One of the best social networks for professional development is Twitter.

It is not only an extraordinarily fast news grapevine, but with hour-long knowledge tsunamis like #tourismchat you can get a whole lot of helpful information without paying a dime for it or schlepping luggage onto a plane (plus you’ll connect with a lot of smart people.)

Another way to learn from Twitter is to follow conference hashtags.

Using the hashtag in a tweet allows people to follow all tweets about one particular event or topic. Even if you aren’t on Twitter, you can plug in a hashtag on Twitter’s search engine and see what comes up.

Many hashtags start buzzing well before the event (BlogWorld and New Media Expo West in Los Angeles in November – #BWELA – where there’s a tourism track, is already busy.)

Others go year-round, like #SoMeT for the Social Media Tourism Symposium, #TBEX for the Travel Blog Exchange conference and #SOBCon, the business blogging conference.

Some Tips for Hashtag Participation

Here are a few tips for enjoying the wonders of conference hashtags….

1 )  Notice someone tweeting really good stuff? Go follow them; send a quick tweet to say hi, and tell them that you appreciate their efforts. This includes supporting the speakers.

2 )  Notice when someone new comes onto the hashtag. At conferences, many people finally decide to join Twitter or get active on their long-dormant account. Support them by following and saying hello.

Many times these newbies are executive types who don’t yet really know what they’re doing, so cut them plenty of slack, including being patient about them not knowing how to change their default egg avatar.

3 )  Don’t promote your product, service or upcoming event on the hashtag. It’s just tacky. People will see your avatar joining the discussion, and they are perfectly capable of reading your Twitter bio to see what you’re about. If they want to talk business, that’s fine, but take it off the hashtag.

4 )  Don’t be a carnival barker. I’ve noticed more and more vendors at trade shows filling the hashtag with hourly “Come by our booth and win an iPad!” sorts of tweets. This is annoying noise and makes them look desperate. Cut it out, booth babes.

5 )  Be sensitive to services that automatically tweet when you do something. For example, no one cares about seeing your Klout score sent from Klout in the middle of a conference. We’re not that into you.

6 )  Don’t just sit there RT-ing (retweeting) what everyone else is saying. As Troy says in his helpful post about how to tweet at a tourism conference: add context, value and insights.

7 )  Be sensitive to how busy people can be at a conference, trying to keep up with things, and don’t expect real-time replies just because you see them live-tweeting….good tip from Sarah Vela of the awesome startup HelpAttack!

8 )  Take it outside, folks – don’t get into arguments on the hashtag. As my friend Connie Reece says, “You can pack a lot of heat into 140 characters.”

I’ve seen a Twitter cruise hashtag devolve into an online dogfight between ship passengers and environmental activists, and a tourism conference this week had someone stomp into the middle of it to yell about the host state’s liquor laws.

When I feel a rant coming on, I move it over to certain circles on Facebook, or here to the blog. There’s more room for discussion, it doesn’t hog the hashtag and most importantly, my blog and my Facebook profile are MY “house.” Conference hashtags are not.

And finally….

9 )  Remember, you aren’t physically there. You’re an observer. Don’t parachute in and run your mouth too much; kinda like IRL….In Real Life. Otherwise, you’ll get reactions like, “Who the hell IS this person, and if they have so much to say, why didn’t they pony up the conference fee and show up in person?”

I know, sort of cranky and piggy, but the thought WILL cross people’s minds.

Did I miss anything? Tell us in the comments down below – thanks!

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I’m working on a book, and it’s NOT about travel or social media!

Seems as though every time I turn around these days, someone I know is cranking out a book. For speakers like me, it’s almost a rite of passage.

I spent a lot of time wrestling with the idea, and trying to figure out why my portfolio of print articles and blog posts since early 2006 wasn’t enough to give me the credibility that can apparently – even today – only come from a book.

Honestly, it seems a bit silly that all of my tech and blogging buddies consider a book, made of paper, to be a pinnacle of geek achievement. Does anyone else find that a bit, well, ODD?

