Sheila's Guide To The Good Stuff

Hello, Jordan!

I’m thrilled to be able to tell you that I’ll be traveling soon to the Hashemite Kingdom, thanks to an invitation from the Jordanian Tourism Board.

There will be general travel and family travel posts over on the Perceptive Travel blog, a guest post on prices for the World’s Cheapest Destinations blog, and I’ll explore and discuss Jordanian tourism’s social media marketing efforts here and in the Tourism Currents Facebook Page, on Twitter and at least one of our newsletters.

Most of you know that I’m not a huge fan of press trips and fam tours for my own travel, because I do have angst-y issues with whether one can maintain objectivity when all the goodies are provided.

With this invitation, I thought long and hard about it, and I’m going anyway.

Here’s why:

1) Chances are slim that I’d get there on my own anytime soon,  and HELLO, are you kidding?  The magnificent ruins at Petra, of course, but also urban buzz in Amman (I had no idea that there is a 6000 seat Roman amphitheater smack in the middle of town,) desert beauty in places like Wadi Rum contrasted with a lush pine forest and nature reserve, a resort atmosphere (heavy on the mud) at the Dead Sea, mosaics in Madaba….what an amazing opportunity.

2) The Middle East is a favorite region (I lived in Bahrain as a preteen, and even had my 12th birthday in Shiraz, Iran) but it is misunderstood by many. I’d like to help clear that up, and….

3)  As with the Hawaii blogger press trip, I know that the Jordanian and Middle Eastern tourism industries are suffering from safety perceptions given the current situation in Egypt. They’re losing visitors. I’d love to dispel those concerns by visiting myself and telling you what I find.

More info when I have it.  Passport is ready!

Disclosure: The Jordanian Tourism Board is providing my airfare, accommodation and entry fees. They have not told me what to write about, and the itinerary is still in flux. I am not traveling as part of a group.

After our great experience holding the 140 Characters Conference Small Town in the restored Fox Theatre in Hutchinson, Kansas, I began thinking about how small towns with the right timing, venue, networks and entrepreneurial spirit can host more tech- and social media-related events.

The result of my musings was an article I wrote for the January 2011 issue of PCMA Convene (the magazine for the Professional Convention Management Association) and a guest post on the PCMA blog: “Small-Town, Not Small-Time.”

An excerpt from the post:

“Some tips on using a small town venue for digital gatherings:

1) Don’t make assumptions about which places can and can’t host. The 140 Characters conferences, for example, “are usually and most effectively held in theaters; in fact, the very first one in New York was based on the idea of [a Twitter-like] one hundred and forty characters gathering together in an off-Broadway theater,” said SmallTown’s lead organizer Becky McCray, who has also spoken at 140 Conferences in London and Detroit. “All we had to do was bring WiFi (wireless Internet) into Hutchinson’s Fox Theatre, and it was perfect.”

For the rest of the tips, see the full article about how an Art Deco theater hosted a bunch of modern geeks, in “Small-Town, Not Small-Time.”

So many small towns and rural areas fight the image of being backward, and they find it tough to draw and hold onto talent.  The web and social media changes that, and consequently can have a big impact on economic development.

For more on that, keep an eye on the next 140 Conference Small Town, again in Hutchinson, on September 20, 2011.

When someone asks me about social media in the hospitality industry, I usually mention the Roger Smith Hotel in New York, AJ Bombers restaurant in Milwaukee and the blog written by Hawaii-based Outrigger Hotels.

Then I wish that I knew more examples.

That problem was just partially solved by this excellent presentation on Slideshare by Lara Dickson, a designer and social media marketing expert based in Vermont. It’s also included in her own blog post, Social for Hospitality 101.

It covers all that any hotel or restaurant needs to know about getting started using social media tools for marketing, and it’s full of ideas and examples.

Thanks a bunch, Lara!

Direct link to the presentation Adding Social Media to Your Hospitality Marketing Toolkit.

I was working with a tourism-related client recently about incorporating more video into their website and destination marketing.

That inspired me to dig around in the Insights (analytics) section of the YouTube channel for another small CVB (Convention and Visitor’s Bureau) that I’ve worked with in the past, to see what sort of information I could glean.

Here’s what I found – perhaps it will help you with your own tourism videos.

**  Views average 35 – 40 a day. We started seeing solid jumps in viewership as soon as we began posting consistently. Ranking on page one in Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) for desired keywords in YouTube Search took about 2 months, because we needed 3 -4 videos to really crank it and we released them slowly.

**  Viewership is 64% male, largest viewership is people aged 45 – 54.  There are a mix of people, but the top viewers are not younger people, contrary to video-watcher stereotypes.

