It has struck me how few business posts there has been on Twitter in the past couple of days and in the week leading up to Christmas. In many ways I’m sure we’d all expect to not see many truly corporate businesses tweeting just now, however I’m surprised to see the complete silence of many of New Zealand’s biggest and usually most active Tweeting companies.

It seems strange to me that a major bank for instance, with its full financial power, would let their Twitter and Facebook accounts stay silent for days – presumably because their Social Media Manager is on holiday! Surely these major companies understand this is a time social networks are busier with so many people enjoying leisure time; not to mention when many want to be able to ask questions about opening hours etc.

Perhaps what has surprised me more than these major companies however is the lack of engagement from businesses that are notably busier at this time of year – retailers, hospitality and tourism businesses. It is a time of year when many of our local audiences are at a loose end, travelling domestically or even actively looking for something to get out and do. As a pro-active tourism operator you could be reaping the reward by joining the conversation and flying the flag for your business.

This leads me back to a point I’m sure I’ve said before. If the reason you’re not posting on social media is because your Marketing Manager is on holiday, your social media strategy is wrong. It is important to get your wider operations team involved in posting to social media to give diversity to your message and tone, as well as to keep it continuous and ‘real.’ Take this opportunity to buy your business a Christmas present in the form of a smart phone or tablet and encourage your team to share engaging encounters whilst they work – whether it be a photo of a dish being plated up in your cafe, a short video of your latest tour group leaving or simply your special offering of the day. By using this kind of technology you can keep the time it takes to a minimum and avoid team members having to leave the operation.

It is important to remember to distinguish between who is posting when there are multiple users, do this by simply using an upward arrow and the persons initials like this ^JH

Whilst the fruits good for the picking, why not give it a go and try Tweeting/Facebooking when you maybe wouldn’t normally – companies engaging outside of standard business hours often get better results!

When in Auckland a few weeks ago, it was interesting to have met with Kevin Francis, the new CEO at Jasons Travel Media and talk a little bit about their online plans, including the recently launched iPhone app; prompted by a 100% increase in visits to their site from a mobile device in the past year, most of which were from iPhones.

Alongside the functionality that users have come to expect like geo-location, maps and reviews, the new app has some nifty features including the ability to register and log-in using Facebook (allowing for quicker processing) and perhaps most impressive the ability to book directly from the app through a secure encrypted connection. A service that few, if any, New Zealand based companies have yet to release.
Whilst the application was launched a few weeks ago, it seems that this week ‘all systems are go’ at Jasons, in an all out effort to start encouraging its use. Alongside new signage with QR codes on Jasons brochure stands nationwide, from tomorrow all web traffic from an iPhone will be welcomed by encouragement to download the new app for better usability.

The application will certainly be of use to the growing number of visitors travelling with mobile devices, but what about the all important question of how much is it going to cost Jasons advertisers? I was happy to hear that Jasons have chosen not to charge advertisers any more for being listed on the app. A decision I welcome, believing that the cost in developing this type of resource is part of their business development, not a cost to be passed directly on to operators, as other well-known tourism promotion companies continue to do.

It is positive to see Jasons, who may have traditionally been associated with print, offering a range of on and offline solutions including mobile applications; to ensure it continues to service the needs of its advertisers and respond to the ever changing expectations of its end-users.

If you’re not already doing so, I’d recommend downloading apps that you are listed on, to familiarise yourself with what your customers are experiencing and to ensure you fully appreciate the ever-changing functionality available on these devices.

You can find the Jasons App by visiting the App Store from your iPhone or iPad.

They’ve been saying it was the year of mobile for a decade; social media is well and truly entrenched, so what’s new?

What changes do we predict might be normal by next Christmas?
To find out, Fossick’s Genevieve Atkinson decided to ask a few movers and shakers what they predict for the coming year.

James Hacon; Speaker, Writer & Entrepreneur in Tourism & Hospitality

Growth of Last Minute Bookings
When coupling the lowering of rates on ‘distressed inventory’ and the ease for travellers to book when on the road with mobile technology, I believe we will see further increases in last minute bookings. In fact with many of the largest OTA’s not supporting destination marketing and the continued undercutting of long-lead trade generated sales, I would suggest that as an industry we are actively encouraging our guests to leave booking their accommodation until the last minute. So don’t be surprised when you see an increase of walk-ins and a decrease in forward bookings.

Back to good old fashioned values
In a society where so many of us are constantly plugged in to technology, so much of our communication is through email and all too often we are just another number. I believe that we will start to see a further turn towards people wanting ‘real experiences,’ personalised service and attention. I believe the time is done for customers who are forced to choose between price and quality, our customers are expecting good service regardless of the price they pay!

Boycotting of establishments not offering free Wi-Fi
This is more of a hope that a prediction. I know many of my friends are no longer staying in hotels or frequenting cafes that don’t offer free Wi-Fi. Let’s hope those charging exorbitant prices for internet bring themselves into the 21st Century and realise that charging for internet is like charging to have a television or telephone in your room!

The growth of Google+ and slow in growth for Facebook
I don’t know whether you’ve noticed, but my friends don’t seem to be nearly as active as they once were on Facebook. Don’t get me wrong, I am certainly not predicting the downfall of Facebook – in fact I think it will continue to have market dominance. I would however be on the watch out for Google+ that has been slowly creeping up in popularity and infiltrating our email accounts one friend at a time. With people being more selective as to which social platforms they spend their time, they will also become more selective on who they will be engaging with. We’ll see smart companies, that understand social media is all about relationships and being social, continue to see great results, with companies seeing it as another PR platform fail dismally.

Veronica Nobbs;  Founder  Get a room – same day hotel bookings.

The growth of location-based services within the activity space.
Like many other sectors the activity industry continues to struggle. Yes coupon sites do provide another channel, however location based last-second ‘deals’ will prove to be more sustainable.

Smaller players getting better at social media
Smaller travel players looking to place smarter strategies around their use of social media, looking to add value to their customers as opposed to simply pushing advertising to them. A great deal of business still do social media terribly, and many in 2012 will look to reevaluate their approach.

Rise of booking travel on the go
Consumer behaviour within the travel space will continue to change with the continued rise of booking travel on the go, with the likes of Hotels.com and Expedia already experiencing notable growth in the mobile space. As a result more and more companies will seek to enter the space as well as established players introducing additional products.

Tony Marks;  Chairman Rotorua Tourism

Year of the Chinese Travel
Looking back from say 2016, 2012 will be seen as the year when the Chinese dominance of inbound tourism to Australia and New Zealand really started. Businesses will either have to adapt rapidly or see their market share of all inbound decline precipitously. Alternatively, we will have the rise of businesses who will unashamedly focus on the dwindling but yield positive USA or European travel

The growth of personal travel managers will accelerate
While some will operate from travel agencies, most will set up independent businesses and use an affiliated agency buying power. They will cater for an aging market prepared to do some research but really wanting someone who genuinely cares about their travel needs. The key issue will be getting sufficiently close to your customer to be able to not ask them the cliched ” where do you want to go ” but to supply great answers to the more critical ” why do you want to go ” ?

Airlines will become even more focused on ancillary revenue
They will continue to be vertically integrated , web based and seek to wrap up as much of the holiday dollar as possible – bit like the old charter operations in the UK. Being squeezed on a $ 2300 fare to London or a $ 200 fare across the ditch will be increasingly unattractive.

Michelle Ackers; New Zealand Tourism Industry Blog

2012 Will Follow Similar Trends as 2010/11

In general I think 2012 will see some keys trends for the NZ tourism industry continue, namely:

• Strengthening of the China and India inbound markets to New Zealand due to the increased marketing presence in these markets by Tourism New Zealand and various airlines’ commitment to increased flight schedules
• Continuing decreases from UK/Europe travellers visiting New Zealand. We can blame the state of their economies which are still in dire straits with exchange rates not in their favour for travel outside of their borders; increased British departure tax; and possible changes to the Air New Zealand flights from London…
• Continued growth of the cruise ship market for visitors to New Zealand. Cruise ship packages are cleverly marketed offering value for money in tough times. People love the inclusive food offer and the ease of planning a cruise holiday. Australians in particular are lapping this up – evens kiwis are jumping onboard in Sydney or Auckland to enjoy short cruise breaks.
• Slow forward bookings. This is still a problem for most tourism businesses, airlines, wholesalers, inbound tour operators and agents…people are just waiting to book anything until closer to their travel dates, making it a nervous wait until peak season hits.

Online Mobile Marketing in Tourism will Hit its Straps
Large tourism organizations have already become adept and clever with the use of mobile technology – smart phones, apps, social media etc but I think 2012 will see more of this coming from smaller businesses and organizations as they become accustomed to the technology and how to use it effectively.

Genevieve Atkinson;  Founder of Fossick. The locals guide to where to stay in Australia, NZ & the South Pacific.

