The managing director of Huddlemind Labs in South Africa said successful social media campaigns should invest more in advertising, such as on Google Ads, to attract traffic rather than developing the platforms.
He added that RM300,000 seems “a bit much” for a single Facebook application.
“(The Facebook page) should be connected to other things, like TV perhaps,” he said in an interview after appearing at the World Bloggers and Social Media Summit in Kuala Lumpur this morning.
The Tourism Malaysia Facebook site rings in well above average costs for social media campaigns, he said, as global expenditure figures tend to hover around just US$30,000 per year.Duarte (left), who has headed several social media campaigns, knows from experience that small budgets can translate into big business.
In one such campaign conducted with no money spent, Duarte and a business partner managed to more than double the sales for a winery for the year, bucking national industry trends at the time.
He added that as one of the highest Facebook users in the world, Malaysia is a prime market for a targeted social media tourism campaign.
Likewise, with 11 million users nationwide, Duarte felt that the 20,000-odd fans which the site has attracted over the month was a tad low.
The ministry aims to get 120,000 fans by the end the year.
'Look at tourism revenue generated from drive'
To justify the amount spent on the site, he said the ministry must look at the tourism revenue generated from the campaign.
“If the average domestic tourist spends RM1,000 per trip, you will need to calculate how many trips need to be made to justify the RM1.8 million spent,” he said, adding that a well-developed site could also justify the cost.
On Tuesday Deputy Tourism Minister James Dawos Mamit told the Dewan Rakyat that the ministry has budgeted RM1.8 million for its social media campaign on Facebook.
He said the cost of the six Facebook applications developed for the campaign was about RM300,000 each.
Yesterday, however, Tourism Minister Ng Yen Yen said the amount covered content development, management, data collection and promotional activities.
A parody Facebook page to protest the ministry's expenditure set up on Tuesday overtook the Tourism Malaysia page by about 10,000 fans as of 11.30pm yesterday.
Meanwhile, Rasah MP Anthony Loke - who had brought the topic to the fore - expressed his disbelief at Ng's clarification yesterday.In one such campaign conducted with no money spent, Duarte and a business partner managed to more than double the sales for a winery for the year, bucking national industry trends at the time.
He added that as one of the highest Facebook users in the world, Malaysia is a prime market for a targeted social media tourism campaign.
Likewise, with 11 million users nationwide, Duarte felt that the 20,000-odd fans which the site has attracted over the month was a tad low.
The ministry aims to get 120,000 fans by the end the year.
'Look at tourism revenue generated from drive'
To justify the amount spent on the site, he said the ministry must look at the tourism revenue generated from the campaign.
“If the average domestic tourist spends RM1,000 per trip, you will need to calculate how many trips need to be made to justify the RM1.8 million spent,” he said, adding that a well-developed site could also justify the cost.
On Tuesday Deputy Tourism Minister James Dawos Mamit told the Dewan Rakyat that the ministry has budgeted RM1.8 million for its social media campaign on Facebook.
He said the cost of the six Facebook applications developed for the campaign was about RM300,000 each.
Yesterday, however, Tourism Minister Ng Yen Yen said the amount covered content development, management, data collection and promotional activities.A parody Facebook page to protest the ministry's expenditure set up on Tuesday overtook the Tourism Malaysia page by about 10,000 fans as of 11.30pm yesterday.
“She said that a portion of the money went to software, hardware and server.
“I don't know since when you need software, hardware and a server to set up a Facebook page.
“If so then the server market would be huge in Malaysia because there are 11 million Facebook users in the country,” he said during a press conference in Parliament.
He also lambasted her remarks that a 'like' on the Tourism Malaysia's Facebook page could be translated into potential tourists, calling it simplistic.
“I think that most of the Facebook users who 'like' the page simply do it so that they can criticise the Tourism Ministry,” he said.
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