Tourism Tweetup the Podcast

Tourism marketing China is an extremely hot topic around the globe. China is the world’s biggest outbound tourism market and the number of Chinese outbound tourists account for about 10% of international tourists. In todays milestone episode we are speaking with George Cao, Co Founder and CEO of Dragon Trail Interactive a travel focused digital marketing agency based in China. We spoke to George about 6 months ago in episode 23 and that was our most popular episode so thought fitting to ask George to join us again so we could discuss and wrap up 2015 from a China Tourism Marketing perspective and look towards 2016.   Trend 1: Long Haul Travel from China is growing at a much faster pace than short haul travel. To destinations like United States and Canada as well as Japan and Europe. Trend 2: Independent travel is growing at a much faster rate than group travel - and this has been the case for a while.     Did we see increased competition from long haul destinations this year and people taking this market more seriously? At the 6 minute mark George says the opportunities are there for long haul and even lesser known destinations like Israel are getting involved and becoming popular.  Very interesting to listen to this part of our chat. "The market is looking for alternative destinations....they are now looking for more interesting places to go, for different experiences - so destinations like Israel are popping up on the radar screen." And this is leading to air capacity increase to these destinations. Listen in from the 7.30 minute mark. What were some of the significant activities that happened across social and digital that has an impact on tourism marketing into China? Mobile has truly become first and this is having a huge impact. SO INTERESTING listen in from the 10 minute mark for details on how including QR Codes, iBeacon and WeChat. The travel companies are realising the importance of offline traffic in marketing. Very strong growth in O to O. This means online to offline.  "...and the enabling technology for this is mobile...". Listen in from the 10.30 mark to go into detail about this. Great stuff.   Discuss some of the newer features of WeChat including their e-commerce capabilities. There was a good study that was released in August this year that surveyed 18,000 Chinese Outbound tourists. Nearly 75% of Chinese tourists are influenced in the choice of destination by social media. Is an official Chinese website still as important if destinations or businesses want to get serious about marketing in China or is social media making it less relevant? Tune in for the answer. The focus of Dragon Trail is to allow destinations and suppliers to reach Chinese consumers but now they are also enabling the travel industry to train travel agents through the China Travel Academy program. Also brand new to launch for Dragon Trail is Dingla (Booked) a B2B marketing platform to enable brands to market to the travel trade.  It has the ability to reach out via online webinars delivered through WeChat, can also manage roadshow activities, people can register and you can manage your trade relationships on this platform. There are lots of more elements to grow the B2B relationship and trade activities. FINAL ADVICE: "Really look closer to home. Do not put 100% of your focus on the internet in China. Do really look at what you have like the offline guests who are visiting you and think about ways to engage these people - because now you can - because every one of them has a smart phone and has WeChat and other mobile apps. Really engage them and turn them into your brand advocates. Spend a significant amount of time thinking about how to engage these people. " George Cao - Dragon Trail   The post

Tourism social media marketing looking towards 2016What were some of the good news rollouts and what are some of the things that we maybe need to forget in the world of tourism social media and what lessons we need to think about going into 2016.Jesse Desjardins Global Manager Social & Content for Tourism AustraliaPaul Nahoun who looks after the Travel Vertical at Facebook & Instagram Philippa Cail Director of Sales Australia / New Zealand for HootsuiteNotes to come, watch this space. To read more about Jesse's thesis see http://www.bandt.com.au/advertising/how-australias-spokesperson-has-changed-from-paul-hogan Check out some of the tweets and insights from #TourismHootup with guests from Facebook, Tourism Australia and Hootsuite. The post Tourism social media marketing looking towards 2016: Ep #49 appeared first on Holly G.

Content types for event social media is the topic of this week's Tourism Tweetup the Podcast episode and the guest this week is me! I have been speaking on the topic of how to develop a social media plan for local and regional events at many conferences this year and although it would be tough to fit that into one podcast episode in this episode we drill into one small aspect of that which is around content types and ideas for your event social media plan. I have developed an online course about how to develop a social media plan for local and regional events click on the link and watch the welcome video to find out more or you can always email me at holly@gofuturemedia.com   In this episode we first start by talking about an editorial calendar and how that is different to a content calendar. We go into both an editorial calendar and a content calendar, their roles and importance. I refer to Twitter Moments #ownthemoment which can be useful for putting together an editorial calendar. Listen around the 10 minute mark about why having a content calendar helps you say no. I then talk about creating content for Pre event During event and Post event Within Pre Event I discuss the importance of content not being to general but getting quite granular and specific (listen around the 6 minute mark for more). Here are examples of pre event content            We then talk about three types of on the day live content. We discuss Pre Scheduled Content Live Content User Generated Content Pre Scheduled Content is important and it really takes the pressure off all the activities happening on the day of your event. [Tweet "Pre Scheduled Content is important & it takes the pressure off all the activities happening on the day of your event."] Listen in around the 13 minute make for more on this - its important!! Types of content you might like to pre schedule include kick off welcome message, sponsor messages and acknowledgements, program highlights, logistics and reminders. Live content adds the colour to the day of your event. Listen in around the 16 minute mark [Tweet "Live content adds the colour to the day of your event."] Word Swag is a handy app to use to briton up your content which puts text over images. User Generated Content (UGC) is an important content type to use in your event. We want to encourage user generated content and to do this we can make sure people are ahead of time what the hashtag is. I give a heap of other suggest from the 19 minute mark. [Tweet "User Generated Content shows your event from different perspectives."] Read more about UGC from an earlier post.                                     Post Event Content Don't stop posting on social media just because the event has finished. You want to slowly ween people off you you don't want your fans to think you have left them high and dry. Listen for more details on this from the 20 minute mark including ideas for post event content. Thats a wrap! Learn more about social media for events here Please let me know if you have ideas for a topic or guest for 2016 or if you would like to be a guest on the show. Email me at holly@gofuturemedia.com   The post Content types and ideas for your event social media: Ep #48 appeared first on Holly G.

There were lots of names I could have called this episode; Tracking what social media drives bookings; Using tracking & tools to improve your hotel marketing; Tracking of your social media activities to improve your marketing; Getting technical - tracking your social media efforts; There were a bunch of options but the point is listen to this episode if you are using social media in your accommodation, hotel, tour operation or any tourism business and you are transacting online.  In fact any tourism business where you have a website and have paid advertising. These are the types of episodes I really love as ultimately we want to know what social media activities drive bookings right!? A practice and insightful chat with Director of Social Media of Amalgamated Holdings Limited, Tim Welsh aka @Twel5 about how they are using and tracking social media across the range of tourism groups they own, how they do it and some of the tools that are used. This also goes into using these social media tools to better understand your market. So much great stuff in this podcast episode, a must listen for anyone spending money on Facebook ads or using Facebook - especially hotels or accommodation. After finding a little about Tim Welsh, we start off talking about the role of social media into the organisations plans. Tim talks about how social media gives the ability to tells a story and sell an experience rather than a hotel room just being a commodity. People are more savvy and are looking for which hotel will give them the experience they are looking for in the location they are visiting. Social media allows to better tell the story and to distinguish themselves (listen from about the 4 minute mark and hear a little more about QT Hotels). From about the 6 minute mark Tim mentions what social media channels are currently the focus. At the 8 minute mark we talk about the value of co-branded content in relation to video and YouTube and a little chat about working with influencers. "I think the next evolution (of working with influencers).... once people realise how many "influencers" are out there we are going to get more scientific about how we decide who is influential..." From the 11 minute mark we go deeper into how to measure the effectiveness of social media and to track what is actually driving bookings. Tim explains a multi-touch attribution model - what it is and why it is important as well as the importance of assigning value to this process. "What you need to look at is tracing how many people come back from different sources and something like social media or a great content blog a lot of times won't be that last piece of the puzzle that makes people book - it can be but usually it won't be - but what it does help do is really inspire people and create a need or a want where it wasn't previously and we need to assign a certain amount of value to that." Click through to see a little more on this re Google Analytics signing values to goals. Then we talk about UTM Tracking codes and the great importance of these. Buffer has created a guide to this so rather than me reinventing the wheel check that out here https://blog.bufferapp.com/utm-guide. Places like Falcon, Hootsuite and Tracks (and I think Buffer) have these easily built in to their system. "By better knowing what the pathway is we can provide we can provide better content that will actually put them into a closed loop marketing through various remarking tools and will make conversions cost less...." says Tim Welsh. Listen in from the 18 minute mark - this is one of my favourite parts of the podcast - the example Tim gives is pretty darn cool. The other part to this is using the social media tools to better understanding our audience and better segmenting of groups. "We spend a lot of time NOT understand our audiences and just trying to understand what converts them but we need to sta...

In this episode we chat with Brian Matson about how to Maximise Your Digital & Social Content. Brian is Senior Director of Strategy & Education at TwoSix Digital and former Marketing Director at Fargo-Moorhead Convention & Visitors Bureau. We talk about utilising your existing content - be this Pinterest boards, blog posts, Instagram images, Tweets, Facebook posts and videos - and importantly having a process in place so every time you are creating content you have a system to maximise it.   [Tweet "People aren't giving their pieces of content the opportunities to succeed"] At the 7 minute mark Brian talks about their FIVE RULE concept. Listen in to hear about this. "Share, integrate or extend on the story." At the 8.30 minute mark we discuss the several reasons why integrating is so important. We talk about embedding posts - great idea! Read here about how to embed Instagram posts. The thing that is missing is process. We chat about Evergreen Content at the 15 minute mark. "I think video is an essential piece of a content plan for sure." We also go into what makes up a good Facebook post. Read here about Facebook Carousel capabilities. "They (Facebook) are giving us the opportunity to be super creative." We talk a little about Periscope around the 21 minute mark including a super cool example from a destination. A great episode thanks Brian! In the intro I mention I recently hung out with Nathan Chan from Foundr Mag and he has grown his Instagram in just two years to over 400,00 followers. He has developed a free ebook which tells his Instagram story and how he did it - loads of great tips and insights - you can find it here. I also mention an upcoming event in conjunction with Hootsuite - we are having a Tourism Hootup in Sydney on Tuesday the 24th November. This is a free event but you will need to register here. For those who cannot attend but would like to follow along the hashtag is #TourismHootup   The post How to maximise your digital & social content: Ep #46 appeared first on Holly G.

This episode comes to you live from Australian Regional Tourism Network Convention 2015.  This event was held in Victor Harbor in the Fleurieu Peninsula of  South Australia. Although not every issues raised at the convention is covered off in this podcast episode it does gives some taste of the key themes and topics to come out of this regional tourism event. Mark Olsen was the master facilitator of this event. See more about him and Earth Check here http://earthcheck.org/about/our-people/ and Mark kicks of this podcast sharing the difference between a conference and convention and that a manifesto and direction for ARTN is to be developed out of this convention in which they will bring regional issues to national platforms such as Federal Ministers, State Tourism Organisations CEO's, Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF) and Australian Local Government Association amongst others. "The timing is critical...for the first time in a long time we have actually seen regional tourism organisations fold altogether in 2015. We see three states undertaking reviews of their regional funding and their regional governance models...." Mark Olsen. "With more Australians travelling overseas than any other time in our history, that domestically RTO's are saying how do we maximise our share, how to we hold Australians here, how do we gain share of voice in this cluttered market place.."  Mark Olsen. "The Bunsen burner is really on for regions, and their ability to demonstrate their influence." Mark Olsen. At the 4.50 minute mark we then spoke to Mark Dowd CEO of the City of Onkaparinga about their relationship with a sister city in China, learnings from that relationship and the key role WeChat plays in that ongoing relationship. Very Interesting! From the 9.00 minute mark we chat to Liz Ward from Tourism Tribe and Lynne Hocking from Webnoise about their key take aways from the convention. Liz discusses that there seems to be an appetite for change which is refreshing and the discussion around the clarity of brand in regional areas. Lynne comments about the need for industry development especially in regional areas as well as the growth in importance on caravan and camping (I agree). People who work in regional tourism need to have that realisation that they are working in these tiny little micro moment opportunities to connect with people - that they have to be connected all the time like the consumer is connected says Liz Ward. (I agree there is still a massive resistance to social media and digital across the tourism industry). From the 13 minute mark we chat to Miranda Lang Executive Officer Fleurieu Peninsula Tourism. We talk about collaboration (which I personally think is a key theme from the event). Miranda mentions the KISS rule and sometimes we need a reminder to keep things simple. From the 16 minute mark we talk to Graham Perry from Inland Tourism NSW. Graham mentioned collaboration and that we can't ignore the digital economy. See the Inland NSW new consumer tourism website https://www.travelin.com.au and for more on this see this article. From the 18 minute mark Mark Olsen facilitator of the event wraps up some of the key outcomes and direction for ARTN going forward. From more please check out an article I wrote for KarryOn Travel on the ARTN Convention. Several links mentioned in this podcast episode:  The organisation ARTN Central NSW - UnEarth Campaign website http://visitcentralnsw.com.au Inland NSW new tourism website https://www.travelin.com.au and for more on this see this article. The Future of Visitor Centres - Western Australia Report NSW Business Chamber (although can't seem to see any information on the new white paper re the shared economy) MyTravelresearch.com. The post Regional tou...

