Social Media for the Travel & Tourism Industry

Social media is quickly becoming a vital tool in the tourism industry as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter are having a dramatic impact on how consumers make their travel decisions. However, many tourism boards and travel related companies are having a difficult time in creating a strategy that integrates social media with their traditional efforts. While social media is an important component to travel promotion, its not a stand-alone tactic but an integral element to a well thought out marketing plan.

Here is a presentation I’m presenting at the 2011 Explore Minnesota Tourism Conference in Nisswa, MN that goes over some of the basics for understanding how social media works and how to interact. It also covers the more important channels as well as key considerations for creating a social media strategy.

Social Media-Explore MN Tourism Conference

View more presentations from Jbsem.

I’ve also included some useful articles you may find useful:

Strategy

A Pragmatic Approach to Social Business
How to Set Up Your Social Media Listening Dashboard
The 8 Success Criteria For Facebook Page Marketing
Five Ways how Companies Organize for Social Media

Case Studies

Florida Tourism Saved by Social Media. Really
Students Promote Tourism in Nevada with Social Media
Social Media Case Study: Six Flags Tournament of Thrills on Facebook

Tools

Google Alerts
Netvibes
Hootsuite
Twitter Search
Bit.ly

Other Resources

Social Media and the Tourism Industry Statistics
Social Business Forecast: 2011 The Year of Integration
Social Media Revolution
Value of a Facebook Fan

Social Media for the Travel Industry

Social media is quickly becoming a vital tool in the tourism industry as sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are having a dramatic impact on how consumers make their travel decisions. However, many tourism boards and travel related companies are having a difficult time in creating a strategy that integrates social media with their traditional and other online activities. While social media is an important component to travel promotion, its not a stand-alone tactic but an integral element to a well thought out marketing plan.

I’ve also included some useful articles you may find useful:

Strategy

A Pragmatic Approach to Social Business

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2011/01/17/process-a-pragmatic-approach-to-social-business/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WebStrategyByJeremiah+%28Web+Strategy+by+Jeremiah%29&utm_content=Netvibes

How to Set Up Your Social Media Listening Dashboard

http://www.risdall.com/listen/RMGSocialMediaListeningDashboard.pdf

The 8 Success Criteria For Facebook Page Marketing

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/category/facebook-strategy/

Five Ways how Companies Organize for Social Media,

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2010/04/15/framework-and-matrix-the-five-ways-companies-organize-for-social-business/

Case Studies

Florida tourism saved by social media. Really.

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/08/27/florida-tourism-saved-by-%E2%80%93-social-media/

Students promote tourism in Nevada with social media
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/dec/17/students-promote-tourism-nevada-social-media/

Social Media Case Study: Six Flags Tournament of Thrills on Facebook

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EFVD-BZx6Q&feature=player_embedded

Other Resources

Social Media and the Tourism Industry Statistics

http://www.stikkymedia.com/articles/social-media-and-the-tourism-industry-statistics

Social Business Forecast: 2011 The Year of Integration

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2010/12/09/slides-social-business-forecast-2011-the-year-of-integration-leweb-keynote/

Social Media Revolution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng

Value of a Facebook Fan

http://www.syncapse.com/media/syncapse-value-of-a-facebook-fan.pdf

July 19, 2010July 19, 2010

Social Media for Entertainers

I’ve been having a great time recently conducting research social media for the entertainment community. But what I realized is there isn’t a great deal of information out there pertaining to this industry, especially as it relates to smaller local entertainers.

I thought that odd as its obviously this is an industry perfectly suited for social networking since entertainment is inherently social. When you see some fantastic performance you automatically want to share it with someone by sharing a picture, website, video, quote, etc. That can’t be said for many industries.

The reason I’ve been researching this is I recently was given the opportunity to speak to a group of local Minnesota artists about social media. The group consisted of a juggler, jazz musician, comedian, hypnotist, magician, Latin band, ventriloquist and a singer. What a diverse and interesting group. I had a blast talking with them. Special thanks to G.L. Berg for inviting me to speak. If ever you need to book an entertainer, they’re the ones to talk to.

Here is the presentation I gave:

Social Media for Entertainers

View more presentations from Jbsem.

