The Tourism Tech Corner will shine a light on technology and how it affects the world of tourism. The primary objective is to show how using interactive social media can help your website become more service-oriented and more valuable to your customers.
Follow some of our social media initiatives at our Follow Us page.
There are plenty of people who still dismiss social media as useless. In fact, there are studies that show that 40% of all ‘tweets’ are pointless babble. Even though that may be true, that doesn’t diminish the power and usefulness of social media in marketing and PR today. There will always be people who don’t understand new technologies and how they can be useful, and social media is no exception. The video below has been circulating online in the past couple of weeks and it does a fantastic job of highlighting how much a part of our lives social media has become. No longer can you ignore social media, in fact, in a recent survey of Indiana Tourism entities, nearly 30% of respondents use Twitter on to promote their destination and more than 90% use Facebook.
My favorite quote in the entire presentation is:
Social Media isn’t a fad – it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.
That’s such a true statement. Social Media isn’t just a way to waste time and talk with friends about useless bits of trivia, it’s truly a new way to communicate directly with consumers, with your customers.
Some other encouraging news for the use of social media is that more 80% of US adults use social media on a monthly basis. For more information about the different types of social media use check out theseposts on Groundswell):
The video below is the precursor to the other video in this post. While this one doesn’t focus on social media exclusively, there is still some pretty amazing information in here.
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If you’ve attended any of the conferences or sessions that Indiana Office of Tourism Development has recently hosted, you’ve probably noticed that we’ve been talking a lot about online and social media marketing.
2009 June Tourism Council: We hosted a panel (featuring Jen Perry, Bruce Hetrick, Erik Johnson and John Palmer) about Marketing in a Recession that talked about different social media initiatives to get you through in this tough economic climate.
2009 Meet The Media: This event occurred just a few weeks ago. We had sessions about Social Media from Erik Deckers and Duncan Alney as well as a Twitter session from James Burnes and an Indiana Insider Bloggers Panel that featured each of our Indiana Insider bloggers.
We’re choosing to focus on web-based and social media marketing so much because it is such an important part of an effective marketing mix, especially in today’s economy. All of these sessions and conferences provide a great opportunity to hear directly from some of the smartest minds in online and social media marketing, but what do you do between sessions? Who should you pay attention to? Who should you go to with questions about online marketing?
In addition to the Tourism Tech Corner, we’ve compiled a short list of other great resources for social media and technology questions. Several of them are even located here in Indiana. Here are some of my favorite blogs to follow as well an excerpt from each:
People often ask about the ROI of social media and blogging. Kyle Lacy likens many social media campaigns to brand awareness campaigns in traditional media like print and TV. While it may be difficult to track dollar for dollar ROI, social media is immensely valuable for brand development:
Social Media is amazing for brand development. Hands down one of the best tools you could use to further your name in a community.Kyle Lacy, Social Media – Indianapolis, Jan 2009
Kyle goes on to mention that companies like Compendium Blogware focus their initiatives on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and easily attributible ROI. In the end, you should focus on the social media initiatives that help you to achieve your organizational goals. If you’re looking for hard ROI numbers, there are efforts out there for you to participate in. If your goals are more focused on brand awareness and mindshare, there are other initiatives to work on.
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Regardless of how you define the word ‘recession’, we’re definitely in a down economy. Local, State and Federal governments are taking in less tax money than expected, many businesses are losing money, budgets are being slashed across the board (especially in marketing and advertising) and many consumers are pinching every penny they can. While this all sounds very ‘doom and gloom’, it doesn’t have to be. There are effective ways to market to your customers, even in a slow economy like the one we’re in now.
I’ve been reading articles just about every day that talk about the opportunities that have arisen because of the slowdown in the economy and here are seven trends I’ve noticed (in no particular order):
Email Marketing
Permission-based email blasts are still a great way to keep your consumers up-t0-date on things going on with your company. Unlike direct mail pieces, your consumers have requested to receive information from you via email. That gives you the opportunity to give your consumers what they want.
Web Analytics Integration
There are several web analytics suites available, but whichever suite you decide to use, you should use one. Google Analytics is a good free option. I’ve found that one of the most useful features of Google Analytics it the ability to find out which search terms people used to find your site. That knowledge can help you better optimize your website’s content or assist in the creation of a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaign to push more traffic to your site.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
While there are many companies that specialize in SEO you can do some basic optimization on your own. Focus on keywords that relate to your business. If the copy on your website hasn’t been rewritten in a few years or even a few months, it’s probably time to put up some new copy. This will help the search engines find your site when users search for those keywords.
