Over at our Tourism Currents learning site (are y’all reading our monthly free newsletter on social media for tourism?) Becky McCray and I are PUMPED to announce a new initiative….
The two of us will teach a one-day workshop for CVB, DMO and other tourism folks on October 13, 2010 as part of the BlogWorld and New Media Expo tech conference at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This is a big deal because we’re always telling clients and Tourism Currents members that to really understand what’s going on with tech and social media, you have to “go where the geeks are” – events like South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi,) BlogHer, SOBCon and BlogWorld – and be immersed in how they communicate. I’m always chuckling when I listen in on non-geek conferences via Twitter hashtag and hear them exclaiming over tools and methods that they’re hearing about for the first time, but I was exposed to 12-24 months earlier at some nerd fest.
Tech and social media stuff moves fast; you need to keep up in order to make intelligent decisions about whether to incorporate something into your marketing efforts.
We wanted tourism people to check out BlogWorld because it gives them a chance to connect with thousands of bloggers, podcasters and other online content creators (plus there’s a travel blogger track kicking off the day after our workshop in addition to food bloggers, sports bloggers and more.) These are your potential online champions; the people who are fans and supporters of your destination or attraction and who can help spread the word about you online.
Rather than have people come to such a huge event and be rather overwhelmed, we’re working with BlogWorld founder Rick Calvert (a travel enthusiast himself) to design a social media seminar that will introduce tourism folks to our “geek world” and how it can upgrade their communications work.
In addition to our daytime classes on the best ways to connect with online influencers, we’re planning networking meetings, tweetups and possibly “speed dating” sessions to help destination marketers network with the people who can provide them with online coverage.
This is still in the very early stages so I’ll let you know when we get more details worked out, but put October 13, 2010 on your calendars!
You know I’m getting a bit more into video production for CVBs and tourism organizations, and I want to ensure that you understand how important it is to optimize your video content for SEO (Search Engine Optimization.)
One of the best uses of social media is to engage the public directly, with the latest information available, when there is a crisis.
The Visit Florida tourism organization (a pretty well-oiled machine even without a crisis!) is harnessing the power of webcams, photos and live Twitter reports from humans on a new website page; it’s called Florida Live.
Rather than, er, sticking their heads in the sand about tourists avoiding the coast for fear of oil spill problems, they’re trying to gather eyewitness reports (particularly from beach areas) and make them easily searchable and accessible, so that people can see coastal destinations and make their own travel decisions.
In addition to graphics, there is a link to the Deepwater Horizon response team at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, plus links to specific CVB and DMO organizations across all of the regions in the state.
Visitors want to see for themselves. Make it easy for them.
Nice work, Florida.
Update: I noticed this tweet from Robert Reid (US editor for Lonely Planet and author of the excellent Reid on Travel blog.)
“Going to Florida? @visitflorida posting#oilspill updates, ‘real time’ photos; they promised to me they’ll keep doing even IF oil comes. #lp“
Note that even if things go bad, Florida tourism plans to let those real-time reports roll on in.
I’ve been working with my local Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (CVB) in Round Rock, Texas to create some fun videos that give a personality to the city.
As I discussed in my post Look before you leap into HD video, it’s been a bit of a learning curve to “up my game,” but we’re just about there and today I uploaded the first three videos in a series that we’ll be producing for the foreseeable future.
The video below (here’s the direct link) is an interview with our Mayor. It has a few glitches that my perfectionist self wrestled with, but I’m reasonably happy with it and wanted to share it with you.
My Tourism Currents co-founder Becky McCray and I decided last month to make our monthly newsletter fully available for anyone to view on our website, without a login (although we still take signups for you to get it first, via email.)
We’re pretty proud of our work and thought you’d like a quick update on the last two issues:
April 2010 – LinkedIn for tourism – Most everyone is on it, but many wonder how to really use it….we talked about the LinkedIn social networking site and how it can help you for tourism and destination marketing. Includes some Twitter hashtag tips, travel writer/blogger info and our recent Tech in Twenty interview about Tourism Currents.