**  Most people find this CVB’s videos with YouTube’s search engine, or they click around on the channel page, or they come over to our stuff from related videos.  The VAST majority, though, across all videos, find them with YouTube Search.  I was surprised by how low plain ol’ Google search ranked as a way that people find our stuff, even with the importance of video to universal search.

**  We do see people click and watch videos from the CVB homepage (where they rotate) but not a whole lot.  On a few videos, they watched it more times on the homepage than on the CVB Facebook Page (where they are also posted) which rather surprises me, but then again a Facebook video may get buried quickly whereas it rotates up to the homepage more than once.

**  The most popular video so far is an interview tied to a niche sport that held a training camp in town. The fan base is small but very enthusiastic, plus the featured team won a big tournament after the camp, which increased interest.

More data on this popular video:

—>  Most of its views, like the others, come from YouTube Search. I’d researched specific keywords for that sport and added more as I saw them being used in search strings, which paid off in making the video easier for people to find.

—>  25% of the viewers of that video watched it on a mobile device.

—>  It was embedded elsewhere but most views other than on the YouTube channel came from when we put it on the CVB Facebook Page (it helped that we tagged people in it plus the sport’s governing body.)  The second largest number of off-channel views came from embedding it in a guest post that I wrote for a sports information and networking site.  The third largest number of off-channel views came from people watching it in a post in a Ning group related to the sport.

Takeaways for you?

Have a plan going in that makes sense for your market, produce consistently and as often as possible, optimize your video for SEO, don’t discount the value of niche groups for spreading the word, make sure it looks good on a mobile device and allow the video to be embedded in places other than your YouTube channel.

Have you seen any interesting data from tourism video that you’ve done? Let me know in the comments – thanks!

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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 host was the Perceptive Travel blog and the next edition will again be hosted here on Sheila’s Guide on Wednesday, February 9.

If you’d like to host a future Carnival edition on your blog (February 23 and March 9 are open) please contact me at Sheila “at” sheilascarborough “dot” com. Thanks!

Off we go….

Cities in Europe

Orta San Giulio, Italy Donna Hull presents Baby Boomer Tips for Visiting Orta San Giulio, Italy posted at My Itchy Travel Feet, saying, “Outdoor cafes facing a lake that hosts a medieval island, walks through a park-like setting where chapels depict the life of St. Francis of Assisi through painted frescoes – you’ll find an un-touristy Italian paradise in Orta San Giulio.”

Istanbul, Turkey Nicole Elena Robertson presents Istanbul posted at Nicole Elena Robertson, saying, “Istanbul is a beautiful city, rich in history, and often overlooked by Western travelers. While researching my upcoming trip, I’ve gathered some stunning photos of Istanbul.”

Oslo, Norway Anne-Sophie Redisch presents Oslo – 10 Great Free Cultural Attractions posted at Sophie’s World, saying, “Oslo’s premier attraction is nature, and there are many, many ways to enjoy the great outdoors, free of charge. But it’s cold out these days. And not absolutely everyone loves skiing in sub-zero temperatures. So here are 10 favourite cultural attractions, less strenuous and completely free of charge.”

Leeds, Yorkshire, England Keith Kellett presents Winter at Roundhay Park posted at Travelrat’s Travels.

Amsterdam, the Netherlands r0dman presents Backpacking in Amsterdam posted at on the way to somewhere, saying, “We would just walk for a bit, then sit down and watch the thousands of people ride past on bicycles, families playing on the grass, dogs playing until they fight each other and then playing again, and all of the other things that happen when you take the time to sit and watch. It was relaxing, but it was interesting too.”

Rome, Italy Tim Freeman presents Weekend in Rome posted at Madrileño Americano, saying, “This blog post outlines my trip to Rome, Italy.”

Paris, France Robin Locker presents Go Organic in Paris posted at My Melange.

Cities in the Americas

Miami, Florida, USA Anna presents Meet my favourite city in the world posted at Anna’s Life and Mistakes, saying, “Miami…the unregrettable addiction”

Nashville, Tennessee, USA Nicole presents Finding my bliss at Blissdom in Nashville posted at Arrows Sent Forth, saying, “My memories of the atrium at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville and why I’m excited to visit again during the Blissdom conference.”

Read the rest of this entry »

For me, content is either preplanned or is triggered by something that bothers me and I simply HAVE to blast out a post.

I often ask myself, “What is driving me nuts right now, or what makes me happy just thinking about it?” and that becomes fresh content.

Several ways to keep feeding the beast….

1)  Use a monthly or weekly editorial calendar, particularly to help you write seasonal, holiday-related or event-specific blog/Facebook posts or tweets.

