Sustainable tourism and social media

Posted: August 11th, 2010

On the first morning of DMAI 2010 I listened to an interesting session on sustainable tourism: A Sustainable Future.  The session was moderated by Dr Jonathon Day who is an assistant professor at Purdue University.  On the panel were Jeff  Miller from Travel Portland, Maureen O’Crowley from Seoul Tourism Organization, Scott from Salt Lake City and Steve Moore from Greater Phoenix CVB.

The panel was exciting for two reasons.  Firstly, I arrived in tourism by accident as a result of a passion for travel.  In a past life I studied environmental law at Oregon university in Eugene, just south of Portland. Second, there were many overlaps between the discussion and everything we’ve been doing in social media.  I’ve selectively chosen a few below.

Jeff emphasized the importance of having a focus and solid commitment to sustainability.  He briefly discussed a campaign that Travel Portland had built around a compassion coupon.  Success in social media marketing is entirely built around segmentation and micro-focus.  Less successful social marketing focuses on the tools first: “we have an iPhone app and started a facebook page’.  Focusing on your consumers and your objectives is key.

Scott talked about leading by example, keeping it small and aligning with people in the community who are already working on sustainability.  In social media, the best way to justify it’s value to stakeholders is to find the early adopters in your community and partner to run a low investment pilot campaign.  Keep the pilot campaign small and minimize the investment.

Steve Moore mentioned the Sheraton in Seattle and their industry-leading efforts to cut down their environmental footprint.  They allow guests to opt-out of room services and donate a portion of the savings.  Interestingly, I’d discussed exactly this with Kisha Post from the Sheraton when she was also telling me about what they were doing with TripAdvisor reviews.  I also received a personalized note in my room asking me to take the time to review their organization.  Progressive organizations tend to be progressive in both sustainability and social media.

Changes like these represent both a challenge and an opportunity.  Sustainable tourism and social media present a leadership opportunity and a chance to engage your community.

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Word of mouth, passion and communities.

Posted: August 11th, 2010

Positive word-of-mouth is really important for marketing. It’s important to realize that Word of mouth happens within communities. To understand social marketing we need to examine what bonds communities within our target markets.

Communities used to form almost entirely around geography. We were limited by how far we could yell and how far we could walk.  Information was passed on to others around the camp fire.  Air travel and hyper-communication have accelerated how quickly a message can travel and how far it will carry.

When we’re socializing, we  talk about things we are interested in and in doing so we like to offer advice and appear knowledgeable.  This happens within our immediate surroundings, when we’re traveling or online.  The more passionate someone is, the more they will talk about a topic.

People can talk more frequently thanks to social media. Our conversations go much further. People talk most often and most convincingly about topics that they are passionate and knowledgeable about.

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Social media is a telephone.

Posted: July 27th, 2010

When the telephone first hit the market, there were business owners who vehemently opposed it.

“There is no way I’ll ever let my staff use the telephone because they will spend all day talking on it”.

How long would an employee on your team last if they said “I don’t believe in the telephone and I’m not interested in learning how to use it.” What about email? What about social media?

If you were hiring for a sales role, would you hire the employee who had experience with telephone marketing and had grown up doing it every day of their lives or would you hire the one who had proven results with outdated direct mail campaigns?

Every single one of today’s college graduates know social media intuitively because they have grown up with it. Do you think they’ll use it in their jobs?

Social media is an advance in communication. It will be integrated into every job that requires communication. Your sales team, public relations team, marketing team, customer service team and anyone else who talks to people will be much more productive when they learn integrate more efficient communication tools into their jobs. You’ll use social networks for internal communication soon too.

We don’t hear or read about Mr. Bell’s critics because their businesses no longer exist. People are generally scared of change. Organizations of people struggle to change together. Organizations who embrace change and are nimble will be more competitive.

There are people learning these new tools. You should too. Re-learn how to listen. Learn who to call. Learn what to say to them. Learn what to say when people call you.

Do you wish you could get your sales team to spend the entire day talking to prospects on the phone?

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How quickly can we move beyond the gold rush?

Posted: June 5th, 2010

The current revolution in how we communicate that has been branded with the buzz words ‘social media’ is a modern day gold rush. It seems that every second person you meet at a conference is a social media expert. There is no such thing as a social media expert. There are marketing professionals and there are individuals well practiced at communicating. Some of those people have adapted to new communication tools quicker than others. The people and organizations who emerge successfully after the gold rush is over will be nimble enough that they can continue to adapt as this industry continues to mature.

Eventually, ‘social media’ tools will be integrated into every aspect of our working lives. Communicating online will form part of our customer service, help desk and marketing department. Although I’m too young to know, I’m sure there were skeptics of the telephone as a business tool. Perhaps some thought it would lead to a reduction in productivity. Perhaps companies who were early adopters of the telephone found new ways to compete. Now almost everybody carries one in their pocket.

