It’ll be years before the victims of this disaster recover, if at all. But, as we can’t unring that bell (or in this case, put the oil back in the pipe), we have to focus on what we can do to facilitate recovery for the lovely coastal towns whose beaches and reputations were stained by this disaster.

If you’ve got marketing dollars, now is the time to spend them.

Your tourism, visitor’s bureau, local or regional website needs to be addressing all the wonderful features of your town and reminding vacationers that you’re still open for business.  If you’ve got local photographers, invite them to submit new photos and then get those photos out through Flickr, Facebook and Twitter.

Build a social media campaign, like this one run by the Jamestown Foundation that encourages past visitors to talk about their vacations and events. If you’ve got a YouTube channel, so much the better. Link to vacation videos that show your sparkling beaches, your lovely shops, your friendly locals and fantastic restaurants. Need some inspiration? Check out Currituck County, North Carolina. Now is an excellent time to invest in a pay-per-click campaign that helps users reconnect with your town or find you for the first time.

Family vacations, reunions, honeymoons and holidays are all still happening. Make sure these people know that good things are still happening at your place, too.

Melissa Baumann is a Search Marketing and Tourism Specialist as well as a seasoned world traveler.

The dynamic marketing team of Currituck County Department of Tourism and Travel recently came away winners at this year’s Destination Marketing Achievement Awards hosted by VisitNC. The awards are designed to recognize the best innovations in tourism marketing for the state, and we’re proud to say that Simple Tourism, the premier tourism SEO and social marketing firm, had a hand in their success. Of special note for Currituck with regards to the Gold and Platinum level awards received for Best Outreach and Best Marketing Initiative were the use of their Outer Banks tourism website and social media networks to communicate with travelers. Simple Tourism has assisted Currituck with a number of these initiatives, which include paid social advertising via Facebook ads, regular monitoring of Twitter and Facebook (now with over 3300 fans on their page!), and more recently mobile accessibility of their website. Vacation planners can now download the free VisitCurrituck app for their phones and plan their itineraries on the go!

We congratulate Currituck County for their hard work and excellence in online marketing, and are happy to be a part of their success.

Not everybody is happy with Facebook right now. Accusations of breach of privacy and disregard for online safety have prompted grassroots protests and mass deletions of accounts on the premise that not only does the social network do nothing to protect user privacy, but actually encourages distribution of information not necessarily meant for everybody’s eyes. If you use Facebook, perhaps you’ve seen viral status messages from friends imploring you to make adjustments to your settings to ensure that the complaint you make about your boss isn’t broadcast to the free world. Reports that some users prefer to delete their profiles altogether may concern other diehard Facebook fans, and as a business with a strong Facebook presence you might wonder if this backlash will affect the way you promote your products and services.

The privacy concerns making the news, naturally, concern users who are wont to share personal information and photographs on their networks. While they believe at first only select friends have access to the data, neglected privacy settings may allow certain (read: embarrassing) information to be found in Internet search. We’ve all heard stories of people getting fired from their jobs or losing out on other opportunities thanks to a slip of the keyboard – an outsider might opine, “Well, don’t post anything you wouldn’t shout into a megaphone,” yet one can argue users and Facebook need to meet halfway on ensuring security measures.

As a business, you want exposure for your Facebook page. Despite the grumbling, Facebook is still one of the most used websites on the Internet – it’s a powerful search engine and marketing tool, and as you amass fans (or people who “like” your page and company, per the new policies) the opportunity to expand your reach grows. If you are concerned about losing fans due to a protest against privacy settings, know that you do have a few options for keeping your page visible and the information available, even to people who don’t use Facebook.

1) Integrate the content into other networks. Feed status updates into your Twitter account to capture that audience, and place a fan box on your main website. If you use Squidoo, there is now an option to embed a fan box in a lens, too. Anywhere you can place your page’s RSS, take the advantage.

2) Keep your page active and visible. Offer as much data on your page to new visitors and those who do not use Facebook. As a business page, you should feel comfortable with the information you post there. Don’t give away any trade secrets, but encourage participation with the content you do provide.

3) Be respectful of current fans. Make sure whoever monitors comments on your page is courteous to posters. Just as the products and services you impart online are available to others, so are bad vibes. If you receive a complaint, be tactful in your response, because that’s what people will see. The impression you make on Facebook coupled with the timeliness of your information will keep people on your page.