Why do you think that “get organized” articles come up every January, and “get ready for bikini season” stuff arrives in women’s magazines like clockwork in April or May? Soup recipes in November, fruit tart recipes in July and August….all of it is evergreen content, re-done every year. Same with those “how to get the most out of XYZ Conference” posts you see before events, followed by link-heavy “Here’s what I learned at XYZ Conference” afterward.

In our very first Tourism Currents newsletter, we talked about editorial calendars for content planning, because it’s that important to have a strategy for what you publish.

2)  Have some way to track the random insights that pop into your head; they often become popular posts if you move fast to articulate your unique point of view on a topical issue. Some people use electronic services like Evernote to record them; I use a notepad and pen (which always boot up.)

Also keep some notetaking device near your bed, because it’s amazing how many ideas will occur to you as you’re falling asleep.  No, you will not remember them in the morning. Trust me.

3)  Which key words and phrases are people using to discover answers in your industry? What are they asking about on LinkedIn Answers, on Quora, on Twitter, in person at conferences, etc? Your answers to those questions are all potential blog posts. Include the keywords in your headline; that’s great SEO because you are using exactly the same “How do I….?” words that people are typing into search engine boxes, and bots like to bring back results that exactly match queries.

That’s what I did for this post – I did a quick analysis of the phrases people use when they do a search about how to blog, then wrote my title.

4)  Sometimes the best posts are images or video, with just a little text.

Always have a camera with you, and periodically scroll your archives for photos or videos that were buried and never edited. I wrote a post about a simple integrated marketing communication example based on a photo that I’d forgotten I’d taken till I did an archive review.

5)  Never waste content. I took my answer to a blogging question on Quora and it became this blog post.

There’s one more piece of content in the can for me, my thoughts kill two birds, and the gaping maw is pacified for one more day. 

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Two observations bracketing my day today:

Bloggers as Moochers

This morning on Twitter, I noted (tweeting as @TourismCurrents) a press trip announcement for Southern city B&Bs that wants writers with letters of assignment from print publications with “minimum annual circulation of 100,000.”  I thought it was interesting that there was no mention of an online publication as an alternative, with X number of unique visitors per month, X number of email subscribers or some other metric for reach.

I thought this exclusion was short-sighted, and said so.

The response from @gran_tourismo (Lara Dunston and Terence Carter, currently on a long-term worldwide trip sponsored by HomeAway vacation rentals) was that many hoteliers….

“….say they get burned frequently by bloggers who don’t produce goods….Most bloggers can’t demonstrate reach of a [blog] post.” [as compared to the reach of print coverage.]

So, not a great reputation for bloggers out there in the hospitality world that Lara and Terence have seen so far.

Anecdotal, to be sure, but there it is.

Bloggers as Desirable

This evening – also on Twitter – I notice an initiative by @VisitLanai (the Hawaiian island of Lanai’s Visitor Bureau) for a “New Media Artist-in-Residence” program to bring online publishers across the Pacific to experience the island.  First up is my friend Shannon Hurst Lane of the Traveling Mamas. Follow the #VisitLanai hashtag for more.

Now, not 10 minutes after I tweeted about that, a DM (Direct Message – private message on Twitter) popped up on my dashboard from a friend asking me how to get in on the New Media Artist-in-Residence program. 

Here’s the question – while I certainly have my reservations about press trips and fam tours – the fact is that while they ARE work, they are also pretty darned cool when they’re in a cool place (and yo, Hawaii is pretty fab.)

Given the blogger-as-moocher reputation issues raised by Lara and Terence above, who is going to get invites to top-tier places like Hawaii?

I do know this – the Hawaii tourism people know exactly what they have to offer with their beautiful islands, and they will be picky, picky about who they select for invitations to their new media program.  Online publishers who want to go will have to show that they will (unlike what the hotel people complain about) “deliver the goods” and that their online publishing has reach and impact.

Takeaways

If you’re a CVB, DMO or Tourist Board, you’d better know how to evaluate bloggers and their work online.  There are metrics and they can drill down pretty far – further than a lot of specious print circ numbers – but you need to know what you’re looking at with analytics. Do not just invite a blogger to say you invited a blogger, and think you’re now all social media-y and hip.

If you’re a blogger and you want to go on these trips, you’d better be able to pony up some numbers/analytics info about your online presence, and you’d better be ready to say exactly what you plan to “deliver” to your hosts.  PR guy Peter Shankman addressed this tangentially in this post:  Want to get sponsored? You’d better be sponsorable.

I like days that show me two perspectives on online media within 12 hours!

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I recently went against my own rules about working for free, but the result was winning a contest, connecting with a probable client and confirming in my own head that getting started with any organization’s social media strategy is actually pretty simple.

