Ensuring that frontline employees experience the best of your destination

Posted: November 17th, 2011

Every day a travel writer somewhere urges readers to ask local experts for advice on where to go and eat during their trip. As a result, millions of travelers every year ask front desk clerks, bell hops, housekeepers and taxi drivers for restaurant suggestions and advice on what to do and see. If the front desk clerk has never been to the attractions in your city or if he/she has only ever eaten at the fast food joints downtown he/she may be hard pressed to get visitors excited about the awesome tapas restaurant with a great wine selection or the moonlight canal rides that they could experience.

As a CVB, we realized that we needed to take steps to make sure that frontline local experts are well educated on what Augusta has to offer, so our Visitors Services Team created FAM tours for frontline employees. Our Visitors Center manager took employees to visit attractions, experience trolley tours, eat at locally-owned restaurants and browse through the galleries, shops and boutiques downtown. (If you find that you don’t have the time or budget to organize extra FAM tours, work with your attractions and restaurants. See if your attractions will allow hotel employees or cab drivers to visit for free or approach local restaurants about offering a free appetizer or dessert when frontline employees wear their work badge or uniform.)

You can never assume that just because people work in the hospitality or travel industry means that they know everything there is to know about the city. Many just don’t have the time or the money to explore everything. Ensuring that frontline employees experience the best of your destination makes it more likely that they’ll spread the word – not only to visitors, but also with friends and family. By organizing these FAMs, we’ve built stronger relationships and watched as frontline employees become advocates for Augusta and champions in customer service.

Guest blog post written by Ashton Randall, Electronic Media Manager at Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau

If you want to be a guest blogger email Phil@thinksocialmedia.com

Posted in By Phil Moad, Social Media | 2 Comments »

How to set up your Facebook Deal

Posted: October 27th, 2011

At the beginning of the year Facebook announced that they were going to be launching deals for fan pages and places, but it seemed like the quickly abandoned the idea. The other day I came across a notification on page that was encouraging me to set up a deal. I decided that I needed to investigate further, and it turns out that deals will be rolling out. Note that it seems it’s only available to businesses in the US, hopefully it will expand to Canada and the world soon.

Check out the deals video.

You start setting up your deal by choosing one of the four types of deals:

Define your offer:

Add details and restrictions:

Reap the rewards:

Check out the guide Facebook has put together and let us know what you think.

 

Posted in By Phil Moad, Facebook, Social Media | No Comments »

Think! opens in the U.S.

Posted: October 3rd, 2011

David Serino

Think! has been steadily growing this year, but today is a big milestone for us: We have expanded to the United States.

We are truly excited to welcome David Serino to Think! as a strategist and educator. Dave is based in our U.S. office in Michigan. He brings a significant depth of experience in digital marketing for tourism that includes important programs which have been serving the U.S. travel industry for several years.

David has worked more than 15 years at the intersection of technology and marketing. He worked in sales and marketing positions within the travel industry before he founded Gammet Interactive in 2000 to serve the travel and tourism industry in its use of digital marketing.

To help the tourism industry understand and improve its use of social media, Dave developed a tourism-focused social media ranking system called How Social is Your DMO? in 2009. Then last year, he brought a valuable educational resource to the industry when he launched the Social Media in the Tourism Industry Symposium (#SoMeT), attracting attendees from destination marketing organizations, hotels, resorts, attractions and other tourism-related businesses.

Dave is a well known speaker at travel industry conferences, having presented at more than 85 events. You will continue to see him on the road, but now as a part of Think!

Dave’s joining our team also marks the integration of Gammet Interactive with Think! and the continued expansion of our full suite of digital marketing services. Gammet Interactive’s clients will continue to get leading strategic consultation and support from an even bigger team of experts at Think! Gammet Interactive’s programs, like How Social is Your DMO? and Social Media in the Tourism Industry Symposium, will also continue.

Welcome, Dave!

Posted in Around the office, By William Bakker | 4 Comments »

Facebook Now Hosts 4% Of All Photos Ever Taken

Posted: September 21st, 2011

Facebook is now home to 140-billion photos, that’s over 10,000 times larger than the Library of Congress and it makes up for 4% of all photos ever taken. Not to mention that another 70 Billion photos will be added this year alone, which suggests that around 20% of all photos taken this year will end up on the social media giant.

Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Twitter Has 100 Million Active Users

Posted: September 8th, 2011

This morning Twitter announced that it has 100 million active users logging in at least once a month and 50 million active users every day. This isn’t a huge surprise seeing as the microblogging service has a total of 200 million registered users, however it does show that the service is becoming more popular to use on a regular basis.

In the press conference this morning the CEO Dick Costolo offered a whole raft of statistics to prove that Twitter is healthy and growing like a weed — especially on mobile platforms. Some 55 million users log on to Twitter from their phone or tablet every month. Web-based users are on the rise, too: Twitter.com now sees 400 million visitors a month, up from 250 million at the beginning of the year, Costolo says.

Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Announcing Holly Cuny as the latest Think!-er

Posted: August 25th, 2011

 

The Think! team keeps growing, and we’re very happy to announce our latest addition to the team starting September 8.

Holly worked with William at Tourism British Columbia as Online Manager for 5 years and served as acting Director of eMarketing for the last  10 months. Holly has a proven track record of getting things done. When we heard she was leaving Tourism BC and about to take a position with another company, we had Ben grovel and beg her to join us instead.

We’re extremely happy to have Holly on our team. She brings a wealth of online marketing and destination marketing knowledge and leadership to our company. Her responsibilities will include managing the delivery team and providing strategic input on our projects.

Posted in Around the office, By William Bakker | 3 Comments »

Don’t be afraid to be a bit playful online

Posted: August 25th, 2011

I’ve been managing different online communities for a while now. One of the challenges as a community manager is adding some of your own personality when you have a full branding or PR team behind you reading every word. As hard as it is, I believe that community managers need to slowly push the boundaries.

In social media, the message needs to come from a human and that means there’s nothing wrong with having some fun or to joke with your community members.

Take the Boston Police twitter account for example. A police department is a serious thing. And I like how they use a bit of humor once in a while. I’m sure that some people in their organization think that the example below is very unprofessional but their followers probably thought it was hilarious. It’s a good way of saying “the officer is fine” in a human way.

 

Adding some personality including humor creates stronger and more engaged communities while community members will behave better when they realize there’s an actual person running the account and not a faceless PR machine.

Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

FACEBOOK evolves! Critical changes and what they mean to you.

Posted: August 23rd, 2011

It was only a matter of time. Facebook unveiled plans to overhaul some of its key features which will roll out over the next week. We’ve detailed the ones that will have the most impact on Tourism businesses and users alike.

The main Publisher bar “aka. Status Update Field” has three new changes entitled: Tags, Location (places), and Control (privacy).

Tagging/Untagging

“[Just] because I share an experience with them doesn’t mean I want to be Facebook friends with them.” – Facebook Product Manager, Kate O’Neill

You can now tag any Facebook member, whether they are your friend or not. This enables photos of groups to be tagged in their entirety. Concerned that you’ll be tagged without your knowing? If you’re not a friend of the person who tags you, you’ll still have to formally approve their request before it displays. On a related note, if you are friends with someone who has tagged you, you can now turn off the “require approval” feature of tagging.

Three new features have been rolled our regarding Untagging including: untagging yourself from a photo, asking the photo uploader to remove the photo, and blocking that person on Facebook.

Places

The GPS restriction of Checking-In to Places has been removed in the latest smartphone application update. This enables users to check-in to places retroactively and is now accomplished from the Status Update field (instead of the old ‘places’ menu). This also MAY enable businesses to setup Places without being at their physical location, but we are still waiting on this confirmation.

Control

No doubt following the Google+ launch of Circles, Facebook has reorganized how and with who you can share content with (for the record, we think Circles is much sexier). In the Publisher Bar, the former Padlock icon will change with the type of sharing. A posts visibility may also be retroactively updated. New sharing categories are:

  • Public
  • Friends
  • Custom (for Lists or Groups)

Additionally, the Privacy Settings have been given their own button on every screen (simplifying the process in navigating to the bulky privacy menu). A handy “View Profile As” button has been added as well, to see exactly what your different permission levels look like.

Advertisements

While the Facebook’s Privacy updates have stolen the show, Facebook Ads have rolled out a new feature in the targeting of ads. Last month, Facebook Ads added a new target set called “Precise Interests” in which advertisers could target specific Likes and Interests that users have posted to their profile. For example, I’ve Liked the W Hotels fan page, and low-and-behold, I now see ads for W Hotels!

The new feature launched today is within Precise Interests and is called ‘Topic Targeting.’ It allow advertisers to target Topics relating to that specific interest, in order to pick up a relating audience. Displayed with a ‘#’ symbol, Topics cover both the Precise Interest AND relating Interest. For example, if I were to add the topic #Ritz-Carlton, it would include interests such as Ritz Hotels, Ritz Carlton Hotels, and the Ritz Carlton Hotel Group. Optional category Interests are also displayed that may be applicable to my target market. Using the Ritz Carlton example, optional category interests would include the #Starwood Hotels and #Hilton Worldwide topics.

Instead of only targeting the 20,00 fans living in the US who Like the official Ritz Carlton Fan page, my reach using the #Ritz-Carlton Topic has increased to 73,000. Longer reach = better target exposure.

 

What’s your opinion? Good improvements or not?

Posted in By Joel Marc, Facebook | No Comments »

What’s the deal with Foursquare?

