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.

What I didn’t expect to find this afternoon was this:

For those who don’t know, Lamebook.com is a Web site dedicated to all things ridiculous, hilarious and/or disturbing about Facebook user activity. (That’s where I found this little jewel.) So far, this status has accumulated more than 70 comments, and they keep rolling in.

As for the fans of Columbus (Ohio), feelings of confusion and disappointment are pouring out in response.

One user has summed up the overall feeling of the group:

You know, I appreciate a good joke, but we all know what you were intending. The fact that you are trying humor through misdirection is irrelevant. The fact remains that you used widely known internet acronym. Trying to reinvent the words that comprise it does little, the post was offensive. Doesn’t matter how you try to justify it to yourself.

What’s the lesson learned here? After you decide to post anything on Facebook, think about it, then think some more and before you click submit, make sure you’ve thought about it again. Maybe we won’t know what the intention was from the administrator. Perhaps it was a joke, maybe it was an honest oversight. Either way, people are now removing themselves as fans of this page, and Columbus has taken a blow to the face of its reputation.

Even though this isn’t the official Columbus, Ohio CVB Facebook page, most will probably (unfortunately) associate the entire city of Columbus with this status update, and each official social media outlet of the city (and even the state) will have to put in some overtime to do some damage control.

Takeaways:

• Constantly monitor your brand and know what is being said about it across the Internet. The sooner you can take a stand or release a statement either supporting or disassociating yourself from a mention of your brand, the better.
• Although it’s a worthy goal to get yourself noticed, bad press is WAY worse than no press at all, especially when future tourism traffic is involved.
• Know your audience. If it is mostly homogeneous in personality and you think certain jokes or links you post will go over well, go for it. When in doubt, leave them out.
• For heaven’s sake: brush up on your Internet vocab and know what abbreviations mean before using them.

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer specializing in articles about SEO for travel and Facebook marketing.

Enter SEO writing. SEO, or search engine optimization, uses keywords to attract Google, Yahoo and other search engines to rank results. Web sites that are rich in certain keywords rank higher than similar ones that don’t use as many keywords.

So what does this have to do with your tourism Web site? Everything. Not only should your site have keyword-rich content, but you should consider running a blog posting new content once or twice a week. By continuously posting new, relevant content about your destination, you are more likely to get noticed by Google. When search engines notice that you are continuously writing about the same categories, your site will move up the search rankings, improving your visibility online.

Don’t stress: content writing is easy. Just focus on your destination’s best features, continuously highlighting something new each time. A simple rule of thumb: do not overuse keywords for the sake of using them. Keep in mind that people will continuously revisit your site if it is written in a non-monotonous way. Sunny beaches, powder-white ski slopes or historical landmarks are the topics people will want to read about when they visit your travel blog.

If you have no idea where to begin, or just need to get your feet off the ground with SEO, look no further than Simple Tourism. We will work with you to figure out what your CVB, tourism bureau or travel agency needs to move its Web site up the results list. For more information, or for a free quote, contact us today.

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer specializing in articles about Social Media Optimization and SEO for travel Web sites.

According to Facebook’s statistics, more than 120 million users log in each day, contributing to more than 5 billion minutes being spent each day worldwide on the site. Despite what you may think about Facebook being targeted for teens and young adults, the current fastest growing demographic is people ages 35 and older. Combine that with the Domestic Travel Market Report statistics that the average age of a domestic traveler is 46 (and that  75% of Americans travel for leisure) and you don’t need another reason to join Facebook.

Other than the statistics, Facebook brings a lot to the table:

• A plethora of media devices at your fingertips. Uploading video, pictures, slideshows and easy posting makes sharing multimedia easy.
• The ability to generate discussions easily. Direct messaging capabilities, wall postings, group networking and creating fan pages give your CVB or tourism bureau a broad range of tourism and destination marketing tools at your fingertips.
• High SEO capabilities. Facebook can be placed high on Google results, especially if you customize your Facebook address (i.e. www.facebook.com/yourbusinesshere).
• High reachability. You have the ability to not only keep up with your clients, but give potential clients a taste of what they are missing. You have the ability to search for people who are interested in traveling, as well as the individual assets your destination has to offer, and you reach out to them directly.
• Networking. Become a fan of similar pages to gather a bigger following. In turn, they have the ability to link back to your site.

All of these capabilities for tourism advertising and destination branding are not just limited to your company’s Web site. These services are available in addition to what you may already have in terms of Internet marketing.

Simple Tourism not only offers specialized Web design services, but also houses professional marketing writers who create social media profiles to help draw in traffic to your travel site. Please browse our site to view our services, as well as work experience. Feel free to contact us for more information or a free quote.

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer specializing in articles about SEO for travel Web sites and professional SEO and Internet marketing services.