Social media sites are one of the best ways to reach a critical mass audience, it has been claimed.

Commenting on social networking communities as a tool to promote travel, co-founder of Where Are You Now? (WAYN.com) Jerome Touze stated that tourism boards should exploit the medium to advertise upcoming events.

Extolling the benefits of his own travel and lifestyle-focused social networking community website WAYN.com, Mr Touze suggested that tourism boards like Visit Britain could use such sites to market the 2012 Olympics to people overseas.

He claimed that the likes of Facebook, MySpace and WAYN.com provide avenues for advertising that can appeal to the masses.

"It is about how you integrate advertising in a very bespoke and well integrated campaign, which is done via the community to encourage user-generated content and social interaction," Mr Touze explained.

Social media has been heralded as the next best thing for the internet marketing of any brand, not just tourism.

John Fischer, owner of the website Sticker Giant, told Marketing Sherpa that marketers who employ search engine optimisation tactics should explore social media channels for a boost in rankings.

Sites that have "a human being front and centre" will reach a bigger audience, he claimed.