Why We Love Oyster.com

Oyster V. TripAdvisor, a battle to the death.

Tip of the hat to @davitydave for letting a lot of us know about Oyster.com.  Thanks David.

Its name is Oyster Hotel Reviews (www.oyster.com). Aided by allegations that the popular TripAdvisor (www.tripadvisor.com) has been manipulated and distorted by less-than-objective opinions sent to it by hoteliers and others, Oyster has hired “professionals” — full-time inspectors chosen from journalism students — to visit and report on thousands of the world’s hotels. The reviews posted by those “prel Wofessionals,” it claims, are vastly superior to those submitted by amateur critics (and by the hoteliers out to game the system).  >>Full Story | And Follow-Up

Thoughts// Before we start, if you have read any of Mr. Frommers posts listed above you will quickly realize that this Godfather of Travel is not exactly sold on the wonder that is UGC, particularly when it comes to TripAdvisor.  This post is not about that, we are not here to debate the truthiness of reviews on TripAdvisor, but merely to talk about the new offering from Oyster.com and how it relates to TripAdvisor.

And for the record, we are big fans of TripAdvisor, friends with employees and amazed how much one site has changed the travel planning process.

But, we love Oyster.  Maybe a little too much.

The claim to fame for the site is there staff of full-time, professional travel reviewers.  Men and women who have degrees in Journalism (or a related field) and, apparently, spend all there time traveling from hotel to hotel.

Currently, the site has a limited scope…just hotels…and only hotels in the Caribbean region of the globe.  However, that appears to be expanding to New York and Las Vegas, plus I love the fact that they are just reviewing hotels. Keep it simple (stupid).

Okay, you get the idea.  It is a hotel review site and as any good Travel 2.0 reader knows, we have seen a lot of travel review sites in the last two years, one better than the next (sarcasm intended!).  But what sets Oyster.com apart is the writing, depth and honesty of the reviews.

Or, the content! Yes, content!!

For example, the bottom line review of the National Hotel in Miami:

A moderately priced designer hotel on posh upper Collins Avenue, the National boasts one of the largest, sleekest pools in Miami. But its small, slightly outdated rooms and relaxed, haphazard service doesn’t contend with its super-chic neighbors, the Delano and Sagamore hotels.

And about the staff:

Eager housekeepers and useful concierge, but most staff members are lazy.

Brilliant.

Honest and instantly transparent.  Sure, it is one person’s opinion, but I don’t think I have ever seen a travel review source, book or website, refer to anything as ‘lazy.’  While researching the site for this post, I found myself thinking, finally a review website that tells me what I really want to know about the hotel.

Aside from the written word, the photos for each hotel are spot on.  The site says they take about 100+ for each property and it shows.  Photos of the room, sure, but also photos detailing the shower including cleanliness of the fixtures, in-room menus and the mini-bar.

Now that is detail.

Finally, the site is just beautiful.  Oh, how the use of white space is so underrated.  In this case, I will make a direct comparison with TripAdvisor.

Sorry, but TripAdvisor is filled to the brim with ads and way too much content. Yeah, I said it.  Too much content.  Oyster.com is simple (again, KISS) and so easy to read and navigate.  Again, we probably love it too much.

So that part covers the design and look of the site, but what about the content.   Clearly, Oyster.com is moving away from the idea that UGC should be the primary content on a travel review site.  It is there, but as a second option.  And for many of us in the industry, that has been a question at countless conferences for the last several years.

Where is the breaking point for UGC?  How much UGC do we need?  Are consumers moving away from UGC and looking for ‘expert’ content?

Make no mistake, UGC is here to stay.  That box is not going to be closed back up.  But, I do think that we are seeing the pendulum swing back toward the middle.  Sites such as Oyster and yours truly (VISITDENVER.com) are embracing UGC while re-ordering the importance of the content.

Expert content first, UGC second.

