Sheila's Guide To The Good Stuff

This is Billy Kounoupis, owner of the most excellent, most “not your ordinary diner” – Billy’s Downtown Diner in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley.

After a recent speaking engagement for the regional tourism organization, I asked my hosts for a breakfast recommendation the next morning….and boy, did they ever hook me up!

Billy himself (born and raised in nearby Easton PA) was greeting hungry patrons when we walked in, the place was jammed with all kinds of locals and the menu was one of the most fresh and imaginative I’d ever seen for a diner.

It was really hard to choose, but I went with the Tonga Toast - ”Sourdough bread dipped in our own French toast mix and topped with fresh strawberries, bananas and walnuts. Draped with low fat vanilla yogurt and dusted with cinnamon” for about US$8.00. I ate every bite of it.

My Discover Lehigh Valley host Mike Keller went with the Lil’ Havana Omelette – “Slow roasted pulled pork in authentic Cuban seasonings with grilled ham, Swiss and Pepper jack cheese wrapped by three fluffy eggs and topped with diced tomatoes” for about US$9.00.

I can’t remember what my other host Ryan had that morning, but Mike’s omelette is shown here on the right, before it completely disappeared.

Tomorrow (November 26) Billy has a book signing at the Moravian Book Shop (founded by the Moravians who settled in this part of Pennsylvania) for his new book on hospitality and entrepreneurship, Billy Cooks Like a Mother: A Guide to Starting Your Own Business by Someone Who’s Been There and Done That.

It would make a terrific gift for anyone in the hospitality business.

I love everything about places like Billy’s, and entrepreneurs who make things happen despite long odds and a tough economy.

Thanks for breakfast, Billy.

Disclosure: Discover Lehigh Valley paid for my breakfast, but awesome food that you don’t pay for is still awesome food.

(Direct link to the video below if you can’t see the embed box.)

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Thank you, Mom.

Both my mother (a long-time journalist) and I are members of the AWC (Association for Women in Communications.)

This year, Mom noticed that there was a new category, Personal Blogs, in the Online Media section of AWC’s annual Clarion communications awards.

She encouraged me to enter this blog in competition for a Clarion.

Like a good Mom, she then followed up just before the deadline to ensure I’d entered. I’d totally forgotten, of course, and had to race off to the post office to mail in my paperwork.

So, it was pretty cool to attend the 2011 AWC National Conference in Tulsa with Mom last month, have her in the room when I spoke with Maria Henneberry about more effective webinars, and then turn around and win the Clarion for Sheila’s Guide.

Thank you to all of my readers for your support since I launched the blog in September 2008, and thanks, Mom, for always encouraging me to excel.

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This is the Chikasha Inchokka’ (“Chickasaw house”) traditional village compound, authentically re-created at the Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur, Oklahoma.

There’s a big council house, two summer houses, two winter houses, a corn crib and a ceremonial mound, all enclosed by a stockade fence.

Here’s the interior of one of the winter houses, with an opening for the smoke from the warming/cooking fire inside….

The Cultural Center is really well-designed and it gave me a new appreciation of the Chickasaw. I highly recommend jumping off of Interstate 35 and paying them a visit; here’s more info on Native American tourism in Oklahoma.

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I’m fresh off of a short Southern road trip between the Tourism track at BlogWorld and New Media Expo West in Los Angeles, and the Symposium on Social Media in Tourism (SoMeT) in Tunica, Mississippi.

In between LA and Tunica, I landed in Jackson, MS, put on my travel blogger hat and drove north for a few days while working on an article for Automotive Traveler.

Allow me to give a HUGE shout-out and thank you to my hosts at the Jackson, MS CVB (Convention and Visitors Bureau) especially their Public Relations Manager, Marika Cackett.

Marika, Sophie McNeil and crew went well beyond the call of duty to ensure that I got a well-rounded view of their city, even though I didn’t have much time there. I was on the football field at a Battle of the Bands to hear the Sonic Boom of the South marching band from Jackson State University, I ate one fabulous meal after another all over town, I visited Civil Rights landmarks like Medgar Evers’ home and I heard the Central Mississippi Blues Society at local joint Hal and Mal’s.