How will Facebook fare in the future? Like Google, it may continue to grow and offer amenities we can’t live without, or it could go the way of lesser social networks if and when another player comes along. Whatever the fate for this network, it is still a top used site and as such holds importance in your social optimization. Mind your p’s and q’s on your Wall tab, and you should be fine.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media promotion and Virginia Beach web design. Clients include European hotels, real-time global trade forums, and vendors of pet supplies.

Click for the Yelp profile for CINIVA Systems, Simple Tourism's Parent Company

If you are a business owner of any kind, you understand (and fearfully respect) the power of public opinion. If one customer walks out your door upset, they have the power to run your brand’s name through the dirt through social media. While word-of-mouth advertising can be the best form out there, it can also shed a lot of negative light to your company.

Meet your tourists and travelers half way by making it easy for them to give reviews.

Yelp, an online business rating site, allows people to log on, create accounts and provide a glimpse into a business’s services for other future customers. It is in every tourism and travel business’s interests to take the following steps to help make this process easier for their visitors, even if it brings on less-than-desirable reviews:

1. Create your online profile and fill it out completely.

The last thing you want is another person filling out information about your destination that is not quite right, or misleading in any way. Because other future tourists will view information about your business before even booking their trip, you want to make sure they have all of the correct information coming straight from the destination itself, not other people.

2. Interact often by commenting and posting specials.

If people are showing your attraction or business love, spread that love. People shouldn’t go onto review sites expecting to be rewarded, but if you are running any existing promotions or contests, by no means should you exclude your Yelp profile from getting that information out. Again, Yelp is a place people can check your business out before leaving their homes, so make sure they have a reason to come out to your place. If people are responding negatively to your destination on your Yelp profile, do not delete their comments. Instead, respond promptly and proactively to help them reach a  resolution. Others will see how helpful you are in resolving a situation, and it may work in your favor.

3. Incorporate Yelp into your social media strategy.

Just like tourism and travel businesses have social media strategies on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more, Yelp should be just as important. Each time you get a good review, blog or post it to Facebook. Tweet the link to your profile on Yelp, and post it on your Web site. Your future tourists will be impressed that you encourage your guests to leave comments openly and unfiltered for all the world to see. This will show confidence from you about your products and services, and give people a better reason to check out your destination.

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer specializing in articles about SEO for travel Web sites, European hotel booking,  and professional social media services.

People crave their social media networks.

Facebook and Twitter are no longer just Web sites, but verbs used to describe online activity. We are a culture that is tuned in and connected to each other easier than ever.

However, have you ever stopped to realize just how dependent we are becoming to social media?

The wonderful people at eMarketer have recorded these numbers for us, which reveal some valuable information for destination marketing to 20-year-olds.

As soon as people under 25 years old wake up, 31% of them are checking and updating Facebook and/or Twitter. This is significant, meaning that the first priority of these people in the morning before they do anything else is tuning in to find out what happened over night.

How can you use this in tourism and destination marketing? Easy.

• Make sure you aren’t forgetting your 20-something and college-aged audiences when advertising and marketing your destination
• Find unique ways to draw in their attention with words like “affordable” “group rates” and “make unforgettable memories”
• Seek out this age group on Facebook by searching for interests or fan pages. Then, bring them information they want to see about your destination.
• Post to your Facebook pages and Twitter feeds over night, so when this age group is catching up on what they missed over night, they will find your posting

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer specializing in articles about SEO for travel Web sites, European hotel booking,  and professional social media services.

If you were going to bake a Boston creme pie, you wouldn’t just start mixing ingredients together. You’d have a recipe.

Seeing a trend? Most successful ventures in life generally start with a plan. Unfortunately, most who decide to use social media for marketing tourism and travel forgo necessary goal-setting and strategy. This typically leads them to wonder what they are doing wrong on sites like Facebook and Twitter when they don’t have as many followers or fans as they would desire.

Having a strong presence on Facebook and Twitter doesn’t “just happen” overnight. However, through the careful planning and interacting on these networks (and others), you can drive traffic to your destination.

First thing’s first: Set your goals.

This is probably the most valuable takeaway from your plan. If you are aimlessly wandering into the world of Facebook and Twitter just because every one else is, you will have no way to measure your success because you won’t know what “success” is. What specifically do you want out of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube? Increased sales of at least 25%? More inbound traffic to your CVB’s homepage? Be specific. Also, what’s more important: 1,000 fans or more hotel bookings? Decide this early on so you can determine what true social media success is.