The influence of Instagram for tourism marketing an interview with Lauren Bath. There is debate about influencer marketing and if Instagram actually impact visitation to tourism destinations. In this episode we talk with high profile Instagramer Lauren Bath about the influence of Instagram for tourism marketing. Chef turned photographer Lauren Bath is a self identified social media influencer due to her success on the popular photo-sharing site Instagram. With over 400,000 Instagram followers Lauren monetises her social media reach working with destinations and brands all across the world. On Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we talk with Lauren about influencer marketing and get her experience and insights on if it really works and what tourism brands and destinations need to consider to be successful when working with digital influencers.   Useful Links: http://laurenbath.com http://socialblade.com Show Notes: We kick off discussing what makes someone an online influencer and this relates to having a large audience online and that audience being highly engaged. Lauren discusses  how she is very open with her online communication and this in turn leads to trust. At the 5.30 minute mark we talk about how do you know that what you do is actually influencing travel. Please listen in here. Lauren discusses that Instagram or influencer marketing impacts the dreaming phase of travel and it is a touchpoint that gets people closer to deciding on a destination. From the 7 minute mark Lauren discusses all the other elements of working with an influencer like her that you may not be aware of. for example for every new client Lauren does an Instagram workshop. This way she makes sure that both her and the client receive maximum value from the activities. Around the 9 minute mark we talk about the importance of  the marketing mix. "I'm not saying don't do regular marketing - and I never have....but Instagram is a very important part of the strategy because there is a whole generation of people that are using social media that aren't reading the paper anymore and Instagram is a great place to reach them as it's such a hot platform right now."   At the 11 minute mark we go into detail about what is offered and expected by the influencer during a typical campaign including what is reported on. "Each destination will capture an audience from my visit. And the strength of that audience is solely dependent on how good their own Instagram account is." At about the 15.30 minute mark we discuss what destinations need to consider when hosting influencers. The number one thing destinations need to be aware of is that influencers will require a fee. Listen in for more. At the 19 minute mark we talk about the dark side of Instagram including those that are buying followers and signs you can look for. At the 23 minute mark we discuss fees and budgets. At about the 27 minute mark I ask if Instagram is getting stale or what if any innovation is happening in this space. Lauren discusses how Instagram still has a lot of life in it yet but always important to look at other platforms too. She discusses an example of a recent campaign she was part of with Tourism Dubai. Well worth a listen for more detail. The post The influence of Instagram for tourism marketing: Ep #44 appeared first on Holly G.

In this episode we come to you live from TRAVELTech Conference in Sydney Australia. This conference is run by Martin Kelly from TravelTrends and this years theme was Disruptive Influencers. The conference speaker line up included representatives from AirBnB, Uber, Hotel Tonight, HelloWorld, Dimmi, Booking Boss and many more. We spoke to several of the presenters and a few of the 2oo plus attendees to gain an overview of Travel Tech 2015 and some of the highlights and ideas generated from this full day event. In this podcast episode we spoke with; Jeremy Reitman CEO of HelloWorld.com.au Paul Baron Group Manager Online Marketing at Tourism Victoria Renee Welsh Founder & CEO of Booking Boss Tom from Thrifty DJ from Expedia Christian Schaefer and Steve Johnson Founders of Carhood.com.au Martin Kelly Director of Travel Trends and  TRAVELTech conference founder/organiser The post TRAVELTech Conference 2015, Disruptive Influencers: Ep #43 appeared first on Holly G.

In this week's episode we are discussing Customer Journey Mapping for tourism businesses and destinations with Dr. Moira Scerri from SEPIA Consulting. Moira explains what customer journey mapping is, why it is important and how this impacts our marketing as well as other business departments and operations. I was inspired to interview Moira after reading an article she published on LinkedIn on the topic and you can read that article here. Customer Journey Mapping is taking the customer perspective and understanding what they do from the time they are deciding to do business with you to all the way through to after they have had their core experience with you. So it is looking at the customer from end to end. At the 2.51 minute mark with discuss why it is important to understand and see where the customer is coming from end to end. Reasons include better understanding the customers budget issues and emotional state. There needs to be different customer journey maps for each customer segment or what we now call customer personas. Developing the customer persona is part of the process. A customer journey map is a visual representation of the different stages the customer goes through throughout the journey. This can be done on paper or in a spreadsheet or via an online tool. It is about being able to visualise the interactions with the customer. From the 5.40 minute part Moira gives an example of what points may be included. "Typically in the past we used to work in a very transactional fashion, we used to try to sell to the customer all in one go. Like we only had one chance to sell something to the customer. Now with automation and now we are more sophisticated in the way we can be in contact with customers using technology we are now seeing we can interact with them over a greater period of time. And what that enables us to do is to look at what are the best points on their 'journey' that we are able to interact with them - and what service can we offer them at each of those different points." One of the primary benefits of this is it means we can build a stronger relationship with our customer even before they have engaged in our core offering. It also means we are building a relationship with the customer and we can map their emotional state at different points. What can we do when they are anxious, what can we do when they are excited, what can we do when they are feeling different emotions. From about the 9 minute mark Moira discusses another example relating to the airline industry. Here 'service atomisation' is also discussed - this is breaking down the service to the smallest component that they know that adds value. And then you can decide WHEN the best time is to offer that service offering (I like that, very cool). This section also discusses that its not just about looking at it from a marketing view point but operations including reducing waste which is not only good for the business and the customer but also good for the environment. "Thats the other benefit, you are looking how it interacts with the whole organisation and also if organisations are handing off to third party providers how those interactions work." At the 13 minute mark we discuss about what tourism businesses would benefit (spoiler alert here - it's all tourism businesses but tune in for more details). From about the 17 minute mark we talk about how to go about developing a customer journey map Understand your value proposition Develop customer personas Segment what the journey looks like including touch points Map out their emotional state within the journey Look at how we are delivering the service at the moment Then how can we change or improve our service offering Identify points of potential innovation From about the 20 minute mark I get excited about some of the opportunities from a ...

When we’re talking about video and television, brand-funded content in the industry refers to content that is funded by a brand or advertiser, rather than a TV network. On Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we chat with travel presenter and producer Adam Ford and we’ll be talking about Branded TV. Yes I know it is probably sounds like a slight move away from our typical tourism social media discussion but I don't know much about Branded TV so its a great chance to learn and its important to look at a range of content options and see which are right for your marketing mix. We hear about the rise and rise of video so I think this discussion is relevant and important. Lets see what we can learn   When we’re talking about video and television, brand-funded content in the industry refers to content that is funded by a brand or advertiser, rather than a TV network. On a more grassroots level though, it’s really about taking a brand’s key marketing messages and USP’s and integrating those messages into the production of editorial content – be that for television, online or social media. Brand funded content can be an incredibly marketing tool because you are taking your key message and creating relevant editorial content that users can engage with and potentially value. It’s a very potent marketing tool but it does come at a cost. It’s estimated that the brand-funded content market on Australian TV is around $200 million.   It goes further than product placement. In branded content the brand’s message is integral to the content, rather than just playing an arbitrary role within the content.   A high profile example of brand-funded content that’s often cited is Better Homes and Gardens, where parts of the program are funded by products. But there are lots of others. Weekend travel programming often falls under the brand-funded content umbrella. We produced three series of Tour the World on this basis (can explain more about the show here). In our instance, the programme was charged a fee by the network to broadcast the show and that fee and the production costs to make the show were recouped from the brands featured in the show. But there are no hard and fast rules about the structure. It’s often quite difficult for brands to understand how brand-funded content works. The idea of paying the networks to screen content seems totally at odds with the way most of us perceive TV production – i.e.: that the network would pay to make or buy content and make income through advertising. But networks are increasingly looking at this model. Is it relevant to travel and tourism brands as travel totally lends itself to great brand-funded content, although the costs can be prohibitive depending on the scale of productions. OK, so the reality is that the cost of producing and broadcasting brand-funded travel content in peak viewing periods on our main channels is going to be well out of the reach of the majority of tourism and travel brands, although there are some that are doing it. But what is interesting for this discussion though is to get smaller brands thinking about creative, cost-effective ways that they can embed their key messages in editorial content in a relevant way and get it front of potential customers.   So the process might be along the lines of the following. 1. Look at your USPs and key marketing pillars. What’s unique about your product? What lends itself to video content marketing (a visual medium)? What are your customers actually interested in seeing? How can you engage them? 2. Consider TV but look at the secondary Freeview channels, Pay TV or perhaps the data-casting channels. There are lots of opportunities there. Explore ideas for shows. Look at ways that you can take what you do and make it relevant as content to the audience you want to target. 3.

Last year Hawaii Tourism (Australia and New Zealand office) worked with four travel agents to develop the “Agents of Aloha” travel trade program. In this podcast episode (Episode 40) we chat with Ashlee Galea Country Manager Australia at Hawaii Tourism Oceania to talk through the program.   We start off by talking about how important the travel trade is to the destination of Hawaii in both the holiday research and the actual booking process (listen in for specific stats). And then talk about how social media or digital more broadly as vast become a key way to train the travel trade as travel agents are spread throughout all of Australia so digital channels can help in reaching agents. Hawaii Tourism currently have a trade website and an online specialist training program for the travel trade and email newsletters are also used in the communication strategy. More recently a YouTube channel has been established for the travel travel with webinars and the new 'Agents of Aloha' training videos (which we will discuss). Hawaii Tourism is also currently setting up a blog  that will be valuable for both consumer and trade. We then get into the details and logistics of the Agents of Aloha campaign including why the campaign was developed and some of the logistics of how the campaign come together. "We wanted to show the breadth and depth of the destination beyond the sun, sand and surf and do it in a way that was fun, engaging and educational."   Video consumption is growing and video can be used for agents to learn (listen in to the 8.30 minute mark). "We decided we wanted to do something with video, something we could launch visually at our roadshow and something we could roll out online so it has longevity and use in the digital space" From the 9 minute mark we talked about how the 4 key agents were selected. From the 10 minute mark we discuss the campaign logistics including selecting the right videographer, developing the itinerary, selecting the agents, getting buy in from partners/industry, run the famil and then upon return phase two starts. We go into detail about selecting videographer from the 11.45 minute mark. This is very interesting for those looking at video projects. From the 14.20 minute mark we talk about success metrics and if the campaign was deemed a success. "We didn't have to script what they said...we had them do everything we knew would blow their mind and that would come across in the video and then educate the person watching." From the 18.30 minute mark Ashlee discusses the next steps of the campaign now that the videos have been produced. Very interesting. "We all want to maximise our investment in whatever way we can....we plan to use the footage for all sorts of stuff moving forward. That one famil although it was a huge undertaking, the content we've now got..." "Death by powerpoint is over" From the 21 minute mark we talk about further way social media is involved including incentivising sharing while on famils. We discuss if a separate consumer verses trade social media channels is required. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKh8MNQfCkP0Q2Jf_147jme-C0prznL3v And the travel trade site here     The post Communicating with travel trade through social media and digital: Ep #40 appeared first on Holly G.