Reviews will cross the divide into normal not new
For many properties reviews are still annoying, like smart phones or social networks, but as the social networks have crossed the line this year. I think the need and desire for guest reviews will cross the line in 2012.

The rise of permission advertising
We have permission marketing, but I think the advertising industry needs to be disrupted. Group buying sites were the tip of ice-berg and highlight the issue the most businesses today are struggling for consumer attention. My predication is that we have attention around the wrong way and we will see the beginning of self -selected advertising.

QR codes getting massive
Everyone else will say mobile will be huge, but my predication is that QR codes will help bypass the need for apps for everything and create ways for consumers to quickly engage with websites. However the websites needs to be more mobile friendly.

Disagree, have your own predication? please leave a comment.

As per my suggestion of building a content map in my workshop, find a copy of the base I use below. I find using a content map will help you to brainstorm and document creative themes for engaging content on your social media channels. I would suggest using as many of your team as possible to build the map within a workshop style environment, this way everyone feels that they have a say and trust me, you’ll get heaps of great ideas!

Click the image to download a larger version

I’ve worked with a number of businesses of all sizes to help build their social media strategy and used this technique to great effect. Feel free to make use of the idea and base ideas on this map – I’d recommend using a mind-mapping piece of software for the best end result.

Feel free to leave any comments or questions. I look forward to hearing your results.  If you’re looking for someone to help with your strategy or facilitate your content development workshop, feel free to get in touch.

There were 4 topics that are worth revisiting.

1. Flash sites or daily deals.

Nothing seems to polarise opinion like the daily deals and travel, so I really enjoyed this debate. Clearly a large number of people don’t believe that the model is relevant or appropriate for travel – especially in regards to margin. Most daily deal sites take a high margin (often 50%) and require a huge discount on top.

Some of the interesting facts …

• the money is made by the top 4 players (none of which had a specific travel focus)
• the specific travel deal sites were struggling to get an ongoing supply of deals. It appeared that this was a sandbox that the major hotel chains were not playing in.
• the number of travel deals sold was increasing (whilst the number of beauty deals diminished).

Note: to a room full of men this appeared entirely logical, “how many facials could you really purchase” to which I mentally calculated that for many women – far more than holidays.

To me the most interesting thing was that the travel sites were playing by traditional travel rules - travel is sold in a particular way and they conformed and worked within that – namely to be able to get a steady supply of deals. In contrast, Spreets came across, not in an arrogant manner, but free from constraints as to how it was done. Their take – it’s a great advertising and sales opportunity – plenty of people willing to play, so take it or leave it. I guess that’s the luxury of having an audience of 2 million a day.

2. Mobile

Fascinating that the mobile discussion was being run by activities and insurance companies, not your traditional OTA’s, but this is where the innovation was. World Nomads, an insurance company, belief was that to be successful in mobile you needed to do something different and appropriate for the medium. So selling insurance services, boring – running a Q and A between all the customers that have bought insurance, interesting.

I thought these guys were right on the money and have been extremely successful. The irony is that this was, and probably still is, the key opportunity for traditional travel agents. Utilizing the community nature of your existing audience.

The other highlighted company was Viator, that sells activities. Again, no point just replicating their website, instead they created a “last minute” activities app, a platform they didn’t have and created in order to run the app.

Both achieved significant success, being featured by apple the holy grail of app release. However it was highlighted that Viator spent millions, both in creation and launch, taking over Youtube across the world.

3. Airlines

For those Kiwis out there Air NZ did a fine job showing up the Aussies in its significant worldwide success in social media. With classic underdog lines like -for a small airline at the bottom of the world – we achieved amazing reach. Which they have. I’m looking forward to the launch of the new Air NZ site, as well as Rico’s interviews with Lindsay Lohan and David Hasslehoff.

Although the parting question raised significant debate. The trick with this widespread reach was did it then convert?. Did it sell more airlines seats? The debate centered back on the age old, if its’ social – are you supposed to actually sell something too ?

We then had a panel of the three major airlines, which was tense and jovial. At one point a member of the audience queried Justin Montgomery, GM Virgin about their recent letter to her, a Qantas frequent flyer, offering to replicate her points status on Virgin, “Was this a blatant stealing of customers? ” – “yes – very blatant”. Right then.

To be honest the Qantas man John Lonergan, either wasn’t willing to fight in this context or seemed out of his depth, as he was remarkably quiet with Virgin and Air NZ dominating the microphone.

Around the lunch table, the debate was how Virgin got their list of Qantas Frequent Flyers.

4. The future of the GDS.

I’ll be upfront, I don’t know a lot about GDS’s, but if you know less than me, it stands for Global Distribution System and there are basically 3 companies that sit as the middleman in the distribution chain of flights and room nights. GDS’s have been significant players, but due to a number of direct to consumer models, aka low cost carriers and large OTA distribution systems, like Expedia – their relevance has been in question.

Martin pushed and probed but each replied with the same pat answers unwilling to fight their cause. Which made them dull and irrelevant.

Regardless of your position, it was apparent that they still made significant sums of money and billions of travel transactions. However in a Traveltech conference, not a single one could point to a clear point of difference amongst the 3 players – particularly in technology innovation.

5. Social Media & Facebook

Thankfully there was not a solid focus on social media, but interestingly as it should be, it was pervasive as part of the marketing mix throughout the talks.

Social is often touted as the free medium, achieving massive consumer word of mouth, reach etc etc for minimum spend. Although the spend might be less compared to traditional mediums like advertising. It was interesting to note of the successful campaigns talked about, social was still a significant cost. Creating video campaigns and hiring agencies is still not cheap. Air NZ and Tourism Victoria have achieved significant success, sure, but they still have reasonable budgets to begin with. For start-ups like myself it becomes far more apparent you still need money to make money – even with social media.

Last but no least – the Traveltech awards for best website – which went to Vroom, Vroom, Vroom, a beautifully functional site for car rental comparison. The criteria for the awards was being an Australian owned and run company. However, Martin has now agreed to include New Zealand companies next year. So watch this space for Fossick next year.

Sales Results

• Go through your sales figures and do some analysis and graphs for different measures – e.g. Sources of bookings (direct, inbound agents, visitor booking offices, online websites, campaigns and advertising etc), Direct booking types (e.g phone, email, website, walk-in), Product Type sales (you may offer different tours, room types etc).
• Compare all of these sales results against last year’s figures too so you know where the changes have been.
• It may be that your current booking system doesn’t allow you to categorise your bookings in these ways – if not, is there a better alternative out there?
• Once you have analysed all of the sales measures that are important to your business you are then armed with great information to make better decisions about your what areas of your marketing and sales efforts need attention.

Your Website and Online Marketing

• This is now undoubtedly a key area for tourism businesses to get right. Have you invested the necessary time and money into delivering a quality website and comprehensive online marketing strategy including social media and networking?
• Does your website reflect the quality of your business and the experience you offer to travellers?
• Is it easy to book with you online?
• Are your number of direct bookings via your website increasing?
• What feedback do you get on your website?
• Do you use tools like google analytics to measure the performance of your website in detail so you know it’s performance rather than just gut feel? For example, knowing how many visits you get from external websites you’ve paid to list on is vital information when it comes to the decision on whether to renew for another year.

Customer Feedback

• Comments and feedback from your customers is always a vital way to improve your product and services, provided you seek out the information.
• Don’t be afraid to ask them, provide customer feedback forms or encourage your customers to place online reviews so you know what is working well and what isn’t.

Don’t just blame poor sales on the recession – in realty there are always areas you can control and plan for in marketing and sales to improve your performance.

I am sure you have read your fair share of articles or blog posts about best practice to make these sites work for your business. These sites offer a great opportunity for you to communicate and market directly to your consumers without the costs associated with traditional forms of media. Rather than talk about the many benefits social networking has to your business, in this blog post I am going to set about confronting how much social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter may be costing your business and how you might control these costs.

‘But Facebook is free,’ you’re thinking – well, yes, these social networking sites are free to their users but not to you, when paying for your employees time to use them.

It is suggested that over one hour of working time is wasted per employee, per day. A recent study undertaken by an MBA student claims that the main distraction at work is surfing the web. From those surveyed, 64% admitted regular personal use of the internet during working hours and 77% admitted to visiting Facebook at work. 1 in 33 said that they only used Facebook at work.

Based on the findings of this study, a small accommodation business with 5 staff, each being paid the national accommodation average wage of $16.20 per hour could be paying around $18,000 per year for its staff to surf the internet.

This is of course a basic calculation, but never the less; the principal behind this calculation will hopefully get you thinking about how much the cost to your business could be.

Many businesses try to respond to these kind of statistics by blocking certain sites on company computers and banning there use at work completely. This strategy may work well in some environments however perhaps in some environments a more pragmatic approach is called for.

