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:
Last week I enjoyed spending 30 minutes on Blog Talk Radio with Australian entrepreneur and coach Des Walsh. He has a regular program called Des Walsh and Friends, with a wide variety of guests all discussing some aspect of technology and business.
The noteworthy advantage of Blog Talk Radio (or any “Internet radio” service) is that not only can you listen live, but the shows are usually archived if you can’t be there at broadcast time, plus they’re also downloadable for later listening on your iPod or other digital audio player.
Des and I talked about my background in travel, how Becky McCray and I launched Tourism Currents to teach tourism professionals about social media, and why businesses need to ensure a strong Web presence as customer search and interaction preferences shift online.
I loved having a fun chat with someone halfway around the world, and the time zones worked in my favor since it was afternoon my time, but very early morning for Des. :)
While checking Twitter the other day I saw a tweet from the Beaumont (TX) CVB that they were live on a local AM radio station in town, and they invited their Twitter followers to listen in.
Since I went to high school in Beaumont, I clicked the link in their tweet out of curiosity. I’m not a big talk radio person (don’t have a commute and prefer music while working at home) and like many people today I rarely listen to AM radio.
But this was AM radio for geeks, because AM 1300 KSET also live-streams shows to the Web.
That means that not only can people in Beaumont and a few surrounding southeast Texas towns like Lumberton, Orange, Nederland and Silsbee listen in, but the entire planet can get involved! The station also keeps an active Facebook page and they’re on Twitter.
Appearing on a live-streaming radio show means that you can remind your locals of what you offer (get those folks to visit more in their own backyards – the Beaumont CVB did a great job of plugging their online events calendar on the KSET show) but you can also reach out to your “expats.”
These are people who perhaps grew up in your town but moved away, or maybe they visit regularly (years ago as children, now as snowbirds, to visit relatives for the holidays, etc.) and they already feel an affinity for you. Our latest Tourism Currents lesson calls them part of your “online champions network” if you can get them talking about you, so reach out and bring them closer to home, through the Web. A “wired” local radio show is one way to do that.
I know that when when I travel and find crummy music options in my hotel room, I tune my laptop into my local Austin classical radio station, FM 89.5 KMFA, which also livestreams to the Web. Ahh, the familiar morning DJs and a taste of home.
Another way to share online is through embeddable widgets like the one below from the radio station (if you click the Play button, you’ll hear the current live-stream from KSET.) (Update – the widget seems to be “dead,” so I had to remove it. Here is a direct link to the radio station livestream.)
Widgets can be customized any number of ways and are another method of putting your latest information on other people’s sites. ”Embeddable” means that you find the embed/sharing code where it says Get Widget, copy it, and paste it anywhere that allows HTML code.
Smart radio station, eh?
(Update: look at this wonderfully-crafted post by Justin McCullough called The Social Web Ties Us Together….it’s about how he as a southeast Texas guy stumbled across this post about Beaumont while he was traveling in Oregon. It is a dynamite explanation of how information spreads across the Web in ways that we might not expect. Thanks, Justin!)
While doing a live Tech in Twenty show last night on Blog Talk Radio (our topic was women in social media in 2010 and you can listen or download it here) I noticed that my fellow panelists Colleen Pence and Holly Hoffman both had the same answer when our hosts asked us to tell the audience where they could find us online:
“Just Google me.”
When you’ve worked long and hard and consistently to establish your Web site, blogs, LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, Flickr photostream, Facebook profile, YouTube channel, etc….plus you’re talked about and linked to online….then it is easy to be confident that not only are you “at the top of Page One of Google,” you can FILL that page.
Does your tourism organization’s material pop up at the top of Google search results, or is there some commercial site or savvy local blogger who trounces you with a better online presence?
I’m often asked by tourism professionals what I would recommend as a good first step in learning how to communicate with social media.
More and more these days, I immediately mention a Facebook Page.
By that I mean a Facebook “Fan” or “Business” Page for your tourism-related organization, not a personal page (although you must have a personal account/page in order to start a Fan/Business Page.)
Why do it?
Social networking dominance – over 300 million worldwide Facebook users as of this writing. Go where the people are, because….
It’s free. Whose destination marketing budget doesn’t love that?
It’s a flexible platform to post not only written news and updates, but also the all-important photos and video. More importantly, your Facebook fans can also share their thoughts/photos/videos about your destination or attraction, so it’s great for building a sense of community (one that has worldwide exposure.)
It allows information and content to spread rapidly. For example, if I do something as simple as “Like” or “Comment” on a Wall post on the American Indian Cultural Center Museum Facebook Page, that will show up in the Home page news feed of everyone who follows me on Facebook, and it also shows up on the Wall of my personal page. If I do that while signed in as Tourism Currents (we have a TC Facebook Fan Page) it does the same thing.