Blogging
In addition to enabling you to get information out quickly and informally, blogging can also be good for SEO (see above). If you use your organization’s blog strategically, by using key words and focusing on specific topics, you can come to be seen as an authority in your field. Search engines love blogs because content is created frequently and is stored forever. Unlike a website where you change out the content on a page a few times a year, every time you create a new blog post, all the old posts are still there, continuing to be indexed by the search engines.
Social Media engagement
In the same way that blogging is good for SEO, social media can be as well. By getting involved on different social media sites, your name gets out there more and, in addition to delivering information to your consumers in a new way, people will be able to find you in more places using search engines. (Click on the image on the right, you’ll notice that when I searched for “visit indiana” in google, our webpage came up, but so did our twitter page and our Visit Indiana blog. Those are two more opportunities for people to find us.)
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search engine marketing is a relatively inexpensive way to drive more traffic to your site. If you are working to optimize the content on your website for search engines and engaged in blogging and social media, you’re in a great place. But if you want to supplement that work with paid search listings, SEM is for you. I know that the Columbus Area CVB uses paid search and it’s also a part of our ongoing marketing plan as well. This summer, our office launched Live Indiana for our summer promotion. During the promotion, we targeted consumers we don’t typically target – specifically, motorcycle enthusiasts. Since we did not have a wealth of motorcycle content on our website, we purchased motorcycle related keywords in Google and Yahoo and were able to drive traffic to our Live Indiana motorcycle promotion through SEM.
Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising, especially on sites like Facebook is another way to stretch just a few dollars a very long way. Facebook allows you to advertiser either a group or fan page on Facebook or an outside website. I created a mock-up ad we might have used for the motorcycles portion of Live Indiana this summer. I was able to target about 30,000 adults 18+ in Indiana and the surrounding states who have an interest in motorcycles and motorcycle riding. You can also dig down much deeper to target more specifically. You can also run your campaign based on ad views or on click-throughs. (click on the image for a larger version)
Columbus Area CVB launched a campaign in October called Chicks Click Here. The campaign features a website, blog and a Facebook group – Unforgettable Women. Cindy from the CVB will put up a post with more details about the campaign, but for just about $25 a month, they’ve run a pay-per-click campaign on Facebook and have been able to attract women from as far away as San Diego, Boston, Florida and everywhere in between, to join them in the Unforgettable Women group.
Many of us will experience budget cuts in the year to come, but by thinking strategically and investing some time and effort, you can stretch those limited marketing dollars in ways you haven’t stretched them before.
Have you already implemented some of these marketing tactics? If so, what results have you seen? If not, do you think you will look to internet advertising more over the next year?
Be sure to Bookmark the new Visit Indiana Blog. If you’ve already subscribed to the blog through our RSS feed or via Email, you don’t need to worry, you’ll keep receiving updates like you always have. If you’re not yet a subscriber, you can get updates sent to you via RSS or Email.
I just finished reading Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies and I can’t say enough good things about the book. Not only does it give you a great insight into the world of social media, but it gives case study upon case study about how organizations have successfully integrated different social media initiatives to varying degrees of success.
I mentioned in an earlier post about Groundswell that this book is a must-read for anyone thinking about getting involved in the groundswell, but after reading the book cover to cover, I think this should be required reading for just about every organization. We’re quickly headed in a direction that will essentially require you to be involved in the groundswell for your business. A great example given in the book mentioned that if you visited a website in 1995 and it had one header image and some text, that was pretty commonplace. If you visited that same website now, they’d be far behind the times. This is likely to be true in the not-too-distant future with groundswell technologies. If you visit a website in 5 years that doesn’t have social technologies integrated into it, they’ll seem woefully out of date.
There’s no need to fret, and you don’t have to be worried that your website is currently obsolete, you just need to read Groundswell andbegin implementingsome of their suggestions. If you have any questions about how your organization could begin to dip their toe into the groundswell, please feel free to ask me.
A great place to start for most tourism organizations is with Google Alerts (TTC Blog Post) and Flickr (TTC Blog Post). The Google Alerts allow you to listen to what people are saying about you and Flickr allows you to put your best foot forward and show everyone what your location is really all about.
On a personal note, I hope that everyone has a wonderful Holiday season and a Happy New Year. I’ll return in 2009 with more Tourism Tech Corner posts and more information that can help you more forward in your business. If you have any questions or recommendations for Tourism Tech Corner post topics, either leave me a note in the comments below or shoot me an email.