In a world where employees often need access to social networking sites for work related purposes and many have access to mobile internet it is difficult to police internet use. Taking this into consideration perhaps encouraging your team to use these sites openly on their work computers in their break times or in quiet period’s acts as a motivator. This open minded approach will surely avoid your employees scrambling to close down these applications when a customer walks in the office or taking regular toilet breaks to check their Facebook page on their iPhone!

With the use of the internet increasing, the growing popularity of using social networking sites and the potential loss of productivity to your business, this is one area that you cannot afford to overlook.

Following the largest earthquake that has been recorded in New Zealand in the last 80 years, weaknesses in traditional media’s ability to react to emergencies and provide vital information to the public have been exposed. Hours after the quake, a report was featured on Sky News Australia, with New Zealand based television and website news agencies being similar in their response times. With many communication channels down and a public plea to limit the use of mobile phones to emergency calls only, many New Zealanders flocked to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to check on friends and family, while gaining vital information from emergency services. Messages on Twitter came flooding in soon after the initial earthquake, with many news agencies following such user generated content to develop their stories and headlines.

Furthermore, in the days and weeks following the initial earthquake, New Zealanders have utilised a vast array of social media sites to share their experiences, offer assistance to those in need, post images and videos of the damage; providing a communication platform to rally the community into action. According to Nielsen, over 27,000 comments were posted on social networking sites and message boards during the days following the earthquake, as those affected used the communication channels to connect with family and friends. Twitter received the highest overall volume, with New Zealand based message boards, such as Trade Me receiving similar results. According to Tony Boyte, Research Director for Nielsen’s online division, “the dramatic numbers we’ve seen in social media usage demonstrates the platform’s ability to quickly and effectively collect and disseminate information.”

During the midst of the earthquake was the highly publicised and contested Mayoral election in Christchurch. Prior to the disaster, the poles were showing an advantage to leading contender, Jim Anderton. However, the public support given to Bob Parker in managing the aftermath, along with the media coverage that ensued, appeared to sway the public’s vote. Anderton believed that without the quake the result could have been quite different. “There was seismic change and it reflected the television, radio and media presence of the mayor against all others – and people assumed wrongly because you weren’t on the 6pm news you weren’t doing anything,” Anderton said.

The role of social media can again been seen to play a pivotal role. With the high media coverage of the event, both in traditional mediums of communication and social media, the community rallied behind a mayor who was prepared to stand up and be counted in the days and weeks of the aftermath. The continued presence of communications based around the earthquake in social media networking sites vicariously put Bob Parker squarely in the hearts and minds of all Cantabrians. Based on correlations between social media usage and political and civic participation, the effect of this is hardly surprising.

Research conducted by Pew highlighted that over 31% of all users on social networking sites engage in some activity with a civil or political focus. Furthermore, it was identified that 15% of all internet users wrote comments on websites about civic, political and social issues; or uploaded images and blog posts with content relating to politics or social issues. However, what was profoundly evident in the study was the implication for young adults, between 18 and 29, who were far more likely to engage within a political environment through social networking sites. With the earthquake creating a high profile event which encouraged the use of social media for communication and engagement purposes, the mayoral race is sure to have been affected.

This has brought to the fore the innovative use of social media in other countries to engage with the public and actively involve them in the political process; something that all politicians and government agencies in New Zealand should take note of. Just as social media has opened a dialogue between businesses and consumers, its value is apparent to those in political office, whose work and very professional survival hinges on the needs and perceptions of their constituents.

As it stands, the social web is ripe with opportunities for candidates and office holders alike to connect with voters, foster transparency, and even spar with opponents in the same ways they have been in the traditional media. Politics is about conversation, and personal, face-to-face interaction is still the foundation of that, especially at the local level. However, to advance the conversation and mobilise community support, social media is becoming a staple of the political tool box. Facebook, Twitter and other social networks reinforce political messages and fuel offline support. Furthermore, social media provides a way for politicians to carry on a real time narrative directly with their constituencies, particularly the younger generation, at an affordable cost.

There are additional implications as to how social media and networking sites can be use to encourage participation in the political process. Representative democracy seems the perfect place for social media — a direct communications channel between the governed and the government. One example of such interaction was implemented in the States, where the House Republicans created their own social media hub, termed YouCut; where participants can suggest and vote on which government spending programs should be cut from the federal budget. This represents the first time in history where the public is able to have direct impact on what their representatives vote upon on the House floor. In another example, the campaign run by the Enough Project, an organisation pushing for regulation on the U.S. import of conflict minerals from eastern Congo, encouraged their followers to voice their opinions on social networking sites. Within 48 hours, approximately 500 people posted on the Facebook walls of these members. Soon after, two of the 10 members agreed to co-sponsor the bill and another three members of the committee who were not targeted also agreed to co-sponsor.

The recent events in Christchurch, which has affected all of New Zealand and many ex-pats living overseas, has highlighted the role of social media in communities. Firstly, social media provide vital communication tools to inform the community and create opportunities for civic engagement; and not only in time of emergency. Secondly, traditional media is slow to react to dramatic and sudden events where the general population require information relating to the situation and the status of their friends and family. Last, but not least, the increasing importance of social networking sites in creating engaged political communities, especially for the younger generations. Hopefully some of the examples for participative government will be implemented and soon your voice will be heard.

Before going any further, as I did with those who opted into my workshop I only feel it fair to make it clear that I don’t consider myself any kind of expert on TripAdvisor or other review sites. What I have done however is researched the subject. What I am not is an employee or paid sales person for these business.  What I hope to do is just give a few simple pointers based on my experience.

Claim Your Listing

When chatting with people about review sites, it quickly became apparent that rather than trying to come to grips with what these sites have to offer, many opt to firmly stick their head in the sand – ostrich style!

For me…its simple, your consumer can and will post reviews of your hotel or service on the internet, whether you like it or not. You have a choice as to whether you check these reviews or not.

Whether deciding to check, or not to check, one clear piece of advise I will ask you take away is make sure you have claimed your listing on these sites!

In essence these listing are like any other on the web, it is a place to promote your business, ensuring the information available to your consumer is correct and up-to-date.  I ran for a few regularly searched terms such as ‘hotel Dunedin’ or ‘what to do in Dunedin’ for the purpose of the workshop. In each case that I tried the top ten results always included at least one listing from TripAdvisor and often other review sites too.  What surprised me was that these rankings were generally higher than many of the sites we would all pay to have our business listed.  To check out how to claim your review on TripAdvisor check out this short YouTube clip:

Replying to reviews

Once you’ve claimed your listing and updated your business it is your option whether you choose to respond to review or not.  Until now I had always decided only to respond to negative reviews, however after undertaking my research I have personally decided that I will endeavor to reply to each review, whether of a positive or negative nature.

If you choose to ignore them it is like ignoring a complaint letter that the world can see.

Check out this YouTube clip on the process of replying to a review on TripAdvisor:

The way I have dealt with reviews on review sites in the past, is to treat them like a complaint letter. Here’s some tips that I find work well for me;

• Always thank the guest for taking the time to review you.  (Whether you agree with them or not, they have still spent time thinking about your business)
• Briefly review what the person has said in there review, making sure you correct any thing that if wrong (factually, not wrong through your opinion)
• At the very least let the guest know that you have taken on board their comments or concerns, by reading the review and replying you are automatically taking this information on – even if you don’t believe it to be right.
• Then go on to explain if you have or will make any changes after reading the review. No matter how small it will help the person feel valued and listened too.
• If you think that the situation warrants it perhaps you should invite them back or give a gesture of goodwill – a voucher perhaps. At times its best to just swallow a little bit of pride in these situations and sometime give a little more than you may think its worth, because ultimately if this person goes away happy (or at least happier) they may remove their negative review and you never know – could be a positive ambassador for your business.

I think that’s probably enough for now! Remember the way to get good reviews on review sites is simple – being market focused, listen to your consumer and act on their needs!  To get a few more reviews its perhaps a little bit harder, be creative and don’t be shy in asking people to review you.

LinkedIn has over 66 million members in over 200 countries and territories. It’s used by businesses and professionals from numerous industries and fortunately takes no special knowledge to use. Using the concept that, “it isn’t what you know, it’s who you know” LinkedIn makes it possible to connect with companies and people that you might otherwise have thought were beyond your reach.

LinkedIn is a social network designed specifically for business and is used to connect with other business people in order to build your business. It can be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in your contact network.

LinkedIn enables you to look up people in a specific position in the company or industry you’re targeting. You can also do advanced searches to find companies and people in a specific geographic area, and you can find people with common interests through relevant groups.

Registered users maintain a list of contact details of the people they know and trust in business called connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection. This is as easy as exporting your outlook or email contacts into LinkedIn and sending an invite for them to join you. In this instance it’s important to personalize your invitations, otherwise, there’s a chance that people will claim that they don’t know you.