Leslie McLellan is a destination marketer based in Southern California, USA and is an expert in tourism marketing on small budgets. Leslie has built two DMO's from the ground up with very little money and very little staff - and in this episode of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we will be talking about how that is possible and how DMO's can engage their communities to help with marketing. You can find out more about Leslie on her tourism blog JustASmallTownGirl.us. where there are many tourism marketing tips for small destinations. Leslie McLellan starts by sharing with us her story about starting a DMO (or Regional Tourism Organisation as we often call them here in Australia) - from scratch in Lake ArrowHead in Southern California in the early 90's. They were funded by a small grant each year as well as a bed tax. Leslie worked in this role for 21 years and went through all facets of marketing, traditional through to social media. She is currently in her third year of working with a new DMO in California called San Jacinto Valley with no budget. Leslie says a large part of the marketing success has been through working with bloggers. Listen in at the 7.30 minute mark where we discuss in more detail about working with bloggers and the successes had. We also talk a little about a big travel bloggers conference called TBEX - see http://tbexcon.com At the 10 minute mark we discuss why Leslie works with bloggers rather than traditional PR for this specific destination. Really interesting points here. Social media and blogging is a great gift as it means you can focus on your niche and get as specific as you want to be. From the 14 minute mark we talk about the importance of community engagement and how things took a positive turn once Leslie brought the industry and community together. Leslie provides three great practice ideas; Provide generic tweets and Facebook posts for community members to rework and use Bring back community meetings to understand the DMO vision and to together work on the direction for the destination with a focus on collaboration. "regular community meetings where everyone has a voice." Signage, communicating the social networks and hashtag to get all visitors and the community involved. From the 24 minute mark Leslie discusses her favourite social media channel and the story behind why. Leslie finishes with some of her plans and insights about Periscope. You can listen to episode 34 to learn more about Periscope. You can connect with Leslie on Twitter https://twitter.com/LeslieMcLellan         The post Marketing tips for small tourism destinations: Ep #39 appeared first on Holly G.

Trip Advisor and a culture for embracing user reviews in todays tourism marketing. Today on Tourism Tweetup the podcast our guest is Bernie O’Keefe Director of Marketing at Tangalooma Island Resort in Queensland Australia and we are discussing Trip Advisor and developing a culture of embracing user reviews with the accommodation sector. If you are an accommodation operator or use Trip Advisor for your business this is a MUST LISTEN to episode. We start off discussing the general change in tourism and accommodation marketing and why user reviews are actually important for sales and marketing. From a marketing strategy view point data is so important (it always has been) but building those correlations between user reviews, customer service and sales trends is the key thing to prove. Its all about data at the end of the day. "Once you have that data lined up, there is absolutely no doubt that positive reviews, particularly on Trip Advisor do equal higher returns on sales and negative reviews have massive negative impact on conversion on your website." Bernie O'Keefe. At the 9.30 minute mark we talk about how to talk to senior management about shifting a negative perception to Trip Advisor through data correlation and building business cases. At about the 14 minute mark we talk about the tool Revinate and how it can save you time in relation to user reviews and how it can actually measure the impact. At about the 19 minute mark we discuss how to identify and work with internal advocates. At the 24 minute mark we talk about the not so positive aspects of Trip Advisor that the tourism industry should we aware of and potentially vocal about. Some very worthy points raised here. At the 29 minute mark we talk about the role of a marketer and how its more and more about the product and not about gaming the system at all. "What you need to do as a marketer is focus on the product". I ask Bernie a bonus question right at the very end so stay tuned to the 33 minute mark.       The post Developing a culture for embracing user reviews: Ep #38 appeared first on Holly G.

Five tools to help with your social media marketing management Most of my clients know that I am a ‘social media puriest’. What this means is I like to use the social platforms as they were designed without a lot of automation as I believe spending time on the platforms is a key to success as it allows us to better understand the platform capabilities and better understand our audience on these platforms. However most of us have a lot more to do than hang out on social media all day and generally have guests to attend to, staff to manage and suppliers to stay on top off. That is why incorporating the right additional social media management tools can help you better manage and deliver your social media plan. [Tweet "The right social media tools can help you better manage & deliver your social media plan"] There are so many social media tools out there and new ones entering the market all the time. I have selected five that I am familiar with that I think are worth the investment. Please note I am not affiliated with any tool and don't get any kick backs etc, this post is written to hopefully offer value to you and help you best manager your social media marketing. 1. MeetEdgar Meet Edgard is a tool to schedule social media posts especially for Twitter but it works for Facebook and LinkedIn too. Edgar recycles content and builds a library of social content so you never run out of posts. When you craft and send a Tweet not all your followers are going to see that Tweet, for it to really get traction it needs to be sent multiple times. What this tool does is once you create an update or post - you add it to a category say Blog Post or Fast Fact or Promotion and the update gets stored in your library. When every other update in that category has been posted, Edgar will post this one again, so it can be seen by a new audience. Until recently I had been using Hootsuite to schedule tweets however I was never happy with the way they displayed images and if I wanted to post the same tweet multiply times (and I think that is a smart thing to do) I had to write out each tweet, add the image multiple times and decide what time to send it. I am really happy with how Edgar displayed the images and how you can map out your schedule really clearly for each social channel. Also you can give Edgar your RSS feed and it will actually create posts for you and automatically update when you post new content. They offer a 14 day free trial so give it a go and see what you think. The only down side is its $50US a month - so about $15 a week - so you need to weigh up if it saves you $15 a week in time. Now a side note here: just because you are scheduling Tweets it doesn't mean your work is done on Twitter, what it should mean is that your time spent on that platform is engaging with others, their content and replying as thats the important stuff! 2. CrowdfireApp JustUnfollow.com have changed their name to CrowdFire - this is a mostly free tool - well I only use the free level. This tools identifies who on Twitter and Instagram is not following you, who your recent followers are, your recent unfollowers and the bit I like the most your inactive followers. It then allows you to bulk unfollow or follow accounts. Between 25 and 100 in one session. I use this for identifying inactive followers and unfollowing them - you can see who has been inactive for 6 months or more or 3 months or 1 month. I believe it is important to keep your social media accounts healthy and unfollowing inactive accounts is part of that. Now just because someone isn't following you it doesn't mean you shouldn't be following them - there are loads of accounts I follow that don't follow me but it can be good to keep an eye on things and do a cull every know and again. 3. Schedugram Scheduling Instagram doesn't sit 100% comfortably with me however I ...

9 Australian Family Travel Bloggers You May Like to Know My fifth ProBlogger Conference didn't disappoint, with speakers including Jadah from Simple Green Smoothies (you must check out their Instagram) and Pamela Wilson from CopyBlogger Media (a highlight). As well as learning from many experienced bloggers and digital marketers, I met and reconnected with many Australian travel bloggers. I would estimate there were about 50 travel bloggers who attended ProBlogger 2015. In this podcast episode, episode 36, I introduce you to 9 Australian Family Travel Bloggers, each with their own angle. For those Travel Bloggers I didn't get to chat to please feel free to leave your comment and blog link in the comments section below. Thanks for a great #PBEvent 2015 to everyone I had the pleasure of meeting over the two day conference and see you next year! [Tweet "9 Family Australian Travel Bloggers you may want to know"] In this podcast we are introduced to the following 9 Family Travel Bloggers; 1. Seana Smith - Sydney kids food and travel 2. Kate Richards - Adventure Mumma 3. Caz Makepeace - YTravel Blog 4. Linda Fairbairn - Journey Jottings 5. Nicole Avery - Planning With Kids 6. Kate Nelson - Meetoo 7. Annette - World Travel Tribe 8. Kirralee Baker - Escape With Kids 9. Monique Van Tulder - The Urban Mum You my like to check out the Twitter hashtag #PBEvent which has quite a few highlights from the event or my Twitter feed where I live Tweet from the many tourism, travel and social media events I attend. Women In Tourism Leadership Lunch Also we have just announced that tickets are on sale to the third Women In Tourism Leadership Lunch which is held in Sydney, Australia on Friday the 30th October 2015. For more details click here for the event and ticket page and you may also like to join the Women In Tourism (Australia) private Facebook group. Please request to join and one of the members will approve you quick smart, head to https://www.facebook.com/groups/WomenInTourism/ The post 9 Australian Family Travel Bloggers at #PBEvent 2015: Ep #36 appeared first on Holly G.

In this episode we talk with Cory Gale, Social Media & PR Executive at Tourism Northern Territory about their recent tourism marketing campaign which included a Hypermeet. Listen in to learn what a Hypermeet is, how it came together, insights on working with influencers and we also chat about the rise of video in tourism marketing campaigns. Check out some of the fantastic videos produced as part of Tourism NT's Hypermeet Cory mentions three key influencers they worked with as part of the Hypermeet. I've linked to their Instagram accounts below as well as a link to the DMO's Instagram. They are all ABSOLUTELY worth checking out, inspiring stuff! Mia Glastonbury on Instagram Matt Glastonbury on Instagram Matt Vandeputte on Instagram Tourism Northern Territory on Instagram Check out more episodes of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast on iTunes or on Stitcher. The post Hypermeet Red Centre Way, Tourism Marketing Campaign: Ep #35 appeared first on Holly G.

Periscope and ideas for travel and tourism In this episode we chat with Dan Moore who is a photographer, blogger and now periscoper. Dan is an avid traveller, travel blogger and also works with Cover More Travel Insurance (listen to our podcast episode about their great YouTube strategy here).  He started experimenting with Periscope earlier this year and is now an addict with over 13,000 followers and over 15 million hearts (if you don't know what a heart is make sure you listen in). In this episode we have a conversation about how Dan started using Periscope, some of the key features of Periscope and what sets it apart from other social networks. This podcast episode is designed to get you thinking about how you could potentially use Periscope for tourism marketing or at least keeping up to speed with what Periscope is and who is using it. Periscope is a live streaming mobile app. It was launched in March 2015 and is now owned by Twitter. It has about 7 million active users globally but growing really fast. Many social media key influencers like Darren Rouse and Gary Vaynerchuk are using this new app and singing its praises. You can find more about Dan and links to all his social networks via his great website and blog. In this podcast episode Dan mentioned Periscoper Euro Maestro see https://twitter.com/euromaestro He also mentions Ryan A Bell and the Periscope Summit see http://www.periscopesummit.com/team/ryan-a-bell/ This podcast has bonus content - listen past the 26.30 minute mark to hear about when I watched Dan sleep - well he was Sleep Scoping - its pretty funny. Screenshots of Periscope                     [Tweet "The live factor (of periscope), being able to speak with someone live, is the biggest kicker out of all the social networks "] The post We talk with traveller Dan Moore about Periscope: Ep #34 appeared first on Holly G.

Themes and takeaways from SoMeT15au chatting with Ben Alcock Ben Alcock is PR and Communications Director at Tourism Oman (Australia and New Zealand) and is also a blogger at Disarm Doors and Crosscheck, he recently attended Social Media Tourism Symposium 2015 Australia and in this podcast episode we chat about takeaways, key themes and discoveries from the conference. The show notes are a little different this week as it was more discussion style however I have dot pointed the key points. Key Points Lots of tweets on the hashtag #SoMeT15au Storytelling a key theme - yes we have heard it before however a good reminder (for details listen from the 5 minute mark). "Get out of the way." Its time for destinations to step aside and move heavily into curation. Letting other peoples stories bubble to the surface. This idea of getting out of the way - destinations need to step aside and focus more heavily into curation I refer to some similar points from an earlier podcast with Tourism Oregon. Keep things simple  - see more about this in my blog post on Platforming. Content efficiencies. From the 10 minute mark we talk about destinations working with bloggers. Time to stop looking at the numbers and worth with bloggers who have the hearts and minds of your audience and who can tell your story right. 'Are we chasing eyeballs? Or hearts and minds?' Great session with Christine Retschlag. #TheGlobalGodess #SoMeT15AU — Disarm Doors And... (@DisarmDoors) July 23, 2015 12.30 minute mark we talk about the 'to pay or not to pay bloggers' debate. Worth a listen. 16 minute mark we talk about email marketing and how this is still important in the marketing mix. Creating sharable moments within the destination From the 20 minute mark we talk about Free WiFi within destinations From the 21 minute mark we talk about Tourism New Zealand. Finding the obstacles to bookings and creating content around those issues/topics/themes. Ben mentions 'The Kombie Diaries'  and also mentions the story of the Tourism New Zealand brand mark. Almost 90% of Tourism New Zealand's budget is spent on digital. 8,000 photos a day of the iamsterdam sign. 50% shared to social. #SoMeT15AU — Chris Chambers (@ckjchambers) July 23, 2015 The post Themes and takeaways from SoMeT15au: Ep #33 appeared first on Holly G.