Be sure to Bookmark the new Visit Indiana Blog. If you’ve already subscribed to the blog through our RSS feed or via Email, you don’t need to worry, you’ll keep receiving updates like you always have. If you’re not yet a subscriber, you can get updates sent to you via RSS or Email.
I wrote a post about DMOs and attractions across the state who are blogging, but here are a few who are involved in other social media initiatives. I’m sure that I missed several entities, but here are some good examples of organizations who have moved beyond blogging and are participating in other Web 2.0 initiatives.
Other Social Media Initiatives:
Hamilton County – They have recently launched their own Video Magazine. This is another great use of new technology. Web 2.0 is all about taking advantage of new social media and broadband penetration.
Lake County – Like Hamilton County, Lake County has several podcasts and other videos on their site. Be sure to post the videos to your YouTube account too!
Lawrence County – Lawrence County has a Flickr account where they share some great photos.
Columbus Cell Phone Tour – This is a great innovation and a way to work with a pervasive technology (the cell phone) in a new and interactive way.
Madison Cell Phone Tour – Similar to Columbus’ cell phone tour, Madison now has one as well.
Madison Podcasts – Madison has some great video podcasts on their site now.
Holiday World – Holiday World is on Twitter now, follow them (@HolidayWorld).
Below is a list of the places where you can find Indiana Tourism involved in Social Media. Join our Facebook Fan page and add some of your photos to our Flickr Group!
Be sure to Bookmark the new Visit Indiana Blog. If you’ve already subscribed to the blog through our RSS feed or via Email, you don’t need to worry, you’ll keep receiving updates like you always have. If you’re not yet a subscriber, you can get updates sent to you via RSS or Email.
You really should watch this Motrin ad before reading the post, but here’s a brief synopsis if you choose not to.
The ad targets moms, especially moms who use baby carriers to hold their young ones. It mentions that all different types of baby carriers seem to be in style now, and although they’re supposed to be good for the baby, they’re hard on mom’s back, neck and shoulders. In the end, the mom in the ad says that the pain is alright, because “it’s a good kind of pain – it’s for my kid.” Plus, she states “it totally makes me feel like an official mom.”
Motrin launched the ad above at the end of September, but a little over a week ago (on Nov. 15th) the ad was picked up by some bloggers and all hell broke loose. The very next day (Nov. 16th) Motrin yanked the ad and responded with an apology on their website. (see this timeline for the details of how the story broke)
The comments about the story ranged from support and understanding of Motrin’s goals to anger and frustration at the tone of the ad. Some felt Motrin connected with them about a deeply personal issue – their infants. Others were insensed that Motrin would insinuate that baby carriers were simply a style statement. Others commented that if you properly wear a baby carrier, it won’t hurt your back, neck or shoulders. Here are some examples of comments that surfaced on Twitter on the 16th. Pay attention to the last comment, it sums up how social media can be used to your benefit:
Just think about that last comment for a minute. There were thousands of people contributing comments about one ad campaign. Think about the possibilities if you could harness the knowledge and opinions of that vocal minority. Social media allows you to do just that. While this campaign turned out to be a bit of a PR mess for Motrin, they’ve been able to identify thousands of people who they could use as they begin working on a new campaign. They can leverage this groundswell of consumers to float slogans or ad concepts by and get feedback BEFORE causing another Motrin-gate ’scandal’. Read the rest of this entry »
As I spend time online each day at work, I’ve been looking into the different DMOs here in Indiana who have already started blogging. Check out these great examples of Hoosier DMOs who are already blogging!
If I missed anyone, please let me know and I’ll add them to the list.
CVBs:
Grant County – Get some great tips about things to do in and around Grant County (home of my Alma Mater, Taylor U). You can even subscribe to their RSS feed (See the TTC RSS post for more info about RSS)
ICVA – Indianapolis does a great job with their blogs. Not only do they write their own internally, but they also act as a blogging aggregator by pulling in blogs from all across the city about a range of topics.
Bloomington – Bloomington has several regularly-updated blogs that talk about all things Bloomington!
Elkhart County – This is an example of a blog like the Visit Indiana blog. It’s housed at Blogger, so it’s absolutely free and a great way to break into blogging. This would be an example of a site where you might want to use a FeedBurner RSS feed.
Spencer County – Spencer County has been blogging since July 2006!
Indiana Beach – I’ve also mentioned Indiana Beach’s blog before. It’s a great example of an attraction taking advantage of blogging to reach out to their members. I think that if they put an RSS Feed option on the blog, they might be able to grab a few more readers.