A contact network is built up consisting of your direct connections, the connections of each of their connections (second degree connections) and also the connections of second-degree connections (third degree connections). Sound confusing? Think of it as two or three degrees of separation between you, the people you know and those that they know. It’s using these connections to gain an introduction to someone you wish to meet. This approach (where contact requires either a pre-existing relationship or the intervention of a contact) is intended to build trust among users.

Besides the free basic account, LinkedIn also offers a variety of premium accounts. These offer options for better communication, more powerful search tools, enhanced access to decision makers and access to other resources. The initial two months are free with upgraded accounts if you pay an annual fee. Costs vary from $24.95 a month to $1,199 a year.

The key question is why you would want to join LinkedIn to start with? Although this is a professional network of business people it is not always about connecting on a Business-To-Business basis. While this is the most obvious of motivations you can also use LinkedIn to connect with people within your target market. For example, if you know your ideal audience has a personal interest in food and wine you’d be wise to join a LinkedIn food and wine group. Or, join a group of Lawyers if you feel their household income might be a crucial demographic.

Like any social medium, when determining whether LinkedIn is right for your small business promotion you need to be clear about your objectives and what you want to achieve by participating.

Because of the professional nature of LinkedIn it can help establish you as an expert in your industry, enhance your brand and presence on the web but most importantly help you to gain direct and influential introductions with people you may never have the opportunity to meet offline. It gives you access and visibility to important people who are equally connected with other people you just might want to know.

This article was originally posted on MarketingTourGuide.com

Personally, I choose to differentiate my personal and professional online presence, presuming that my family and friends probably don’t want to be updated about my attendance at a conference. Equally, my work colleagues hopefully wouldn’t be too fussed that I have been dragged to see the latest chick flick at the cinema by my dearly beloved.  Like 500 million other people across the globe, I entrust Facebook with the personal information I choose to share with my friends and family.

For my professional presence I choose LinkedIn, a purpose built social media site designed for developing an online professional profile, utilised by more than 80 million users.

The benefits of building strong business relationships and the strength of networking need very little explanation. I believe, in today’s digital world practicing strong online networking is as, if not more, important than traditional networking. Becoming ‘Linked-In’ is a great way to get started.

The service is primarily utilised by senior professionals, with around 48% of its users being at management or director level and 66% being considered decision makers within their business.  In essence the site allows you to transfer your curriculum vitae online, gives you the ability to be recommended by industry colleagues, join groups, manage your connections as well as find or offer jobs.

Some of the key benefits that I have found by using the site are;

• Keeping in touch with colleagues from previous workplaces

• Recruitment

• Defining comparable industry pay rates

• Passively keeping in touch with the job market

• Promoting my experience and achievements

• Securing public recommendations

• Searching people by name, company, group or education (always helps when you’re trying to get in contact with the people you met at TRENZ and can’t find their card!)

A great benefit of the site is, that it not only allows you to view the profiles of your direct connections but those connected to your connections and their connections too. According to the site this feature links me to 1,503, 506 professional’s from my mere 200 connections!

My advice would be to sign-up and maximise your career potential…after all – its free!

10 Ideas for content:

• Add Photo Albums – try not to put a lot of photos in just 1 album, create different topics to divide them up so it’s easier for people to view what they are interested in
• Link to some of your latest online traveller reviews or media articles and comment about them
• List some recent accomplishments or news e.g. awards, star rating, sustainability efforts, product development etc
• Set up automated feeds with your other social media such as your Twitter account and Blog articles to create regular content
• Offer a special package and provide a link to book it on your website
• Create a Competition that will attract followers and encourage people to share your Facebook page with others
• Add links to websites for some upcoming events or activities in your area – ideally you would write a blog article about it on your website so the traffic goes to your own site
• Add a link to any relevant YouTube or online videos about your business or location – a link to a video on Facebook will embed the video on your wall so it can be easily viewed
• Ask Your recent customers to post their own photos and comments on your wall about their experience with your business
• Get your whole team involved in adding regular content to your Page – you can add as many “admin” people as you like for the page so make it easy and share the load

How to Get Followers for a New Facebook Page:

• Start connecting with others on Facebook and then use the Facebook “Suggest to Friends” function for your page – ask them to suggest it to their friends too
• Promote it prominently on your website and use the Facebook “social media plugins” to show current activity on your Facebook page and encourage Facebook users to follow you.
• Email your customer database telling them about your new page with a link so they can follow it
• Promote it from Twitter and any other social media sites you belong to
• Once you have 25 followers for a page go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ to set a user friendly URL for your page e.g. http://www.facebook.com/yourbusinessname – this makes it easier and more memorable to promote verbally and in print.
• Make it accessible to your customers while they are with you so they can follow it and add content during their experience.

Have you got any other suggestions that has worked for your Business page on Facebook?

During the research phase it became very clear to Marc that most small businesses found Facebook a mix of confusing features and poor customer support. The classic mistake made by most small business was creating a business presence using a personal profile instead of the official Facebook Page.

This classic mistake not only risks you being banned from Facebook but also lacks the features you can use to promote your business. Another major mistake is trying to “sell” within Facebook. Direct selling in any social network is a no-no but for Facebook its doubly worse as most people understand Facebook to be a place for connecting with friends and family and having fun.

There is of course a move now from Facebook to welcome business with open arms (mainly due to the income they receive from Facebook ads which businesses use to promote themselves) but still the “community” feel is very much alive. The main reason he wrote the Facebook for Business eBook was to address the two classic mistakes but also help businesses reduce the effort and time within Facebook while at the same time increase their brand awareness and connect with their customers and prospects.

The eBook consists of 12 Chapters:

Chapter 1 – What is Social Media?

This chapter introduces the concepts of “social media” and expel the hype produced by “social media experts” to revel the real benefit’s to businesses.

Chapter 2 – Defining a Facebook Strategy

This chapter focuses on the most important task which is to define your overall strategy for using Facebook and other social networks. Just like building a house you must start with solid foundations.

Chapter 3 – Facebook – The Facts

This chapter provides some important facts and statistics about Facebook

Chapter 4 – Facebook Basics

In this chapter Marc covers the basics of Facebook including creating your personal Facebook profile. This chapter is a must for anyone who has no idea what Facebook is or has never been on Facebook.

Chapter 5 – Setting Up Your Facebook Page

This chapter covers the basics of creating your Facebook Page including an introduction to the “admin” section of your page and applying business branding to your Page.

Chapter 6 – Making Your Page Exciting

This chapter looks at sprucing up your “shop front” window so it looks attractive to your prospects and customers.

Chapter 7 – Advanced Topics for Editing Your Facebook Page

This chapter covers more advanced topics to add more features to your Page including adding an email newsletter subscription form to your Page.

Chapter 8 – Attracting Fans to Your Page for Free

This chapter looks the “no-cost” courses of action you can take to attract people to your Page.

Chapter 9 – Paid Options for Attracting Fans

This chapter looks at Facebook Ads and a third party application to help drive visitors to your Page.

Chapter 10 – Monitoring Your Page

In this chapter it looks at Facebook Insights to measure your Page statistics.

Chapter 11 – Case Studies

In this chapter Marc reviews existing Facebook Pages to see what works and what needs improvement.

Chapter 12 – Resources

This chapter provides some helpful resources including a couple of fantastic sites that you can subscribe to so you are always up-to-date with changes in Facebook.

The eBook took Marc 2 months to research and write, and is an easy to read resource in PDF format purely designed for helping small business. The feedback has been great so far, here’s a sample:

“Hi Marc, Just finished reading your e-book, Facebook For Business, and found it an excellent resource for a relative Facebook novice such as myself. As a business advisor to the owners of independent businesses in Auckland, I can see this book being of great use to me, both in helping my clients make better use of social media in their marketing activity and also for my own business development. It is hard to find the right level of help in better understanding social networking devices for business. Your e-book covered it off better than anything else I have seen recently. Well done.” Andy Burrows Icon Business Solutions Albany

“I thought I had taught myself a reasonable amount about Facebook Pages for businesses. However, not only did Marc’s e-Book on Facebook for Business clarify some points I was not sure about, but also helped me to extend that knowledge. I found the format not only helpful, but also clearly laid out and easy to understand. This is an excellent reference manual, and I would highly recommend it to any business looking at developing a Facebook page to extend the visibility of their business.” Dean Stewart, Christchurch

“A comprehensive guide for business owners who want an easy to follow, step by step guide to using Facebook for their business. Tells you everything you need to know to get started” Sandra Newton, Essentee Web Consulting

Click Here to Buy the Facebook for Business Ultimate Guide eBook

The price of the eBook is $47.00 USD which is considered cheap by many people who have read it. For example some web designers will charge you $100 – $200 USD just to setup a basic Facebook Page!

