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Do you log into your Google Reader first things in the morning to check for relevant information?
Do you spend at least 10 minutes of your work day checking social media sites like Facebook and Twitter?
These are good marketing practices. If you’re not doing this at least this much, you should to get in the habit. Of course, the challenge is to stick to a schedule for monitoring, but don’t let it consume your whole morning – or longer!
One article written by HubSpot has suggested the following.
3 Minutes – Check for Twitter chatter about your company, competitors, or relevant topics
2 Minutes – Scan Google News and Blog Alerts
3 Minutes – Flag and answer relevant LinkedIn and Quora questions
2 Minutes – Open Facebook and scan your wall and comments
The key to using your limited time most effectively is consolidation of information, scanning, and taking action. Thanks to HubSpot for the software and for the marketer tips.
With more websites on the Web than humans on Earth, you can no longer simply put a website online and sit back waiting for travel consumers to find your business.
If you have tours or beds to fill, online marketing is Job #1- or should be. According to SEO expert Mike Owen (who runs RainbowComm Communications & Marketing in Vancouver, Canada), “Organic Search Engine Optimization should be considered a crucial first step for all business websites.”
How Optimizing Your Website (SEO) Will Benefit You:
Generate long-term traffic growth from the major search engines
Receive relevant, targeted visitors which convert into guest night and tour seats
Grow your brand awareness and name recognition
Spend less compared to other forms of digital marketing
Let’s be honest, who cares if you “rank #1″ for a keyword no-one searches for, or if visitors leave your site as fast as they arrive!
Some additional factors to consider when evaluating your website include:
Sensible and easy-to-use navigation (usability)
A clear purpose, message and Call-To-Action
Original content containing important keyword phrases
What clients like about RainbowComm’s approach is that it is holistic in nature and goes beyond simple keyword ranking. Mike takes into consideration all of the factors which can impact your search engine traffic and conversions. For more information about meta-tags and SEO, contact Peacock Tourism Marketing for a copy of his forthcoming article.
Using social media to enhance your travel, tourism or attraction marketing is a great idea.
Recently, a destination consultancy posted an article titled “Top 10 reasons why your social media campaign is failing” There is food for thought in the essay, and the key point is…”to ensure success on the back end, make sure you have established clear guidelines and benchmarks on the front end.”
Peacock Tourism Marketing, with more than a quarter century of experience in travel, hospitality and event marketing, has a start-up kit for tourism operators new to social media networking and who want to engage with travelers to their destination, hotel or tour.
Start your social media marketing on the right foot
Contact the Birds of a Feather team for more information on the how-to-get-started-on-right foot kit. How big is your footprint? Click here for an example of a savvy planning advice offered by niche web publisher Rainbow Tourism.
Make a plan before launching
These tips apply to corporate websites and new media channels and are not exclusive to tourism. Every business needs a down-to-earth savvy strategy.
- Dive in – only after understanding the Social Media beast.
- Understand your target audience and give them what they want – simple information and quick insights.
- Incorporate images and videos – people love ‘em and saves writing a thousand words.
- Monitor and don’t fumble – both favorable interaction and negative feedback are to be expected and should be handled quickly.
What content tips and tricks do you need to know?
What will give you the edge over your competitors?
Whether you’re a luxury travel startup or established tourism operator, you probably need a social marketing strategist on your content/marketing teams. Someone to advise and train you on how to maximize your exposure on Facebook, Twitter and You Tube – not to mention creating postings for your blog and website.
We all have heard it before – content is king! Speak to any SEO expert and they will confirm that having the right content on your website is essential to get good rankings. When your website is constantly being updated with new content and images, it helps increase your site’s retention, bookings and enquiries, encourages repeat visits, and increases the browsing time.
But it is important to get the right balance of content as too much will overwhelm your visitors; too little and they will just go elsewhere. Just as it is important to get the right balance of social media pages working together.
Since the birth of social media, the type of content expected by potential customers has dramatically changed. Nowadays, when people visit your website, blog or Facebook they want to see reviews, videos and photos from other people who have used or experienced your service or product as this is believed to be more trustworthy.
Tip for New Media Novices
1. Seek an experienced web content writer/online marketing manager, someone who is a savvy strategist. This will not cost you an arm n a leg.
2. Work with the marketing writer to develop your Social Media Startup kit, something that complements your online and traditional marketing plan and budget. A savvy plan won’t break the bank.
3. Start with Facebook or a Blog, then progress to Twitter and You Tube if your destination/accommodation/tour/service warrants more interaction with your guests/customers. Monitor these daily, and reply with those who make comments.
4. Develop the content. Images (including videos) are as important as words – for the search engines and because users click on them a lot. If your content or marketing team does not have this material for the content writer, create and collect this first.