It’s hooked right into the explosive growth of mobile and smartphones. This is a no-brainer, folks. Worldwide Facebook mobile usage is up 300%….combine that with the sense that we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of mobile/smartphone growth across the board. You need to be in this space. Like, yesterday.
Now, I know this sets your hair on fire and you’re ready to go sign up for a Page right now, but the next step is to make sure that this fits into your organization’s communications and destination marketing strategy.
This isn’t play (although it IS fun!) – this is professional communicating. It needs to be integrated into your overall marketing plan along with the press releases or brochures or billboard buys, but remember, the social Web is different.
It is two-way, social communications with human beings; if you just pour stuff out into a broadcast pipe like you may be used to doing, your Page will fail. Your fans want to interact with you, not read your regurgitated press releases, so get some responsive personality in there.
Think of your Facebook business page as a “digital storefront” extension of your “home base” website. Try not to clutter it up too much, show up regularly to say hello and interact, and make sure that your fans and customers can find the page. Put prominent links to it on your home page, in your email signatures, mention the Page occasionally on Twitter and blog about it.
Although my business partner Becky McCray and I were rather hammered by an ambitious schedule of conferences and workshops across the country during October, the good news is that we’ve gathered tons of useful information and insights for the lessons, videos and newsletter that we offer our online learning community at Tourism Currents.
The next Lesson, “How to Listen Online,” is being posted as we speak and will be fully available to paid members by Friday, November 6.
This month, we’re excited to include some very helpful video interviews with Ann Peavey, who tweets for Seattle Tourism as @SeattleMaven. I shot the video while in Seattle during the Association for Women in Communications (AWC) conference (salmon taco or awesome coffee, anyone?) and can’t wait to share it with you. Ann is a real pro and a dynamite, fun person; you’ll love seeing how she’s mastered Twitter to show off her city!
The bottom line is this – once we finish editing and uploading all of this terrific content, we are going to close the doors to further paid Tourism Currents members until the next class cycle in Spring 2010.
We’ll still accept more free newsletter-level members, but anyone who wants access to all of our lessons and videos will have to wait until the next class.
Our reason?
We said at our launch in September that we want to keep class sizes manageable, and we want to move our members through the content as a group so that no one feels left behind or overwhelmed by having to play catch-up.
Those who are already paid members are all set and don’t need to do anything else except to continue learning useful social media tips for their destination marketing.
New sign-ups and those who are already at the free newsletter level have until THIS FRIDAY, November 6, to upgrade to our paid Just the Basics level ($45/month for 6 months) or our Regular level ($75/month for 6 months) so that you can really dive into all of our training materials.
We think that these are exceptionally reasonable prices for this kind of detailed, tourism-specific learning material; in fact, we know you can’t beat it anywhere else, because we’ve snooped around to look. :)
These are the organizations and people that we think would find our training particularly helpful:
Convention and Visitor’s Bureaus (CVBs)
Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs)
Main Street, historic preservation and heritage trail organizations
Parks, nature preserves, botanical gardens and other nature/outdoors-related attractions
Public Relations professionals who do tourism work
Chambers of Commerce
Those with niche focus like agritourism, culinary tourism, arts/culture, sports/adventure and educational travel
Festival and event planners
Attractions, museums, lodging etc. that depend upon tourist traffic
Historic highways and scenic byways
State and city governments who do marketing and outreach related to tourism
Please do consider joining us to start learning – this stuff moves fast and frankly, your tourism organization can’t afford to dawdle. Don’t wait until Spring 2010 let us help you become social media savvy!
Bottom line: it is here to stay, and we like it for finding travel tips, deals, information and connections, insider tips and recommendations and sometimes to connect with Twitterers in the places where we travel.
37 – 39% of us recommended that consumers use Twitter to follow the hotel where they will be staying, and follow the destination management organization/company (or CVB) to learn about the destination. Don’t you think that percentage should be higher? I do.
“When asked how they decide who to follow, NO ONE said they follow only those that they know. Twitter is a place to break new ground and find out about new things….They are looking for intelligent people with interesting posts.”
Most respondents aren’t just looking for tweets about travel, but some want only that information. We’re a diverse group with diverse interests, like any bunch of humans. One respondent said, “I follow people who seem interesting” but another said, “Must be 90% tweeting about travel.”
To each their own on Twitter. Do your thing and be yourself; those who don’t like it, don’t have to follow you.
