Jerne celebrates 10,000 curators, launches rating system

Jerne – a platform that connects digital travel curators with experience providers – is celebrating reaching 10,000 registered curators with the launch of an "industry-first rating system" to help suppliers effectively manage their sales and marketing strategies through influential communities.

"From content creators to travel advisors, millions of individuals are using social media to produce inspirational travel content, build product awareness, and influence how people book," said Tim Morgan, CEO of Jerne, in a press release. "Experience providers that are not taking full control of this important distribution channel are not only missing future opportunities but are already missing them today."

A study by Stelico Consulting Group found that 76 per cent of luxury travellers selected their hotel brand, cruise line or airline based on social media, while 60 per cent said they had purchased travel based on a social media post by a celebrity or influencer.

"With millions of individuals influencing travel buying decisions across digital platforms, it has been understandably daunting for experience providers to know where to begin," said Jeff Sirota, CCO of Jerne. "Until now, there has been no travel industry-centric rating system that helps experience providers to understand which of these individuals they should focus their sales and marketing efforts on."

"Industry-first rating system"

To assist experience providers in navigating this opportunity, Jerne has launched what it calls an “industry-first rating system” across its network of 10,000 curators from 104 countries (66 per cent USA, 14 per cent UK, six per cent Canada) with a cumulative reach of 3 billion consumers.

The rating system simplifies decision-making to one simple percentage based on each curator's likelihood to be successful across a combination of three key functions:

- Inspiration: the likelihood of producing inspirational travel content,
- Awareness: the likelihood of building travel product awareness, and
- Influence: the likelihood of having a successful call-to-action for travel bookings.

In addition to an overall percentage, curator profiles are also given individual percentages in each key function, allowing experience providers to adjust the profiles and communities they engage with as their sales and marketing needs ebb and flow.

"In many peoples' minds, social media has been defined by one word: influencer," said Morgan. "To view the opportunity with such a narrow scope is to miss out on the true opportunities. Understanding how best to engage with each curator based on the highest value of alignment with a travel brand's strategy is the first step in successfully taking advantage of this sales and marketing channel."

Jerne's rating system analyzes 55 data points from the curator's private Jerne and public social media profiles and displays the results alongside 18 data points from the experience provider's brand profile.

These 73 data points are weighted according to Jerne's proprietary formula that is built on the culmination of three years of ongoing research across thousands of curators and hundreds of cruise, hotel, and tour companies.

More information is available at www.jerne.com or by e-mailing Sirota at jeff.sirota@jerne.com.

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