Should UGC be looked at as a supporting element to the expert review?  Verification of the writer’s comments, photos and criticisms, not the primary source of content.  Personally, I want a professional travel writer who has stayed in hundreds, if not thousands of hotels to tell me about the comfort of the bed.  And, if I want Bob from Iowa’s thoughts on the pool, I can seek those out as well.

Oyster.com, my favorite hotel review site.

XOXO

- Troy

Getting the Most Out of Twitter

Taking Twitter beyond just Twitter.com.

After our extremely popular, ‘hey, why aren’t you doing this?’ post on Twitter entitled ‘How the Travel Industry Should Use Twitter,’ a sequel was inevitable.  And frankly, we owed it to you.

The one thing we did not talk about in that previous post is how VISIT DENVER…my day job…is adopting Twitter into it’s social media marketing strategy.  I am sure that fact was not missed by some of our more devoted readers.

‘Okay, he is telling me what to do, but what is VISIT DENVER doing with Twitter?’

Glad you asked.

Just as a side note, the strategy from VISIT DENVER was not included in that original post simply because the post was already pretty long and we certainly don’t want the blog to seem too self-serving.

So, how is VISIT DENVER getting the most out of Twitter?  Let’s start at the beginning.

Where Did We Start

Based on the success of the Twitter campaign that we were experiencing at the Arizona Office of Tourism (previous job) and the campaign that VISIT DENVER launched around our very popular Denver Restaurant Week (@denverrestoweek) promotion, it seemed like a natural fit to start a general VISIT DENVER profile.

However, we knew going into the campaign that we did not want to just post messages, coupons and offers into the stream of information that is Twitter.  We wanted to build off of our current overall campaign, ‘See Denver Like a Local’ or ‘Locals Know Denver,’ and engage the local community on Twitter.

Based upon the brilliant execution of the @travelportland profile from our friends at Travel Portland…credit where credit is due…we knew that Twitter was not only the ideal vehicle to reach the local community, but the community would, in turn, respond.

#Hashtag Everything

After establishing our profile (@iknowdenver) and starting to build our followers, we began to introduce a series of hashtags that would allow us to segregate the tweets that we were receiving.  Similar to the @travelportland #inpdx hashtag, but on a bigger (and more complex) scale.

Here is how we presented it to our followers:

Have a tip? Think you know Denver? Tell us using the Hashtags below.

Tag your tweet with one of our hashtags below and give your local perspective on Denver.

#dnvrarts = Arts & Culture
#dnvrrec = Sports & Recreation
#dnvrdine = Food & Dining
#dnvrgems = Denver Gems

What is a hashtag?
It is a way for users to tag specific tweets in a category. It makes those tweets easier to find on Twitter.

Now, we can begin to segment the tweets into categories, allowing us to manipulate the data into the locations we wanted.

Education

Not to be overlooked, we realized that educating both our followers and potential consumers was going to be key to the success of this endeavor.  So, we established a simple ‘VISIT DENVER on Twitter‘ page explaining the who, what and where about Twitter.

Going Beyond Twitter

We all know that consumers love to find the local opinion when traveling.  Where to go, what to see, how are the locals experiencing their city. At VISIT DENVER, we built an entire campaign around this idea.  We also had a very underutilized section of VISITDENVER.com called ‘Like a Local’ which allowed site users to post tips about what locals do in Denver.

There are a couple of problems with that strategy.  First, VISITDENVER.com does not have enough visitation and critical mass to sustain such a section.  10 or 20 posts over the period of a year and a half is not going to influence anyone to visit the Mile High City.  Secondly, why are we building and maintaining this interface?  Frankly, it was a pain to administer in return for the results produced.

Now, at this point we have the ‘Like a Local’ section and all of these real-time and very informative tweets on Twitter.  Our tweets are stuck in the Twitter universe and the ‘Like a Local’ section is floundering at best.  You see where we are going with this.

Scrap the ‘Like a Local’ section and simply pull the related, local tweets from Twitter into VISITDENVER.com.

The new ‘Like a Local’ section complete with Twitter integration is here.