So I did what I do….I stewed and pouted and tried to find reasons to say No, and ultimately it ended up the way it always does for me….I decided that it was worth my time and effort to write a book, but not the one that people might expect.

A travel guidebook is a pain in the rear to compile and write, there’s no real money in it and it’s often outdated very quickly.

A social media book would be a rather naked bid to catch this year’s hot marketing topic. An offline entity doesn’t seem like the best medium to convey thoughts about online topics – especially when this blog works just fine for that, thanks.

I wanted something evergreen; something that could be picked up at a bookstore or ordered online five years from now, and would still be relevant, engaging and helpful.  When in doubt, I turn to my own experiences because I know them best, and thus was born The Elastic Waist Entrepreneur (or here is the book’s Facebook Page, if that’s your thing.) It’s about launching an online business for older women, especially when you really don’t know what the hell you’re doing, like me.

Since I have this project on the brain, I submitted a speaking proposal with serial entrepreneur Wendy Piersall to the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) tech conference, held every March in Austin, Texas.  It’s right down the road from me, and I’d be an idiot not to attend one of the world’s biggest tech events when it’s a 30 minute drive away.

As part of the unique Panel Picker process at SXSW, you can vote for and comment on proposals, so here is my shameless plug for you to add your vote and voice to the comments about the proposal, if you’d like.

Our proposal page: Elastic Waist Entrepreneurship for Women 40+

Why elastic waists? Because as a comfort-seeking old lady of 50, that’s what I was wearing when I came up with the book idea.

No matter how it ends up, thanks for your support, and see you in Austin in March 2012!

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Decisions, decisions….

Budgets are tight these days (Washington State’s tourism organization was completely disbanded this month) and yet there is a wealth of great content ready to be absorbed and connections to be made during the fall conference season.

How to decide who from the office goes where and how much money to spend? This is especially important for social media and tech events, because the ground is shifting rapidly and you don’t want to learn the wrong thing from knuckleheads.

I offered some thoughts and ideas in a guest post on the BlogWorld blog, “RoundUp of Fall Tourism Tech Conferences,” and it’s a tribute to the BlogWorld organization that they weren’t at all balky about letting me talk up competing conferences on their website. They’re a class act; they know that there is plenty of opportunity to go around in the not-so-new landscape of “new media,” social communication and technology.

Here is my advice in a nutshell….and please keep in mind that I’m a track leader at BlogWorld and speaking at both SoMeT and eTourism Summit, so I want all of them to succeed….

When is BlogWorld best?

If you want maximum opportunity to connect with a wide variety of bloggers and other online publishers, plus attend focused educational panels and hear industry speakers on social media for tourism and hospitality, then the Tourism track at BlogWorld and New Media Expo West in Los Angeles, CA November 3-5, 2011 is your best bet.

—-> Who should go? BlogWorld is perfect for your staff networking/schmoozing fiend who is also getting really good at social media (or who wants to get to that level.)

Don’t forget – super early bird discount pricing (50% off) ends on Thursday, July 21, 2011 - and you can use code TC20 to knock 20% off of any pass right up until the conference closes online registration in November.

Go here to read up on the Tourism track and register.

When is SoMeT best?

If you want to mix it up with tech- and social media-savvy tourism peers at a small conference of the very geekiest CVBs, DMOs and Tourist Boards, then the Symposium on Social Media in Tourism (SoMeT) in Tunica, MS November 9-12, 2011 would work for you.

This is where your communications person goes who is WAY ahead of the rest of the office, and who needs to stay at his or her “A” game for the benefit of your destination.

—-> Who should go?  SoMeT is great for your geekiest staffer who was on Foursquare and slinging QR codes months before anyone else.

When is eTourism Summit best?

If you’re looking for high-level discussions of travel and tourism technology as a whole, consider the eTourism Summit in San Francisco, CA September 29-30, 2011.

Lots of strategy and integration discussions, with a bit more of an international flavor than the others, looking at technology beyond social media.

—->  Who should go? eTourism Summit is a good idea for your Director who is trying to keep that 30,000 foot, integrated marketing view amongst insanely rapid tech and social media changes.