How Pinterest works for travel and tourism CEO and Co-Founder of Tailwind, Danny Maloney is our guest on this week's podcast episode and we are talking all about Pinterest for travel and tourism. In this episode of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast I talk to Danny about what Pinterest is, who is using it and the benefits of Pinterest for travel and tourism. We also talk about Tailwind a Pinterest marketing and analytics platform of which Danny is Co-Founder and CEO. Tailwind helps manage visual content sourcing and publishing work flow (including pin and repin scheduling), run campaigns on Pinterest, manage your community every day and measure the results. Connect with Danny on Twitter here. Check out more about Tailwind here. Pinterest is all about inspiration and aspiration says Danny. It's less about the past or the current moment and more about the future. Pinterest is more about the future which is why people love it some much! Pinterest can be a great planning tool for travel. (We talk about this at the 5 minute mark). From about the 6.30 minute mark we talk about what marketers need to be doing to be effective on Pinterest. "Pinterest from a marketers perspective begins and ends with content. Content is the heart of Pinterest." say Danny Maloney [Tweet "Pinterest from a marketers perspective begins and ends with content says @DanielpMaloney"] The first thing is to determine the strategy and what you want to get out of the platform 9your objectives). Is it about broad branding, is it about driving specific traffic, is it ultimately about driving bookings etc and then determine what is the right content strategy to support that objective and then looking at what content do we have right now. To get the profile going; Have a strong avatar image Have an inviting and informative description Build your initial boards starting with at least 8-10 and these boards need to have enough content to be interesting. Have enough content to be taken seriously so you will grow followers Around the 9 minute mark we talk about Pinterest as a web traffic driver. Around the 10 minute mark we talk about what to measure. Danny says when starting out you want to be able to assess if your content strategy is working (good point!). Once you have some traffic flowing though your Pinterest account you will be able to see your vitality score for each of your boards and you'll learn which boards are more interesting to your audience and this is what you want to push. Then look at which specific pins and types of pins are doing well (listen at the 11.30 mark for some great points). At around the 13 minute mark we talk about setting up a positive growth cycle for your account. "Experimenting is a good idea". If you try a bunch of things you'll get some bites. Around the 15 minute mark we talk about specific examples of who is doing it well in the travel industry e.g. Four Seasons Hotels and Resort. See their profile here. Listen to this part there are some cool ideas. The other example referred to is Azamara Cruises. Gives you a sense of being in the moment on the cruises. "Try to craft a pin so when someone sees it they can instantly feel themselves stepping into the moment." We chat about the Tailwind tool around the 19 minute mark. They create tools within Tailwind to help with content, help with publishing (editorial calendar), offer analytics and then the promotions side of the platform (e.g. promoted reach capabilities). Check out more about Tailwind here. The final point is a good one "If you are just starting out on Pinterest understand that Pinterest is not designed as a real time platform, don't try to emulate the strategy you are using on other platforms, try and think about how Pinterest is different and unique and how different types of content will succeed ...

Instagram for tourism, getting tactical Angela Ponsford and Miranda Ivey make up the business Dotti Media based in Northern NSW Australia. The girls from Dotti Media help small businesses and entrepreneurs make the most of their social media platforms. They have just released an online course called Get Insta Savvy and this is all about Instagram. Today on Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we chat to Angela about Instagram and some of the tactics needed for success on this platform from a business perspective. We start of chatting about Visual Marketing and why Instagram has been so popular. We then chat about what we need to get our head around when using Instagram for business rather than using Instagram for personal use. Angela talks about posting images that convey what your business is and allowing people to get to know you - that posting what you had for lunch isn't really that interesting when people don't know you and when they don't have a relationship with you. We talk about the demographics of Instagram which is slightly female skewed (6 minute mark) and then the type of content that works on Instagram (6.30 mark). Having a face or a person in the photo works Adding text over photos/images works Snackable content Travel inspiration From the 9.30 minute mark we talk about common mistakes of Instagram users Having your account set to private Not having a bio (you have up to 150 characters) Not using hashtags Not having a comment or description Make sure your clickable website link is mobile friendly [Tweet "If you are not using hashtags the only people seeing your posts are the people already following you"] [Tweet "Hashtags are an integral part of Instagram marketing says @dottimedia"] From the 14.30 minute mark we talk tips for growing your Instagram followers - listen for the details! Have a good bio Post more often Considering post timing (see http://iconosquare.com) Follow more accounts Leave comments on others accounts Use hashtags Remember its about being social https://instagram.com/muradosmann/ https://instagram.com/viawesome We talk about user generated content - see my blog post about user generated content https://instagram.com/dottimedia/ https://twitter.com/dottimedia https://getonlinesavvy.com The post Instagram for tourism, getting tactical: Ep #31 appeared first on Holly G.

Mobile marketing insights for travel and tourism Strategist and author Tim Hayden has worked with many brands we are familiar with such as Dell, Bacardi, Kraft and Hilton. He is currently VP of Marketing at Zignal Labs a real time cross media story-tracking platform. In 2014 Tim and friend Tom Webster wrote and published a book titled The Mobile Commerce Revolution: Business Success in a Wireless World (Que Biz-Tech) and it is this topic of mobile that we will chat to Tim about today. "It's the person not the device" we need to be thinking of when it comes to mobile marketing. We need to realise that people are no longer stuck at their desk - it is a behavioural shift that impacts how we access information. [Tweet ""Mobile is a behaviour not a technology" @TheTimHayden #tourismtweetup"] The right time right place, your message being there or the right deal being easily accessible the moment someone thinks about you. We can become dependent on our mobile life to find what we need and for it to be pretty much exactly what we are looking for anytime we want to do it. At about the 9.30 minute mark we talk about offline and online marketing in relation to mobile marketing as people have their device with them, can you compel someone to take action, to go to the device in their hand - it could even be a cocktail napkin. Listen for more. Social media and mobile has made it possible to capture the moment wherever we are. Listen from 12.30 minute mark for more. Fewer steps, fewer buttons, less text, larger fonts - can they quickly get to what they need - we have only very short moments to capture a person. From about the 16 minute mark we discuss if brands are too late to take advantage of mobile. "The more people get used to things like Amazon Prime, Starbucks mobile payment, ability to track your pizza...it's other industries that will influence all industries and create this expectation that I can find or I can get what I need with just a couple of clicks..." I ask Tim what he says when people ask him "do I need a mobile app" - listen around the 19 minute mark for the answer. "Responsive right now is the urgency" - we talk more about this at the 21 minute mark and why Google wants you to have a mobile responsive site. At the 24 minute mark Tim gives a couple of final marketing tips for the tourism and travel industry including taking advantage of the moment when your guests are in the moment to engage with them and learn about them and gain insights about them and why they choose you. Listen for more. https://twitter.com/TheTimHayden Click on the pic to learn more about the book! The post Mobile marketing insights for travel and tourism: Ep #30 appeared first on Holly G.

What is content marketing and how it drives ROI In this episode of Tourism Tweetup the podcast we chat to Jacki James a strategist at Zuni a Sydney based digital agency about content marketing and if you can track an ROI on content marketing. Jacki defines content marketing by starting with what content marketing is not. She says back in the day advertising is what we thought of as marketing and that is about interrupting people with your messaging and this is a push strategy, pushing your message out. Content marketing however is about creating content that your audience wants to consume and you are drawing your audience to your brand so more of a pull strategy. The content could be a game, a white paper, could be inspiring images or how to blog post. For your content marketing to be effective brands need to be more strategic in their approach and have a focused content strategy. Focusing on the high value areas - identify those areas that are going to add the most value to your target audience and those that will make the biggest contribution to achieving your business objectives. "Every piece of content you put out there must have a reason and a purpose for being - @jackijames" [Tweet "Every piece of content you put out there must have a reason and a purpose for being - @jackijames"] What to post or what content to create, "Your content should meet the audience needs and your business objectives." What does my audience want How can I offer them value How can I be useful Link to River Pools and Spas 'the pool guy' Marcus Sheridan case study click here At the 8 minute mark we discuss that content marketing isn't just about social media. At about the 9 minute market we talk about content marketing and ROI. You can have an ROI on a content marketing strategy. If you are trying to increase brand awareness you'll want to look at reach metrics, If you are looking at affinity and relationships you'll be looking at engagement metrics like returning users, visit, log ins, shares, or even hashtag usage, If it's sales then looking at google analytics sales funnels and how customers are moving along the funnel. Link to the Levis and Google thing we were talking about. Link to the Leo Burnett diving with sharks thing we were talking about Zuni website http://zuni.com.au Jacki on Twitter https://twitter.com/jackijames The post What is content marketing and how it drives ROI: #29 appeared first on Holly G.

Insights into Travel Oregon's tourism marketing campaign Thrilled to chat with Mo Sheriffdeen from The Oregon Tourism Commission (Travel Oregon) about their latest tourism marketing campaign the '7 Wonders of Oregon'. Mo Sheriffdeen the man in charge of Digital Brand Strategy & Publishing at Travel Oregon and we chat about this campaign as well as general marketing and DMO thoughts. Mo starts off chatting a little about the campaign and said that although the campaign was developed to inspire people to visit these hero places in Oregon "The Wonders were essentially a framework for exploration of the entire state..." A range of channels/tools were used throughout the campaign including TV, online video, paid media, social media, website, PR. From about the 5 minute mark we talk about why social media is now the norm when developing tourism marketing campaigns "Social media is just a natural place to share those (travel) experiences." The call to action even on TV used the hashtag #TravelOregon, Instagram was a key tool throughout the campaign. From the 10 minute mark we talk about using and working with social influencers. They worked with seven influencers one for each of the seven wonders - each influencer was paired with a local. Each influencer delivered about 8000 new Instagram followers to Travel Oregon. We talk about if working with social influencers fits into social media or PR or paid media. From about the 14 minute mark we talk about measurements and metrics in relation to campaign. Mo shares specific campaign results and we chat about measurement in general.   Travel Oregon also layered in social listening and see if they could impact what people were talking about in relation to Oregon "we diversified the range of topics of what people were talking about..." They then looked at how the campaign impacted web traffic.   Then they kept digging and looked at engagement, and tracked volume of travel guides ordered and saw significant increase and this is looked at as an intention to travel. They also worked with partners tracking specific '7 Wonders' packages sold. And finally, some of the Seven Wonders had gates that track number of visitors so that was also tracked and reported. From about the 20 minute mark we discuss how industry was involved, included and kept informed about the campaign. Travel Oregon developed an industry playbook as well as key assets for industry to use (listen for more details). We then talk about the next steps and what happens now that the campaign has finished. Mo chats about the next phase and some new and exciting additions and add ons - worth listening - super cool. "It's really important to talk to those micro niches. It's not effective anymore to market in mass, to a mass population because everyone is different and we are looking for a personalised experience. So personalisation is huge in tourism, we are all looking for a place or a brand that talks to us as a real person and caters to our passion." "That is why we focus on niches that make sense for Oregon, niches we have product for and that drive people to come here and experience Oregon." From the 26 minute mark we talk about the role of the DMO and how that is changing - and managing the growth of tourism and making sure it is growing sustainability. "It's not just about marketing, people have a lot of sources for information, people don't necessarily need to come to a DMO to get information...DMO's are still relevant especially as destination curators. We are free to focus on curating those experiences for our visitors. Create a space to bring the best of the destination together - being a management organisation verses a marketing organisation." You can find out more about Travel Oregon here http://traveloregon.com https://www.facebook.com/TravelOregon https://twitter.