In this solution, we are using Twitter as the interface and source for the critical mass we were lacking, while, at the same time exposing our non-Twitter site visitors the wealth of knowledge that was being produced on Twitter.

Plus, using the hashtags we created earlier, we can now search and display relevant tweets in relevant categories.

I know, I know, it is great, but I thought of it first.

Yeah, but did it work?

The short answer, yes.

We are building an engaged and helpful network via Twitter for Denver locals, who love to know that their opinion is being seen.  Plus, we have ‘crowd sourced’ these followers for the content.  Now, instead of 3 VISIT DENVER team-members creating tweets, we have 10 or 15 regular contributors to the content feed.  Less work for us, plus they are providing local knowledge (UGC!) that we could never have presented without Twitter.

And based on the statistics, our visitors love the section too.  They are spending more time, looking at more pages and engaging with our content at a deeper level.

Now, do all of our consumers who see this section realize or understand what Twitter is?  No, they don’t.  But, they are seeing real-time, local opinions on Denver…at that point, who cares what crazy, ‘young person’ Web 2.0 application is actually running the section.  They just want answers.

There you have it.  Another way for the travel industry to utilize Twitter beyond simply posting messages using the service.

How else should the travel industry take advantage of the miracle that is Twitter?  We have presented our thoughts, what do you think?  Let us know in the comments.

Random Thoughts: Why You Should Not Ignore The Wikis

As we discussed last week Google City Tours presents yet another challenge to the travel industry and should cause all of us to re-think our place in the travel planning funnel.  That discussion was highlighted by the acknowledgment that for the majority of the industry, content is the still a point of differentiation.  Open source content, breaking out of the walled-garden that is your website, etc, etc.

But where do you start?  First, by not ignoring the wikis.

Whether it is Google City Tours or Offbeat Guides, a lot of these new sites and mashups are looking to open-source locations for content.  RSS feeds, blogs and wikis can provide a wealth of content simply because of open distribution.

For most of us…airline, hotel or CVB…we simply do not have the connections in place to distribute our content far and wide.  Additionally, individually, we are only one piece of the puzzle.  It is not very efficient for a site developer to visit every CVB or DMO site in the country to obtain the same basic info via RSS feed.

Which is where two very important wiki sites come into play…Wikipedia and WikiTravel.  Wikipedia you know and if you have read the Travel 2.0 blog for a bit, you should also be familiar with WikiTravel.

Both present an opportunity to capture and aggregate a large amount of content on a wide variety of locations from a central point.

For the most part, major or popular destinations will likely have complete or near-complete articles covering the basics of visiting that location.  For example, Denver’s WikiTravel article. Part of the beauty of a wiki is that anyone can edit them, so content tends to evolve quickly.

However, as a travel provider you should be checking and verifying that the information presented on these sites is correct and accurate.  Again, a lot of other sites are relying on this content to describe your city and you should know what is being said on these wikis.

Editing a wiki is pretty easy and if you have experience or knowledge in HTML, should come quite naturally.  If not, you should probably recruit a member of your staff with HTML knowledge to guide you through the first couple of edits.

We should also mention that the moderators and editors of wikis take the editing process and content presented quite seriously.  Be transparent, when setting up a profile state your affiliation with your company and do not self-promote your site, visitors guide or product.

You are simply there to help build a reputable database about your destination, not self-promote.

Once the article information about your destination has been reviewed by your organization, you can feel confident knowing that your destination is accurately represented in a variety of locations on and off the web.

Just one more way to control your online presence.

Random Thoughts: Google City Tours

Yeah, Google beat you to it.

Those of you following @travel2dot0 on Twitter got a head start on our regular Travel 2.0 blog readers yesterday with the short tweet about the new Google Labs product dubbed Google City Tours.

RT @wilhelmus New from Google labs: City Tours – DMO’s and travel industry take note… http://cli.gs/7p0b8q

But, 140 characters is just not enough space to convey our wide ranging thoughts on the new offering…so, it felt like a Random Thought was in order.