Secondly: Know thy tourist.

You should have at least a general idea of who your audience is. The more specific, the better. This will help determine what networks you should participate in. For example, if your target audience is older than 45 or 50, MySpace is probably not the best network to join. Also, if you deal with niche audiences such as mothers, sports lovers or busines travelers, there are specific niche social networks that you can join to help attract those groups.

Facebook seems to be a catch-all social network for most demographics, but knowing your audience will help develop strategies within Facebook that best targets your future tourists. Facebook marketing strategies range from paid advertising to fan pages and groups.

Third: Give them something to talk about.

This is the part that most jump into right off the bat, but it’s only after careful planning you enter this phase. Even after you begin this step of your master plan, you still need to know how to talk and what to talk about. For example: What are you going to do if someone negatively bashes your destination or staff? Respond openly or privately? Who is going to be the person updating your status everyday and does that person have a clear understanding of your online branding efforts? How much time daily are you going to commit to each social media account?

Also, remember conversation is two-fold. Don’t just talk. Listen, then listen harder. Go beyond comments written on your wall and find out what your fans are interested in on their own profile page. Learn what they like and don’t like and apply that to what you can do better.

Finally: Measure your efforts

Each month, measure your growth. Are you meeting your goals? Can you make better use of your time on Facebook and Twitter? Use tracking software and analytics to gauge where your traffic is coming from and learn from these reports.

Keep comparing your goals month after month and continue to improve on your efforts.

Social media isn’t easy just because everyone does it these days. Creating a successful social media campaign means work and much time invested. However, if proper steps are taken in the set up and planning stages of your social media marketing plan, you will lay the ground work for destination marketing success.

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer specializing in articles about SEO for travel Web sites, European hotel booking,  and professional social media services.

]]> http://www.simpletourism.com/2010/03/creating-a-social-media-plan-for-tourism-marketing/feed/ 0 http://www.simpletourism.com/2010/03/spread-the-tourism-love-make-it-viral/ http://www.simpletourism.com/2010/03/spread-the-tourism-love-make-it-viral/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:34:18 +0000 admin http://www.simpletourism.com/?p=952

In the social media world, the golden ticket comes in the form of the word “viral.”

Yes, there is a reason it sounds like “virus.” It spreads. Contaminates. Goes from one person to the next and stays for a while. It’s the “Charlie Bit Me” video on YouTube and the FarmVille application on Facebook, and it’s every marketers dream to make these lasting impressions on their audience.

But can you make a destination viral? With a well thought-out strategy and a little bit of creativity, the sky is the limit on your destination marketing efforts. To make your travel spot become the next most talked-about place online, don’t just start the conversation, but give people a reason to keep talking. But don’t stop there. Encourage your visitors to create content for you.

The beauty of social media is the ability to create and share content in minutes. This can be in the form of writing blog articles, snapping a few photos or rolling a quick video. Put into perspective, any way someone can share about his or her experience at a certain place can be on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube in a matter of minutes. This can be good feedback or not-so-good reviews.

Some may think that’s terrifying, but it’s actually good news. The idea is to put as much good publicity and buzz about your destination as possible on the Web, so in the off chance that someone didn’t like their stay, or the food was too cold, there are enough people raving about great service, good times and lasting memories that they will actually vouch for your destination’s appeal.

You may choose your level of involvement in aiding your tourists promote your destination, from telling them to become a fan on Facebook to literally handing out video cameras and asking them to shoot 20 second videos for you to upload to your YouTube channel. Replace the guestbook with a computer and a WordPress blog to tell users to go online and post their reviews and upload a quick picture before leaving. Invite your foodie tourists to write guest blog posts about your cuisine, and give your tourists login information to your Flickr account.

Social media empowers most people (creative to non-creative) to express themselves through many forms of media. Embrace it! And empower your tourists to do so! You’ll never know the far-reaching implications of this inexpensive, yet effective, form of marketing.

Foursquare, a new social networking site, is a location-based version of Twitter. Users set up an account, and install an app on their phone which uses GPS to “check in” to different locations. Users can connect Foursquare to Twitter and post where they are and what they are doing at any given time.

Foursquare is more or less a game, where users try to check in to as many places as possible, earning points. Points are converted into badges. For example, whoever checks in the most at a place becomes mayor of that place, but can get ousted if someone checks in more times.