Experimenting with Twitter ads for tourism In this episode of Tourism Tweetup the podcast we chat to Theresa Overby who manages social media for Louisiana Travel about their recent Twitter ads campaign. A fantastic podcast for those wanting to focus on using Twitter in their tourism marketing activities We start off by talking about Twitter in general and why it is important. Theresa explains that she sees Twitter as an 'ignition' point for brands. It has a great discovery quality and it allows the user to personalise their brand and give it a voice. Theresa says she has found Twitter to be an effective tool for establishing community and starting conversations. This is important as Twitter gives the opportunity for a destination to take on a personality. People are talking about brands and destinations whether you (as the brand) are active on social media or not, with Twitter you can listen to what they are saying and jump into the conversation and add value.   One of the reasons to consider Twitter ads is as a way to grow your Twitter followers. The reason why you would want to do this as Theresa explains at the 6.30 minute mark - social proof, brand authority, be competitive (listen in for more details. The other reasons for Twitter ads was to grow engagement and as Theresa says "we just really wanted to have a big conversation around Louisiana" (so timing was important, the timing was selected as there was lots to talk about at that time). They saw it as a great time to experiment with lots of different types of Twitter ads and Twitter conversations. Around the 8.30 minute mark Theresa discusses the different Twitter ads and some of the results they had through experimenting (you'll want to listen to this) including Promoted Accounts (goal to grow following), Twitter cards and the other ad types. Promoted Tweets, website cards, Tweets with images and links. They also experimented with Twitter videos. "We tested sometimes the same content but with a different delivery method and we would see a swing of as much as 4% in the engagement rate." [Tweet ""Anyone who is using Twitter ads, experiment - says @TheresaOverby.""] The platform is really good for testing - as it is so nimble. Around the 12 minute mark Theresa discusses content pillars and themes for the campaign. When looking at targeting they had some very interesting results when they looked at targeting through the TV targeting. Listen in to hear more about this and some of the crazy cool results they received and some tips for you! Fan of #TrueDetective? Here are 7 Louisiana film locations you can visit. http://t.co/OMco78aBRDpic.twitter.com/kLLbSPel8u — Louisiana Travel (@louisianatravel) December 23, 2014 A secondary goal was driving traffic to the website and the above target type did this. Theresa shares with us all their campaign results! Tune in from about the 17 minute mark. [Tweet ""Don't use a lot of hashtags or clickable items other than things you want people to engage with""] From the 27 minute mark Theresa share things that are getting her excited in the tourism marketing space! Follow Theresa on Twitter https://twitter.com/theresaoverby   The post Experimenting with Twitter ads for tourism: Ep #27 appeared first on Holly G.

Social media activities in the guided holiday sector: a chat with Trafalgar Tours We covered a lot of ground while chatting to Head of Marketing at Trafalgar Katherine O'Neill. "Social is really at the heart of our communications now" says Katherine O'Neill from Trafalgar. Visit the Trafalgar Tours website and scroll to the bottom of their site and you will see a link to all of Trafalgar's social channels. [Tweet ""Social is really at the heart of our communications now" says Katherine O'Neill from @TrafalgarTalk"] We discuss how Trafalgar enables their staff on the ground as well and the global management team to engage with social and create and share amazing content. Katherine mentions a tool called PostBeyond for easy of content sharing. We discuss the specific Win a Trip to France Competition and how by really understanding their consumer market, this largely online and social competition was successful. Listen to the details including number of entries and leads from the 8 minute mark. We chat about hashtags and the use of the #TrafalgarInsider hashtag across a range of marketing activities. Not just confined to online marketing and not just confined to consumer either - Trafalgar have involved travel agents in hashtag activities. Listen in from the 10.30 mark as we go into details and even de-bunk some of your thoughts about hashtags and social media for the baby boomer market. Katherine also mentions a tool called Stackla which aggregates and curates content. From the 15 minute mark we discuss customer review sites "we know that peer and user reviews are key in the planning stage of people booking their holidays" says Katherine O'Neill from @TrafalgarTalk.  FeeFo is the review tool Trafalgar uses as Tripadvisor doesn't have a category for overnight tours. Katherine discusses how they bring reviews into the heart of what they do in some really interesting ways - worth a listen! Finally we discuss User Generated Content and how this is used across marketing activities. A huge thank you to Katherine and Trafalgar this podcast episode, it is packed with valuable insights from an experienced and active tourism marketer. Please feel free to post any questions or comments below. For more episodes you can check out Tourism Tweetup the Podcast on iTunes. The post Social media activities in the guided holiday sector: Ep #26 appeared first on Holly G.

Talking Snapchat and Tourism with Taylor Jones from Lake Louise Ski Resort. I met Taylor Jones at Eye For Travel Conference in San Francisco recently where he shared stories of what Lake Louise Ski Resort are doing across their social channels with a focus on the social media platform Snapchat. Snapchat has been around for just over 3 years and has an estimated 100 million active monthly users. I believe Snapchat is a social platform that those working with the youth market need to start to get their head around. In this episode of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast, episode 25, we discuss how Lake Louise uses Snapchat and some of Snapchat's key features. In Australia 61% of social media users under 20 use Snapchat (Source: Yellow Pages Social Media Report Aug 2014) In the US nearly half of 12 - 24 use Snapchat (Source: Edison Research and Triton Digital)   [Tweet ""Storytelling is incredibly important as people like to follow along" @TJ"] It is helpful to note that the Snapchat logo or icon is a yellow ghost. Check out Lake Louise's social channels here Facebook Instagram Twitter Snapchat, search ski.louise on Snapchat which is only available on your smartphone Website YouTube The app Taylor mentions that allows you to upload photos from you camera roll is Snaproll Another podcast you may like to listen to to learn more about Snapchat is via Social Media Examiner, check it out here. Taylor Jones on Twitter and Taylor Jones on Instagram and check out a little more about his earlier projects here. Please comment below with any questions on Snapchat and Tourism or Ski Louise's social media and we will get back to you. The post Snapchat and Tourism with Ski Louise: Ep #25 appeared first on Holly G.

Social Media Tourism Snapshot from Social Media Marketing World 2015 Social Media Marketing World is a huge conference with around 2500 attendees from every industry you could imagine. I attended the event predominately to learn but it was also great to chat to others working in the tourism and travel industry to understand what's happening globally in relation to social media marketing and tourism. This podcast episode is a snapshot of conversations from the event. I ask those with experience in travel and tourism what is their favourite social channel and what challenges or opportunities they see for tourism marketers at this time. It is a short yet insightful episode and I hope you enjoy, it was great chatting and meeting awesome people. I'll have many more insights to share from the event and my trip to the USA but this podcast is a great start. Those featured or mentioned include; Whitney Hagen - Social Media and Marketing, Durango Tourism Marina C - Casual Fridays Tom Martin - Founder & Author, Converse Digital (check out a full interview with Tom here) Colin Diaz -Director of Public Relations, BLVD Hotels Jay Baer - Convince & Convert Tyler Murray - HawaiiCon (here is a link to the video he mentioned)   The post Social Media Tourism Snapshot from #SMMW15 appeared first on Holly G.

Insights into Chinese outbound tourism chatting with George Cao from Dragon Trail Interactive, China. In episode 23 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we chat to George Cao co-founder and CEO of Dragon Trail Interactive, a digital marketing agency and travel technology company based in China. Dragon Trail helps travel and tourism organisations reach and connect with China’s affluent consumers. Highlights, Notes & Links We Mention in this Episode The market is growing and becoming very diversified - don't look at the market as one big source market it is no long just group travel as experience is growing to the point that FIT OTA Looking at the segments of the Chinese outbound market is important, there are 3 key segments to look at 1) Inexperienced mass-market 2) Experienced mass-market 3) Affluent travellers (experienced) - which segment do you want to focus on? Read more about these segments on the Boston Consulting report here. Around the 9 minute market we discuss what some destinations in north America are doing to attract Chinese travellers. Visas and access to travel visas play a key role in growing tourism. At the 13 minute mark we discuss Canada Tourism and China - 'Canada You Can Be A Star' as well as 'CTC TV' to drive inspiration for the destination. At the 15 minute mark we discuss things that new entrants to the Chinese market need to think about including product fit, getting started & testing/feedback, research, relationships with the trade, being China ready. Inexperienced mass-market = famous, iconic experiences Experienced mass-market = relaxing, vacation experiences Affluent travellers = new experiences, unique, local cultural experiences From the 19 minute mark we delve into marketing and for the potential Chinese traveller this means online and 'online in China today means MOBILE'. "Social and mobile is the key discovery engine for China" [Tweet ""Social and mobile is the key discovery engine for China""] The one social media player that stands out is WeChat - listen in at the 21 minute mark for awesome details and insights on WeChat from George Cao. Weibo is also significant. Around the 24 -28 minute mark I ask about how the distribution channels and OTA's fit in. Listen in to learn about the key travel OTA's in China and how OTA's fit in. Payment methods/channels/infrastructure are easily incorporated into the online purchase cycle now explains George (26 minutes). Dragon trail offers several starter options and products for tourism operators including 'The Starter Pack' as well as 'Tripshow.com' a social aggregation server as well as 'The China Travel Academy'. More free resources via the Dragon Trail website here. Dragon Trail on LinkedIn The post Insights into Chinese outbound tourism: Ep #23 appeared first on Holly G.

The Digital Journey chatting with Nick Hall In episode 22 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we chat to Nick Hall of Digital Tourism Think Tank about the digital journey and why as tourism marketers we need to understand the stages a traveller or potential traveller takes to find us and experience our product. Highlights, Notes & Links We Mention in this Episode See Nick on Twitter Check out the Digital Think Tank website for lots of great tourism marketing resources.   The post The Digital Journey for Tourism: Ep #22 appeared first on Holly G.

Running a tourism instameet One week ago we ran a live Tourism Industry Instameet in Sydney, Australia. We had around 70 travel and tourism industry people attend and the purpose was to learn what an Instameet is and how they run, as well as meeting and connecting with some great travel Instagrammers and industry peers. This podcast is a little different from the usual as it was recorded live while on the Instameet. We chat to different guests and hear their stories and tips but we also chat to people who have never experienced an Instameet about what they do and don't like about this sort of event. This is a valuable podcast if you would like to learn more about what an Instameet is and how to run one. Also check out these great Instameet tips from the pros. Highlights, Notes & Links We Mention in this Episode Petrhyce Donovan - you can find her at twitter.com/Petrhyce  Petrhyce says from a destination marketing and a tourism operator perspective an instameet is a great way to generate a lot of content and content through a lot of different peoples eyes and view points which we don't often get.  A great point that I loved from Petrhyce was that as a result of the instameet she ran in her destination was that it got the locals revved up and inspired after seeing the 'influencers' great photos so it meant the great content continued from locals long after the influencers had come and gone. Paula Morgan - you can find her at sydneyexpert.com Raphaelle Grojean - you can find her at instagram.com/raphasees Michael Sutton - a photographer and social media influencer with a following of over 400k. You can find more about him via his Google+ or Instagram Hansni Bhagani - PR Director for Four Seasons Sydney. You can find her at twitter.com/hansnib Michael says he uses both Snapseed and Photoshop Express to edit his Instagram photos. He says the best way to learn to use them is to use them as often as you can. Bev Malzard - you can find her at twitter.com/GetUpAndGoNow Pauly Vella - is one of the top travel Instagramers in Australia with 297k followers. He has worked with any destinations around the world. Listen to the podcast as he tells how he got into Instagram and his story. You can find him at instagram.com/paulyvella Kellie Ames - you can find more about Featherdale Wildlife Park at facebook.com/FeatherdaleWildlifePark Trish Barry - you can find out more about her on Twitter or you can find out more about Scarborough Wine Co. based in the Hunter Valley of NSW, Australia. (Thank you again for being such a great sponsor for out Tourism Industry Instameet event). At the 12 minute mark we talk about the Insta Challenge that was created as part of the event and was a great way to motivate people to post with the #TourismTweetup hashtag and the ScarboroughWine tag. Emma Lovell - you can find her and check out the blog post she wrote about her #TourismTweetup Instameet experience. Annette Widitz aka instagram.com/dawa_lhamo/ is a fantastic travel instagrammer with over 33k followers. In this podcast episode she shares her story and her love of travel and instagram. To find out about the Instagram Sydney group that is mentioned see instagram.com/igerssydney/. Matthew Vandeputte was the last person we chatted to, Matt is a hyperlapes and timelapse photographer and film maker. You can find out more about him at instagram.com/matjoez (super cool stuff). Our two other awesome Instagram guest who didn't quite make it onto the podcast were Will Patino (with 98k instagram followers), such a lovely guy and a great supporter of the event and Matt Donovan (with 23k instagram followers). Huge thanks to you both!! Check out some photos from the event below or also check out the #TourismTweetup feed on iconosquare as these photo are a lot better - well they show the artistic side,