Honestly, what else would you expect from Google?  The search giant is taking on another ‘challenge’ in daily life, planning trips simply and quickly.  And while the Labs version does have its limitations (some incorrect data, odd pairings and limited scope), it should be seen as yet another warning shot for CVBs and DMOs, let alone the entire travel industry.

As was mentioned on the PhoCusWright Connect blog, this is a pretty good start.

Almost instantly, every itinerary builder on sites from Des Monies to California seem bulky and complex.  The Google City Tour is so elegant, so simple.  Type in a city name…that’s it!

Let’s take that a step further.  As we have seen this week (Travel Trends – Impact of Destination Marketers, Silent Clickers & Social Media), Google is at the top of the travel planning funnel.  Consumers start searching for travel destinations, tickets and schedules on Google.  And this is just another place to start that search.

Plus, unlike you or I, Google answers to no one.  Okay, maybe shareholders, but the answer in that case is always ‘money.’  Anyway, CVBs and DMOs answer to members or political pressure, OTAs answer to advertisers and parent organizations.  Because we, or the travel industry answer to others, we are limited in the amount, depth and transparency of the information we can distribute.

Google, on the other hand, is not.

They can take all the relevant travel content from a specific location (member or not!) and plug it into the City Tour site…and eventually, sell ads around it.

Let’s be honest, any of us could reproduce the technology to create City Tours site, but very few (read: none) of us could recreate the simplicity and content available in the application.

So where does that put us?  Where to we fit in?

I would argue as content providers, which Google is not.  Someone has to provide the basic content that appears in the City Tours site and that is where CVBs, hotels and restaurants come in…providing individual content, rather than the entire offering.

We have talked about an ‘open source’ approach to content for a long time on the Travel 2.0 blog (Random Thoughts: Because we have always done it that way.) and for the most part, the travel industry is trying to reach that point.

However, with continued innovation such as Google City Tours, we might need to get there sooner rather than later.

Travel Trends – Impact of Destination Marketers, Silent Clickers & Social Media

The Role & Impact of Destination Marketers - Just in time for your summer reading, PhoCusWright has released a report examining the role and impact of DMOs.   Described as one of the largest reports on the subject, the study, includes a major consumer study into travelers’ use of DMO resources, a survey of 176 Destination Marketing professionals, 50 in-depth interviews with DMO CEOs/senior marketing staff and an analysis with Compete Inc. into online behavior on 15 benchmark DMO Web sites (at the time of this writing, we’re not able to discern which sites were picked or the criteria used to pick them).  Best practice recommendations covered includes:

• Perennial favorite…how influential are DMOs are in the decision-making process of U.S. travelers?
• When do users contact DMOs in their travel planning and booking process? (The report finds that DMO Web sites and other resources reach an approximately equal proportion of travelers who are still planning and deciding vs. those who have already booked)
• Content – Consumer expectations of DMO sites and their need for “for in-depth, current and complete information on everything from events to hotels, special offers to restaurants.”

http://www.milesmedia.com

Measuring the Impact of Silent Clicks - Yep, we’re still obsessed with engagement and how to measure the effectiveness of digital campaigns; while we’ve written in the past about who clicks on banners, this time we are intrigued by a new Online Publisher’s Association (OPA) report that examines the value of the “Silent Click”, i.e. the impact of branding and online campaigns beyond the click.  While it can be easy to dismiss this as an attempt by the industry to protect a dwindling asset, doing so however  would just be a disservice to a study that examined the visitor behavior across 200 of the most trafficked sites.   Moreover, the results appear to support other similar studies and reflects our own experience running display campaigns, namely, don’t judge a campaign by its clicks.    According to the study, of those visitors who were exposed to display advertising:

• One in five conduct related searches and one in three visit the brands’ sites
• Users spent over 50% more time than the average visitor to these sites and consumed more pages
• Users spent about 10% more money online overall, and significantly more on product categories related to the advertised brands

The full report will be available on Thursday, June 25th at http://www.online-publishers.org