The most wonderful moments, however, were with the enthusiastic and fun Marika as she connected me with the people who are creating an incredible renaissance in the historically African-American Farish Street district, and when she and I made happy fools of ourselves singing along with Marvin Gaye and Etta James on the jukebox at Peaches Cafe.

Here’s the above-and-beyond part: I didn’t organize my travel plans as well as I usually do, and I hadn’t properly lined up a FIAT 500 from Jackson’s Enterprise car rental (for the Automotive Traveler story.) I was swamped by BlogWorld preps and just blew it.

Marika said, “Hey, I’ll call Enterprise for you about the FIAT rental.”  I felt like such a disorganized moron that I tried to turn her down, but she cheerfully blew me off and made the call anyway. A few hours later, my phone rings in Los Angeles. “I got your FIAT!” she says. I’ll swear, I could have crawled through the phone and hugged her. She saved my bacon.

Thank you so much, Marika and all of the tourism folks who help us out even when we don’t really deserve it.

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This photo is of the ID tag that Loretta’s father wore during his 40 years working as a crane operator at Bethlehem Steel in Pennsylvania.

She wears it around her neck today as she gives guided tours of the industrial complex that once powered a nation, and is now a collection of rusting hulks and falling-down buildings.

Except, it’s not all falling down.

Today, the plant site is an incredible example of revitalization and industrial tourism called SteelStacks;  it includes a music pavilion next to a former blast furnace, the modern ArtsQuest performing arts building, a new building housing local public television station PBS39 and a bit down the road, a huge (and tastefully designed to fit the industrial theme) Sands Casino.

Loretta will tell you the history of the place during her tour – including fun stories about her Dad – but you’ll have to take care not to fall off of the sidewalk or into a fence while gawking at the renaissance taking place all around you.

Thanks, Loretta, and everyone in Bethlehem PA who honors the past, but believes in and builds a new future.

(Disclosure: I was in the Lehigh Valley as a keynote speaker for their annual regional tourism meeting, so my travel expenses were covered by the Convention and Visitors Bureau, but there was no cost to seeing SteelStacks.)

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In the wildly diverse and ever-growing world of bloggers and other online publishers, how do you sort through the stack to find the ones who interest you?

The ideas below were adapted from a comment of mine on the SpinSucks post “Blogger Outreach: Three Steps to a Successful Program“….in the spirit of more content in less time, I’m also going to put the same information here as a blog post.

Where do you find bloggers who might want to know about your destination, attraction, product, service or book?

I’m not sure I’d recommend that old warhorse Technorati for much of anything these days – I’d go for Alltop.com instead, if you’re looking for online publishers in lots of different subject areas.

Pssst – there’s an Alltop Tourism Industry channel, too!

Consultant Christina Pappas suggests looking for blogrolls (lists of favorite blogs, usually found in the sidebar) which is good when you can find blogs that still do them. Also look at Twitter Lists on Listorious and the membership of open Facebook Groups (one travel blogging Facebook Group has over 800 members; no harm in asking to join a Group if you have something to contribute, but don’t go in there and start overt marketing or you’ll probably get a digital spanking.)

Consider Twitter chats – many travel bloggers hang out on the #TBEX and #TBU hashtags, for example, and they also attend the associated TBEX / @TBEXEvents and Travel Bloggers Unite / @tbloggersunite travel blogging conferences, so show up there and participate.

It’s very effective to connect OFFline by going where the geeks are;  events like BlogWorld & New Media Expo, SXSWi (South by Southwest Interactive,) BlogHer, SOBCon, the 140 Character Conferences worldwide, Blissdom, local Social Media Clubs and Social Media Breakfasts plus small niche gatherings …. there’s a pet blogging conference, a beer blogging conference, food blogger events, craft blogger conferences….you get the idea.

But yes – meet bloggers on their blog, not in their email IN box (where I spend an inordinate amount of time deleting stupid stuff that I don’t want, thanks to people buying my name from companies like Vocus, Cision and BurrellesLuce.)

Meet bloggers where they are, on their terms. After all, YOU want what THEY have.