In case you’re interested, here are a few resources I found on this subject:

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/social-media-starter-moves-for-entertainers/
http://www.devonvsmith.com/2010/06/the-social-media-bubble/
http://mashable.com/2010/03/12/musicians-social-media/
http://redcubemarketing-blog.com/2010/06/08/case-study-crunch-entertainment-tv-film-music-more/
http://mashable.com/2009/05/26/twitter-comedians/

Social Media for Entertainers

Here is the presentation I gave:

In case you’re interested, here are a few resources I found on this subject:

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/social-media-starter-moves-for-entertainers/

http://www.devonvsmith.com/2010/06/the-social-media-bubble/

http://mashable.com/2010/03/12/musicians-social-media/

http://redcubemarketing-blog.com/2010/06/08/case-study-crunch-entertainment-tv-film-music-more/

June 21, 2010April 4, 2011

Social Intelligence – Utilizing Social Media Data

Its amazing to see how social media has so quickly transformed the marketing world, not to mention the realm of advertising and public relations. We went from talking about how to build a Twitter account a few years ago to now expecting social media to do some heavy lifting.

And much of that heavy lifting is in the form of data collection based on online discussions and engagement. Companies are trying to keep up with these emerging social interactions by monitoring what is being said about them online but can’t seem to grapple with the fire hose of data that is coming at them. Most of them are just trying to make sense of properly engage customers and haven’t quite figured out how to use the information that is coming back at them.

From what I see, most companies, not named Ford or Dell, are still hesitant to really embrace social technologies and aren’t quite convinced of its relevance to their business. Either that, or they haven’t the faintest idea how to craft and implement a strategy that incorporates branding, business lead generation, quality customer service, and consumer insight.

Many companies these days have a social media presence but they aren’t really tying it to their overall business objectives. Its just hanging out there on its own. They throw up a Facebook page or sign up for a Twitter account but don’t really have a strategy on how they engage with people or what type of data they hope to glean out of social interactions.

Without any prompting, customers are openly sharing information that would otherwise have taken months of surveys and focus groups. And they’re doing it for free. This has prompted the growth of a relatively new field called Social Intelligence, which harnesses the insights found within social media data to better understand customers and inform marketing and business strategy.

McKinsey & Company, one of the world’s biggest consulting firms, as just recently partnered with Neilson to provide this service to clients, so you know there must be something do this. (Nielsen Joins Forces With McKinsey For Social Intelligence Consulting)

Social Intelligence is quite an easy concept but one that isn’t being fully utilized by most companies. It involves these three basic steps:

Monitoring social media
Collecting and analyzing the content
Using the insights to inform your strategy

Companies are just beginning to figure out the first two steps but have yet to figure out the third and, what I’d consider to be, the most crucial step. Zach Hofer-Shall, an analyst at Forrester Research recently published an article called Defining Social Intelligence which he encouraged companies to start taking online conversations seriously to better utilize the data coming from their social channels.

I think Zach and Forrester are on to something. Thus, you should be seeing more and more demand for services that link social data to business insights.

Here are some interesting articles I’ve found on the subject:

[facebook_ilike]

May 4, 2010September 17, 2012

So You’re On Twitter & LinkedIn – Now What?

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Presentation for James J. Hill Library

You hear the hubbub about how social media is revolutionizing marketing, sales, retail, healthcare, journalism, etc., and you’ve been receiving an uncomfortable amount of needling from your friends and colleagues to connect with them online. So, hesitantly, and ever-so-cautiously, you dip your toe in the water; you succumb to the professional pressure and create a LinkedIn profile. And perhaps – just to prove that you’re not afraid of technology – you even go so far as to register a Twitter handle.

So why, then, having taken such bold steps in the direction of full web disclosure, do you still feel invisible? Your profiles have yet to generate any new business and you’re not even engaging with your existing clients (that is, if they’ve managed to find you out there). At this point you’re wondering with a good deal of frustration, “what am I missing? how does this social media thing work?”

Social media is a fairly easy concept to grasp if you think about it in terms of a social gathering like a cocktail party. The etiquette you adhere to at a cocktail party is the same etiquette you abide by within social media channels: be yourself (casual, witty, interesting) and above all show interest in who you’re talking to (in other words, don’t talk about yourself too much; ask questions instead!). The difference is that your cocktail party is offline.