Go See DMO Social Media Research - A few months ago, we encouraged you to participate in a survey conducted by our colleagues at GoSeeTell about the current state of the industry and use of social media by DMOs. The results of the survey were just released and is available from our friends at MilesMedia. Some key findings include:

• The majority of DMOs are using Facebook and Twitter to engage with travelers and state that Twitter has provided them with the most success; conversely, Flickr & YouTube were cited by most as their favorite photo/video tools respectively (no surprises here)

• Building awareness and engaging with consumers are the top two goals for using social media; DMOs reportedly spend 1-5 hours specifically on social media

• Philadelphia, Chicago, Oregon, Columbus, Portland, Arizona and Pennsylvania were cited by our peers as destinations using social media most effectively (We’re honored to be named in that company)

• In a possible sign of the next wave of DMO site evolution, it is notewothy that the overwhelming majority of respondents (75%) think that social media should be integrated to their main site

The full GoSeeTell study is available for download at www.MilesMedia.com

Travel Trends – Google Maps, Twitter, Orlando, Shoofly Pie

Google Maps Hits The Trail – Google is taking it’s popular ‘Street View’ feature off-road and onto the nation’s expansive system of biking and hiking trails.  Which, in a location like Denver, is going to take them a while.

From the article:

Now Google Maps is expanding to biking and hiking trails. A Google employee on a tricycle rides around to snap the same wide-area views.

“Much of the world is inaccessible to the car,” says Daniel Ratner, a Google senior engineer who designed the trike. “We want to get access to places people find important.”

Clearly, for destinations with scenic and popular trails…California, Oregon, Colorado, etc…the introduction of a Trail View feature on some of these routes will help further promote the area to potential visitors.  Although, I am not sure walking a trail via your computer is the same as being there.
http://www.usatoday.com/

Twitter Begins To Roll Out The ‘What’s Next’ – Earlier today Twitter (you remember them, right?) added a ‘Verified’ feature to several key profiles, think celebrities, well-known writers, organizations.  The new ‘Verified’ icon appears at the top of the user’s profile and allows potential friends to verify that they really are following @oprah.  But, before you start emailing Twitter about adding the verified stamp to your organizations account, you should know that Twitter is simply beta testing the feature with a few key profiles…read, celebrities.  However, this is the first step in Twitter’s long rumored plan to create structured categories and accounts for users.  Trust us, the ‘verified business’ account is not far behind.
http://twitter.com/

Orlando Launches a New Promo…Sort Of – Ah, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  The Orlando CVB has recently launched a new campaign entitled ‘67 Days of Smiles’ in which the tourist capital of the world is looking for a couple to ‘experience everything from roller coaster riding to hang gliding, swimming with dolphins, golfing, shopping, spa-ing, gator wrestling, museum exploring, theatre-going and more.‘  Kudos to Orlando for starting this campaign, at the very least they should (hopefully) receive a good amount of UGC for future use.  But something in the promo seems very familiar.
http://www.orlandoinfo.com/67days/

Pennsylvania Takes You on a Journey Across the Keystone State – In true PA / Red Tettemer fashion, the Keystone State has launched another travel campaign that pushes the boundaries of what most think of as a tourism marketing promotion.  I would try to describe it to you, but it is really easier if you watch an episode or two.

From the article:

The 26-minute, four-episode film series features a twenty-something man who follows his heart across Pennsylvania in search of his long-lost, pre-adolescent love, a waitress named Meg who once served him a memorable slice of Shoofly Pie.

Fun, unique, quirky, with some decent, promo-specific music (yeah, they wrote music for the videos) the campaign certainly stands apart from any other tourism promo you will see this summer.  Equally important, the writing and story behind the shorts is interesting…clearly not the first time this agency has produced short video content, and it shows.  While writing a script seems easy, it is clear that experience is needed to produce a quality story such as this one.  Now, will anyone watch?
http://www.mediapost.com/

5 Tools You Need To Tweet

Tweet? This thing does not even have a screen!