May 2010 – Social media and tech conferences for tourism pros - What is one of the best ways to figure out tech and social media? Go OFFline to attend a tech or social media conference. We give concrete, detailed suggestions for the most useful events to attend in order to learn plenty of things that can help with destination marketing (to say nothing of some pretty amazing networking and brand-building for your town, region, city or attraction.) We also included some tips to amp up your LinkedIn profile, as a follow-up to April’s newsletter.
We are reopening our online classes later this month (multi-part lessons, videos, a forum, live Q&A with us – all about social media and tech for tourism.)
I’ll put up a post here the minute we’re open, or you can get on our Early Bird list. Thanks!
Remember that old saying (maybe from your parents) that there’s a reason you have one mouth and two ears?
It certainly applies to online communications. Try to listen more than you talk….I know, I know, rather strange advice coming from a talker like me, right?
The first thing to do before jumping into the social Web is to listen (one of our Tourism Currents newsletters has a few tips for better Google Alerts.) Pay attention to the chatter that relates to your destination: the tweets, the Facebook Wall posts, the blog posts, the photo uploads to Flickr, etc. Be a “lurker” for awhile, as you might at a party with unfamiliar people.
It’s still very important to continue listening even after you’re comfortable using social media tools. A lot of hassles and embarrassments can be forestalled by paying attention.
Here’s a tweet that I saw from a well-known tech journalist about the Outrigger Reef Hotel in Honolulu:
“No one should *ever* stay at the outrigger reef in honolulu. We’ve been cheated and abused *daily.* outrageous. Full [blog] post to come.”
When I saw that, I figured that Outrigger management (although they’re on Twitter) probably had no idea that this person was angry and was going to get vocal about it. So, I sent a quick Twitter DM – private direct message – to a friend in Hawaii who works in tourism PR, giving him a heads up that he needed to go warn someone at the hotel just in case they’d missed the brewing storm.
Funny how that works, because here is the next tweet about the issue from the angry journalist:
“just got a nice call from the Outrigger’s GM [General Manager.] Very responsive and nice about all the problems we had. i think he really cares.”
Here’s the takeaway: part of the listening process is having your connections out there listening, too, and making sure that important information gets to your digital ears quickly.
You need an army of listeners who care about you. It’s called a network, and you probably already have one.
Just make sure that they have their listening ears turned on and tuned in.
My business partner Becky McCray and I spent a few minutes during the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) tech conference getting social with Jennifer Navarrete and Luis Sandoval, Jr. of the Tech in Twenty show.
Please excuse my apparent cud-chewing; I was popping throat lozenges to avoid coughing during the taping. Although I don’t get sick very often, the annual March SXSWi nerd whirlwind always seems to do me in. :)
The direct link to the show is here if you can’t see the box below. Thanks very much to Tech in Twenty for having us stop by, and to the ever-charming Albert Maruggi for being the videographer for this episode.
We are used to seeing handicapped parking spots and curb cuts, but how many of us think about the accessibility of the Internet – specifically travel and tourism Web sites – to those with disabilities?
As I discussed in an earlier post (Can you see this? Let’s talk Web accessibility) I’ve become a convert to the importance of making the Web accessible to everyone, including those who cannot hear or see very well.
By the way, if you are young now but plan to live to old age, come to grips with the realization that you won’t be able to see or hear as well as you do now. Web accessibility matters to everyone, eventually.
The disabled travel, too, and there are millions of them. Have you thought about whether your tourism-related Web site gives them the information they need to plan a trip?
I’m trying two different tools to make my own content more understandable and easier to use.
Perhaps you can find some useful ideas here for your own site….
1) BuzzVoice. Look at the right-hand sidebar on this blog; you’ll see a little phone-looking icon (we call it a widget) created by a company called BuzzVoice.
It uses text-to-speech software to turn my written words into spoken English, so a visually-impaired or dyslexic person can still absorb my content. Thanks to this post about BuzzVoice by Jason Falls, I’m helping out with the software’s beta-testing. Your feedback is, of course, most welcome down in the comments for this post.