So if you want to DIY with Facebook for your business to gain the most out of what it can offer and bring clarity to your strategy then this is a great buy.

Tick any that apply and feel free to leave a comment below the article for more detailed thoughts.

Few operators will implement all options at once due to budget and resources limitations or their business model.  It’s up to each business to research which elements are the most cost effective, which mix will fill capacity, which will be tasty in the short term and which will last the distance, which options go well together?

Below is a list of options you may have considered (disclaimer: in no particular order of importance!).

What are your top five most cost effective and how did you discover that they work? Is there something missing from list?

Branding

• Brand name – Product names
• Logo
• Tag line, key messages/ byline
• Photography

Marketing Collateral (Banners, brochures, flyers, signs and posters)

• Design (incorporating words, photography, logos etc)
• Printing/production
• Distribution and display costs – Brochure rack fees, Space rental (signage)

Website and E-marketing

• Website design – hosting
• Search engine optimisation
• Integrated /third party booking engine
• E-marketing – Third party directories, Free listings and Paid listings (online advertising), Pay-Per Click (Google Adwords etc), Other web advertising (Banner ads etc), Social Media (i.e. Tripadvisor, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube etc.), Other link building
• HTML Email newsletter

Public Relations

• Press releases – Consumer Press/ Trade Press, Distribution
• Editorial
• Media monitoring/ clipping service
• Media liaisons and events – Local-International, Samples/giveaways
• Media familiarisations – Travel and hosting costs
• Promotions – Giveaways
• Media resources – Media pack, Image library

Travel Agents and Trade Distribution

• Sales Relationship Management – Wholesale Travel Agent, Inbound Travel Agents, Online Travel Agents, Retail Travel Agents
• Trade Shows – TRENZ, Meetings, Kiwilink
• Trade directories/ brochures
• Sales trips – Local (inbounders), International

Advertising

• TV
• Radio
• Billboards and sign writing
• Print advertising (Newspapers/magazines)
• Advertorial
• Guide books/ directories
• Internet/Online advertising
• Other

Associations/Marketing partnerships

• Local partners
• RTOs/DMOs (Regional Tourism Offices)
• Touring Routes
• Other (Lodge Association, Motel Association, etc.

So what attracts the potential customer to your product, service or activity? When they visit your website or read your printed marketing material, what is it that sways the decision to use your business over your competitors? The importance of having well designed marketing material, whether online or offline, and a level of integration and synergy between them cannot be argued. However, content is king. What does your content say to your potential customers? Is it generic marketing text that is not targeted to the behaviour and language of the target markets you are attempting to serve?

The use of images, photos and videos is essential in the tourism industry, where experience is everything. Interactive media formats are the perfect medium for telling the story, rising emotive decision making processes in consumers and creating a virtual sense of demand. The use of colloquial, descriptive, emotional and experiential text is just as important in spurring the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for consumers to purchase your products and services, or at least qualify your offerings to be in the final decision set.

Social media offers all tourism businesses the perfect platform to share and promote the experiential based tourism product through the use of interactive mediums. Image sites such as Flickr and video sites such as YouTube are obvious sites to utilise. Although not considered as a pure social media tool, these sites have developed over the past several years to include interactive and communication capabilities that are conducive to social networking. However, these could be considered the first steps of social media.

In comparison to sites such as Twitter or Facebook which require a constant level of activity as far as engaging with the audience, Flickr and Youtube can be used simply as a platform for presenting interactive media about your business, the activities, accommodation, customers enjoying their EXPERIENCE. There is the option to engage with other like minded people and current and potential clients though the joining of groups, engaging with conversations and participating in the community, but it is not as essential in other social media platforms. And for this reason, these platforms are the perfect place to start for the novice, even the sceptical tourism operator to dabble with social media.

Here is a simple example of how an activity based tourism operator could utilise either Flickr or Youtube (or both) to build the visibility of their business, utilise experiential based marketing mediums, create a valued personal level of customer service and engage in a basic level of viral marketing: Let’s take the case of a four-wheel drive motorcycle operation. When the customer purchases or attends the activity, get their email address. Before, during and after the activity, take lots of photos and/or videos (basic digital camera is all that you need). Once the activity has finished for the day, upload the photos/videos from the camera to your Flickr/Youtube site, then email the customer saying thank you for using us and having a great time and inform them that you have posted photos/videos of them enjoying their experience.  This proactive level of customer support will impress the customer, leading to greater levels of satisfaction, developing a brand ambassador or who will surely create a level of word of mouth marketing for you. But it doesn’t stop there, the customer will then view their photos/videos on the sites, they will have their experience rekindled and be likely to email and tell their friends of their experiences and direct them to the URL address where the photo is held, your Flickr and Youtube sites. Now you have the start of a viral marketing campaign, where the customer’s friends are viewing the photos/videos and spreading the word about your business.

If you are a tourism operator attempting to gain a greater market share, identifying methods to increase customer satisfaction and support and want to start engaging with social media, implement an experiential and emotional strategy to your online and offline marketing mediums, increase the use of experiential based photos and videos, utilise descriptive text and consider utilising some of the most basic social media tools to promote your business and brand.

Many articles and posts that attempt to be useful end up confusing businesses in respect of using social media marketing effectively. Typically, they list up to 50 sites that HAVE to be engaged with, offering no assistance as far as the methods to gain targeted followers that replicate the demographic and geographic dimensions of the businesses stipulated target market, or proven strategies that direct increased traffic to the business website, increase sales and create a loyal community of brand followers through a process of engagement. No wonder some people are confused.

The fact is that a business does not have to use 50, 30, 15, even 5 social media sites to drive business results. Based on the characteristics of the target market, and any dual goals of a social media marketing strategy such as search engine optimisation or employer branding, the business should identify 2 or 3 social media platforms that are well suited to these goals. It is much better to concentrate on several sites and use them well rather than spreading your efforts over a wide range of platforms that will not create any advantage, possibly damage your social media efforts as the increased workload over a variety of sites means the neglecting of current and potential customers that could be achieved through focusing the social media efforts.

If you are a small to medium sized business either considering the use of social media marketing, or experiencing levels of frustration that your current efforts are not creating the desired results, choose 2 platforms that fit well with the business model and customer base. Allocate 10, 15, 30 minutes a day to work on your social media marketing, or whatever time you can spare on a daily basis. Start dabbling with the software and the features, the more comfortable you become with the workings and functions of the software, the more confident you will become in utilising the tools. Think back and remember when you first learnt a Microsoft program, it wasn’t second nature and you probably had to become familiar with the software before a level of confidence ensued.

Above all, remember that social media is another channel or medium of communication, it does not outweigh or outdate traditional modes of marketing communication. The implementation of any social media marketing strategy is not a technology decision, where many can get caught up in the latest and greatest without ascertaining if it fits the business model. The use of any business tool, including social media must be a BUSINESS DECISION.

If you are having trouble starting in the social media world or are not achieving the desired business results from your efforts, give us a call or drop us a line. At Social Eyes Consultancy, we’re always happy to provide advice.

What is it?

Using a mobile device with GPS, it’s a way to explore a city and find people, places and things to do.  The users “check-in” to their current locations and can earn rewards in doing so.   
It’s got much more of a “game” approach to it than other social media tools where users can “unlock badges and discover new things” for rewards, but the interesting bit is that these things are in the real world so businesses can use it to influence behaviour and actions, turning Foursquare users into paying customers.

Is It Useful for Tourism Businesses and Destination Marketing?

You bet ya it is, well eventually anyway – once more people start to understand it, and provided it’s content continues to grow throughout New Zealand then it could become quite a powerful tool for travellers to decide what do to and where to go while visiting, plus you can incentivise your regular customers.

Here is a link to find out how businesses can use Foursquare to reward their customers with special offers and incentives.  You can either “claim your venue” as the business owner if someone has already added your business on Foursquare, or you can add your venue yourself.  Once you have claimed it you can monitor the stats, add special offers and award prizes etc.

This article “VisitPA uses Foursquare to it’s Full Potential” on the Project Wander blog is perhaps the first example of a Destination Marketing Organisation getting onboard with Foursquare to market it.

The limiting factor right now in New Zealand is the quality and lack of mobile internet access nationwide so it’s use is mainly in the cities….that may take some time to fix, but if your coverage is good then give it a go for your tourism business or organisation.  Would be great to hear about any businesses using it already.

No one has time to surf all the social networking sites. You can’t do everything at once. Try focusing on a few networks and sites at a time to determine which will help you best connect with your customers or generate the most traffic. Once you’ve built a reputation, you can move on to the next on your list.

It’s fine if you don’t jump on the bandwagon of every new site. Take some time to read reviews and watch before deciding to make a move.