A prominent topic at the SATW Conference earlier this week was Twitter.  Not a surprise, that seems to be the topic of a lot of conference sessions…plus Larry King Live.

However, beyond the endless fawning over the darling of the internet, SATW members brought up several good points about Twitter and, frankly, social media in general.

• How much time should I spend on Twitter?
• How can I use the functions of the service effectively?
• Do I have to be at a computer to tweet?

All great points and a great topic for a post on Twitter.  And as Twitter veterans know, one of the benefits of the social site is the wide range of applications that can help you tweet more effectively. Let’s review our favorites.

Tweetbeep
http /tweetbeep.com/

Let’s start our exploration of Twitter by just listening to the conversation happening on a daily basis.  And the best place to start is on Tweetbeep.  Set up keyword alerts for your website URL, topics, locations, hashtags, etc.  Those alerts are then sent to your email address (I know, how Web 1.0) in a nice packaged summary.

The perfect way to determine if the conversation on Twitter is relevant to you.

twhirl
http /www.twhirl.org/

Okay, at this point you are on Twitter and have a profile, some followers and are sending some tweets.  But, constantly checking Twitter online becomes time consuming.  That is where twhirl comes in.  Instead of checking twitter.com, twhirl provides desktop updates that resemble the email notifications from Outlook.

This way, you can see a summary of the tweets without having stop working on other projects.  Perfect for you mulit-taskers.

Download twhirl, following the instructions, enter your Twitter login info and get back to work.

HootSuite
http /hootsuite.com/

Ah, now you are a Twitter addict.  You have multiple profiles, perhaps one for work and one for your personal life.  HootSuite allows you to manage several profiles from one website with the ability to have multiple managers as well.  Update, follow, search, all from the HootSuite application, plus using the Owly URL shortener, you can track and receive statistics on the links you tweet out.

The best part, the service is free and online-based…no download, no cost.  And while HootSuite offers a wide range of services, it works best in conjunction with the Twhirl desktop notification system.

You’ll never miss a tweet again.

UberTwitter
http /ubertwitter.com/

For those of your without an iPhone, the Blackberry is probably your mobile of choice, so how do you stay connected with your followers when you are away from the computer?  Without getting into the history of Twitter (it was originally built for your mobile phone), the most effective mobile app for Twitter and for the Blackberry is UberTwitter.  Sorry, Twitterberry, UberTwitter is just better.

Using your mobile browser on the Blackberry, head to UberTwitter, download the app, add your login info and start mobile tweeting.

It’s like a mini-version of Twitter wherever you go.  Ah, tweeting from the road.

Twitter Grader
http /twitter.grader.com/

At this point, you are tweeting 24/7, sending links via HootSuite and watching new tweets pop-up on your computer.  How do you know if all of this work is, well, working?  That is where Twitter Grader comes in.

Before we go much further, a quick note, Twitter Grader is not the ‘official’ way to measure you success on Twitter.  It is an algorithm developed by the team a Twitter Grader to show you, on a scale of 100, how your account compares to others.

For our purposes, simply use Twitter Grader to monitor your score…the closer you get to 100, the ‘better’ you are doing.  Certainly not a perfect system, but a nice way to measure the effectiveness of your Twitter account.

There you have it, 5 applications that will help you tweet like a pro.

Live from the Low Country! It’s Travel 2.0!

Ah Charleston, so charming.

For those of you following our tweets at @travel2dot0, you know that I am (Troy) currently in the beautiful city of Charleston, South Carolina for the SATW (Society of American Travel Writers) Atlantic and Caribbean chapter meeting.  Speaking on the topic of social media (of course) and how travel writers, CVBs and the general travel industry can learn, work with and thrive in social media.

A huge thanks to Ruth Sykes, the VP of Media Relations and Marketing for the Macon (GA) CVB, who invited yours truly to speak at the conference.  Also, Bob Jenkins and Rick Sylvain, for honoring me with the opportunity to speak to such an influential group.

Next, the staff at the Charleston CVB, kudos on hosting a great conference.

