowadays, Randy
Conrads is co-founder (president and Chief Executive Officer) of RedWeek.com, an online
marketplace connecting travellers to the timeshare community (ibid).
In 1997 had appeared sixdegrees.com which allows users to create friends list, profiles and
send messages. In 2003, MySpace and Xing were created. But in 2004, the real phenomenon
was Facebook (Andriyenko, 2011).
This essay will focus on how social networks can be used for tourism marketing from my
point of view, analysing in particular case, Facebook and Twitter. (1718 words)