1. SOCIAL MEDIA FORTRAVEL & LEISURE PROS 6/17/09

2.

PR professional since 1991

Avid social Internet user since 1994

Online community builder since 1998

Blogger since 2001

Professional blog atwww.larakretler.com

Social media lead at Fahlgren Mortine PR

Frequent speaker and interviewee about business applications for the social Web

Travel nut and foodie

About Lara Kretler 3.

Web 2.0 overview

Why is it important?

Guidelines and applications

Case studies

Key takeaways

TODAYS DISCUSSION 4. Social explosion

Six out of top 10 websites are social sites

Six out of 10 Internet users view consumer generated content

5. By the numbers

More than 1 billion Tweets on Twitter

236 million annual visitors to Digg

200 active million users on Facebook

133 million blogs indexed by Technorati

70 million videos on Youtube

2.7 million articles on Wikipedia

6.

Social media is even more important in the travel, tourism and hospitality business

Another recent survey (Compete/Google)revealed 66% of destination travelers turn to family and friends for help

7.

Social media even more important in the travel, tourism and hospitality business!

8. Benefits of social media

Build deeper relationships and communities

Increase awareness for your brand

Broaden your network

Achieve search engine prominence (SEO)

Increase your web or blog traffic

Break through clutter to reach journalists

Bypass media to get straight to consumers

Empower fans to become viral ambassadors for your brand

9. Emerging PR2.0 tactics

Blogger relations: engage with influential bloggers

• • Targeted outreach via comments, trackbacks, tagging

Microblogging/micro pitching

• • Twitter, Friendfeed, Ning socnets

Strategic use of social bookmarking sites

• • Delicious, StumbleUpon

Online content placements/syndication

• • Yahoo, Google, AOL

Social media news releases

• • PitchEngine, PRweb

News release SEO tools

• • HubSpots pressreleasegrader.com

10. Basic social media strategy

Listen to the conversation

Review and analyze learnings

Engage if and when it makes sense

Monitor and adjust

Measure results

11. Rules of engagement

Listen more than you talk

Remember that its about them, not you

Always be monitoring (listening) and responding (interacting)

Provide value far beyond just your particular site or service

12. Phase one engagement

Create a social media hub

• Blog

• Twitter account

• Facebook page

Create social networking spokes leading out of, and back to, your hub

• YouTube

• Flickr

• TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc.

Track and measure your progress to show improvements and ROI

13. Next level engagement

Ensure a consistent, positive image on:

• Blogs

• Travel & review sites (Tripadvisor, Yelp)

• Discussion boards and forums

• Social networking sites (Facebook, Myspace)

• Microblogging/lifestreams (Twitter, Friendfeed)

• Photo sharing (Flickr)

• Video sharing sites (Youtube, Viddler)

• Social search/sharing & tagging sites (Delicious, Digg)

14. Top social networks

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Flickr

Youtube

Delicious

Local sites

15. Niche social sites

Tripadvisor

IgoUgo

Virtualtourist.com

Chowhound

Guidespot

GoSeeTell

Yelp

MyTravelGuide

RealTravel

Epinions

DontGoThere.org

16. Social networking fundamentals

Profile

Content

Contacts/friends

Search

• Know your key words/search terms

• Know where to search (e.g., Twitter searches on Summize.com)

Etiquette/best practices: 70/20/10

Other functionalities vary by site

17. Social networking: step one

Reserve your name

• http://namechk.com/

• http://checkusernames.com/

• http://knowem.com

18. 19.

70 | 20 | 10

Formula for success 20.

Create and share useful, meaningful content

• Can be as simple as updating your status regularly with news, information and links about your cause

Answer questions, offer advice

• Provide tips and info related to your interests

• Showcase your expertise and gain credibility

• Add value to gain and keep followers/friends/ members

Be human, memorable and likeable

Build relationships on and off-line

Contributing to the community 21. Blogs

Are powerful communication and community tools

Range in influence and authority

Can become ambassadors for your cause or organization

Are indexed at Technorati.com and AllTop.com

22. 23. The big picture 24. Blog commenting

Your name

Your email address (not shown publicly on the blog)

Your URL (website or blog if applicable)

Brief, on-topic comment about that specific blog post

• Show you read and appreciated the post

• Add value to the conversation

• Stay positive and professional but a sense of humor is okay

• Offer relevant links if applicable (e.g., videos, podcasts or other related blog posts)

• Provide your take on the topic but dont showboat

• No more than a short paragraph or two

• Dont sell, be self-promotional or spamment

25. Possible comment topics

What did the blogger say well?

What did they miss?

Answer questions

What are other commenters or bloggers saying

How does it apply to you

Look forward

Look backward

Ask what if?