Finally, for those of you who have not visited Charleston, you need to.  Not as famous as the other French Quarter, downtown and historic Charleston is a gem.  I thoroughly enjoy my unfortunately short stay in the downtown area.  Charming, historic…a touch of France and colonial America all in one…seriously, this is not an ad, you should visit.

Okay, on to the presentation.  First, a real privilege to speak with / be on a panel with Chris Elliott from elliott.org.  A true pioneer in embracing social / new media in his work as well as making the risky,  but rewarding jump into ’self-publishing.’  Yes, he is ‘giving’ his writing away.  Ah, open source.

Let’s review some of the highlights from the presentation:

Prezi:

Those of you who know me, know that I dislike PowerPoint and this was the perfect opportunity to test out the anti-PowerPoint service Prezi.  A spectacular leap forward in presentations, easy to create and a visual feast for the audience.  No more bullets, no more flying words and graphics.  Great stuff.

Oy, I am giving away all my secrets…ah well, open source.

Presentation:

One downside of Prezi, for now, is that the presentation cannot be embedded into a blog, for example.  A small price to pay for the service.

You can find the presentation at: Using Social Media to Promote, Communicate & Influence

Oh, and no spell check…dangerous for those who type fast.

3 Things You Must Remember:

If you remember anything else from the speech, remember:

1. Ask yourself if you want to communicate one-on-one with your peers, constituents, readers, etc.
   If the answer is no, then you can stop right now and step out of the social media box.
2. There is no such thing as a social media expert or guru.
   Sorry guys and gals, it is the truth.  Unless your business card reads ‘CEO, Twitter’ you can take ‘Social Media Expert’ off of your profile page.  Social media is something that anyone can do, learn and thrive at…and at the current rate of change, I would challenge anyone who claims to be an ‘expert.’
3. Your social media marketing strategy will be different from your counterparts.
   Twitter is not right for everyone, neither is Facebook.  We all have different goals, different demos and different messages.  Twitter might not work for you.  Don’t be afraid to test and say no to a social media site.  If your friends jumped off a bridge would you follow? Thanks mom.

The 4 Steps:

We went through this section quickly in the presentation, so a recap:

1. Target
   
2. Message
   
3. Tactics
   
4. MeasurementWe talked a little bit about the social media metrics developed by Peter Kim…here are the details, per Peter:
   • Attention
     The amount of traffic to your content for a given period of time.  Similar to the standard web metrics of site visits and page/video views.
   • Participation
     The extent to which users engage with your content in a channel.  Think blog comments, Facebook wall posts, YouTube ratings, or widget interactions.
   • Authority
     Ala Technorati, the inbound links to your content – like trackbacks and inbound links to a blog post or sites linking to a YouTube video.
   • Influence
     The size of the user base subscribed to your content.  For blogs, feed or email subscribers; followers on Twitter or Friendfeed; or fans of your Facebook page.

   And we mentioned some sites that could help you track the social conversation about your brand, subject, etc.:

   • Google Alerts
   • socialmention.com
   • icerocket.com
   • trackur.com
   • tweetbeep.com

Quotes:

And, some of my favorite, oh-so tweetable quotes:

• “Just because it is free, does not mean you should do it.”
• “You have different audiences, why wouldn’t you have different messages.”
• “Talk first, sell second.”

For the full presentation, although let’s face it, without my fantastic combination of comedy and mind-numbing facts the presentation is just not the same online, visit prezi.com: Using Social Media to Promote, Communicate & Influence

Again, thank you to everyone who allowed me to present to the fantastic group.  And to the audience, easily one of the most receptive groups I have presented to.  Thank you for your time today.

Feel free to email, tweet or message me with any questions that did not get answered during the session.

Au revoir Charleston.

Happy Birthday Travel 2.0!

Fire!!

Another year wiser.

Technically, our birthday is on Monday, May 25th…but seeing how it is a holiday and frankly, most of us have already left work early, we thought a quick celebration post today was in order.