Effective tourism marketing with limited time and resouces In episode #20 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we chat to Sean Blocksidge from Margaret River Discover Tours, a niche day tour business operating out of Margaret River in Western Australia. Sean tells the fantastic story of starting the tour business, almost going broke and then the day 'the phone and email went nuts'. He shares marketing tips and insights from his first hand experience. A must listen for all small tourism businesses and operators especially those operating with no or low budget marketing and limited time.   Highlights, Notes & Links We Mention in this Episode Check out http://www.margaretriverdiscovery.com.au Coming from a wine and hospitality background Sean Blocksidge saw a opportunity to create a unique wine and nature tourism experience in the Margaret River region of Western Australia. Sean says when he started the business in 2008 he was doing all the 'wrong' forms of sales and marketing techniques and burnt through a lot of money. He realised he needed to pay more attention to online marketing and spent a huge amount of time researching and getting his head around digital including watching what the wine industry was doing with social media (including Wine By Brad). The day the tour become the number one thing to do in Margaret River everything changed. Listen to Sean tell this story from the 6 minute mark. Word of mouth is what makes the business successful says Sean and TripAdvisor is like word of mouth on steroids. One of my favourite points of this interview is discussed at the 9:20 minute mark. "People use four or five different tools to make a booking decision...". It maybe your website, then secondary endorsements e.g. TripAdvisor, then you have other references/personal references and then social media channels come into play. "I always say I don't think I have ever sold a tour EVER off my Facebook page, but it is an important part of my business because it is a reference tool that people are looking at to say 'yes this guy/tour matches what we are wanting'." At the 11 minute mark we ask Sean how much time and money he spends on marketing now, listen to his answer. Sean comments that Instagram is a dramatically growing part of his social media suite. Listen to Seans view on 'follower numbers', he makes a great point about he is much more interested in a core group of people that might be listening to the message for example one person/follower might be at the front desk at a hotel, or staff member at the visitors centre, those people who are seeing on a daily basis what you are doing, and you are front of mind...are so valuable." I ask Sean to re-tell a story he had told me a few years ago about Twitter and The New York Times (listen from the 16 minute mark - its a cool story!!). We chat a little more about TripAdvisor (20 minute mark) - Sean offers some great tips including it is hard not to take feedback personally, it is almost better (especially if it is your own business) to get someone else to write the draft response for you. I ask the all important question about what is Sean's favourite social media tool (listen at the 22.30 mark for his answer). Then we wrap up with some tips! I ask Sean for three tips, and his answer is; 1) What's the strategy - have it written down! (and also within the strategy what is the message). 2) Don't get stressed about the numbers - it's a slow build and the core people are where it's at. 3) Think about posting out of hours 4) Don't put up crappy pictures (make sure the horizon is straight, pop the image through a photo app like snapseed to lift the colours) 5) Be consistent in what you do and think professionally - if your social media is hokey people will look towards something else [Tweet "Be consistent in what you do and think professionally ...

Tourism branding and social media In episode #19 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we chat to Bret Love from Green Global Travel and Green Travel Media about tourism branding and social media. We also discuss what is branding and if branding is still important and relevant in the age of social media. Highlights, Notes & Links We Mention in this Episode Bret Love saying branding gives you more control over your brand and with all the forms of social media that is around, developing a sound branding strategy through content and reinforced messaging through social media gives that control. Branding is a means of communicating what you or your organisation stands for. Defining that unique identity that separates this entity from everything else. Branding is a long term investment in your business. Every decision you make for your company (or blog or whatever) is like a deposit or a withdrawal in this investment you have with your customers. Implementing a long term branding strategy over short term gains is what is recommended. Every single touch point and everything you do is an opportunity to reinforce your message and to share with people what your brand stands for.  (Worth listening in at the 5 minute mark for more details). Asking these questions can help outline your brand: Who are you? What drives you? Who are your target audience and why should they care about you? What are the defining values that set you apart? What do you stand for? If you don't define yourself others will define you for you. From the 11 minute mark Bret talks about the work he did with Costa Rica Tourism #ecocostarica and the second branding campaign who is with International Expeditions. Both involve storytelling as key elements and working with bloggers to tell those stories - and stories that will connect with the target audience. [Tweet ""Storytelling is at the core of how you reach people who are trying to make consumer decisions" "] At around the 18 minute mark I ask Bret about what types of content are working. He gives a great answer that basically says there is not a one size fits all. Worth listening to this discussion. "...it's bringing a magazine approach, mixing things up, balancing things out, so you have a little bit of this and a little of that. It is bringing that to the content your produce for business and marketing purposes." "People are afraid to take chances because they don't know yet what will work. And you've got to get past that, of being afraid of failure and be willing to try the things that will make your brand stand out from others." At the 22 minute mark I ask Bret if he has a favourite social media channel - listen in for the response! Finally I ask Bret about what he is excited about for 2015. There is loads going on with Bret and Green Travel Media but his key upcoming project with Travelers Building Change is the most important and special. He has brought together 125 travel bloggers from around the world to help raise funds for #JustOneRhino. Click on the links to learn more about this moving initiative. To connect with Bret check out the following Twitter, Facebook, Website as well as his new site Green Travel Reviews.     The post Episode #19: Tourism branding and social media appeared first on Holly G.

Insurance winning with travel social media In episode #18 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we chat to Lynton Manuel, Social Media Manager for Cover-More Travel Insurance. We chat to Lynton about 'big business' using social media and how even a travel insurance company can come to life through social media activities. In this podcast we cover a range of topics including social media measurement, content, tools, platforms and social media ROI with a focus on Cover-More's YouTube which hit 1 million views at the end of 2014. Highlights, Notes & Links We Mention in this Episode Social touches across many parts of the business at Cover-More Insurance including being used as a sales tool as well as customer service and communication tool. Videos forms the basis of the social content with these videos used on YouTube but then also used in blog posts, tweets, on Facebook etc... Although there was no set number for what Cover-More wanted to achieve with its YouTube views they understood they wanted to get way more exciting with the content that was being produced and not deliver stock standard bland content. At about the 6 minute mark Lyndon talks about 'Dan' who is the key content creator making many of the YouTube videos and Instagram images and how they came to meet and work with him. Through all the content one thing is clear which is their customers are there to travel and love to travel so that is what they want to focus on. Pay-to-Play or a paid advertising in social does play a role "We look at Facebook now as purely an advertising platform" [Tweet ""We look at Facebook now as purely an advertising platform""] "We spend money on most posts now where we are actually creating our own content so all our YouTube videos and blogs because we want people to see it, we don't want to have all this great content and none see it." Lynton explains this is largely as they are a big business and an insurance company at that but there is still room for social with Twitter and Instagram as well as with small businesses it's just working out what platform suits your brand and your messaging that you are trying to get across. Around the 12 minute mark I ask the question "How do you know if its working?" Lynton says although often bosses will look at certain amount of friends or certain amount of followers he doesn't rate as a metric that has much relevance especially when talking paid content where you don't need any followers to get your message across. With social media measurement and metrics what Cover-More look at is; 1) engagement e.g. likes, comments, shares, retweets, etc "If people are talking about the brand you are naturally going to get some sort of uplift (and hopefully that is obviously position mentions)" 2) traffic to your website  - as much interesting content that is being created it needs to be housed on the website you want to be bringing people back to the website. 3) brand image and brand awareness - respond, be there and be that brand that people want to build a relationship with that is massive. It can be hard to measure - looking at things like sentiment, online reviews, 4) revenue - are we getting more sales compared to a year ago when we had less of a social presence. Listen from the 15 minute mark where we talk about how you can try to measure to work out your social media ROI however 'Return on Relationships' may be a better term. [Tweet "'Return on Relationships' may be a better term & measure than ROI"] The more people that feel like they know or like your brand the more likely you are going to have them as a customer". We chat a little about online reviews "anything where the average person can go to that site and go well actually they seem quite nice - even though that person complained about them". Lynton suggests 'getting them while they are hot' when they have just returned from a holi...

Tourism Tweetup the Podcast In episode #17 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we chat to Alison Michalk CEO of Quiip. Quiip are a 24/7 community management and social media management service. We discuss the difference between community management and social media management and why we need to understand this difference. Alison Michalk shares with us several tips and insights from her extensive community management experience and gets us to think about what is important and relevant across our social media channels. Highlights, Notes & Links We Mention in this Episode Working with Big Brother and Essential Baby, Alison Michalk has been working with large online communities since 2006 after developing an interest while still in high school. Aside from being CEO of Quiip, Alison is one of the founders of the SWARM conference, a conference for community managers. We chat to Alison about the difference between a community manager and a social media manager. Alison explains it is important to know and understand the distinction. Social media management is largely focused on reach, message out there, new audiences, new customers. Community management and developing an online community is about working with members, members talking to each, members largely create the content, primary source of content is members talking to each other, very relationship driven. Examples of communities include a telco help forum, Lonely Planet travel forum etc. Alison says it is hard to develop a community on Facebook due to the set up of Facebook itself (listen to more on this at the 6 minute mark) as when you post as a brand it goes out to everyone but when a member/followers posts it doesn't so facilitating peer interaction is tricky. Facebook groups tend to work more as a community rather than Facebook pages. There are certain things you can do if working with Facebook to harness the sense of community including reposting followers questions/comments/content. Forums can be great when looking for depth around a topic. It is important to make the distinction between community management and social media management as the staff member managing may need different skill sets, the objectives may be different plus the metrics or measurements used to judge success will also be different. Re measurement with on online community you tend to look at 'increasing things or decreasing things'. For example you might be trying to decrease costs around customer support/call centre and developing a customer support forum may do that by peers answering questions rather than staff. Also companies may hire from within the community so it may lead to decreasing recruitment costs, decrease marketing costs. When looking at increasing things it may be linked to increasing sales, increasing customer loyalty, increase customer retention and all those are proven to work with people that are part of an online community. When understanding if your business requires community management or social media management or both across different platforms, coming back to objectives is important (listen to details at 11 minute mark). First step is looking about what online communities already exist in your space and deciding if it is better just to be an active part of communities that already exist rather than creating brand new ones (listen around the 13 minute mark). At around the 15 minute mark we talk about LURKERs and how they fit into a community. Timeliness of response online: "Research has shown if someone gets a response within the first 5 minutes the chance of them coming back is significantly higher than if they got one 24 hours later" At around the 18 minute park we chat about the Facebook group Australian Community Managers group which is a very interesting example. During this discussion Alison talks about the importance of 'social density' which is ...

