Best of Maldives Online – Twitter Followers: Conrad Rangali

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Conrad Rangai twitter

 

 

 

While Facebook dominates the social media landscape, Twitter is much more emerging territory in the ocean of social media. Especially for Maldive resorts where only 10 resorts have active Twitter feeds. They have on average 590 followers and 665 tweets.

The classic standard of popularity for a Tweeter are their Followers. And for the Maldives the king here is 1,446 for ‘Four Seasons’. This account, however, covers both Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru and Four Seasons Kuda Huraa. So you could argue that it is really about 700 per resort. The Conrad Rangali has 1,364 Followrs (during my survey in January) just on its own so for now they would seem to be the un-asterisked crown.

#leadingtheway

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Best of Maldives Online – Facebook Input: Kuredu

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Kuredu Facebook

It’s all about the conversation.

That’s the conventional wisdom on social media. It’s all very well and good to put up your blog, Facebook page/group, and Twitter feed, but if no one engages, then you’ve sort of missed the point. The real acid test for successful social media is the ‘social’ bit. To what degree do people get involved with what you have to say? In blogs, it’s commenting and trackbacking. With Twitter, it’s Retweets and Replies. On Facebook, it’s wall posts and comments.

As such, when I was reviewing all of the Maldives resort Facebook pages, I decided to make note of the amount of non-resort comments and posts the page/group got. As I noted in my original post, the Maldives resorts average about one comment/post per day. But, the variation within that average is immense from some who get hardly anything to those like Kuredu who are a non-stop buzz.

Actually, for the period that I tallied (the month of January), Kuredu was the one resort where I simply had trouble counting all of the comments and posts, but I estimate that they we over 1,000! The next closest was Meeru with 213.

It wasn’t just the Wall activity either. As noted in yesterday’s post in Photos, Kuredu had held the runner up position for album contributions with 2,629 snaps. All of this online social activity is possibly an extension of their very strong ‘Forum’.

And not a single cat video nor motivational poster to be seen.

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Best of Maldives Online – Facebook Photos: Meeru

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Meeru Facebook Photos

A picture is worth a thousand words, and a good Facebook album can give you an insight out perspective of the resort.

After ‘Likes’, the next easiest measure to check out on a resort’s Facebook page is the number of Photos that Friends have posted. On this score, the Flickr of the Maldives is Meeru with 2,984 (as of the end of January). Today it is up to 3,030.

The next closest was Champa sister resort Kuredu with 2,629 (does Champa hand out cameras at reception or are they particularlt photogenic?).

Say cheese platter!

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Best of Maldives Online – Facebook Likes/Members: Kuramathi

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Kuramathi Facebook

Everyone wants to be Liked.

The most prominent bragging rights to any Facebook presence is ‘Likes’ (or ‘Members’ if you are set up as a ‘Group’). While this measure is debatable, it is transparent and certainly indicative of a degree of engagement and popularity.

The runaway winner for Maldives resorts is Kuramathi with 7,347 ‘Likes’.

Frankly, this is the page that kicked off my investigation into the use of Facebook by various resorts. When I went to the Kuramathi page I was struck by the richness of activity and contributions by both the resort and guests. I had visited plenty of resort Facebook pages, but Kuramathi’s made me wonder if any other resorts had stepped up to this level. I figured that I couldn’t dish out a ‘Best of Maldives’ without a more thorough examination. I really had to look at all of the resorts’ Facebook Pages (or in some case Groups). When I first made note of this idea for a post, Kuramathi had over 4,000 Likes, when I did my survey in January they had 7,347 and as of yesterday (see snap above) they stood at 7,786. In just a month, they have grown over 500 which is half the amount of the average total number of ‘Likes’ by resorts. In fact, their growth in a single month of 500 is more than total Likes/Members of 47 resorts.

I ‘Like’.

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Social Sunshine

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Facebook and Twitter icons

The web is getting more and more social. My Maldives Complete blog was one of the first dedicated Blogs to Maldives Resorts and now there are a fair number. I’ve already looked at resort website Forums and the grandmaster of all Maldives Forums on TripAdvisor. Now the giants on the block now are Facebook and Twitter.

To keep up with the times and how people get research their resorts, I too have created a Maldives Complete Facebook page and a Twitter feed. The Maldives Complete page is probably the best way to keep track of my contributions to resort’s Facebook pages though mostly I post to the resort when I have written about them in a ‘Best of the Maldives’ piece. I also have started Tweeting, but after and initial flurry I’ve tapered off as Twitter activity on Maldives resorts seems a bit immature and quiet at the moment.

I’ve now also added a field in the profile for both the resort’s Facebook Pages (or in some cases ‘Groups’) and Twitter accounts.

In the process of researching the information for all the resorts Facebook and Twitter information I did a review of all of their presences. The analysis was done at the end of January after which Facebook changed dramatically the ‘Groups’ feature. As a result, a number of the resorts’ ‘Groups’ have been discontinued or else reset from scratch (showing low numbers of members).