Think Lincoln! – This blog details the “Lincoln Journey of Remembrance” – a riverboat ride down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers taken this summer.
Be sure to Bookmark the new Visit Indiana Blog. If you’ve already subscribed to the blog through our RSS feed or via Email, you don’t need to worry, you’ll keep receiving updates like you always have. If you’re not yet a subscriber, you can get updates sent to you via RSS or Email.
My brother gave me a great gift for my birthday this year. He gave me Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologiesby Forrester Researchers Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. I first heard about the book back in April at TIA’s TravelCom 2008 conference in Chicago. Charlene Li was one of the speakers and her session was titled: Welcome to 2013: The Changes in Technology and Consumers that Will Affect Your Business.
Her session was one of the most enlightening at the conference and it really lit a fire in me to begin working on more social media initiatives or the “groundswell” as she calls it.
This is a book that is a must-read for anyone thinking about getting into social media, and that should be every single one of you.
Not only does the book do a great job of explaining what the groundswell is, but it also gives you a breakdown of several different “groundswell technologies” – many of which I talk about here on the Tourism Tech Corner – including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, RSS, blogs, wikis and more.
One other benefit of the book is that, as Forrester Research employees, Li and Bernoff include solid numbers in the book that you can bring to your board of directors when you’re intersted in diving into some of these groundswell technologies. It might seem a bit silly to read a book about social media seeing as how it changes so quicky, but Groundswell was published this year, so it’s surprisingly up-to-date. That being said, you can be sure that the groundswell technology penetration percentages have climbed even since the printing of the book. I just read in the book last night that 8% of US online conusmers use RSS, and I just read that Forrester’s newest research puts that number at 11% now.
If you’re not quite ready to put down the money for the book, you can check out a PDF excerpt at the Groundswell website or read (and subscribe to via RSS) the Groundswell Blog. This is a book that won’t disappoint you.
Be sure to Bookmark the new Visit Indiana Blog. If you’ve already subscribed to the blog through our RSS feed or via Email, you don’t need to worry, you’ll keep receiving updates like you always have. If you’re not yet a subscriber, you can get updates sent to you via RSS or Email.
You might look at this image and feel completely overwhelmed at the idea of social media and how you’re going to implement it for your business. Don’t be! Social media can appear overwhelming, but there are easy ways to break into it without breaking the bank. To be honest, this image only shows a tiny sliver of the social media networks online today, but it gives you a good idea of how important social media is now and will be in the very near future. Don’t be intimidated by thinking you need to be involved everywhere right away, know that you can slowly build your social media presence, one network at a time.
One of the best things about social media networks, especially in this slowing economy, is that the vast majority of social networks are free or offer at least some of their services for free. That being said, don’t be lulled into the false assumption that creating a good social media presence will be easy. It CAN be easy, but you have to devote some time to it.
The best way to get your foot in the social media door is to see what others have done. Please take a look at what we’ve done on some of the following social networks:
Even if you’re not quite ready to jump head-first into social media, it’s a good idea to go ahead and create accounts at these sites and some others. The last thing you want is someone who is not associated with your DMO to create an account and create an online presence in your name. If you create your accounts but aren’t ready to start creating content, go ahead and set your profile status to invisible or private. No one will be able to see your accounts until you set them live again, but at least you won’t have a blank page sitting out there and no one else will be able to create that account in your name.
Over the next several months, I’ll be creating posts that will give you a primer on each of the social media sites mentioned above and any others that I come across. The best thing for you to do now is get in there and start experiencing these networks. Create a personal account, play around and have some fun. Get a feel for what these sites are and what they can do, then create an account for your business.
I’ve got one more suggestion for a social network that you, personally should join. It’s called SmallerIndiana and it’s an Indiana-based social network. Created as a place for Indiana’s best and brightest to collaborate, SmallerIndiana has members from throughout the state in countless industries. It’s a great place to become involved. With helpful members, most questions you ask will be answered quickly. So, join SmallerIndiana (and the Visit Indiana group) today! And if you’re interested, there are many active discussions in the SmallerIndiana Forums.
As always, I’d love to see your comments and thoughts about social media. Any benefits you’ve seen, any challenges or fears. Also, please feel free to send me a note or say hi on any of the social networks we’re involved with above.
Be sure to Bookmark the new Visit Indiana Blog. If you’ve already subscribed to the blog through our RSS feed or via Email, you don’t need to worry, you’ll keep receiving updates like you always have. If you’re not yet a subscriber, you can get updates sent to you via RSS or Email.
So, is social media just a fad?