Even if your organization isn’t aggressively seeking new opportunities to improve efficiency and increase marketing performance, it will happen over time by default. Eager young students joining the workforce and rising through the corporate ranks don’t know a life without social media tools.

Staff who are blocked from social networks on work computers are updating their facebook status, tweeting, watching youtube videos and texting from their phone. These tools form part of the next generation’s lives and educations. Some of them are even specialists in how to use these new tools in university courses that the rest of us have never even heard of.

If you value control over your brand, you should articulate clear guidelines for acceptable use of social communication tools and aim to keep them current as new technologies emerge. They won’t distinguish between on and offline tools to achieve their goals.

Companies who block rather than regulate social tools will be viewed as less desirable for employees who are trained to use them. Take note if you’re an employer seeking to attract the best of this new workforce.

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Open your eyes and listen.

Posted: May 29th, 2010

Too often when people think about social media, the first thing we think about are the most popular tools. Facebook is getting publicity in the mainstream media because of some privacy groups. MySpace hit the headlines back when it was acquired by News Corp. Twitter was a success story because of its amazing initial growth. Foursquare’s mobile application is the latest flavor because it marries the physical world with your smart phone. The list goes on. The stories that are most compelling in mainstream media don’t do justice to the opportunity.

If you focus on the tools, you run the risk of missing the opportunities that social media presents to your organization because it becomes too easy to use immediate return on investment as a quick way to dismiss it’s value. Do not focus on the tools. Groundswell’s post method articulated this best: people first, tools last (as determined by objectives and strategy).

There are so many ads begging for our attention that the noise is becoming overwhelming: Facebook pages requesting that we ‘Like’ them, brands asking us to follow them on Twitter, paid search ads and emails filling our inbox (and that’s just online!). With the emergence of mobile technology, this is just the beginning.

Word of mouth advertising has never been so important to your business. We trust messages we receive from real people more than messages from advertisers. It is quick and easy to decode a message that I receive from my friends and colleagues because they are similar to me. It is far more difficult to ignore your friend raving about their last holiday than it is it drive past the latest billboard on the way home from work. It’s even harder to ignore your partner’s latest online post about how frustrated they are with the hotel they’re staying in or their tweet about the hair in the meal at the restaurant around the corner. People I interact with in my life have similar backgrounds and experiences to me. These are things that I’m interested in and can relate to so I take notice. Social media is word of mouth on steroids.

People have always talked about your products, service, staff and your business as part of their daily conversation. Before social media the conversation took place solely in the offline world; in bars and in living rooms, schools, offices and on planes and trains. You couldn’t monitor this very easily.

But social media has made it easy for individuals to communicate. Online communication tools are free and require very little time investment. However, our online conversations are often inherently permanent in nature (which is partly why Facebook is experiencing privacy issues – read my last post for more info). As a result, with effective monitoring you can see the conversation. This is dirt cheap market research for your business. Even more importantly, search engines allow everyone else to see it too. For that reason above all others you must take notice: there are 500 million users talking on Facebook alone, for over half an hour a day on average. (If you still need convincing of the importance of social media, take a few minutes to watch this video.)

Find out what tools are relevant to your target market, learn how to use them and at very least, listen to what people are saying. Learn what people are saying about your business. Prepare a response plan in case things get ugly. William Bakker from Tourism BC always reinforces that you don’t have any business being in social media until you have a solid product. In the good old days, you could create a business by marketing mediocrity to many people before negative word of mouth spread. Now, one person can tell the entire world about poor service or a flawed product in an instant. I would add only one disclaimer: you can learn a lot about what you offer (for free) through listening. Once you’ve learned to listen, you’ll find it easier to start to talk back.

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Would you like cheese with that?

Posted: January 12th, 2010

Would you go to Facebook if you saw this on your table?

This card was on the table of quite a nice restaurant I ate at recently.  It became a talking point and the crowd I was with decided it was quite invasive, out of place and more than a little tacky.  From a marketing standpoint, it’s almost futile.  You’re sitting at a table, having a great time with friends and what’s this, is it a cocktail menu…. no but check out our Facebook Page?

Another restaurant I went to on the same street gave out a simple business card with the bill.  That’s classy.  The card could have included a URL to their Facebook Page or Twitter handle (don’t overwhelm – choose one). That way I would have remembered it when I got home and their marketing efforts wouldn’t have intruded on our dining experience.

They would also reach their target clients, the person paying the bill  who likely also chose the restaurant and invited everyone.  I could offer them 10% off their next bill in return for becoming a fan.  I could invite them to tell me how their dining experience was

If I ran a restaurant, I’d begin to Tweet what our specials were.  I’d Tweet about happy hour on the day or afternoon that it happens.  I’d post pictures of our restaurant and fine dishes on my Facebook page.  I’d have my head chef blog about his dishes and style.  I’d also empower my employees to take ownership over the business that they are part of.  This works well when they’re working for tips.