The truth is social media isn’t a replacement for the marketing and communication efforts you already have going with your company or yourself. People still do business with people and not with profiles. However, Twitter and LinkedIn are two valuable tools you can use to identify and connect with potential partners, customers and vendors, and get you to that ever-important first meeting. You just have to know how to effectively engage your targeted audience using these social media networks.

As highlighted in the following presentation, one must first understand how to engage people on social channels and then the rest is fairly easy.

So You’re On Twitter & LinkedIn – Now What?

View more presentations from Jason Sem.

April 22, 2010September 17, 2012

Facebook Launches Us Into the Era of Social Colonization

Facebook just announced a very significant development in the world of social media yesterday called the Open Graph. It allows for any and all websites to become social through a simple “Like” button which companies can include on their individual websites. Users will now be able to click on a page, comment, picture or other content to signal their interest in that item and share it with their friends on Facebook.

We are definitely now into the Era of Social Colonization as laid out by Jeremiah Owyang and Forrester Research that predicted that every experience on the web will be social. Even if companies or organization aren’t on any social channels they can still be social using this new functionality. There are now more than 400 million people on Facebook so this move is quite significant in terms of leading the way for other social channels to adopt this mode of sharing.

This bold move by Facebook is also putting it in direct competition with Google in terms of aggregating information on people’s online preferences and behaviors. Facebook will map out connections between people and their interests, gathering more explicit information about users’ favorites in order to deliver personalized experiences as well as provide for better targeting for ads.

It should be very interesting to see how many websites will start including this function on their web pages and content. Facebook said more than 70 partners have signed up to embed “Like” buttons or other customization widgets on their sites, including ticketing site NYTimes.com and CNN.com.

“The Web is at a really important turning point right now,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “Up until recently, the default on the Web has been that most things aren’t social and most things don’t use your real identity.” Facebook, has now launched us over the deep end into this Era of Social Colonization and is driving the increasing relevance of social media for companies and brands.

Articles:

For Developers:

Facebook Plugins

April 13, 2010September 17, 2012

Selling with Social Media

TMA I’ve been honored to speak at the Tour Minnesota Association this spring at the Science Museum of Minnesota on the subject of utilizing social media for the purposes of sales and networking. The event’s theme is “Go for the Gold!” Sell, Sell, Sell!” in response to the recent economic recession. The goal is to help participants improve their networking skills and find new ways to leverage personal contacts to enhance sales efforts.

Social media has definitely become a huge component in helping people network but it should not be seen as a substitute for actual face-to-face networking. There still is no better way to build trust and make sales than a good ‘ol fashion meeting. However, social networking channels such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook can help initiate conversations and get you to that first meeting by replacing a “cold call” with a “warm call.”

Selling with Social Media

View more presentations from Jbsem.

Here are some good resources to better understand social media and networking:

LinkedIn

Twitter

Facebook

Tools

Facebook and Professional Networking

March 19, 2010September 17, 2012

Evolution of Mobile Marketing

smartphones_lg At a recent Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) event, Michael Becker, EVP Business Development iLoop Mobile spoke about the ever increasing importance of mobile marketing.

The value of mobile is found in the convergence of a wide variety of media such as web, television, radio, social, and cinema, and it’s being increasingly used for such things as online banking, digital couponing, rewards programs, sweepstakes, point of sale promotions, customer service, geo location, CRM, mobile enabled advertising and a lot more.

Companies are beginning to realize significant return of investment through mobile marketing and Mr. Becker recommends companies start now in determining how mobile marketing will play a role in their overall business objectives.

Here are some interesting mobile tidbits from the presentation:

There are 4.1 billion mobile subscribers in world; only 1 billion PCs & 1.4 billion TVs
By 2013, 75% of all customer care calls will be initiated from a mobile phone
In the next 5 years, more people will be accessing the Internet thru mobile devices than thru broadband
Voice is no longer the primary communication method on mobile devices; its texting
Over 4 billion text messages get sent every day in the U.S.
Of 235 mobile subscribers in the U.S.; 65% are text messaging, 31% using multimedia messaging, 21% using email, 30% watching video & 21% using mobile web
Smart phones only account for 17% of the mobile market; iPhone only accounts for 3% of this market

MIMA 1.20.2010 – EMBRACING MOBILE MARKETING from Ech03 on Vimeo.

Further Mobile Marketing Resources:

mobile marketing associa

direct marketing association

college of mobile marketing