Here’s the story….

Every year, I always make time to go to SOBCon – a “think tank” event. It’s all about businesses, communities and customers, online and off and the attendees are some incredible people.  Founded by my friends Liz Strauss and Terry Starbucker, the main conference is in Chicago (it’s April 29 – May 1 in 2011) and there’s also a smaller one in Colorado.

The Set-Up

One of the sponsors is Carlsen Resources, Inc (CRI), an executive search firm in global media and telecommunications. In fall 2010 they supported a SOBCon social media strategy contest:

“The prize? A FREE trip to our flagship event, SOBCon 2011 in Chicago!  (registration, 3 night’s hotel, air up to $750)

The contest? Propose, in 500 words or less, a Social Media strategy for Carlsen Resources.

How will the winner be selected? A team at Carlsen Resources will review and determine which proposal best suits their business. The SOBCon social media team will act in an advisory role only.”

Carlsen wants to connect with their market AND do a better job of reaching out to those who spend time on the social Web, particularly younger people. Pretty straightforward, and similar to the goals of many organizations these days who “know they need to do something besides having a website.”

I was reluctant to spend valuable time on this project without a paycheck at the other end – heck, I’m even doing a webinar about avoiding “brain-picking” as a freelancer/entrepreneur – but was intrigued by the deceptively simple premise and the opportunity to have my conference expenses covered. SOBCon is an amazing value, but it’s not cheap.

The Strategic Approach & Framework

Since I normally don’t work in the executive recruiting industry, the contest offered an opportunity to do some higher level thinking; to see if I could take a simple framework that I use with Tourism Currents, and apply it outside of our normal focus on tourism, hospitality and economic development.

The strategy?

It all boils down to four very basic questions:

1) Who is the market for Carlsen?

2) What sort of people are their customers?

3) Where are they right now on the social Web (and where might they go in the near future?)

4)  How can Carlsen best engage with them there?

That’s it. Anyone can ask these questions of any person or organization that wants to establish a presence using social media.

The value I brought was in knowing the organization (I did my homework to learn as much as I could about Carlsen and about their market) AND knowing the cultures of the different social media spaces to determine the best fit, which comes from spending one hell of a lot of time online since I started a family travel blog in early 2006.

The Recommendation

So, what did I recommend?  Drumroll….

A much more wide-ranging and effective company presence on LinkedIn, and that they start a high-level blog about C-suite issues in their market and industries of interest.

Yep, that’s it. That’s what makes sense for their market, and would make the best use of their time and brainpower.

To some people, these may seem to be absurdly simple ideas, but anyone who knows what they’re doing knows that a lot goes into creating an “effective presence” on LinkedIn, and a TON of effort goes into a really solid blog that hits C-suite issues.

At some point, a Facebook Page for the business would be good (I did point out that one of their competitors has a lively Page) and then a Twitter account plus participation in industry-related chats like #TNL, #CareerChat and #LeadershipChat.

BUT….only when it makes sense for reaching their market and only if they have the time and commitment to making the content on all channels absolutely top-notch.

Thanks so much to Carlsen for sponsoring SOBCon and financially supporting my participation in one of my very favorite events.

(Update:  Wow, had to come back and add these Mack Collier thoughts on How to Fix a Broken Social Media Strategy – he reminds his readers that strategy comes first, then the tactics (social media channels) to implement that strategy. He also suggests ways to measure your impact and success/failure. Great post, Mack!)

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Yes, Texans can be annoyingly overconfident, but then again, they used to be a republic unto themselves, so I suppose I can understand that attitude.

There is something to be said for a place that knows what it offers and wears a proud you’ll-only-find-it-here air about themselves.

They also tend to have a shop local mentality (because “our stuff DESERVES to be purchased, you pinhead!”) and they have no interest in looking like everyone else.

Some cities in Texas have a bunch of bodies and buildings but very little personality.

Dallas does not rock my boat, for example, but Fort Worth sure does, and the “Keep Austin Weird” slogan reflects both my current home region’s population boom and its fierce self-preservation instincts.

Have a personality. Stand for something. Support and highlight your local talent and businesses….

Or no one will care about you at all, because you can be found anywhere.

So simple, so straightforward, but I don’t see it often enough.

Integrate your on- and off-line destination marketing efforts. Make sure that people can find you, wherever you have a presence.

This card is the brainchild of Sarah Page, a Texas Social Media Award 2011 nominee and the LCRA (Lower Colorado River Authority) economic development expert.

The only change I’d make would be to add a QR code so that anyone with a smartphone could boot up links to any of the sites above.

But, I know Sarah is already thinking about that….in between True Blue Texas blog posts.

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