Getting involved in a site is the only way to really understand how it operates. Even then, you need to be prepared for things not to work. There are no guarantees of success although with experience, you’ll learn what’s likely to click with your users.

It will take some time to set up the network you want. While you’re building your reputation, don’t forget the real world. Attending travel and marketing conferences, consumer trade shows, events, workshops (either virtual or real), will accelerate growing relationships and you can use those contacts to add to your network.

The first step to trying out social media sites is to check out what’s available. Here’s a list of the most popular sites in different categories for you to take a look at.

Bookmarking
Blinklist www.blinklist.com
Delicious www.delicious.com
StumbleUpon www.stumbleupon.com
Stumpedia www.stumpedia.com
Google Reader www.google.com/reader
CiteULike www.citeulike.org
Simpy www.simpy.com

Blogs
BlogCatalog www.blogcatalog.com
Blogged.com www.blogged.com
Blogger www.blogger.com
Bloglines www.bloglines.com
CoComment www.cocomment.com
LiveJournal www.livejournal.com
MyBlogLog www.mybloglog.com
Tangler www.tangler.com
TypePad www.typepad.com
WordPress www.wordpress.org
Vox www.vox.com

Discussion Groups
Google Groups www.groups.google.com/
Yahoo! Groups www.groups.yahoo.com
Windows Live Groups www.groups.live.com

Events
Upcoming www.upcoming.yahoo.com
Eventful www.eventful.com
Meetup.com www.meetup.com

Forums
Vbulletin www.vbulletin.com
PhpBB www.phpbb.com

Micro-Blogging
Twitter www.twitter.com
Plurk www.plurk.com
SixApart www.sixapart.com
Jaiku www.jaiku.com

Networking
CrowdVine www.crowdvine.com
Facebook www.facebook.com
Hi5 www.hi5.com
MySpace www.myspace.com
Ning www.ning.com
Orkut www.orkut.com
LinkedIn www.linkedin.com
Plaxo www.plaxo.com
Skyrock www.skyrock.com

Network Aggregation
FriendFeed www.friendfeed.com
Ping.fm www.ping.fm
Google Buzz www.google.com/buzz

News
Digg www.digg.com
Hubdub www.hubdub.com
Mixx www.mixx.com
Propeller www.propeller.com
Reddit www.reddit.com
Yahoo Buzz www.buzz.yahoo.com

Product Reviews
TripAdvisor www.TripAdvisor.com
VirtualTourist www.VirtualTourist.com
Yelp www.yelp.com
MouthShut.com www.mouthshut.com

Photo Sharing
Flickr www.flickr.com
Photobucket www.photobucket.com
SmugMug www.smugmug.com
Zooomr www.zooomr.com
Picasa www.picasa.google.com

Video Sharing
Revver www.revver.com
Vimeo www.vimeo.com
YouTube www.youtube.com
Triporia www.Triporia.com
TravelTube www.TravelTube.com
AboutAnyWhere www.AboutAnyWhere.com

Wikis
Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org
Pbwiki www.pbworks.com
Wetpaint www.wetpaint.com

Dashboards
iGoolge www.igoogle.com
Netvibes www.netvibes.com

This article was originally posted by Angela Best as part of a series on Social Media for Tourism Marketing on MarketingTourGuide.com

Not only that, the applications and tools available on Facebook pages are a great fit for tourism businesses that can sell your features based on interactive and user content such as photos, videos and reviews.  The personality that you can show about your brand and your people can come through strongly and add to your online brand profile.

Facebook Pages

• This is the key way for a brand or business to represent themselves on Facebook, and can generally be set up in less than 30 minutes, create a page here.  Note: All Facebook Pages have to be set up by someone with a personal profile.
• It can be viewed without being a Facebook user so you can have a link directly to your page from your website but only Facebook users can follow your page as “fans”
• There are a multitude of free applications that you can add to your Facebook page that can enhance it’s functions, see this article on Mashable.com “5 Essential Apps for Your Business’s Facebook Fan Page“
• Your updates will appear on the personal walls of your fans to draw their attention to the activity on your page
• You can send your fans messages, so it’s essentially another form of database marketing and incredibly powerful because all fans voluntarily opt in to receive your content
• While it all sounds easy, creating and maintaining your content plus attracting user content from your fans requires a time investment and a strategy to keep it growing effectively combining it with your other marketing media
• Always keep in mind that the is aim to use tools like Facebook to drive traffic to your website and increase your marketing database of targeted customers

Establish Your Fan Base

Building your Fan base is always the first challenge for a new Facebook page, so here are some ideas to help get it going:

• Create some interesting content on your Page first so that when you start promoting it will attract fans
• Promote your Page with in a prominent place on your website
• If you have a marketing database then use email marketing to promote your Facebook page, similarly if you already have a following on other social media sites like Twitter then you can promote your page to them
• Use the Facebook Ads to promote your page – costs are based on pay per click and you can select the demographics and location of people you want to target
• Develop some fun and interactive viral marketing initiatives that can be featured on your page, competitions and incentives are a great way to attract visits

Popular Tourism Facebook Pages

If you have some doubts over the benefits of building a busy Facebook Fan Page have a look at the number of fans generated on some the following popular tourism pages – marketing gold!

Australia - 384,220 Fans

100% Pure New Zealand – 118,800 Fans

Air New Zealand – 18,844 fans

WellingtonNZ – 13,846 fans

Have you got any more examples of popular tourism Facebook pages or useful apps to use on your page? What has worked for you to build your fan base?  

Become a Fan of the Tourism Industry Blog Facebook Page

This article is not about selling you the benefits or otherwise of tools like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn…..but more of a question to you if you are already using these tools:

Is it working for your tourism business or organisation?

Are you engaging your customers,  increasing your online profile and most importantly of all – getting more bookings as a result?

What is it costing you to do it (time or otherwise)? Do you think you get a good return on it?

Have you tried social media campaigns or just focus on chat?

We’d be interested to get any feedback, good or bad as to what impact or results you are achieving from having a social media presence – so let us know!

Developing the right viral campaign is a bit of an art because you have to be careful not to make it too manufactured, it needs to be genuinely funny and the brand or message involved has to be visible but not dominating – potentially the more outrageous and cheeky it is the more success you will have.  People will either love it or hate it – but that’s OK, so long as it gets exposure.

How can tourism use it? Very creatively hopefully!   This is a superb way to create interest in a destination or particular tourism product in a different and memorable way.  A couple of current examples of viral marketing campaigns for New Zealand tourism organisations are:

Air New Zealand – Who Would You Spoon?

A funny video featuring comedian Di Henwood with the campaign centred on the Air New Zeland Facebook page.  They have even produced a Facebook application for the spooning campaign so fans can select some of their friends to spoon and enter a competition to win a weekend away…the marketing message for this campaign?  It’s all about their new Economy Skycouch which allows passengers to lie down during flight to sleep, and presumably spoon if travelling with a close friend…

Destination Northland – Northland For Dummies Aussies

A clever couple of videos have been produced and placed on YouTube with the star of the show being the likeable Bazza from Oz.  Targeted at Australians to visit Northland, these 2 videos (A language Guide and an Outdoor Guide) are being spread virally through You Tube, Facebook and Twitter.  Bazza has his own Facebook page and Twitter account so you can follow his travels through Northland.

Likewise, failing to compare against the competitors, is burying one’s head in the sand. Closed loop comment systems may measure guest satisfaction in one sense, may even provide departmental diagnostics, but ignoring the public measure of such satisfaction represented by online reviews (or expecting your advertising or brand to overcome it) is like the old laughable question: who are you going to believe, me or your own lying eyes?
With the rise of self publishing on the internet, the monologue that has become more of a multilogue: a many to many conversation. Your customers, supporters and detractors talk amongst themselves and declare their views on you to anyone interested. The question is: are you listening to the right opinions? Are you responding?

Free Software
There is a plethora of free software available on the internet that can be utilised to track what is being said about you, your company, its products and services, your competitors, hype and buzz areas in the marketplace and valuable metrics which provide valuable information to track ROI and evaluative measures of current and future marketing and PR campaigns. The following are well worth more investigation and I implore you to do so:
• Google Alerts and Blog Alerts
• Tweet deck
• Yahoo Pipes
• Social Mention
• Technorati
• Blog pulse
• Signing up to the various OTA’s
If your organisation wants to track what’s being said by consumers about your company or brands on the internet, its best to monitor all forms of mouth media including but not limited to blogs, compliant sites, message boards, forums, news groups, and video sharing sites such as YouTube. Since it’s impossible to predict where or when important market intelligence will pop up on the web – or where it will be repeated, its best to do comprehensive monitoring of all possible sites. You should also monitor the myriad of existing and future social network sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn….the list goes on.
For those starting to dabble with these social mediums, the manual and freely available search software is probably more than sufficient to get an idea of what is being is being virally spread throughout the web 2.0 world.