26. Building blogger relationships

Link to the blog from your own

Subscribe to the blogs RSS feed

Tweet a link to the blog

Bookmark the post on a social bookmarking site (so others might find it)

Like it inFriendFeed

Stumble it inStumbleUpon

If its really good,Diggit

Recommend it onFacebook

Favorite the blog onTechnorati

Add it to your MyAllTop, NetVibes or Google Reader

27. Why blog?

Blogging nets invaluable insights

• Serves as a home base for all social media activity

• Facilitates two-way conversation

• Helps you interact with bloggers more effectively

• Delivers search engine optimization benefits

• Acts as powerful market research tool

• Gives voice and personality to your brand

28. Twitter basics

Free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows anyone to say anything to anybody

Instant one-to-many messages of 140 characters or less.

Great way to communicate and engage with potential visitors

True value is in who you follow and how you listen ( www.summize.com )

29. Who to follow on Twitter

People or places you admire or want to learn from

People or places you aspire to be like

People sharing valuable news, links and information

Search your keywords on Summize.com to find people talking about your interests then follow them

30. Twitter best practices

Be interesting, memorable, smart

Promote your cause without spamming your followers

Provide something of value information, links, tips, humor, personality, humanity

Listen more than you talk

Formula for success:70 | 20 | 10

31. Social bookmarking

Save, tag, manage and share web links in one centralized place

Emphasizes the power of the community

Taps into the deep Web

Improves how we discover, remember and share online

32. Delicious 101

Save all your favorite sites and links in one place

Find other, similar sites based on your interests, key words and network

Uncover hidden resources using the power of social search

Use tags to help you find and share things easily

33. Delicious 201

Reach out to other community members sharing similar links

Add them to your network

Share links with them by tagging as for:larak

Explain why youre sharing link with them in the Notes field promote your brand without spamming

34. Online reputation management

Google is your true home page

Show your best face online

• • Check entries on Wikipedia, travel Web sites

• • Monitor and participate in blogs and message boards

Respond when it makes sense

• Reach out and fix problems where possible

35.

With the right knowledge and resources, you can impact the results search engines show for specific queries, pushing down negative listings and replacing them with positive ones.

~Rand Fishkin, SEO guru

Online reputation management 36. CASE STUDIES 37. Ohio DMOs on Twitter

One in the top US/Canada top ten

38. Ohio DMOs on Twitter

One in the top US/Canada top ten Experience Columbus!

39. Ohio DMOs on Twitter

One in the US/Canada top ten Experience Columbus!

Another in the top twenty

40. Ohio DMOs on Twitter

One in the US/Canada top ten Experience Columbus

Another in the top twentyPositively Cleveland

41. Experience Columbus

Launch of edgy new destination marketing campaign

Goal: get local ambassadors talking and engaged

Hosted blogger event 7/31

Invited 50 and 35 bloggers attended all 35 blogged

Results: overwhelming response, BUT not all positive about new ads!

The campaign may not have received four-star reviews. But Experience Columbus certainly did. ~Advergirl

Results saved online athttp://delicious.com/LaraK/ExperienceColumbus

42. Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse

Single-location restaurant in Northampton, Mass

The Prime Cuts Blogshares cooking and kitchen tips, tricks, recipes and more

Prime Cuts TVchannel on YouTube and Viddler for weekly/bi-weekly how-to videos

Social monitoring and response program

Active on Yelp.com; encourages visitors to leave reviews there

Presence onMySpace ,Upcoming ,Facebook ,Twitter ,Plurk ,FriendFeed , LinkedIn andFlickr

Results: 30% increase in sales when competitors are flat or down

43. Social media guidelines

This has become part of how we do business

Balance emphasis on social media with expertise in content

Incorporate social media strategies and tools into marketing mix

Deliver the right message to the right audience via the right medium

Unique opportunity to listen to, learn from and influence the consumer-led conversation

At the end of the day, its still about telling our stories!

44.

Social media monitoring sites

• www.Whostalkin.com

• www.Socialmention.com

• www.Summize.comfor Twitter

Travel and tourism social media resources

• http://delicious.com/LaraK/tourism

• http://travel2dot0.wordpress.com

• http://www.goseetell.com/blog

Useful tools 45.

Begin or expand your social media monitoring/ listening program

Create a social media hub and a few spokes

Use RSS feeds to bring your news and blogs to you daily

Read travel blogs and join relevant socnets/ communities

Comment on blogs as a way of engaging with your influencers

Start a Delicious page for your brand and/or yourself

On Twitter and in all of social media, focus on the 70/20/10 formula

Seven things to take away 46. QUESTIONS? [email_address] @LaraK on Twitter Blog atwww.larakretler.com 614-383-1618 (w) 937-271-9151 (c)