P&O Cruises hits 50,000 "likes" on Facebook

The P&O Cruises Facebook page has hit the 50,000 ‘likes’ mark through an engaging social media strategy encompassing regular discussions, polls, competitions, photographs, advertising and e-marketing.

A recent competition celebrating the heritage of P&O Cruises took the page up and over the 50,000 target. It invited users to suggest captions for photographs from the line’s archive collection. The competition is running for eight weeks with a different photograph every week. The person with the overall most popular caption will win one of the sought after Grand Event cruises, a 17 night Central Mediterranean cruise departing on Ventura on July 3, 2012.

The Grand Event is part of the special celebrations marking the 175^th anniversary of when the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company was founded in 1837. The Grand Event will see all seven ships in the home-port of Southampton for the very first time. The ships will sail out in procession and all seven cruises will have a special heritage theme.

In addition to competitions, the P&O Cruises Facebook page provides users with the opportunity to share their questions about cruising and their experiences and photos of life on board with thousands of other like-minded people. Photo albums of the P&O Cruises ships and destinations visited are all on the page and regularly updated, along with videos and images of special events such as naming ceremonies.

P&O Cruises head of brand marketing, Philip Price, said: “Social media is an important part of our marketing strategy and we increasingly use it as a means of regular contact with our passengers. The immediacy of online marketing lends itself very well within our brand as it enables us to engage with customers and encourage them to share their experiences with others.

“We’ve also found Facebook very useful as a customer services tool – during the bad weather last winter we were able to use Facebook as another means of urgent and immediate communication with passengers regarding flight changes and travel plans.

“Positive feedback from users shows that this form of communication and interaction with them is well received and breaking through 50,000 ‘likes’ is a fantastic achievement.”

For more information visit www.facebook.com/pandocruises