When asked who others should follow on Twitter, this is what I said (we could only pick 5 and there are a ton of others who are worthy, too….)
*** @Marilyn_Res because she casts a wide net & works for a magazine I love (National Geographic Traveler.)
*** @nerdseyeview because she writes like she talks, which is a great compliment.
*** @WyomingTourism because they sell their destination with poetic thoughts.
*** @SeattleMaven because she sounds like your best friend who just happens to PWN the city of Seattle.
*** @CoffeeGroundz because you need an awesome coffee shop and wine bar in Houston TX.
What we tweet about varies as well – travel industry news, our latest blog post, links we like, general travel and event information. My favorite summary from one of the 100 was, “Is it a 140 character postcard? If so, it’s on.”
What did I say about what I tweet as @SheilaS? “People get (mostly) the Whole Me, and I’m chatty.”
I also tweet as @TourismCurrents and @FreelanceAustin, and I try to keep those tweets specifically focused on their respective topics: tourism/social media and freelance tips/opportunities.
Don’t over-analyze it, though.
The other day I was reading this excellent interview with the guys who do social media outreach for New York’s Roger Smith Hotel (@RSHotel on Twitter) and one of the two hoteliers said:
“I did a sort of Twitter 101 course for a bunch of hotels in the region and I said, “Reach out to this person. Ask them if they’re coming in this weekend. Ask them what they’ve got planned.” I could see them [the audience members] cringing. “I don’t know if I could say that or do that.”
OK, come on, you’re in the tourism and hospitality business and you don’t know how to interact with customers? Of course you do; that’s your bread and butter! With Twitter and other social media tools, it’s simply digitized and has an incredible reach that you’ve never had before.
Want to dig in further about what the 100 say regarding Twitter? Here’s a SlideShare presentation with more of the results:
Look, I understand that there are still organizations that haven’t even reached the Cluetrain Manifesto stage – they still do not understand social media and they’re still scared of it.
That’s precisely why Becky McCray and I do social media training through Tourism Currents, with a “teach you to fish” philosophy.
I mean, I freak out about cooking and I’m still scared of math after making a blazing grade of “13″ on my first college pre-calculus test. We all have our problems.
But this is ridiculous.
If you are a professional tourism person, you are by default a professional communicator. Representing a destination, attraction, hotel, shop or restaurant means that you communicate with the public (and hopefully do it well) in a proactive manner.
Professional communicators don’t let someone else horn in on their conversations. They may not always have positive conversations, they may step on their own tongue occasionally, but it’s their conversation.
That’s why tourism people must understand why something like Seth Godin’s “Brands in Public” is taking them down a fool’s path.
Sure, it looks like the “Brands” idea – having a single page with most Web mentions of your brand aggregated into one spot – would make it easy to “manage” conversations. Here’s the page for the Best Western hotel chain, so you can see what I’m talking about.
Update: Brands in Public is apparently now defunct.
Herd all those cats onto one page and give ‘em the spin, for only $400/month to Mr. Godin.
Don’t be a sucker, folks. The Web does not work that way. It’s messy. It’s splattered. It’s people in all their messy, splattered, opinionated selves. To respond to their gripes, compliments, observations and suggestions, you must engage them at the source of the discussion.
It might be on Yelp or the Chowhound forums. It might be on TripAdvisor. It might be on their personal blog, whether they have positive or negative things to say about you. It would be great if lots of the conversations were on YOUR tourism blog or Facebook Page, wouldn’t it? You know, like the Arkansas tourism blog or Iowa’s Facebook Page.
I guarantee you that the conversations of value are not going to be on some aggregator Squidoo page like “Brands in Public,” and I don’t care if it is a product of Seth Godin, the marketing and philosophical wizard (who does not allow comments on his blog posts, but I digress.)
There is no magic social media bullet. It is your basic communications roll-up-sleeves-and-engage work, with two-way tools like Twitter and Facebook and souped up to a demanding 24/7 cycle.
You can do this. You might have to spend a little money to learn things and move your online communications strategy down the road, but don’t blow $400/month on attempting to herd a pile of Web links on Godin’s site.
This quote from essayist and programmer Paul Graham is about publishing, but it could apply to tourism and destination marketing or travel services in the “war for eyeballs” and attention….
“When you see something that’s taking advantage of new technology to give people something they want that they couldn’t have before, you’re probably looking at a winner. And when you see something that’s merely reacting to new technology in an attempt to preserve some existing source of revenue, you’re probably looking at a loser.”
Is your organization’s approach to technology going to help you win, or help you lose?
(Hat tip to mediabistro.com’s BayNewser blog for first introducing me to the Paul Graham quote, in this post.)