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Welcome to the Carnival of Cities blog carnival, where we tour the world in a single post, via submissions from a variety of different blogs, all about any aspect of one, single city (or fair-sized town.)

The previous Carnival edition was hosted by the Perceptive Travel Blog and we will return to PT Blog on November 2.

If you would like to host a future Carnival edition on your blog, please contact me at Sheila “at” sheilascarborough “dot” com. Thanks!

Off we go….

Cities in Africa

Nairobi, Kenya   Pam Mandel presents This is Not About a Taxi Driver posted at Nerd’s Eye View, saying, “Overwhelmed by Nairobi, traveler Pam Mandel opts out of adventure and goes for the beaten path tourist sites. She’s not the least bit sorry.”

Cities in the Americas

Ko Olina, Oahu, Hawaii, USA   Jennifer Miner presents What Will Happen to the Ihilani Resort and Spa? posted at The Vacation Gals, saying, “Now that Disney has opened the Aulani, what will happen to the JW Marriott Resort & Spa right next door in Ko Olina, Oahu?”

Tunica, Mississippi, USA   Lisa Konupka presents Celebrate Fall with Delta Day on October 29 posted at Down the Road in Tunica MS Blog.

Phoenix, Arizona, USA   Nina Simmons presents Fall Festivals in Phoenix posted at The Hot Sheet saying, “If this doesn’t work, I would be happy to submit another post. Thank you for the opportunity!”

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada   Zhu presents Night Owls posted at Correr Es Mi Destino, saying, “Dur­ing sum­mer, days are long and sun­set is late, so I’m rarely down­town Ottawa after night falls. But as days are becom­ing shorter, I decided to go hunt for night shots while the weather is still nice. Last Sat­ur­day was one of these days. It was in the mid-twenties and I left home around 7 p.m. to roam the down­town core with my cam­era. Half of the city had the same idea—by Sep­tem­ber, we are all clutch­ing at the last bits of summer.”

(more…)

This is a combined post written with Troy Thompson of Travel2Dot0, my co-presenter at the excellent, wide-ranging eTourism Summit.

We spoke together about blogger outreach at the conference and here are a few of our follow-up thoughts….

Troy, on things to consider before working with a blogger

As part of my eTourism Summit schedule, one fateful session had me teamed with the America’s Blogger, Sheila Scarborough [ note from me - Troy says that this is like America's Team, but that I don't throw interceptions.  ] Never one to pass up an opportunity to express myself, nor is Sheila, we decided to take a couple of themes and thoughts from our presentation and through the magic of the internets, turn them into an article.

Sheila is covering relationships, I am covering evaluation. Two posts for the price of one.

How To: Evaluate and Select Bloggers

It was a popular question during our recent eTourism Summit presentation: How do I evaluate bloggers? Or, more specifically, how can I tell the good bloggers from the freeloaders?

An excellent question and one that everyone in the tourism space will eventually deal with. While the correct answer is based upon your needs and goals (sorry), I do have a few tips on how to evaluate and select the right blogger. Used in conjunction with other sources these tips should provide the foundation for your own blogger evaluation algorithm.

Google Analytics

Yeah, numbers. Start here. The numbers will not tell you a whole lot. Frankly, audience size should not be a top priority…quality over quantity, right?…but asking for Google Analytics will provide two clues about the blogger. 1) Are they willing to share statistics. And 2) do they have statistics. If the answer for either question is no, then you can move this candidate to the bottom of your list.

Klout

Ah, Klout. Half of you just cursed out loud, while the rest of you are frantically Googling the word Klout. The social ranking system has strong supporters and loud detractors, but it does provide another piece of your blogger evaluation puzzle. Check the score. Again, this is just a basic test. Klout of 5? Red flag. Klout of 54, continue the evaluation investigation.

Writing Style

Take the time to read the writer’s work, and not just the most recent post. The first post, the most popular most, a random post. Understand their perspective, writing style and technique. Does it fit with your brand, goals or campaign? Does the blogger tell a complete story. Do they use images, video and other content to complete the narrative. Is it a good story? Check, check, check…okay, let’s keep moving.