I know that a lot of conferences and events compete for attention and dollars, so I hope this helps your decision-making process.

Any other suggestions? Fire away down in the comments!

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And now there are four….

In addition to the speakers that I announced in my first post about the BlogWorld and New Media Expo West 2011 Tourism track – the Abilene (TX) CVB and Authentic Seacoast Resorts in Nova Scotia – I’m now very excited to confirm that Caroline Bean from Visit Philadelphia and Brian Matson from Fargo (ND) – Moorhead (MN) CVB will be joining Tourism Currents at this year’s BlogWorld conference in Los Angeles, November 3-5.

I’ve known Caroline for years in my travel blogging hat, and met Brian for the first time in person at last year’s Symposium on Social Media in Tourism (SoMeT.)

Track topics and details coming soon, on this BlogWorld and tourism info page….

Nowhere else can you get social media education specific to tourism and hospitality PLUS the opportunity to connect with 8000+ bloggers and podcasters (we’re planning a blogger/CVB speed dating session, too.)

See you there!

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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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The Web means you can live anywhere (even a small town or rural area) and still be connected to the world.

The Web means that any venue with good WiFi, even an historic Art Deco theater in a revitalizing downtown, can host a meeting for interesting people with something to share.

Social media means that a Kansas guy who uploads a pump jack photo on Twitter just for fun can be noticed by a smart, well-connected entrepreneur in Oklahoma, who also happens to know the guy who runs the 140 Characters Conference tech events worldwide (yes, that’s the back story on how the 140 Conference SmallTown ended up in Hutchinson, KS.)

I think this ties into all sorts of timely issues – how technology is making “flyover country” more visible and relevant in the modern world, creative approaches to economic and downtown development, the importance of rural broadband access in a connected world, the rise of the creative class outside of big cities and how Web connectivity lets you live anywhere you want to live.

I know the person in this short video below:  it’s Cody Heitschmidt, the guy who makes things happen in Hutchinson.

He is much too modest and self-deprecating, but I’ll say it  –  he sees future possibilities for his town way before others do.

I very much look forward to joining him in Hutch on November 1, 2010 when the rest of the world gets to meet him, too.

Here’s the direct link to the video, and if you want to attend the 140 Characters Conference SmallTown, use code 140disc when you register here, and save $40 off of the ticket price.

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I’ll cut to the chase, because BlogWorld conference pass prices go up after September 16.

Why tourism and travel professionals need to go to BlogWorld and New Media Expo at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Oct 14-16:

1)  Because to really grasp what social media and tech can do for your marketing and communications, you need to go where the geeks are.

2)  Because our Tourism Track gives you a full day of training in social media for tourism…how to listen to the conversations that matter online, better video for tourism, blogger press trips/fam tours and more.

3)  Because it will be participatory, hands-on, no fear training with me and my Tourism Currents co-founder Becky McCray, PLUS….

***  Ann Peavey from the Seattle, Washington CVB (she’s @SeattleMaven on Twitter)

***  Mike Bersabal from the Pensacola, Florida CVB (he’s @Mike_VstPcola)

***  Jeff Hurt, meetings and conference expert, from Velvet Chainsaw Consulting (he’s @JeffHurt)

***  Stephanie Molina from the Beaumont, Texas CVB (she’s @Beaumartian)

4)  Because at BlogWorld, you’ll be able to get your tourism organization in front of thousands of bloggers, podcasters and video bloggers from around the world.  Denise Wakeman from The Blog Squad calls it THE social marketing event of the season. Wired PR Works calls it one of her must-attend events.

If you want attention from online content creators (travel, food, parenting and every other sort of blogger) you have to know who’s who, speak their language and be where they can find you.

That means be in Las Vegas October 14-16.

If you use code TC20 you can knock 20% off of the price of any pass.

Click here to check it out and register – we would absolutely love to see you there!

(This is a guest post by Jody Halsted about a cool conference in Iowa that is all about connecting and educating Midwest bloggers. I followed the conference hashtag on Twitter during last year’s version of it and was impressed, so I asked Jody to tell us a little bit more about it.)

