Groundswell – Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff

Groundswell

My brother gave me a great gift for my birthday this year. He gave me Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by 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.

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The Tourism Tech Corner has a new home!

The Tourism Tech Corner Blog has now moved. Don’t worry, we’re still going to bring you great tips about Social Media, Web Marketing and Technology in the Tourism Industry, we’ll just be doing it at a new location (http://www.in.gov/visitindiana/techcorner/).

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.

Fun with Google Adwords

Technology doesn’t come naturally to me, but I realize that the Internet offers one of the most effective, most targeted and most cost-efficient ways to reach visitors. For about six months, I’ve been buying keywords through Google Adwords for the Columbus Visitors Center.

Google Adwords is an online advertising product that allows you to identify keywords that visitors might be using to find your products when they search on Google.  When a user “googles” your keyword, your short text ad appears on the page with search results. Users can click through to your website.  At this point, your account is charged.

The click-thru rate depends on the popularity of the keyword.  I find that I am paying an average of 0.84 per click.  You can put limits on how much you are willing to spend.  For just a few hundred dollars a month, our ads are getting tens of thousands of impressions.

You can also refine your campaign to a geographic area to keep a more regional focus. I have focused on the Midwest where most of our traffic originates.

I am currently running two campaigns on Google Adwords.  In the first campaign, I have purchased words that are related to modern architecture. Architecture is a niche market so I was excited about the possibilities of reaching out to fans of modern architecture using the internet.  I selected the names of the architects who have buildings in Columbus.  I also picked some generic terms like “modern architecture” and “mid-century modern.”

In the second campaign, I have purchased terms that someone looking for Edinburgh Premium Outlets might use.  The outlet mall is one of our biggest attractions.  Since it’s on the outer edge of our county, many visitors don’t know about all the great things they can do when they are in the community. My campaign featuring Edinburgh Premium Outlets has outperformed my starter campaign.  Here I selected “discount shopping,”  “outlet shopping,” and “Edinburgh.”

There is no limit on the number of keywords you select.  You can always delete and ad words as you wish to make changes.

I have a few tips for folks who want to give this program a try.

1. Think like a visitor. Pretend you know nothing about your destination.  I decided that most visitors probably can’t spell Edinburgh.  Why would it end in an “h”?  So, I signed up for keywords that include “Edinburg.”  Four of my top five best-performing keywords have a variation of Edinburgh that is incorrectly spelled.
2. Fish where the fish are. Remember the competition.  We offer a popular architecture tour.  So, does the Chicago Architecture Foundation.  I added ”Chicago Architecture Foundation” as one of my keywords.
3. Edit, edit, edit. Your ad can only be two lines long with a short headline and your URL. Say what you need to say with small number of potent words.  This requires tremendous discipline and creativity.
4. Be flexible. You can change your ad or your keywords as often as you wish, unlike those print ads that have a long shelf life.   So, mix it up.  Test different messages.  Find out what works.  If you set it and forget it, you’ll be missing out on one of the great advantages Google Adwords offers.

The Tourism Tech Corner has a new home!

The Tourism Tech Corner Blog has now moved. Don’t worry, we’re still going to bring you great tips about Social Media, Web Marketing and Technology in the Tourism Industry, we’ll just be doing it at a new location (http://www.in.gov/visitindiana/techcorner/).

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.

Social Bookmarking

Digg, SumbleUpon, del.icio.us, ma.gnolia, reddit, addthis…What in the world are these websites? You may have heard of one or several of these recently, or you may have no idea what they are. Have no fear, the Tourism Tech Corner is here to help you out.

These are all social bookmarking sites. Have you ever come across a website or an article that you really enjoyed, and wanted to share it with a friend? If you’re like many people, you probably copy and paste the website address into an email and shoot it out to the friends who you think might enjoy the article. This works just fine if you have a small group of friends to share that link with. What happens if you wanted to share that article with more than just that small group of friends? That’s where social bookmarking comes in.

Get the most out of Flickr

I found a great article on how to get the most out of Flickr. Enjoy!

Flickr is a popular online photo-sharing community that allows anyone to share and organize their digital photos with friends, family, colleagues, and the rest of the world. While many people use Flickr recreationally, it can also be a powerful tool for organizations, including nonprofits.

There are many ways that Flickr can help nonprofits share photos online and accomplish their goals. For example:

• An international organization sends volunteer doctors to developing countries around the world to perform medical services. The physicians document the impact of their work through photos that they upload to the organization’s private Flickr group. Not only does Flickr help the volunteers exchange photos and information, it also creates an image bank from which the organization can select photos for its Web site and blog.
• An environmental organization that supports organic farmers had literally thousands of amazing photographs documenting the development of organic farming techniques over the last decade. Before using Flickr, no one had organized or categorized the photos, which were scattered on various hard drives in the office and on volunteers’ computers. The organization uploaded the photos to Flickr and were able to enlist the help of volunteers and members to document the techniques.
• A museum was mounting a special collaborative exhibition with institutions located in five cities around the world. As the group prepared the installation, they used Flickr to share photos with one another, allowing them to see what a “textured plaster” wall finish looked like before approving the contracting work; get a visual reference of the exhibition space when selecting picture frames; and see work completed to date. Flickr provided a way for the collaborators to easily upload and share photos publicly and privately.
• An executive director wanted to use photos to make her points during a presentation, but disliked clip art and lacked the budget for stock photography. Using Flickr’s Creative Commons licensing search feature, she was to find appropriate photos that she could use for free with attribution.
• Volunteers and talented photographers for an animal shelter had taken beautiful photos of some the dogs and cats at their facility. The organization wanted to create special cards featuring the pets that they could use as thank-you notes. Uploading the photos into Flickr, they were able to order cards and other items.

Flickr is a fun, creative, and very useful way to share your organization’s photos and images with other people, whether privately or publicly. It offers an amazing online community, and it is also fairly easy to use. Many nonprofits are discovering that Flickr can be an important part of the organizational communications strategy. Below, we’ll show you what Flickr is, and how your nonprofit can best use it to share photos and connect with others.

How Nonprofits Can Get the Most out of Flickr – Beth Kanter – TechSoup.org

While this article specifically mentions the use of Flickr for nonprofit organizations, these same principals can easily be used by any organization, attraction, or hotel. Click here for the full article

The Tourism Tech Corner has a new home!

The Tourism Tech Corner Blog has now moved. Don’t worry, we’re still going to bring you great tips about Social Media, Web Marketing and Technology in the Tourism Industry, we’ll just be doing it at a new location (http://www.in.gov/visitindiana/techcorner/).

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.