Being Social

Yes, we already looked at the Klout score, but that is not the end of the social investigation. Klout can be fooled. Look on the blog; are social network icons present? Are they active on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.? Do they promote their writing via these channels? Are they actively communicating…and, are readers communicating back? Are there comments on the blog posts? Does the blogger respond? How social are they? You want someone who will carry your message and story beyond a single web page. You are hiring a digital advocate for your brand. The question is, are they an advocate?

Network

Going a step beyond just being social, you need to know who they are social with. A bit selfish on your part, but hey, a comp [complimentary hotel] room is a comp room. Is the blogger talking with other bloggers? Are those bloggers or writers potential connections for another story about your destination? What about building their network. Is the blogger active in Twitter chats or Facebook groups? What about on Disqus? Is there an opportunity to not only benefit from the direct network of this blogger, but their indirect network as well? Yes. Perfect. Comp ‘em that room.

While our five tips are a great start, they are just that, a start. Your goals are likely different from a retail store, internet start-up or another destination and therefore your evaluation criteria should be different as well.

But, as long as you are researching against goals…and not looking for a quick Klout rating…the right blogger is just a tweet away.

Me, on growing a blogger network, or Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty

I can’t claim credit for the “dig your well” idea – it’s the title of a book by Harvey Mackay – but when it comes to building a network of online connections and resources, it is definitely true.

(Head over to Troy’s blog to read my unicorn blogger advice….)

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Create once, use many times.

That’s the key to creating more content in less time, but here is what you must also do….think like a multi-platform, multimedia online publisher.

Here’s an example:

This morning, I was trying to get some itinerary ideas for an upcoming road trip in a state where I don’t have a lot of recent travel experience.

I go to the state tourism website, and there’s gobs of great stuff on there, including a section called Trails that should have given me what I wanted – highlighted places thematically grouped together, and then laid out on a map so I can visualize driving around to them.

Instead, when I drilled down, all I got was what I get way too often from tourism websites:  an alphabetical list of places.

Do you know how discouraging it is to see a list starting with “A” places – Aardvark Restaurant, Al’s Chicken Wings, etc. – and look at the bottom of the website and see that you’re on Page 1 of 10 of these listings?

Forget it.

So, without naming the site in question, I griped a bit from my personal account on Twitter. Theresa Overby from the Baton Rouge, Louisiana CVB (Convention and Visitors Bureau) saw my tweet and began asking me usability questions, in light of an upcoming re-do of their website.

How Did a Twitter Discussion Become Content?

We went back and forth, exchanging good ideas, and then I began to think like a publisher….”Where else online would this info be useful to people?”

In 30-40 minutes, I had posted:

1) On the Tourism Currents Twitter account, of course, where we talk about social media and tourism. I went to Twitter’s search engine, gathered the relevant tweets together in a search string, and captured the conversation. Then I took that link and tweeted it on Tourism Currents‘ stream.

2)  On Facebook. Since Facebook and Twitter people are their own communities and you can’t assume people are in both places, I then took the same link and published it as a status update on the Tourism Currents Facebook Page, making sure that I tagged the Visit Baton Rouge Facebook Page in the update, of course.

3)  In the blog post you’re reading right now, with the addition of a screenshot graphic edited in a super-basic way using the Print Screen function, pasting that into Paint and then cropping it the way I wanted it and saving as a JPEG. Boom. Done.

That’s how you get more use out of the content you create, including random Twitter conversations. It’s almost like getting more hours in the day.

That thought process of thinking like an online publisher also happens to be the latest Two Pages of Terrific download available in the Tourism Currents Store, if you want more where that came from (like 9 different ways to use one photo.)

How do you use your content in multiple ways? Let us know in the Comments!

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A quick thought for everyone hearing about how social media ….

—->  ”Is great for contests where people will get their friends to vote for _____.”

—->  ”Incentivizes ‘influencers’ who get their networks to do _____.” (actual sentence)

—->  ”Is powerful because people will leverage their connections to _____.”

All I ask is that folks think about the implications of manipulating customers/visitors/guests to manipulate their friends, families and networks.

My friends are not your marketing fodder.

Be careful when you mess with what people care about a lot more than they care about your brand.

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