One of my friends works in a pub.   Here’s one of his recent Facebook posts:

If he can get some of his friend network to come to the bar, they’ll bring friends. His tips will go up.  Smart business owners will leverage the personalities and networks that their staff have. Attract the right staff and empower them with guidelines.  They’re on social media all the time anyway, have them use it to your advantage.

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Are travel agents dead?

Posted: January 6th, 2010

Many people consider the traditional travel agent business to be dying as a result of cheaper online alternatives but I think there’s a huge opportunity for innovation within a niche.

My travel agent at STA Travel is embracing new media through her personal contacts, to build her own brand within the company. Like many other consumers, I book and research my flights online. Kara will answer questions and lets me organize tickets over Google chat. She can nearly always get me a cheaper deal on international tickets than I can find myself. Sometimes I have questions about more complicated trips. She knows the fare rules better than I do so asking questions via chat saves me time researching terms and conditions.

I have email introduced almost 10 people to Kara, of which many have led to sales. (I only introduced people who asked for a recommendation, I didn’t bombard my friends). She’s building her personal brand within her company. I’m helping friends with a really good service. I’m her product champion. My friends want good advice and convenience. Kara knows her stuff and she’s accessible. I’ve earned $75 for recommending a good service that I would have already recommended.

STA have created a framework that enables Kara and her colleagues to flourish. STA Travel are fostering word-of-mouth referrals by offering an incentive to past passengers to refer new business. It’s also an incentive for their travel agents to leverage their personal connections. After all, STA is an organization made up of many individuals.

Here’s Kara’s email f you want a travel agent who knows her stuff and is accessible via gchat: karalucchesi@gmail.com. If you like her service, please tell her I sent you so I can claim my $25 credit!

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Everyone hates getting forwarded emails!

Posted: December 30th, 2009

Once you’ve made the decision to embrace social media, the next step is to use it effectively.

Everything has a place. Facebook is for sharing with your existing contacts. Twitter is great for regularly broadcasting to anyone who wants to listen. Blogs like this are ideal for more extensive information. LinkedIn is ideal for connecting and networking on a professional level.

Most importantly, all of these tools can be used to listen to your market and engage in 2-way communication. There’s a glaring difference between brands who are still trying to broadcast and those who share information. Think about your own social networks. You have people you trust, people you look to for information and people who you disregard. Think carefully about the tools you are using and how you are using them. Use social media to develop a relationship with your clients and build trust.

Users won’t necessarily visit your site just because you’ve branded it. Offer them something more. Make the content of each relevant to the product you are trying to sell, or at least relevant to your clients and industry. Help people to understand things. Let them talk to each other.

On each social platform, you need to build your brand. Be careful to maintain it or risk losing followers. Beware of saturation. Don’t post just for the sake of it. Keep them wanting more.

Remember that over-exposure generates immunity. I subscribe to blogs from Seth Godin and Chris Brogan. To do justice to my clients, I have to read all of their posts but it’s hard not to become immune when you receive an email every day. If you try to post too frequently, you’ll eventually run out of interesting things to say. No one is that interesting.

We all have (or had) contacts who’s forwarded emails we trash immediately. They’ve overwhelmed us with things we aren’t interested in. On the other hand, the thoughtful person who only sends things occasionally wins our attention. It’s the same concept when using blogs, Facebook and Twitter, except the stakes are higher. Overwhelm a user and you’ll lose them forever.

It’s the same with Facebook and Twitter. Don’t say something unless you have something interesting to say. Interesting means interesting to the audience you are trying to attract and maintain. If you don’t have something to tell them, something that’s relevant to the reason they’re following you, don’t waste their time. Don’t say something just because you think you have to. Twitter and Facebook are just like any other relationship, play hard to get, keep them wanting more.

Gary McCaffrey recommends that you post to twitter between 9am and 3pm for maximum effectiveness

Here’s a good how-to blog from Elance on the basics.

Here’s an example from one of our clients at Think! Social Media. If you run a kite boarding school like Exotikite, Tweet about Today’s wind forecast or the wind at the beach right now. Put photos of your students learning and the location of the school on Facebook. Tag your students in the photos for their friends to see on News Feeds. Maintain a blog on how to do the latest trick. Build a forum to allow people to review equipment.

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Looking back…

Posted: December 28th, 2009

Here are some of the more successful social media campaigns and cutting-edge ideas that you should know about, if you haven’t already seen them.