However, free search services can be costly in terms of time required to do daily searches. Since the free services do not store your clips as do most subscription media monitoring services, there is also the cost of printing out clips. Searching and managing these paper based clips is also much more difficult and time consuming than the digital clips subscription services store an online database.

Freely available tools provide no analysis, such as sentiment, geographic and demographic data, hype formulas, key sites and users, which means that the raw data may seem overwhelming with no apparent direction in how to use this data. With no strategy to utilise this new information stream, this data may ‘sit on the shelf’ rather than being utilised to develop and evaluate marketing plans and directions, as well as product and service development, social media strategies and developing new revenue streams.

The Automatic Solution
Constraints within the tourism and hospitality sectors do not always allow for leadership in tech tools. Limited margins of profit often prevent management from pursuing trends that are not perceived as proven paths to revenue.
Most businesses are familiar with the conveniences of technology in business analytics and show the willingness to invest in automated monitoring of important data when the return is proven. It seems illogical, then, to bypass investment in automated analytics for something influencing up to 66% of the travelling public, something that is seen by those readers to be more important than brand, website or advertising.
Mere counting without an analysis of context does not give an accurate or comprehensive sense of opinion. At worst, the insight can be outright wrong. With social networks changing the refresh rate of the current online corpus to hourly, and individuals publishing whenever they have something new to say, keeping that thermometer in the water is more important than ever.
There are various solutions for automated media monitoring that vary in price, reporting time and features. After many webinars, demos and trials, there are a few of the better ones listed below:
• Avalon
• Radian6
• Techrigy
• Brandseye
• Viralheat
• Symosos

Automated Solutions Must Pass a Few Tests

• Is it timely? Solutions that deliver results every 30 days do not recognise the urgency of the web. Receiving a report weekly or monthly, or checking each site monthly via manual audit, means reviews may quietly do damage for weeks without response or internal action.
• Is the solution affordable? Paying a disproportionate amount of revenue for an automated tool is not wise, especially in this economy. A formula would be to calculate hours used to monitor manually and the opportunity costs of what could be accomplished with the efficiency of technology, particularly where revenue generating team members are involved in the process.
• Are the most essential point of sale sites delivered? The key to any monitoring system is drilling down where the buying decisions are made. If your system does not monitor the critical sites for web revenue, namely Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, Hotels.com and Orbitz, it may not be as helpful as one might needs. Monitoring other key commentary sites like Tripadvisor or Travelpost is important because of their penetration into the sales cycle.
• Is your performance measured against your competitors? This is critical because it’s how consumers view reviews. No one scans down a list of hotels on Expedia without noticing the traveller opinion score or the star ratings. Knowing how your market share of satisfaction compares to your competitors is as critical for operations as market share of revenue is to sales and revenue management. Armed with this information, capital dollars, training dollars and staff focus may be more easily brought to bear on quality results.
• Does the system provide enabling and supportive tools? An automated tool should make it easier to analyse data, make it easier to discuss in meetings with intuitive graphics, make responding reviews more streamlined, and should offer excellent support for users. Ultimately, an automated monitoring tool should assist in focusing the service culture of the property.

You may feel that this idle chatter originates from squeaky wheels with too much time on their hands. But whether the opinions are expressed by perpetual malcontents or considered influencers does not change the fact that your public is reading these views written by the people who experience your brand. A full 41 percent of bloggers frequently post about brands they love or hate. Their views are sharing the views of their readers.

Opinion monitoring with effective filtering gives you more precise readings. Only then can you see whether a negative opinion on your topics of interest is widespread, an anomaly, or a canary in a coalmine.

Afterthoughts
The era when business could shape what gets written about them seems to be over at least in the online domain due to the voice available to a common person at a very nominal cost. Social software is changing the way information gets reported online. Social media continues to grow in importance. Hotels and tourist operations that take advantage of these trends will see significant benefits in terms of online placement and revenue.
To develop an effective social marketing strategy and to inform and evaluate existing traditional mediums for marketing efforts, it is essential that business have the finger on the pulse when it comes down to ownership of the brand and feedback/reviews in relation to its offerings and competitors. Would you agree a deal without having the necessary information in any other business task?
For many organisations, the free software is a good start. However, the data can become overwhelming with no apparent direction in how to utilise the information. Additionally, with budgets under pressure, the temptation may to be to seek out the service that appears to be the least expensive. As with many products, however, what appears inexpensive on the surface may have hidden costs
Sources:
www.avalonreport.com
www.cyberalert.com
www.htrends.com
JRPG Consulting

Related Articles in this series by Steve Wilson:

Social Media is Everywhere

Online Reviews and Bookings

Hospitality and tourism marketers must understand that their guests are going online in increasing numbers and that in their electronic universe these consumers are exposed to and are likely influenced by the many sites devoted to the selling or discussion of travel and tourism. Tourism and hospitality marketers and managers should take the lead in understanding and utilising the emerging technologies, rather than being driven by the adoption of strategies by their competitors.

The reality of public involvement in traveller reviews has dramatically altered the way customer loyalty and satisfaction must be compared at the property level. It is no longer acceptable to measure satisfaction and team performance based on a closed loop model of customer feedback alone, namely the traditional comment card. Guest comments are now public, as are quality ratings, and failing to apply team accountability for public commentary, or failing to measure up against your competitive set, are like ignoring rate positioning in a crowded marketplace.
The fear inherent in these changes is understandable. Hospitality and tourism operators are accustomed to quiet, private complaints. For years, complaints have come by letter, phone call or other private interaction, including a closed-loop comment card. The internet has unmasked the truth behind reputation and brand. It has put public scrutiny to work on private business matters.
Fanning the fires of this change is the amazing credibility afforded to web reviews by potential guests and customers, the highest credibility in the consumer arena. In fact, 88% of those reading them say reviews contribute to their ultimate hotel selection. Additionally, review users consider what they read to be almost twice as important as brand or reputation in their decision. As consumers become more web savvy, and as the economy drives them to more comparison shopping, the visible quality measurement provided by consumer feedback and ratings will increase in influence.
Consider Tripadvisor as an example of the new public reality of tourism and hospitality comments that has shattered the quiet complaint model. Tripadvisor boasts 32 million unique visitors per month, 10 million members and houses 20 million reviews and opinions on 400,000 hotels and attractions. They are not alone in influence. Hotel.com has 1 million reviews, Priceline.com delivers Zagat reviews in addition to their own and the new search engine by Microsoft, Bing, targeted to give Google a run for its money, delivers reviews from Travelpost when a hotel is searched.
According to Tripadvisor, 57% of consumers will not book a hotel unless they have read reviews. Other source statistics put the total influence from 42% to 66%, but one trend is clear; the amount of consumers relying on reviews is growing. With Jupiter Research confirming that consumers using these reviews consider them more important than brand or reputation the public comments housed on third party sites have become a major player in the buying decision. If these reviews do not bear out their emotional attachment with the brand, they will stay elsewhere.
Consumer reviews and user generated content still dominates the tourism and hospitality’s view of social media. While the consumer reviews are absolutely critical and a potential gold mine for hotels running good operations, social media extends way beyond consumer reviews into several other social media channels.

REGIONAL VISITOR MONITOR
The Regional Visitor Monitor (RVM) confirms that New Zealand travellers are increasingly using the internet to book more than just accommodation. Online accommodation bookings by RVM respondents have increased from 42% to 58% since 2007, while phone bookings have fallen from 44% to 30%.Online activity and attraction bookings by RVM respondents have increased from 55% to 62% since 2007, while phone bookings have fallen from 24% to 19%.
Another key result is that domestic travellers are upping the amount of research they are doing before they visit a destination. Pre-trip research has increased by 39% since 2007, and much of this is being done online. Mr Bassett said that these findings show that tourism operators in all areas of the industry needed to get their inventory web-ready and keep their web content fresh and relevant.

YIELD-RELEVANT TOURIST DECISION MAKING
This research is part of a wider study, “Enhancing the spatial dimensions of tourism yield” led by Professor David Simmons and funded by the Foundation for research, science and technology, in which I was involved with the data collection and initial analysis of the findings. The objective of the study was to develop an in-depth understanding of international tourist decision-making processes, with emphasis on understanding itinerary, activity and expenditure choices.
One of the key findings was that social networks are to play a vital role in tourism marketing. The report emphasised that while international tourists exhibit some locked in behaviour such as transport choice, accommodation selection and length of stay, all of which are generally organised prior to arrival in NZ, there are many decisions which remain open, such as choice of activities and daily purchasing decisions.
I would add that not only does social media act to inform, persuade and reinforce decisions while international tourists are travelling in New Zealand, but the expanded web and social presence means that through the tourist process of utilising review and other social mediums, your products and services may be accessed prior to arrival in New Zealand, becoming booked before arrival or at least, included in the decision set to be confirmed once in the country.