In gathering up the various links, I uncovered some curious statistics…

  • Resorts without Facebook pages – 19
  • Average number of Likes/Members – 963
  • Average number of Photos – 216
  • Average number of Comments/Posts (not by resort) – 29 (over one month period)

This week is Social Media week with some special recognitions to the resorts who have best embraced this new connection to Friends and Followers.

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Best of the Maldives: Craft Activities – Kurumba

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Kurumba crafts

Happy Centenary to the Girl Scouts.

Our family has a proud tradition in the scouts with my father an Eagle Scout and my grandfather a ‘Silver Beaver’ recipient. A good scouting career often starts with a range of creative activities and skils building. Often, with the spirit of scouting, many of the crafts and skills use materials and tools found in nature.

Kurumba’s new Majaa Kids’ Club and Majaa Recreation Centre would do the Scouts proud with their ‘coconut arts and crafts’. An extensive range of weaving, folding and other crafting of palm fronds are taught to kids of all ages including many equally enthralled mature students (see below).

Majaa Recreation Manager Monica Comanescu noted…

“The Dhivehi word, Majaa, means fun. This will be the underlying philosophy for the Recreation department. Majaa Recreation will be the ‘fun’ centre of the island. This allows it to be a unique identity and destination within Kurumba. The purpose of Majaa Recreation is to provide guests with many options to enjoy their holiday while experiencing the Maldivian palette and learning about the water that surround Kurumba in an environmentally responsible way with a Maldivian twist.”

Majaa Recreation offers more than just crafts with such a range of activities, Kurumba grouped them into categories…

  • Kan’du (Ocean) – Ocean based activities
  • Hakatha (Energy) Energy or sporting activities
  • Kulhivaru (Games) Games
  • Visnun (Learning) Understanding and learning activities
  • Haveeru (Evening) Evening activities.

Some people like to sit around and do absolutely as little as possible on a Maldivian holiday, but Kurumba provides an alternative for those who want the option for broader range of fun.

Kurumba Majaa

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System Down

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Server Error

 

 

Due to a problem with server configuration at our MaldivesComplete’s hoster, the usual URLs for Maldives Complete are producing error messages to visitors (like the one above), except for the Blog which is all working fine.

For the interim, I have posted up a copy of the site at Maldives.maldivescomplete.com for people to use.

We expect normal service to resume shortly. Please accept our deeply felt apologies for this inconvenience.

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Best of the Maldives: Breakfast Juice – Soneva Gili

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Soneva Gili breakfast juices

This is photo of Soneva Gili by Six Senses is courtesy of TripAdvisor.

If you prefer your revitalising fluids inside you rather than around you, then you might want to start you day off at Soneva Gili. I was first alerted to Soneva Gili’s exceptional juice array by Sakis in a Trip Advisor Forum post where he noted proposed Gili as one of the best breakfast buffets in the Maldives: “One of the best is Soneva Gili for breakfast buffet, the choice among 60 fresh juices makes it also unique.” Few people have seen more Maldive resorts than Sakis so it’s a pretty compelling endorsement to me.

Their juice menu is full of healthy and tasty concoctions like…

  • “Ocean Basic” – Apple and Carrots
  • “Morning Berry” – Raspberry, Apple, Orange, Spirulina
  • “Bloody Carrot” – Carrot, Beetroot, Celery, Lime).
  • “Green ‘n Pear It” – Broccoli, Celery, Pear (great name for anything with broccoli in it).

As you can see, their offerings include veggie juices as well as fruit. Each item on the menu also has a complete nutritional breakdown as well as notations on benefits to Energy, Detox, Immunity, Degestion and Skin.

Soneva Gili juices

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Best of the Maldives: Lagoon Breakfast – Mirihi

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Mirihi lagoon breakfast

If the lure of the Maldives is the pervasive surroundings of water, then after your morning bath or shower similarly encircled. If you want to have breakfast in the water rather than on the water, then you can enjoy your breakfast completely immersed at Mirihi. They offer a ‘Feet in the Water Breakfast’ for $68 per person which covers whatever the guest wants (not the ‘caviar’, but normal breakfast fare). Assistant Front Office Manager Bastian Singer describes…

“As you can see the table is directly set up at the shoreline and the guests really have the feet in the water during the breakfast. It’s mostly used for special occasions like birthdays or wedding anniversaries as there is as well a bottle of champagne included.”

We love the beach dining concept. From the beginning of our family’s trips to the Maldives, we loved to eat right out on the sand by the ocean’s edge. In the go old days, years ago, the resorts were pretty laid back and were happy to move a table out to the beach for you. Now, many of the resorts are even more happy and set up to do so, but they usually bill it as a special meal or service. I don’t begrudge the resorts for doing so. It is both a bit more of a kuffufle that would impede their operations if everyone did it every day. And it is definitely extra value. Now Mirihi takes beach dining a step forward from water’s edge to water itself.

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