Will it Blend? Making a YouTube video of an iPhone in a blender cost a few hundred bucks but at last count the video has received over 7.6 million views.  The video managed to piggy-back off other web traffic because ‘iPhone’ was a popular search term. Actually blending an iPhone was intriguing and entertaining. More importantly, the video showed that the product actually worked:

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Tourism Queensland’s Island Reef job was heavily rooted in social media.  The concept was genius; give away a job that seemed too good to be true on an island in Australia with a great pay check during a recession.  Contestants had to create a video to enter. The community that emerged could vote on the video. This was the first global initiative by an australian State DMO.  It cost $1.7 million and returned an estimated $400 million in media value and $8.6 million in web traffic.  Already a good deal but it gets better.  Now the winner writes a blog every day – you can see it here: http://www.islandreefjob.com/

The Photo-crashing Squirrel.  Banff’s DMO seized on an unlikely opportunity when a tourist took a self-timer photo that a squirrel popped into after it was drawn to the noise of the camera. The photo captured a unique experience that every tourist would like.  Banff wrote and distributed a press release at very little cost.  Combine that with some creative use of social media and you have very cost-effective attention from mainstream media channels across the world: http://www.canada.com/technology/Banff+squirrel+photo+gets+huge+attention/1889605/story.html

JK Wedding Intro. This is a YouTube video that just happened to take off and is now being used to solicit donations for violence prevention.  This one was catchy and the crowd loved it, this takes trial and error.  Over 36 million views and an interview on Today!  Not bad for a wedding video.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0  Better still, I like the genius behind a response that has received over 4.5 million views.  Find a video that’s going viral and post a creative response. Keep it relevant too, divorce is related to marriage.  What better way to promote a video production company: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbr2ao86ww0&feature=related

Skittles.com.  Visiting the rainbow online will make you think twice about your presence and whether it’s worth maintaining your own URL.  Why would you if you can do everything where there’s a built-in audience?  Here’s a great insight into the future of the online presence of tourism destinations: http://www.wilhelmus.ca/2009/10/the-end-of-the-dmocvb-website-europe-says-yes.html.

Ikea ran a very creative campaign that I wrote about previously: http://rodneypayne.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/14/

Lastly, here’s an excellent example of how to use Twitter properly.  Connect with your true customers (not just anyone who will listen) and then give them information that they actually want to hear from you.  If you’re a Korean BBQ Kart in Los Angeles, you’d use Twitter to tell your passionate customers (in realtime) where you’re going to be located today: http://kogibbq.com/

For every success there are many more attempts that didn’t go viral but it’s cost-effective to try.  The message from these examples is to stay relevant, choose the right social media tool and keep the information relevant. Find out what your competitive advantage is and exploit it.

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What do you have to hide? (Part 2)

Posted: December 24th, 2009

Many organizations are scared of open review through social media because of a lack of ability to control negative comments. Barrack Obama’s Presidential campaign showed how well social media can be used to engage an audience, even in the public sector.  Importantly, his campaign managed to build trust and mobilize a younger demographic.  The most important lesson to take away from the US Democrats’ 2008 campaign is never to shut down negative feedback.  Don’t be tempted to control or moderate negative comments. People respond poorly to a manipulated social media environment.

Marketing through social media is not about crafting a single message for your audience like traditional media. Instead, you should aim to create an environment that allows your customers to provide feedback and to communicate with each other. You can then use this environment as a forum for two-way communication.

The US Navy is an organization that has demonstrated willingness to become open.  Charlene Li was among 16 bloggers who were invited to report about the US Navy, you can find details in her blog of June 09. With all of its security protocols, its interesting to think about why the US Navy aren’t concerned of open review. How is it that, with all of its security protocols, the Navy can provide journalists access to whoever they want and ask almost anything?

The Navy has the strongest organizational culture of almost any organization in the world. Much like any other company, it’s people are it’s brand. It trusts it’s people implicitly because they are well-trained. The US Navy has invested heavily in training it’s people. Every individual in the Navy inherently conforms to the brand, they live the brand in every sense of the word. Adherence to a social media communications policy isn’t an issue that leaders are scared of because that policy permeates the entire organization.

Australia’s current Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, also relied heavily on social media as part of his electoral campaign in 2007. The Kevin 07 campaign showed similar success to that of President Obama’s. To survive in the changing media environment, you have to be open. Connect with your audience and partners online. That goes for large companies and small.

What’s the difference between Rudd and Obama?  After being elected, Prime Minister Rudd banned his staff from using social media. Obama’s team is still sending messages to its extensive database built during the campaign. A year after he was elected, I still receive regular emails from the Obama administration in attempts to further their political objectives. The latest asked supporters to pressure representatives to push through Health Reform legislation.

Openness through social media is an ongoing commitment that requires persistence. You must develop a realationship. Politicians will suffer if openness is forgotten after an election. The Rudd government’s abandonment of social media following the election will present a huge opportunity for the Liberal opposition in the next Federal election. Just learn from the Navy and create strong guidelines for use.

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