Posted: August 16th, 2011

You’ve probably heard of Foursquare or seen a sticker encouraging you to Check-In at your local coffee shop. While some may write-off Foursquare as another social media platform to keep track of, Foursquare has been quietly picking up momentum to the tune of 10 million subscribers. Then yesterday, Foursquare got it’s biggest endorsement yet as President Barrack Obama announced the White House’s official use of Foursquare.

So what is Foursquare? Foursquare creates personalized experiences among friends using location-based technologies within mobile smartphones. The entire goal of Foursquare is to share tips, insights, and deals from the businesses and areas you interact with on a daily basis.

Checking-In on your mobile phone unlocks the tips left by your friends and others for that particular business or area. I could Check-In to my favorite deli and leave a Tip for a particular sandwich that isn’t on the menu, or when running a trail in Stanley Park I could leave a tip for a particular place to get that perfect scenic view. When friends or others check-in to those locations, my tips are automatically displayed to them. My friends can even add these tips to a To-Do List to create their own mini adventures based on my experiences.

Recently, Foursquare launched support for Businesses, called Foursquare Pages. This is where Foursquare becomes really valuable for DMO’s and their members. Pages enables a business or organization to brand the Page to their own graphical feel and display Lists of places that they recommend. So if you decided to follow the Think! Social Media Foursquare Page you would see our List of places around Yaletown we love to go for lunch. Additionally you can see the tips we’ve left at all the locations around the world.

Foursquare Pages are a natural fit for member-based organizations who want to promote the members of their region. The trick is to make your Page appealing so visitors will want to follow it. We suggest providing tips, insights, and deals that only Foursquare users can experience. Luxury hotelier Ritz-Carlton took some of the knowledge from their esteemed Concierges and made them tips on their Foursquare Pages of each property. Their motivation? Take the renown insight of their Concierges and make it accessible to people who love the Ritz-Carlton brand online.

Encouraging members to offer small freebies to customers for checking-in on Foursquare is a great way to build some momentum. A cupcake shop offered an extra shot of icing if customers showed an employee a check-in on their mobile phone. Small items such as an “extra shot of espresso” work best.

Marketing material stating that your business is on Foursquare is a helpful way to remind people to check-in (as they’re thinking about what kind of sandwich they want). A small stand-up at the checkout counter goes a long way. I was buying groceries recently and the display showing my purchase had a graphic stating “Check-in to Foursquare and ask for a free apple.” Smart and simple.

Want a Free Foursquare Window Sticker for your business? Just verify your businesses location on Foursquare and they’ll mail you one. Or, to get Foursquare’s logo to use in your marketing material, visit this link and choose Buttons and Logo’s.

Have you used Foursquare in an innovative way already? We’d love to hear your story in the comments section below.

 

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Posted in By Joel Marc, Foursquare | No Comments »

Could Google+ compete with Facebook?

Posted: June 28th, 2011

It’s no secret that Google has been throwing some mud at the wall to see if they can gain traction against Facebook on the social networking front. Namely, Google Buzz which wasn’t a huge success and I’ve been skeptical of Google’s ability to compete against Facebook’s gravity. All of my friends are on Facebook. Plus, Facebook has all of our photographs. That’s a lot of eggs in the Facebook basket. While its possible that we may one day spend less time chatting with our friends and more time working, Facebook is going to have to make a pretty serious mistake for us all to leave. According to their policy, they actually own them.

Google’s recently launched Circles network has me intrigued though. If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a great Mashable article that links to some of Googles explanatory videos.

Paul Adams created a very clear presentation about the flaws of existing social networks (ie Facebook) while he was at Google. It explains the importance of privacy to the user. It also explains why the term ‘friends’ is not helpful. In short, he contends that ‘friends’ is too broad and doesn’t allow users to categorize their message by audience. The presentation has been viewed a whopping 670,000 times on Slideshare.

The Real Life Social Network v2
View more documents from Paul Adams

Facebook has a vested interest in complete openness. The network’s model turns on connecting the whole world. They are unapologetically pushing the bounds of individual privacy. As a result, there has been a lot of high-profile resistance to complete openness both publicly and from government watchdogs.

Privacy, and the ability to control it could be Facebook’s Achilles Heel. This is why i’m intrigued by Circles. It’s the biggest weakness in Facebook’s model. At Think!, we believe in the power of passionate communities. These communities center around a common interest and can be simply represented using concentric circles. We don’t believe that the world is one big circle. That’s the old world. We believe that it is one big circle made up of many, many much smaller circles. In these small circles, relevant information is essential and giving people the power to control their message is paramount.

Google Circles lets you categorize people on the way in and on initial appearance its very intuitive and smooth. Facebook Groups goes a little way towards solving the problem. However, many of the privacy settings are well buried, presumably so that people don’t use them. Circles is the complete opposite.

Of course, given their momentum, Facebook could always copy the idea. Interestingly, since he released his presentation and released his book Social Circles, Paul Adams now works at Facebook as their research lead on social.

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Posted in By Rodney Payne, Google | 1 Comment »