PHD FINDINGS (to date)
Although only half way through the research, there are some notable key trends in relation to the international visitors use of social media networks:

• 65% visited review sites before travelling to NZ
• 35% searched microblogging sites before visiting NZ
• 67% post comments on a regular basis on a at least one social network site as they travel
• 67% stated that they were more likely to complain about a negative aspect of their trip via online mediums vs. directly with the business
• 54% used review and social network sites while travelling in NZ to either investigate there activity and accommodation options or to reduce their decision set.

The proliferation of content and social media means that technology holds the key. Many small to medium sized operators may have access to some of the free tools, but the lack of knowledge and experience to know what to do with these tools and the data they mine. These businesses need assistance to get the most out of network reporting software.

See the next article in this series by Steve Wilson “Social Media Monitoring“

Social media is global, real‐time, uncontrollable and dynamic. And every company has to face the fact that customers are talking online. Maybe they’re discussing and solving a product issue you don’t even know about yet, or whether to buy from you or your competition.

Social Media Phenomenon
The era when business could shape what gets written about them seems to be over at least in the online domain due to the voice available to a common person at a very nominal cost. Social software is changing the way information gets reported online. Almost anyone with an inclination to write and with access to internet connection can potentially get their message across. Social media continues to grow in importance. It has not only become one of the critical tools to interact with the customer but is also considered on the key elements impacting organic search and ranking for all business. Hotels and tourist operations that take advantage of these trends are seeing significant benefits in terms of online placement and revenue.

It’s already affecting a range of business firms, from software, to hotels and restaurants, manufacturing or hardware, to name just a few. This new trend has all the signs of being durable and requires serious thinking on the part of businesses, as to how to handle it. Gathering customer feedback online is going to become important and some firms are already doing it, either through mining the net or through their own official blogs. Not only gathering data is going to be important but also being proactive about the issues the data might throw up.

Companies that do not watch the ‘social software spectrum’ are actually missing out on market intelligence and other behavioural and trend information, which is pertinent to their marketing strategies and is freely available.

Hospitality and tourism operators find the issue of critical importance for the following reasons:

• hospitality and tourism product offerings, as intangible goods, cannot be evaluated before their consumption, thus elevating the importance of interpersonal influence;
• many hospitality and tourism products are seen as high risk purchases, for which the emotional risk or reference group evaluation is an important aspect of the decision making process;
• hospitality and tourism products are both seasonal and perishable, raising marketing stress levels for providers;
• the hospitality and tourism industry is intensely competitive, suggesting that the use of online interpersonal influence may provide important competitive advantages for early adopters;
• and finally, considering the dearth of hospitality and tourism industry specific literature related to the issue, it would appear that the industry lags behind others in the development and discussion of strategies for managing interpersonal influence in an electronic environment. An increasing number of companies are already putting the mechanisms in place to monitor the web and it may be prudent for many others to follow the same course.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS GAME CHANGING

It’s game changing because it is shifting the power to define and control a brand from the traditional institution to the individual or community. With each day that goes by, the ownership of all brands is gradually becoming the domain of the user.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT JUST ANOTHER MEDIA

Social media is not like other forms of traditional media. Traditional nodes of communication travel one-way, usually between the brand and its customers or potential users. Social media bonds networks of people with a digital medium enabling them to interact with the content. Brand messages are personally interpreted, shared and conversed between friends and people who’ve been given permission to enter into discussions about common interests.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS MORE THAN BLOGS

Social media is defined by the act of sharing content in and between social networks regardless of the content type. Blogs may have recently attracted mainstream interest to online networks but various social media have been around for years. In the beginning, there were discussion forums and opinion sites, and now it has morphed to include: video sharing, photo sharing and microblogging. Social network sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter are driving the social nature of the medium, along with the key review sites, such as Tripadvisor, Expedia, Hotels.com and Kayak.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS DECENTRALISED AND REAL TIME

Users of social media share a lot more than just their opinion. Those who enter the social media domain have left behind a lot of clues about who they are and how they think via information found in social bookmarks, comments, engagement, influence, friends, followers, downloads, favourites, views, votes and links. From all of these user actions, you can measure what’s important, what ideas are gaining ground and who, or what, is having the biggest impact on your products, services and brands.

SOCIAL COMPONENTS DRIVE BUSINESS RESULTS

• By monitoring social media, companies can track how their messages are being interpreted in the marketplace to understand how the company is perceived and to learn how any responses or message changes should be approached. This will also provide valuable insight into potential threats from competitors, changing industry trends and customer preferences. Monitoring also enables companies to track the evolution of known trends in order to quantify the ones gaining the most attention and acceptance within their target audience.
• Measurement provides the qualitative reporting data on the specific issues and buzz driving media coverage making it easy to demonstrate the impact of PR and marketing efforts.
• But social media also calls for a discovery approach, in which companies learn what influences are driving the internet discussions in the marketplace. From this, companies can measure the growth of many emerging trends and identify ideas for new products and opportunities to improve their current ones.
• With this knowledge, and the data points to support the decisions, companies can improve their levels of engagement with customers by employing new marketing tactics to participate effectively in the conversations that are occurring around them. Working with customers to build and expand the brands together, companies can harness the new influence that is driving the way purchase decisions are being made today.

See the Next Article in this series by Steve Wilson – “Online Reviews and Bookings“

A lot of the time you will never know about these conversations….well not quite, fortunately there’s now a growing number of these conversations happening online.  Social networking sites, travel review sites and blogs are all ways people are now sharing their experiences with others in a much more public and accessible way.

Many tourism operators are very nervous about this, but I say it’s an opportunity – to be part of the conversation.  It’s an opportunity because you have the ability to respond, whether it’s a thank you or an explanation to resolve a situation that has been remedied, then you can have your say.

But how do you find out about these “conversations”?  There are a number of ways and you won’t find them all, or have time to, but if you participate in a few simple ways you can at least find the one’s that will get the most exposure on mainstream websites, so here are some tips to help:

• Set up and guide your customers to your own social media pages to make comments, this is your best approach.  Have your own Twitter and Facebook pages that are promoted on your website for people to connect to, view and share their experiences on.  Encourage them to comment, share their photos and recommendations.  Overwhelmingly, if you have positive content on your own pages then this will overshadow any “glitches” where negative comments may have been made.
• Embrace the key travel review sites and promote your listings with them on your website where you can place their logos and website “widgets” (like Tripadvisor, Rankers and Virtual Tourist) and link to read your reviews.  You can see a bit more about this topic in an article I published in August 2009, “Tourism Operators: Make Traveller Reviews Part of Your Marketing Strategy“
• Do online searches for “mention” of your business name – you can google it or do this on sites like Twitter, Technorati and Social Mention.

Of course, if you are confident of your business delivery and service then you may not be bothered to do all of this, but then you’d be missing out on some great conversations!

For those of you not yet using Twitter here are some reasons why you should consider starting:

• It’s FREE.
• Once you’ve established a good network of followers it’s a very easy way to share information and communicate online.
• You can use it to help build awareness of your business and drive traffic to your website without being a salesperson, it’s more about relationships than sales but the end result is positive online presence.
• It’s a perfect tool for “viral marketing” where the people you connect with can help you to spread the word with very little effort.
• You can use Twitter Lists to group followers into different categories for viewing their updates e.g. customers/travellers, tourism industry, media etc.
• There are ways to automate feeding your Twitter updates into your website and other social media pages like Facebook and LinkedIn.

So if you think it may be time to jump into Twitter then have a look at this article I wrote about Getting Started on Twitter for Business.  I encourage you to come and try it out for yourself.  You can also look at this Interview with Tim Cossar on TV’s ASB Business about the “Tourism Sector Looks to Social Networking.”

For those of you already using Twitter let us know how it’s working for you – got any tips, successes or failures to share?

Immersing yourself in social media marketing activity surrounding the rugby world cup could be one way to connect to travellers coming to New Zealand for the rugby to give your business or destination exposure to all rugby supporters worldwide.  Having a strategy and a presence on social media for Rugby World Cup content needs to start now.

The official NZ Rugby World Cup has it’s own website, plus social media sites include Facebook, YouTube Channel and Twitter.   Your tourism business or organisation can be active on these Facebook and Twitter sites, monitoring the comments and questions, using these pages to be part of the conversation for the tourism experiences you can offer and attracting relevant traffic to your own website or social media pages.

One example is Rugby World Cup on Twitter (@rugbyworldcup) uses twitter stream hashtags like “#rugby” on twitter their comments.  You can use the same #rugby in Twitter tweets to appear on this stream of updates.  Different updates may include special rugby packages and special offers for Twitter users.

Also see this other blog post Does Your Tourism Website Work on a Mobile Device? and how they can be used for targeting RWC FIT Travellers.