Tourism Tweetup the Podcast Chatting with Trevor Young aka the PR Warrior about content marketing and personal branding. Trevor discusses some examples of who is doing content marketing well and offers tactics and strategies for those working in the travel and tourism industry. Trevor has had a long career in the PR and communication business and he speaks and now consults on social media across a range of industries. He has also written a book called microDomination. Episode #16 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we talk to Trevor Young about content marketing and having a heart first approach to marketing. Highlights & Links We Mention in this Episode Content marketing and social fit together. It is one thing to create the content it is another to socialise that content and to create a 'village of support' around your brand. You can do a lot of things but you don't need to do everything. It is really easy to get overwhelmed. The whole idea of using content for marketing purposes is not new but the two big trends that kicked content marketing along are; 1) technology: has made the barrier to entry lower e.g. it is easy to start a blog for no money down 2) people like to source information from a range of places e.g. blogs, podcasts, newspapers, friends and brands if you trust them as a source. So it is important with content marketing to add value and give them the right information or are you just promoting yourself and talking about yourself. Trevor Young defines content marketing as "Strategically creating, publishing and amplifying original content that is of interest, value and relevant to a specific target audience group to then influence a desired outcome" Content marketing can be a marketing strategy for your business and needs to fit into your overall business objectives/strategy. Content is important especially for tourism businesses as; 1) Why rent an audience when you can go out and build and nurture your own. 2) Tourism and travel is a high interest category and allows for story telling Types of content that may work include behind the scenes, useful information (NB: Jay Baer wrote a great book on this called Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is about Help Not Hype), FAQ's, tell stories, meet the farmers, suppliers etc and finally become the 'go-to' resource. In this podcast we then shift from chatting about content to chatting about the importance of building your personal brand. Trevor Young wrote the book microDomination: How to leverage social media and content marketing to build a mini-business empire around your personal brand. Building your personal brand can be a great thing to do from a career perspective. Look ahead and think about where you want to go and start building your knowledge and even outposts, credibility and connections in that area. So when the time comes to make a shift you have visible points to show. It could be a blog, a podcast, an Instagram account, videos and Twitter is a great way to build a network and build connections. It is not too late for people who are just getting started with social media or online presence as it is a long term game. Doing it slowly, organically and building your body of work over time. An example for this is The Goulet Pen Company. Listen to Trevor tell this great story. The final question I ask Trevor is what he is most excited about for 2015 - and I totally love his answer! He talks about a 'heart first' approach to marketing and I couldn't agree more!! The brands and businesses that will stand out are the ones who really understand their audience, know who they are and are writing for them and are doing it with "passion, purpose and strategic intent". Make sure you listen to the whole podcast for the details and check out more about Trevor Young on his website.    

Tourism Tweetup the Podcast Chatting with Annabel Candy about reputation marketing for tourism businesses. Annabel and her husband Rich have been running a successful web marketing business for 18 years and Annabel discusses although some things have stayed the same, many things have changed especially with the increase in competition on the web. They believe incorporating three specific marketing strategies will give your local business the best chance at success. The three strategies are Google Local Marketing, Mobile Marketing and Reputation Marketing. In this episode we focus on Reputation Marketing. Episode #15 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we talk to Annabel Candy about reputation marketing and how you can get control of your online reviews. Highlights & Links We Mention in this Episode Reputation Marketing is about helping businesses get more online reviews and get control of their online reviews.  It is valuable to increase your search engine ranking and help with sales conversion. People today put such a huge importance on online reviews and this is especially true in the tourism and hospitality  industry. 72% take action based on online reviews so reviews are almost as powerful as word of mouth recommendation from a friend. Online reviews are a great way to build trust in a business. Annabel discusses a system they have developed to encourage customers to leave online reviews. You can read more about the features of this service here. We talk about the pros and cons of responding to online reviews. Annabel Candy also talks about travel statistics around online reviews and how important they are in the holiday decision making process. Google Local Marketing If you have a Google local page you will show up on the map when someone is doing a google search. Also the reviews and star rating linked to your business will show up (if you have reviews) and typically Google will pull up the top 7 businesses. We here is Australia are not really on top of our reputation marketing just yet. There is a big opportunity to build up a database of online reviews and get a head start on your competitors as a lot of people aren't aware of the benefits. And the scary thing is, actually having no online reviews makes you look like a bad business (even though you might not be). [Tweet ""..having no online reviews makes you look like a bad business (even though you may not be) says @AnnabelCandy"] [Tweet "People are all about social proof says @annabelcandy"] People like to read ten (10) online reviews before they make a purchase decision. If you have ten reviews or more then great but if you only have 5 reviews, people are going to read your 5 and then search around the web for another 5. The reason Google are integrating everything together in search such as the reviews and the map etc is because they don't want people to leave Google and really you don't need to! Annabel Candy on Twitter Annabel Candy website and here. An article you might also like about ways to utilise negative online reviews.   The post Episode #15: Reputation marketing appeared first on Holly G.

Tourism Tweetup the Podcast In episode 14 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we discuss to topic of Social Selling for Conference, Meeting and Event planners, bureaus as well as destinations. Author, strategist and keynote speaker Tom Martin from Converse Digital in New Orleans has written a book called "The Invisible Sale". This book offers a social selling framework to help sales teams transition to a social selling model. Tom is very well know across the tourism industry, his company recently conducted some interesting research into social selling for meeting planners. Episode #14 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we talk to Tom Martin from Converse Digital about using social media as part of the sales process for the tourism and travel industry. //   Highlights, Notes & Links We Mention in this Episode Things have changed as now a buyer is actively online researching and conducting as much of the pre-purchase as possible without having to talk to a human being. Social selling is not just about using social media tools or platforms to prospect. It is about using social tools and other online platforms such as email to nurture that sale along and completing that buyers education on the product, service or destination. It is about being uniquely positioned to complete the buyers education using digital and social tools as that is the way these buyers want to do business they don't want to get on the phone with you until they absolutely have to. "Social selling is the art of seducing the buyer to make a buying decision in your favour using social content and email platforms." [Tweet " "Social selling is the art of seducing the buyer to make a buying decision in your favour using social content and email platforms.""] Research was conducted to in 2014 to understand if meeting planners were using social media, do they use social media as part of the planning process and if so what role does it play and if they were using it how they would like sales people to 'market' to them. The results found that absolutely meeting planners are on social media, they actually prefer you to contact them through social media more than for you to call them (yet most is done via phone). "Social media has very quickly achieved parody in terms of preference or utilisation by meeting planners with traditional sales tactics like telephone and trade media advertising in terms of the role it plays in the process." Propinquity: the science of how relationships form between humans, the closer the proximity between two people (be it physical or physiological) the more likely they are to form a lasting relationship. And what this means re sales and marketing is we want to make sure our prospects are running into our brand as many places as possible. A propinquity mindset differs from a pure content marketing driven strategy as rather than always trying to drive people to your site, you want to find out where do people naturally go anyway (social/digital platforms and maybe even offline) and then put your own great content out there so they stumble across it. And plan it so a prospective buyer is constantly stumbling across your destination or your hotel etc and at each stumble point they are learning something new about your brand. Then what happens as they keep stumbling across it, and they get a bigger dataset of things they could like about your brand, they find things they do like and then an enquiry is made and they are at the point of you being someone they prefer to do business with, creating a top of mind preference. You want to be in a top of mind PREFERENCE not just top of mind AWARENESS [Tweet "You want to be in a top of mind PREFERENCE not just top of mind AWARENESS says @TomMartin"] Social media is a great propinquity tool says @TomMartin Self educated buyers do not want to be sold to and that is where AIKIDO selling techniques can be used by the sale...

Tourism Tweetup the Podcast This week we mix things up a little bit and rather than having a guest I run through 12 Top Ways to Rock Your Social Media for 2015. I have written about this topic and it was the title of my presentation at the recent Maximum Occupancy Hotel Conference but it is great to be able to explain things a little more through the podcast. I hope you enjoy it!   To download the slides that go with this presentation CLICK HERE To check out the notes that go along with the presentation CLICK HERE Or just check out the slides on slideshare below. Thanks for a great 2014 and look forward to fantastic episodes of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast throughout 2015.   The post Episode #13: Top Ways to Rock Your Social Media in 2015 appeared first on Holly G.

Tourism Tweetup the Podcast Chatting with Graham Michael Freeman one of the six winners of Best Jobs in the World, a marketing campaign run by Tourism Australia aimed at encouraging youth travel to Australia. We chat to Graham about storytelling and how he used Instagram to tell the story of Tasmania, Australia.   Episode #12 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we talk to one of the Best Jobs in the World winners Graham Michael Freeman about visual storytelling, Instagram and social media for tourism operators. Tips to tourism operators from Graham about social media 1) Social media should be about advocacy and community rather than a point of sale 2) Social media is social, use it to build relationships and remember it is two way 3) Use social media to listen to followers and then also respond to feedback 4) Use it to find who your champions are and giving them a chance to shine Graham loves the immediacy and real time nature of Instagram as a marketing tool as well as its ability to be picked up and shared by others gaining an even wider audience. Also the authenticity that goes along with shooting and posting a photo, presenting the experience as it is then and there, as someone has really experiences. This also allows you to bring the audience on the experience with you. Graham on Instagram Graham in Twitter Graham on Facebook What is an Instameet? You set a time and physical place and meet with the purpose of taking photos of that particular area. Many are at sunrise or sunset. An instameet is open to photographers or people of all skill level and is often a place people share tips and ideas about photography and about the Instagram app itself. You can take photos via your DSLR Camera or your smartphone and anything in-between. An instameet is a great way to build relationships and meet in real life others who love Instagram and photography. Final Tips Adaptability, embrace changes Figure out what works best for you, experiment You don't have to be across all the platforms to be successful Build relations, listen to followers and great that advocacy Other Links Larc Tours 1770 Great Walks of Australia Australian State Tourism Boards on Instagram 12 Things You Can Do To Rock Your Social Media in 2015   The post Episode #12: Storytelling thru social media appeared first on Holly G.

Tourism Tweetup the Podcast Chatting with Greg Mikkelsen Founder and General Manager of 3mandarins a consultancy helping Australian businesses work in the China market. We chat with Greg about China, current insights and trends and what tourism business need to consider if they are looking to attract Chinese travellers. We touch on branding, marketing and of course social media.     Episode #11 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we talk to Greg Mikkelsen of 3mandarins a consultancy helping Australian businesses looking to work with China. Highlights & Links We Mention in this Episode Chinese are the biggest travellers globally and they are spending the most. Australia and the US attract a large number of Chinese travellers. There is no one way to describe the 'typical' Chinese traveller as there are a range of segments including the wealthy upmarket travellers, the emerging middle class, as well as students. Two key characteristics of a Chinese travellers are: one, the love of shopping and two, the love of taking photos of key icons and experiences. Three areas are recommended and discussed by Greg for businesses with a suitable product who want to dive in further and these three areas are China Market Strategy (including research and customer profiling), Branding Strategy (getting your messages right) and Marketing Strategy including websites and social media tools. Names of Chinese social media platforms: Wechat (Weixin) - the key social media platform for China Weibo - similar to twitter Renrenwang - similar to facebook Youku - similar to Youtube Famous Chinese actress with 71million followers - Yao Chen Several blogs and websites showcasing food and attractions in Australia to the Chinese speaking market - ZaiAu - Sydney Today - City Walker - Aubang The post Episode #11: Tourism marketing and China appeared first on Holly G.