5. Create a template that suits your style, tone and story. The Blog and Facebook images can be different or close to your website design. A good web graphic designer will help you with colours, images, easy-to-read layout, great navigational buttons and useful widgets that help distribute your content and message.
For more tricks of the trade, ask Peacock Tourism Marketing’s Birds-of-a-Feather team. They’ve been involved in travel themselves, and creating content for other operators for many years.
No doubt about it. Today it’s imperative to extend your story.
How do you do it?
By integrateing the power and reach of social media marketing with traditional online strategies.
Start Here
1. Build a Social Media presence and personality. Have a plan to use available, current tools like Facebook, You Tube.
2. Cross link between Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Blogs, Linked In and News Feeds to traditional marketing and company website.
3. Use a content manager– Use Word Press or Blogger and add postings and images at least weekly, if not daily.
4. Listen and Answer users – Comment back to your visitors, provide useful links, collect data and build a 1-on-1 customer relationship .
5. Check Statistics and Insights – review weekly and adjust campaign if necessary
The Big Benefits
The Birds of a Feather team at Peacock Tourism Marketing listens first and foremost. We are of the school where one-to-one communication is paramount. You talk, we listen, then together we develop a strategy and implement it with our sleeves rolled up. Peacock Tourism works on one client at a time – onsite at the startup and online afterwards.
What you Get
Get a Savvy Strategy – plain English, no techno babble, creative thinking, and tips you can implement quickly, cheaply, easily.
Get to know the team – The editor is your primary contact for website and blog content and images and how to make your online presence work smarter. The marketing manager is your primary contact for technology and insights on social media channels and Google/Facebook ads.
We’ve been hearing a lot about new editions of not so old books – but then everything in the online world changes rapidly. The title recently recommend by social media strategists is “The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly” by David Scott.
I’m waiting to buy the next edition out soon (because my local library only has one copy of the 2nd edition and I can pre-order the 3rd edition now).
There are so many books out there on related topics – from “The Zen of Social Media Marketing” to “Guerilla Social Media Marketing” by the same authors as “Guerilla Marketing, now in its 4th edition.
Feel overwhlemed? Join the crowd. But press on with your reading and then find a social media savvy strategist to help you with your online marketing and creating and maintaining your brand’s presence on social media channels. There are as many channels as there are books, but Peacock Tourism Marketing likes Linked In, Facebook, Twitter and You Tube, in addition to a good, easy to use content-management system enabeld website.
How do you get the balance right?
What content tips and tricks do you need to know about?
What will give you the edge over your competitors?
We all have heard it before – content is king! Speak to any SEO experts and they will confirm that having the right content on your website is essential to get good rankings. However since the birth of social media, the type of content expected by potential customers has dramatically changed.
Nowadays, when people visit your website, they want to see reviews, videos and photos from other people who have used or experienced your service or product as this is believed to be more trustworthy.
For organisations, having user generated content on your website is also beneficial as it means that your website is constantly being updated with new content which again is excellent for SEO and to increase your site’s retention, bookings, enquiries, encourage repeat visits and increase the browsing time.
By allowing your online visitors to upload their own testimonials, reviews and experiences to your website this breeds loyalty and significantly enhances the interactivity of your site for online visitors.
But it is important to get the right balance of content as too much will overwhelm your visitors; too little and they will just go elsewhere.
Thanks to Digital Visitor who will be presenting on this topic in London next month at World Travel Market.
Proactive online marketing and social media networking are essential to reaching brand-loyal gay and lesbian travellers. Few know that or do it better than Rainbow Tourism, a leader in gay tourism publishing and marketing.
Rainbow Tourism was challenged by operators about advertising and being listed on the global RainbowTourism.com directory and referral site. A graph showing the source of the 25,000 monthly visitors to its web network is helping convince them of the need to be part of a big footprint.
Read about The Footprint.
Marketing travel to gays and lesbians takes “know how” for success.
Without question, the gay and lesbian market offers brand loyalty and a consumer demographic whose value makes this segment too promising to overlook or mishandle. Thanks to JD Anderson for this article. Read more.
The gay market has more disposable income, and has a propensity for travel. There is a trend toward more diversified travel experiences, and this combined with discretionary income and a greater variety of options, puts the “gay market” in a league of its own.
In Australia and elsewhere, increased competition among companies for this market has turned individual marketing into savvy and joint partnering opportunities. Hotels, tour operators and restaurants and bars in Australia’s Gold Coast have come together to partner with Gold Coast Tourism and with Rainbow Tourism and Pink Choice to reach this market, for instance.
As the article points out, with global examples, this is the wave of the future. Go to the experts if you need help getting on the surf board to ride the wave.
Peacock Tourism Marketing. Helping you strut your stuff.