Bermuda is harnessing one of the world’s most powerful marketing platforms to turn internet users into loyal tourists.From political campaigns to global businesses, social media — the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, blogs, among others — is changing the way marketing is done.Bermuda, through its advertising and marketing agency FuseIdeas, is also using those various networks to promote the Island’s brand to millions of potential money-spending visitors.Accenture, a global business management firm called social media a genuine game changer for business, claiming returns as high as 20 to 1 for early adopters of the strategy.A case study completed by Online MBA found that more than 66 percent of all adults are connected to one or more social media networks.FuseIdeas, which took over Bermuda’s promotional reins on April 1, knows these facts well and plans on using the Island’s Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts to leverage their marketing potential.Every element of Bermuda’s advertising and marketing programme, whether it be a TV or print ads, will have a social media element to it, in hopes of reaching the ever-growing legions of interested fans.Prior to April, the Island’s Facebook page reached an average 10,000 people per week. Within two weeks of FuseIdeas coming on board, they had grown the page’s reach to approximately 40,000.The page’s ‘likes’ are the number of fans that follow the page, in Bermuda’s case that number hovers just over 25,000. The ‘reach’ is how many people on average, per week are seeing anything related to the content of the page, i.e., if a fan shares something from the page with his or her friends.Today, the company says the site is reaching 110,000 people per week.“When we ran a contest around The Bachelorette, we gained 11,830 fans in two weeks,” said Mike DePace, VP of Social Marketing at FuseIdeas. “During that competition, we got 13,000 visits to the page and reached three million people.”But how do you take ‘likes’ and turn them into people who actually book trips?A few days ago, FuseIdeas posted a question to fans asking how many times they’ve visited Bermuda. Within one hour 350 people had responded who, combined, had taken more than 1,500 trips to the Island. Of those, 180 people had trips planned for this year.Demographics, though, could point to the answer.Countless surveys suggest that women determine where and for how long individuals stay on vacation. That’s a good thing for Bermuda because more than 70 percent of Bermuda’s Facebook fans are female with the average age range of 25-54 with the highest group being between 35-44 years of age. The age bracket of 45-54 is a very close second. Of Facebook’s 900 million users, the fastest growing segment is women aged 55 to 64.The hotel industry identified the female factor back in 1963 and today, as female spending power continues to grow, even in this down market, hotels are dedicating entire teams to figuring out just what women want.Since Bermuda’s Facebook page fans are mostly women, there are posts geared towards them.Last week, there was a post for a rum swizzle recipe, which female fans then pinned on Pinterest, the fastest growing social network ever. Bermuda just created a Pinterest account last month and has 160 followers and 21 ‘pin’ boards.Back on Facebook, FuseIdeas will soon be able to follow a fan on Bermuda’s Facebook page all the way to booking their trip.“We’re starting to build more robust website and booking capabilities to see and track people,” said Mr DePace.But Bermuda’s social media accounts, says Mr DePace are more about building trust, camaraderie and friendship.So when Bermuda’s Facebook account does share a travel deal with fans, it comes from a voice of a helpful friend rather than an overbearing salesman.“We want a create a community. We want to figure out who these people are, what they want to talk about so whenever we post something for people to do, such as be a fan, book a trip, download an app — we tend to sprinkle that in every two weeks or so, so we’re not constantly knocking on their door but when we do post about it, within the next two days, we’ll have 50 more people following us,” he said.On Twitter, where Bermuda has approximately 3,000 followers, FuseIdeas monitors not only what followers are talking about but also if Bermuda is mentioned at all out in cyberspace so that Bermuda’s Twitter account can chime in when appropriate.“Let’s say someone who isn’t one of our followers says they are going to Bermuda on Wednesday and doesn’t tag us, we still can say to them ‘here’s a blog we just wrote on Harbour Nights which happens on Wednesday’,” explained Mr DePace.A good example of a tourist destination that is working social media to its benefit is Australia, which has more than 3.2 million Facebook fans, which Mr DePace says is the highest of any destination in the world.“While they play to a different, younger audience and are a different size — their all-around branding and advertising is closely tied into being social in nature,” he said.“There’s a renewed excitement about what we can do,” he said. “Social media is not the step child, everyone is starting to see the power in it.”On Monday, Bermuda’s Facebook page posted a picture to their weekly “Life’s a Beach Monday” — it got more than 500 likes and close to 100 comments. Bermuda’s page also features ‘Happy Flickr Friday’ and a ‘Fan Photo of the Week’.But it’s not just slapping up a pretty picture and calling it a day, says Mr DePace. It’s about trying to engage Bermuda’s fan base by asking if followers can name that beach or building.“It opens up a conversation,” he said. “Facebook, Twitter, a blog, Pinterest are all social media channels but what we try to do is infuse a philosophy of being social all our marketing activities — meaning our print and commercials will have social aspects. Social media isn’t isolated — it’s part of everything. It’s something you are going to see as the launch gets bigger and bigger. Whatever we do will be innately social — it’s core to the strategy.”