Tourism Tweetup the Podcast Chatting with Gabriel  Hubert CEO of Totems an Instagram analytics and influencer tool. We chat to Totems about why Instagram is so popular, content creation for Instagram, Instagram metrics and working with Instagram influencers. Episode #10 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we talk to Gabriel Hubert, CEO of Totems, an tool for brands and businesses working with Instagram. Highlights Instagram ticks all the boxes of what a good mobile app should be says Gabriel Hubert. What sets is apart is that it's 1) mobile first 2) public by default 3) focused on content creation. Instagram puts taking, editing and sharing the photo at the centre of the experience (above and beyond sharing other peoples content or curating other peoples content). Gabriel says he is definitely an advocate for tailoring content to suit the specific platform rather than same content across all channels. Need to understand the difference between a social platform (such as Facebook) and one based on Interestgraph (Twitter and in most cases Instagram). People will follow people/brands on Twitter and Instagram not because they know them personally but because the content being produced sits with their interests. People are fundamentally on Facebook to share a social experience with their friends - this impacts content development (or it should). Interestgraph platform = you are not necessarily building ties and links with your friends but by people/things you are interested in or interested by. There is a huge premium on being authentic. The brands that have been most successful on Instagram are those who recognise it is a mobile app, its designed to be in somebodies hand, its designed to go behind the scenes maybe share slightly more edgy slightly less photoshopped versions of what the brand has to offer via its products and services - tapping into the emotional. User generated content is important and becoming increasingly important across a range of channels. Adds an authentic voice.  Users are increasing educated about how they can tag and structure their own content to make it visible by others. When creating brand content there is not a one size fits all solution. It does depend on the audience that brands are trying to attract. You need to ask yourself what your goals are and be measuring on this. A healthy mix of showcasing your product and more 'inspirational' type posts seems to be the best strategy however keeping an authentic story whatever you do. Successfully working with influencers should again come back to your goals, what are you trying to do are you trying to gain the attention of the influencers audience, or trying to get great fresh Instagram content for your audience or is it around a time specific activation you are trying to raise awareness of etc etc.... Try to work with the best creators and get them to teach you what the platform is all about. Give these creators freedom. Agree on a story and then give freedom. Don't be afraid to be inspirational. Finding influencers via your own use of the platform and then platforms such as Totems. The raw number of followers is a poor metric to how successful a campaign is going to be, how many of these followers are actually relevant to your product or based in geographies that you actually serve. (NB: check out my list of some of the top Australian Instagramers here) When asked what metrics should you track from your own Instagram or hashtag activities Gabriel says audience size, where is the audience coming from, what is the gender, what are their interests, what can we learn from their interests and what they are sharing, are their opportunities, what your competitors are doing, what are people saying about your brand/product. You need to put the numbers to work and see how they fit and how they respond to different initiatives you put in place.

Tourism Tweetup the Podcast Chatting with Bronwyn White from MyTravelResearch.com about how and where research fits into your tourism social media strategy. Episode #9 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we talk to Bronwyn White, co-founder of MyTravelResearch.com a fantastic online membership portal offering special reports and training material to allow your business to make better, 'evidence based' business decisions. Highlights The Internet has allowed research done by other large third parties such as Tourism Australia, the state DMO's and companies such as Google to become accessible to all businesses regardless of size. Also with tools such as Survey Monkey and others, primary research is now accessible and all businesses can now also do market research without having to have big budgets. Research such as who your customers are, what are their trigger points, what do they want to know about, what are they interested in, knowing how to talk to them and talking to their pain points is all extremely valuable. If you are a tourism business and you don't have a decent website you will be thrust out of the customer decision process almost immediately. [Tweet ""there is a disconnect between the traveler & the travel industry re technical capabilities""] The traveller is looking for certain types of information over all stages of the path to purchase. When they are dreaming or thinking of a holiday they require certain types of information that may be different from when they are planning or booking a holiday. So travellers needs and requirements in terms of information are more sophisticated than what a lot of the tourism industry is delivering. "Travellers needs and requirements in terms of information are more sophisticated than what a lot of the tourism industry is delivering." The industry needs to focus on their content marketing more, in order to help customers get over the line. The travel industry should look at different content for different stages of the path to purchase that is Dreaming, Planning, Booking, Experiencing, Sharing. More information on this here. [Tweet ""Marketing & market research should take up a great deal of your time if you are in business""] "What we are finding is Internet search is number #1 across all path to purchase platforms" says @TravelResearch0 "If you have limited budgets and you can't do both print and online, steer towards the online because that is where the customers are looking! And there are plenty of statistics to support this." [Tweet ""Research is fundamental & should be at the core of all social media strategy" @TravelResearch0"] What we are finding now (with semantic search) is that the search engines are looking to social media for social signals. Google and the search engines are using social media as a measure of how compelling and interesting your content actually is. Information on semantic search for the tourism industry. The search engines are also using social as a measure to assess you area of expertise. What this in tern means is "gone are the times were we as an industry can be all things to everybody" and what this means in terms of research is that 'knowing who your customer is, finding your customer voice and really targeting your product or service to your customer is key." Bronwyn White says a great way to do this is by creating customer personas to really visual your customer as a person. Give them names and activities and a story. Talk to their needs and their pain points. [Tweet ""Don't market to yourself...market to your customer" says Bronwyn White from @TravelResearch0"] Bronwyn White talks about Anna Del Rio, Coorong District Council's community and tourism development officer who was named ARTN's Young Tourism Professional of the year last month. From about the 18 minute mark of the podcast Brownyn describes ...

Tourism Tweetup the Podcast Chatting with Chris Christensen from Amateur Traveler about podcasting and podcasting and the travel and tourism industry. Episode #8 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we talk to experienced travel podcaster Chris Christensen from Amateur Traveler a travel podcast series that has been running for four years and has had over 7 million downloads. Chris chats about what he loves about podcasting, the opportunities podcasting has brought him, the changing landscape of travel PR and tips for destinations or tourism businesses thinking about their own podcast or wanting to work with podcasters. Highlights [Tweet "Podcasting: your going to be talking to fewer people but a much longer engagement says @chris2x"] [Tweet ""You don't build up followers overnight...it does help if you have some consistency" says @chris2x"] [Tweet ""....reach is important, but so is impact..." says @chris2x #tourismtweetup"] [Tweet ""There is more opportunity with longer form content (such as podcasts) to have more impact""] Links we mention in this podcast Amateur Traveler blog and podcast details Chris Christensen on Twitter Tonga Amateur Traveler podcast episode  Iran Amateur Traveler podcast episode History of Rome podcast series Grammar Girl podcast series This Week in Travel podcast series Startups for the rest of us podcast series HostelBookings.com podcast series Listen below or listen and subscribe to the podcast series on iTunes   The post Episode #8: Travel podcasting and the tourism industry appeared first on Holly G.

Tourism Tweetup the Podcast Chatting with Dave Serino from TwoSix Digital about Facebook ad targeting and audience segmentation. Episode #7 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we talk to tourism digital marketer and Facebook ad specialist Dave Serino from Michigan, USA about why tourism businesses may consider using Facebook adverts. We chat about the different types of ads and targeting that you can work with if going down the Facebook advertising path to ensure your ads are effective. Again this episode is FULL of great tips and information. You may need to listen to it a couple of times however I have tried to summarise the key points here. Highlights Why tourism businesses may want to use Facebook ads; Build audience i.e audience growth or audience reach For audience to take a specific action To support promotion or sweepstakes (competition) "Facebook ads bring people into the eco-system - when we acquire a like we can feed specific content that suits their interests" - Dave Serino. Facebook features in ad-manager that help better target adverts Custom audiences (targeting via email address or phone number or Facebook i.d) Look-a-like audiences (targeting via audience similar to your custom audiences or similar to your existing page likes) Audience insights Tips on running Facebook ads with a sweepstake or competition Tie the prize to your product/destination as it attracts the right core audience Make it a money can't buy experience or luxury/bonus experience Use ads and promotion to leverage future interaction and build a sustainable audience Tips on setting up 'good' ads Add a call to action button (feature now available in Facebook ads manager) Mobile news feed ads work well Test different visuals and different text Tweak the images and the text throughout the campaign to get a higher return on investment [Tweet "Your targeting is your key when it comes to Facebook ads say @daveserino, listen here for more!"] Links we mention in this podcast TwoSix Digital Custom audiences Look-a-like audiences Audience insights Acxiom insights (don't think this is available in Australia at this time) The post Episode #7: Facebook ad targeting and segmentation appeared first on Holly G.

Tourism Tweetup the Podcast Chatting with a live panel about 'what we discovered in 2014 that will impact the way we market in 2015'. Episode #6 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast is recorded live at a #TourismTweetup live event in Sydney Australia. I chat to three tourism guests about what they learnt in 2014 and how will that impact marketing in 2015.  Our three guests are Hansni Bhagani Director of PR, Four Seasons Hotel Sydney, Okko Vainiomaki, Corporate Account Executive, Hootsuite and Lisa Perkovic Travel Writer & Blogger, Expedia. There is A LOT of information covered in this episode so I have attempted to link to as many of the campaigns, activities or sites that they mention so hopefully this will be helpful. Enjoy! Links we mention in this podcast Hootsuite updated interface (video) Hootsuite Flight Centre Case Study (on customer service) Hootsuite uberVU Hootsuite Campaigns (Brightkit) Hootsuite weekly social media update (video) Trendspottr 2014 Expedia Mobile Index (study) Expedia Australia Travel blog Four Seasons pin-pack and go (See Pinterest account here and some more info here) Four Seasons Sydney Instagram account Listen below or listen and subscribe to the podcast series on iTunes The post Episode #6: What we discovered in 2014 that will impact 2015 appeared first on Holly G.

Tourism Tweetup the Podcast Chatting with Kim McKay from Klick Communications about tourism PR in a digital world In episode #5 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we chat to Kim McKay about the convergence of social media and PR. Kim was winner of the 2014 B&T women in media award and Klick Communications won the 2014 CommsCon Mid Size agency of the year. With offices in Sydney Australia and Los Angeles USA, Kim McKay has a great insight into how social media and PR impact hotels and tourism businesses in todays digital world. Links we mention in this podcast namechk.com Hotel 1888 (worlds first Instagram hotel) Museum of Old and New (MONA) Hobart, Australia The post Episode #5: Tourism PR & Social Media appeared first on Holly G.

Tourism Tweetup the Podcast Melvin Boecher from Traveldudes chats about professional travel blogging and working with tourism destinations In episode #4 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we chat to high profile and successful travel blogger Melvin Boecher about the world of travel blogging. Not only does Melvin run his travel blog Traveldudes.org but he set up the popular #TTOT (Travel Talk on Twitter) as well as iambassador.net. Melvin is a highly passionate and experienced blogger having worked with a large range of tourism destinations across most continents. We touch on a range of his projects and case studies. Links we mention in this podcast #TTOT Iambassador.net Blogville Melbourne Touring Campaign Online ROI Calculator   The post Episode #4: Travel Bloggers & Destinations appeared first on Holly G.

Tourism Tweetup the Podcast Doug Lansky from Skift and DougLansky.com In episode #3 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we chat to Travel Writer Doug Lansky about destination marketing. Doug has traveled the globe extensively and in this episode discusses ways tourism destinations can market themselves in todays competitive landscape. A must listen episode for destination marketers and travel professionals. Links we mention in this podcast How a GoPro Camera on a Rope Beat BrandUSA  Sign Posting Project Skift.com Doug Lansky.com Getting a seat at the table (Birmingham Tourism and Grand Rapids reference) Ice Hotel (Sweden) The post Episode #3: A View on Destination Marketing appeared first on Holly G.

Tourism Tweetup the Podcast Michelle Mason from Social Tap chatting social media, events and festivals In episode #2 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we chat to Michelle about social media and the digital marketing process for Noosa Food and Wine Festival a large international food and wine event. The key learnings and tips can be applied to any festival or event. Links we refer to in this podcast Noosa International Food and Wine Festival Sprout Social Noosa, Queensland Australia   The post Episode #2: Social Media and Events appeared first on Holly G.

Tourism Tweetup the Podcast Full time blogger Brooke Schoenman from travel blog Her Packing List In episode 1 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we chat to Brooke about building and engaging on online community.  Her Packing List is a blog around packing tips and packing well and the site receives around 170,00 - 200,000 unique visitors a month with key drivers from Google Search and Pinterest. Social Media plays an important role in growing readership and then engaging with this community. Brooke started with Twitter and Facebook but now also focuses on Pinterest. It has been important to make the site more 'Pinteresting'. We discuss a few ways to do this including: Text on Images More Packing Lists (content that people were loving to pin) Making it easy to pin an image when on the site Being part of PinChats Brooke also gives a few top tips on growing an online community via social media including testing the waters and then focusing on the ones that give the best results. Brooke also chats about getting readers involved and how important this is and a few simple ways to do this. Links we refer to in this podcast Her Packing List on Pinterest Her Packing List on Facebook PinUp Live (Pin Chat) My Aroamas (solid perfume stick for travellers) The post Episode #1: Building a Community (and Pinterest) appeared first on Holly G.