• 2 Years
• 419 Posts
• 449 Comments
• 256 Categories
• 366 Tags
• 2,500+ Daily Readers (well, ‘daily’ for us)
• 1,200 Followers via Twitter

Travel 2.0 is officially 2 years old.

Most importantly, a huge thank you to our readers, re-tweeters and fans.  It is a privilege to write, author and contribute to the Travel 2.0 blog as well as be a source of information and inspiration for the travel industry.

We have enjoyed each moment of the past year and are looking forward to a third year of issuing posts and demands to our industry counterparts…in the nicest way possible, of course.

Mo and Troy

Travel Trends – Twares, Women Heart Blogs, There’s More to Maine, Banner Ads, South Carolina v. Columbus

Enough! Enough with all the new twords!

The Good, Bad & Ugly of Twares – Sweet Lincoln’s mullet. Before we go much further, can we put out an official call to the travel industry to stop making up words.  Forget society in general, let’s just start with travel.  Really, United, Twares?  (Twitter + Fares = Twares) Please, Twitter is confusing enough to explain to @oprah, let alone with new Twords popping up all the time.

However, kudos to United for launching the aforementioned (we are not using the word) Twitter fares promotion on Twitter.  As we spoke about earlier in the week (How the Travel Industry Should Use Twitter), how can organizations take advantage of the infrastructure that Twitter has created?

A perfect comparison is the Southwest Ding Desktop app…granted, that was created several years ago, before the miracle that is Twitter came into being…instead of creating an app, promoting it and trying to build an audience for the app via advertising, United used Twitter and it’s community, reach, etc. to essentially run a similar promo.  In this case, with less investment (see $0), less advertising and less risk.  A brilliant use of an existing technology…instead of reinventing the wheel.
http://www.united.com/

Women Heart Blogs – A helpful study on how women use blogs.

From the article:

According to The 2009 Women in Social Media Study by BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners, 64% of women are nearly twice as likely to use blogs than social networking sites as a source of information, 43% for advice and recommendations and 55% for opinion-sharing, while they 75% are 50 percent more likely to turn to social networking sites as a means of keeping in touch with friends and family.

Of the 42 million women engaged in social media weekly:

• 55% of women participate in some form of blogging activity
• 75% participate in social networks such as Facebook or MySpace
• 20% use Twitter
• 45% of survey respondents decided to purchase an item after reading about it on a blog

http://www.mediapost.com/

There’s More to Maine – From our friends in the far northeast, a new campaign from Visit Maine.  Typically, we don’t cover traditional campaign launches, but the connection between the print and website, visitmaine.com,  is quite refined.  Clean, uncluttered and showing the best of Maine…well, I assume the best of Maine, never been there…the homepage is a nice example of directing visitors to the key sections of the site.  The primary callouts acknowledge what the traveling public is looking for in a Maine vacation…Summertime, Cusine (lobster), Lighthouses and Fishing…honestly, what else is there?  Give the visitor what they want and Maine does.
http://www.visitmaine.com/

Banner Ads Are Relevant! – Interesting research that shows the display ad is not quite dead after all.

From the article:

When Internet users were surveyed to find out what actions they took when viewing a display ad on an ad-supported Website, nearly one-third said they clicked on the ad.

http://www.emarketer.com/

South Carolina v. Columbus – From the blog Mengel Musings, a social media smackdown between two friends of the Travel 2.0 blog, South Carolina and Columbus (OH).  The post evaluates the Twitter, Facebook, website and other social media marketing tactics used by the DMO and CVB.  Overall, a nice outsider perspective on the travel industry’s crusade into social media marketing.

From the article:

I’m comparing how two cities are using social media from a travel and tourism perspective. Both have their namesake from Genoa’s most famous navigator and both are home to college football teams I love to hate. Let’s see how Columbus, Ohio and Columbia, South Carolina are cultivating relationships with fans through social media.

If you want to skip right to the finish (spoiler alert!) Columbus wins on an anti-Steve Spurrier technicality.
http://www.amymengel.com/