In an effort to change the perception of the Midwest from a place to get away from to a place to explore and discover, the Destination Midwest event at the I_Blog Conference (update – now called the Social Technology Conference) will bring together Midwest bloggers and Midwest destinations for an evening of (virtual) travel, networking and the opportunity for mutually beneficial relationships!

According to the 2010 Ypartnership/Harrison Group 2010 Portrait of American Travelers, “1 in 4 family travel planners consult a blog before booking” a vacation.  According to the Edelman Trust Barometer 2010, people trust “people like them” more than TV news, search engines, and newspapers.

Blogs create community, build friendships and foster relationships. In our ever-increasingly connected world, a good blog will open your eyes to a world you never imagined and lead you places you never knew you wanted to visit!

Blogging has grown to include more than just written words on a page and is now the center of the social media wheel.  By utilizing images, video techniques, Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare and Gowalla – just to name a few – a blogger can become a tour guide, travel resource, location expert and handy reference.

The Ypartnership/ Harrison Group study also shows that family travelers are more likely to have taken a vacation in their local area as an alternative to vacationing in a destination that would have required traveling a greater distance.  By connecting with bloggers within a day’s drive from your destination, you will reach their local audience and increase your chances of being the “local area” vacation of their readers.

The Destination Midwest event at the I_Blog Conference takes place Saturday, November 6 from 6-10pm.  Space is limited to 20 destinations; cost is $250 per destination.

Update: Please visit http://socialtechnologyconference.com/ for more information on the 2012 event, or contact Jody Halsted via email (jody@iblogconference.com), Twitter (@SocialTechConf and @iatraveler) or by phone at 515-707-6547.

If your destination is interested in learning more about social media, conference tickets are available at a discount for participants in Destination Midwest.

Note: Jody Halsted is working very hard to change the perception of the Midwest from a place to get away from to a place to explore and discover through her website Family Rambling and articles she writes for other travel publications.  She loves to work with destinations and share the unique adventures that are found only in the Midwest.  As an example, she worked with the St. Louis CVC last summer; you can see the series she wrote about it here: http://familyrambling.com/index.php/exploring-st-louis/usa.

At the recent TACVB (Texas Association of CVBs) annual conference in Lubbock, my business partner Becky McCray and I negotiated a trade show booth for our Tourism Currents online course in social media for tourism as part of our speaker fee.

The only problem was that we had never put anything in our marketing budget for booth decorations or signs. We’ve never planned on doing trade shows; such events are probably one of the most expensive ways to market (booths often cost $500 and up) and our network seems to be building pretty well via word-of-mouth, social networking, current customers and our speaking engagements.

How could we put together something engaging without looking, well, cheap and pathetic? We’re a startup, but we have some pride! We decided to shop my stash of personal possessions for decorations, and not sweat the small stuff.

I was the only person at the trade show because Becky wasn’t able to arrive from Oklahoma until the conference opening reception.  I’ve never done a trade show in my life; it was homework time.

First, I read an old article that I’d torn out of Inc. magazine and saved just in case I ever needed it – How to make the most of trade shows.  A quick trip through the article archives of the TSEA (Trade Show Exhibitors Association) was also helpful (update 12 Nov 2010: TSEA just put those articles behind their membership wall,) and I like Make Your Booth Stand Out at a Trade Show from The Entreprenette.

Based on that research and my own experience as a trade show attendee, I could see that we didn’t need to get too fancy with the booth, but it did need to be eye-catching. We needed something to fill physical booth space since our main product is online training.  I looked around my house for things to use – as a globe-trotter, I’ve done a lot of shopping over the years and have figured out how to find travel souvenirs when you’re on a budget.

Here’s what we did:

***  Assess the amenities already provided. We would have a skirted 8 foot long table, head sign with our company name, two chairs and a waste paper basket.  There was power available.  We also ended up with a terrific location, right by the trade show entrance.

