Sheila's Guide To The Good Stuff

Remember how (as Tourism Currents) we set up and ran the first-ever Tourism track at the 2010 BlogWorld online publishing conference?

How we said that you have to go where the geeks are to connect with tech-savvy travelers, and that an event like BlogWorld can supercharge your destination marketing?

And how psyched we were last year to have co-facilitators with us from the Seattle CVB, the Pensacola (FL) CVB, the Beaumont (TX) CVB and meetings expert Jeff Hurt?

Well, in case you haven’t already heard us cheering about it on Facebook or Twitter, we have two confirmed speakers joining us for this year’s Tourism Track at BlogWorld and New Media Expo West, in Los Angeles CA, November 3-5, 2011 (yes, it’s moved from Las Vegas.)

Shanna Smith Snyder from the Abilene TX CVB (a 2011 Texas Social Media Award winner!) and Doug Anweiler from Authentic Seacoast Resorts in Nova Scotia will join us to help teach you more effective use of social media in your destination and hospitality marketing.

We’re also planning on a speed-dating session between our tourism attendees and some of the 8000+ bloggers and online publishers who go to BlogWorld.

Other co-facilitators will be announced soon!

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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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Thanks very much to marketing expert Simon Salt for some dynamite thoughts in his 3 Myths of Social Media Influence.   The title I’ve given this post pretty much sums up the myths. You should take a sec and click through to read his work….

Simon nails the current “land run” about chasing influential people in social media, and it will get the attention it deserves because if someone like me had written it rather than a marketer, I’d be accused of being “naive” or some such silliness.

I did thoroughly enjoy writing this comment in response:

“Number Three [changes to the mythology that working with influencers is free and so can be counted as earned media] is happening with lightning speed. Many, many of my fellow travel bloggers are well aware of their value to the tourism industry, for example, and a freebie press trip to write a bunch of free coverage for someone else will not cut the mustard much longer, because it does not pay the light bill or put food on the table (emphasis mine.)

Pam Mandel and Gary Arndt, for example, have entered into contractual arrangements with two different tour companies; they’ll be paid to provide content, in addition to having their travel expenses covered (on tour company trips.) I expect to see more and more of this as we go from being seen as “bloggers” (wooo, scary) to being seen as “online publishers” (like that crazy Tina Brown, who went off to launch The Daily Beast and now pwns Newsweek.)

[Note to CVBs, DMOs, Tourist Boards and other tourism organizations: you really ought to be considering this with some of your best local bloggers and online champions.]

To be brutally honest, most mainstream entities wouldn’t give bloggers the time of day when I started [my BootsnAll Family Travel blog] in early 2006. Now, we’re the Flavor of the Month because of all the hard work we did to create content and build online networks. Those who want access to what we’ve worked so hard to build can darn well pay to do so.

And yeah, sorry, but the fact is, you’re late. You could have joined me in my sweatpants and T-shirt at 2 am about five years ago, busting tail to figure this stuff out. Your search for shortcuts to get yourself or your company to where I am now is your problem, not mine.

Do the work. Put in the time. Learn the craft and the space. Build the relationships.”

Some tourism folks need to hear such blunt talk.  I tell you as a blogger because as an educator and consultant, I want you to succeed!

Yes, the possibilities for connecting with us are almost endless. On Tourism Currents we advise you to find and connect with those online who know and love your destination. But, from me in my blogger hat, you must understand why many of us may not exactly fall all over ourselves in response to any mass blogger outreach or other quickie stuff.

One at a time. Person to person.  We’re mostly on your side, really, but we have bills to pay.

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Not that we’re COUNTING the days until our BlogWorld Tourism Track, or anything….

Update: Well, this is annoying, but the “I’m Going” button keeps running into a digital brick wall. Phooey. Here’s the link to the Eventful page instead.

(In our Tourism Currents course – which is now open to new enrollments! – we call your online fans and supporters “online champions.” Please join us to find out more about using social media tools for connecting with visitors.)

Spend some time in the online world, and you’ll rapidly discover that those “online influencers” who all the marketing folks are chasing are only a part of the digital communications story.

Even worse, tourism PR and marketing is often fixated only on travel bloggers because they see them as an alternative to something they’re familiar with: print travel writers. They do not appreciate the possibilities offered by niche blogs, or the Long Tail’s impact on travel.

If you look beyond the Hype-o-Meter, there are plenty of people who blog sporadically, if at all, but have a significant online presence in other ways….

• Photography with Flickr
• Video on YouTube or Vimeo
• Podcasting on iTunes or Blog Talk Radio
• On Facebook
• On Twitter

There are even people who are active and engaged in old-school forums and bulletin boards, like this forum on geocaching (and geocachers love to travel to new places to look for stuff.)

If you scoop them all up and dump them in one big “blogger” category like some of your less-savvy marketing peers are doing, you won’t have a complete picture of how to find those online champions.

Be smarter than that; have a more complete picture of the online space where you’re trying to compete for attention.