Alright, alright. So what does this mean for tourism marketing?

Even though Foursquare hasn’t become as popular and mainstream as Twitter and Facebook yet, it doesn’t mean it isn’t well on its way. Here are a few ways it can be used for destination marketing:

1. Tourist monitoring. Think of this as a way to check in on those checking in to your location.  Get an idea of who is visiting, and what other places they enjoy visiting. Also, Foursquare allows users to post their Twitter and Facebook profiles on their Foursquare profile, giving you the ability to connect with them on other platforms.
2. Promotions. Already, Foursquare users are having fun competing with one another over who can become mayor, or rack up certain coveted badges. Why don’t you join in the fun? Offer free T-shirts or admissions to whoever is mayor of your location. Give an incentive for others to want to join in the fun.
3. Help them scratch off their bucket lists. On Foursquare, users can add tips or to-do lists at each location to tell others what’s fun about it. Why not already be there giving your future tourists reasons to come visit? If someone sees that their friend has visited an historical destination, but this friend has written that certain exhibits were fun or interesting in some way, that person is more than likely going to be more interested than just hearing about the historical destination from its Web site. After all, word of mouth is the best advertising.

Foursquare is still in an infant phase for most, so it will be interesting to see how far it goes. However, it isn’t hard to believe that this new social media platform will be a helpful tool for marketing, just as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been.

Trust us, it’s worth your while to at least check in to the possibilities of this platform.

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer specializing in articles about social media for tourism and search engine optimization.

Considering how the majority of event planning is done on the Internet these days, especially on social media channels, how is your destination catering to vacation planners?

According to a recent emarketer.com survey, most moms (59%) on Facebook feel neutral about advertising on Facebook, while 31% find them boring or misleading. However, in general, moms are more interested in marketing when it caters to their specific wants or needs. According to the survey, 96% of moms use Facebook to keep in touch with loved ones, while only 10.4% say they focus on checking out companies and products.

Here’s the key takeaway, though: three-quarters were fans of at least one company or brand.

“Facebook is fertile ground for marketers to engage mothers and drive sales, but it needs to be done on their terms,” said Kevin Burke, president of lucid marketing, in a statement. “They have no time for brands that don’t ‘get it,’ but they do embrace brands that play by their rules.”

What are those rules? You can answer this question by putting yourself in their shoes. Here are a few things a mom would pass up:

• Offers that sound too good to be true. Instead, focus on an all-inclusive package, highlighting fun, family-oriented activities.
• Time-consuming surveys or sign-ups. Cater to the woman who wears many hats! Each second is golden when running a busy household, so make the planning process as painless as necessary.
• Bait and switch. Moms know every trick in the book to save a penny, but are also very aware of unethical advertising methods, whether it’s in a magazine or on a Facebook page. Instead, offer coupons they can share with their friends.

When in doubt, ask yourself, “If I were still a kid (and Facebook existed), would my mom want to be a fan of this page?” You’ll quickly start adding coupons and more family-related activities to your page. A little bit of consideration can go a long way, and could make the difference in a family’s week-long stay at your destination.

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer specializing in Facebook Marketing and Tourism SEO.

Of course, there is no magic formula to gain thousands of followers in a certain period of time. It takes the right combination of different methods, and a lot of patience. Here are a few things that tend to work for the travel industry:

• Most importantly, remember the social part of social media. If you create a Facebook page but do not keep your status updated and fresh content pouring in, you are giving your fans no reason to keep coming back.
• Make it fun. Facebook has tons of applications and resources for free to take advantage of. Post a poll or quiz on your page’s wall, make customized tabs across the top of the page, create a photo contest or have your fans send in stories about their stay. Think about it: if you weren’t the administrator of that page, would you be a fan?
• People love a good deal. Any kind of promotions or discounts you can offer to your followers will help them not only get a great deal, but let you see the fruition of your social media efforts. Offer something for free, or at a discounted rate when your future tourists mention they saw you on Facebook.
• Link your blog and Twitter to your Facebook page. Here is the perfect opportunity to sell your destination through words. You can post your blog articles on your wall, which will provide constant information to your future tourists.

These are just a few tips that I’ve seen to work wonders. Remember, keep your goals attainable, but don’t be surprised when they are surpassed in a short matter of time. Have fun, but remember that having a Facebook page isn’t instantly successful. Put some work into it and you’ll be amazed at the results!

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer specializing in travel SEO and social media marketing.