Is something like this only for the visually-impaired? Nope; another benefit is that people who have long commutes, road trips, workouts or who simply love audio content can “listen” to my blog posts on iPhones, iPods/MP3 players & other mobile devices (and now on the new iPad.)
To share the Sheila’s Guide talking widget on Facebook, Twitter & other social sites, just click the “Grab This” button at the bottom of the widget (you can embed it like you do a YouTube video.) You can subscribe to the vocals as an RSS feed or as an iTunes audio feed.
The software doesn’t “translate” perfectly, of course, and it’s an electronic voice rather than my own, but still, it’s a step ahead for allowing multiple ways for readers to enjoy the site.
2) Video captions. A service to help you with automated video captioning is now available for all YouTube users, so I’m trying it out on a few of my own videos.
I’ve been schooled by Web accessibility expert Glenda Watson Hyatt on the importance of video captioning for the hearing-impaired (here are some captioning tips on Glenda’s blog) but until this machine transcription service, it was “too hard” and “took too much time.”
To request a machine transcription (the software for it was created by a deaf Google engineer) go to the Edit function of your selected video and look for the tab labeled “Captions.” Click that, and ask for an (English only) machine transcription if it’s not already been done.
You’ll get an .sbv file to download and edit. I recommend opening it in WordPad for better formatting. You’ll see the words lined up with the time that they were said in the video; you’ll also see that the speech-to-text technology is….er….not terribly accurate.
No matter: at least you have a time-synched rough draft transcript to work with, right?
Rename the “captions.sbv” file something like “Smithville downtown video transcript.sbv” and go to work – edit the file to make the text match what is actually said in the video.
It is much easier to edit a video when the speaker is clear and speaks slowly; since I tend to speak quickly when I narrate my own videos, I am a pain to edit.
When the .sbv file is ready, upload it back on the same Edit page for the video, and it will automatically be entered into the video. Watch the captioned video all the way through to make sure everything is correct. If there is a problem, go back to editing, remove the old file and re-upload your corrected one (it will again be automatically added to your video.)
Are there SEO (Search Engine Optimization) benefits to adding this caption text to your videos? My very preliminary research indicates that the jury is still out on SEO benefits of YouTube’s captions, but at least now you have a transcript that you might be able to add to the video description or place into your own blog post below the video’s embed box (and that text WILL be indexed by search engine bots.)
More importantly, actual humans appreciate captions. Here is a video from the California School for the Deaf High School (here’s a direct link to it on their YouTube channel) with students explaining why they’re so excited to have more captioned video content – I dare you to watch it and not realize the power of Web accessibility:
I have been practically welded to my tripod (a three-legged Sunpak 6060) for the last few weeks as I’ve shot video (and still photos to incorporate into those videos) for a client CVB.
There is no question that it has enhanced my good shots and totally saved several otherwise crummy ones.
Before you shoot another frame of any visual digital medium, go get a tripod. Your viewers will thank you.
NINE images attached to this PR email blast that dumped (twice) into my IN box, with the subject line in ALL CAPS just to ensure I didn’t miss it.
Er, I never write about celebrities. Or Mexico. And I rarely cover resorts.
I would love to say that this is uncommon; that most emails in my IN box are well-targeted, thoughtful pitches or interesting news from PR professionals who have actually established relationships with me before pitching.
Nope. More negative experiences happen all the time, from folks who apparently bought my name and email from some database.
What would I like to see?
Communication from those who reach out to get to know me before asking me for something (and hey, Dale Carnegie guy, putting my business card in for a drawing at your speaking event does NOT mean I want your course announcement emails. Ever heard of double opt-in?)
Sometimes I think that smaller tourism organizations have an advantage when they can’t afford to hire the “big, expert PR firm.” Based on my incoming emails, they aren’t missing much.
Over at our Tourism Currents learning site (are y’all reading our monthly free newsletter on social media for tourism?) Becky McCray and I are PUMPED to announce a new initiative….