***  The table was pulled back into the booth about 2 feet so that I could stand in front of it. I never used the chairs because it’s best to stand up to chat and engage with your visitors. Wear comfortable shoes and a perpetual smile when you’re the “booth babe.”  :)

***  Pick a color scheme.  Our Tourism Currents website designed by Kim Fenolio has a lot of blue in it, so I brought my blue-and-white patterned table runner (originally purchased at Pier One) and two blue tablecloths – one from Kenya, one from Egypt to fit the conference travel/tourism theme – to drape over one of the chairs and over one side of the side drapes. There are a few touches of orange on our website, so I wore an orange jacket.

***  Fill empty space.  I brought a large, tall blue-and-gold cloth umbrella that I’d bought years before on a Navy port visit to Bali, Indonesia. When opened, it looked festive, matched the color scheme, fit the travel/tourism theme and drew a lot of interest. Driving my little Hyundai sedan to Lubbock with a pole running up the middle seemed a small price to pay (I can fold down part of the back seat to accommodate long items. I’ve even gotten a Christmas tree into that car.) I was also going to buy and blow up a bunch of blue balloons at a local grocery store to fill space, but the umbrella did enough.

***  Give people something to fiddle with.  I used what I had – my bag full of tech accessories became a “Geek Gear” display. Many people picked up items, looked at them and asked questions about my external webcam, pocket video camera, tripod, Skype headset, etc. I had to trust that the gear wouldn’t walk off, and none did, but you have to know your audience. I also set out a bowl of Werther’s hard candies brought from home, guarded by a small plastic Japanese Godzilla doll just for fun.

***  Nice colorful flyers (mostly blue) run off at a Lubbock FedEx/Kinko’s were our only out-of-pocket expense:  US$38.32 for 60 of them, which was about 30-40 too many. Becky designed the flyer to include course information and a discount code for the TACVB event, plus some info and another code for our upcoming tourism workshop at BlogWorld and New Media Expo on October 14.

***  Stack of business cards.  I already had plenty, made by moo.com, which lets you do a lot of customizing and use many different photos on the backs. I use the regular business card-sized ones, not the mini ones that fall out of card decks too easily and annoy me.

***  My laptop, with tabs already open to our Tourism Currents course details page, our Facebook Page and our Twitter stream.

***  A clear plastic glass brought from home, about half full of water with a light up party reusable “ice cube” in blue floating in it (originally from our family trip to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida awhile back, because, why not?) It was colorful and and caught the eye.

That was it.

The most important thing I did – besides chat with people who came by the booth that day – was to follow up the next week via email with everyone who had left me a business card.

And yes;  it resulted in new paying customers for our business.

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Most of you know that I’m really big on getting “the ungeeked” to go to one or two tech-related conferences or events per year.

There is no more effective way to figure out how people are using technology and mobile devices right now to communicate; it’s the best market research you can do and it will put you way ahead of competitors who are still scratching their heads over Twitter (which really burst on the scene at SXSWi 2007, the South by Southwest Interactive tech conference, one of the world’s largest.)

I recently wrote a guest post about this on the BlogWorld and New Media Expo blog – Go Where the Geeks Are: Why Tech Events Matter for Tourism and Travel - in support of the all-day tourism workshop that we’re doing at BlogWorld on October 14.

Meantime, the Panel Picker is now open for SXSWi 2011 in March – one of the unique things about “South by” is that part of the panel selection process is pubic voting and commenting on the proposed panels. You can give your feedback whether you’re attending SXSWi or not; there is a quick and painless registration process to do so.

I’ve proposed a panel with myself and two other speakers – my Tourism Currents business partner Becky McCray and travel/tourism entrepreneur Andy Hayes.

It’s titled Tourism Catches On: Old Industry Meets New Media.

Issues we plan to talk about include:

1. How does story and relationship work with new marketing online?
2. Can destinations work with online review sites or is it all out of their control?
3. What roadblocks hold tourism organizations back and how can they be overcome?
4. How can small staff groups possibly implement all these new tools when all this old work still has to get done?
5. What’s coming next in tourism and destination marketing?

If you have a moment, I’d really appreciate your votes, comments and feedback on our Tourism Catches On panel proposal.

Technology is for everyone – we want more mainstream industries and interest at SXSWi and we hope you do, too.