Sheila's Guide To The Good Stuff

Some influential online communicators either don’t have a blog or it’s pretty dormant. Their channels are elsewhere.

They might be big on Facebook, or very active on Twitter, or photo powerhouses on Flickr and Instagram, or busy with LinkedIn, but a blog is not the primary place where you’ll find them.

For example, Steve Rubel, Chief Content Strategist for Edelman, quit blogging on his own Micro Persuasion site in 2009, but he’s very active on Twitter and does a lot on LinkedIn. If you look for his old blog, you’ll be redirected to a Tumblr blog on a  .me domain that hasn’t been updated since October 2012.

He’s a prolific content creator, but I’m not sure I’d call him a blogger anymore.

I’m starting to use the term “online publisher” instead of “blogger.” I can’t think of any other word or phrase that encompasses all of the ways that people create and share digital content, but nobody ever knows what I’m talking about when I use it.

People have finally gotten their heads (mostly) around what a “blogger” does, and even though it’s not always accurate anymore, that’s the word we seem to be stuck with.

The takeaway for those who want to connect with influential people online is to look beyond blogs, and think beyond bloggers.

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(Part of my “Better Online Content” series of posts: quick tips on creating more effective content that takes advantage of the social web’s unique publishing environment.)

Barbed wire (courtesy Keoni Cabral at Flickr CC)

“I found just the photo I needed on Google Images,” she said.

“Did you have permission to use it?” I asked.

“Um, do I need that?” she wondered.

“Yes, you do. Just because you find a photo via a search engine does not mean that you have permission to use it,” I said.

I’ve had this conversation many times with otherwise web-savvy people, so obviously there is widespread misunderstanding of copyright and usage rules for online images.

Here’s the deal….

It’s pretty much like the rules offline: you don’t use photos without the photographer’s permission, and you give them credit for the image in some obvious way, like a caption. Online, offline, on Pluto – it doesn’t matter where you find it, content belongs to the person who created it.

It is so easy to right-click an online photo and download it; people do it without thinking, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. Many times if you ask, people will gladly give you permission to use their photo, but you do have to ask.

For more background and details, travel photographer Ken Kaminesky has an excellent blog post about photography, copyright and the law.

Whoops, OK. Where can I go to get photos?

When I need a good photograph to illustrate a blog post, here are my copyright-appropriate resources:

**  Flickr Creative Commons.  You’ll find millions of choices on Flickr Creative Commons, which are photos on the Flickr photo-sharing site that have a Creative Commons license allowing anyone to use the images for free, within certain restrictions. The photographer still retains copyright of it; you’re simply licensed to use it.

The “loosest” category is Attribution – anyone can use any of the images in this group, but you must give attribution (credit back) to the photographer, usually by linking back to the original photo, often in your caption.

There are 36 million photos in this group as of this writing, and lots of them are of excellent quality.  You can sort your search results in each group by Relevant, Recent and Interesting; I often find terrific photos when I sort by Interesting, which is exactly how I found the barbed wire photo above when I searched the Attribution group with the word “theft.”

**  Flickr Commons. Hat tip to my geek teacher husband Chris Fancher for telling me about Flickr Commons. These photos have no known copyright, and they are often really unique historic images from libraries and archives worldwide including the Smithsonian, Library of Congress, the Dutch Nationaal Archief and the Royal Library of Denmark.

When you need an old-timey, black-and-white or sepia-toned look, you can’t beat Commons photos, although many are recent enough to be in color.  Because they are digitized from film photography, the images are usually a very high resolution, so they’re great for using in presentation slides, too. I guarantee your audience would rather have a concept reinforced by a photo than yet another stack of bullet points.

** My own photos. That’s right; many times the simplest (and guaranteed-legal/appropriate) thing to do is grab your own camera and stage a quick shot of whatever you’re trying to illustrate, or do some hunting through your own photo archives.

This is why it pays to spiff up, crop and title your best photos as you archive them – the payoff comes when you’re searching for “spinach” or some other bizarre photo, and you find that set of veggie photos you took years ago at the farmer’s market.

Does that help explain fair and proper use of online photos, and why right-click is wrong? I’m not a lawyer, but I’ll play one down in the comments if you have questions, thoughts or other helpful resources on the topic.

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There’s a lot of buzz about the infographic to the left that shows many of the different social media marketing-related tools and services that have sprung up in the last few years.

Note:  it is missing Pinterest and Foodspotting, and possibly others.

Some say that the image demonstrates how “insane” and “ludicrously complex” it is to be a marketer these days.

I say that it’s not much different from the horrified squawking we heard when Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas created the original big, scary social media Conversation Prism infographic in August 2008.

To see the big picture in all this, stick with the forest and not the trees. That infographic is a bunch of trees.

Focus on the Fundamentals

Yes, there are a lot more moving parts in the communications world today beyond print, TV and radio, but that does not change the fundamental questions and actions for destination marketing or ANY sort of marketing, which are….

“Where is my market spending its time, and how are they making decisions about travel [or whatever is your focus]?” and then making sure you are both present where they are, and visible as an option in their decision-making process.

That is not new, but the speed with which you must flex to emerging communications platforms is new; the rapid growth of Pinterest and social mobile photography sharing like Instagram and Foodspotting are cases in point.

Don’t let new toys distract you from keeping your eye on the ball, however.

I hardly spend any time on Google+, for example, (in fact I think Google+ will fail) because my market is not there. Further, Google has a crummy track record with social, and their corporate DNA hasn’t changed since Buzz, Wave, Sidewiki, Knol, etc. all bombed.

What IS Google good at? Search.

I’ve acknowledged that current reality by thoroughly filling out both personal and business profiles on G+ purely for SEO purposes, and occasionally I post something on G+ just for drill. I will not let myself get sidetracked fiddling with something that is useless to my work.

Social Media Complexity & the ROI Bugaboo

Another response I heard about the graphic: “This shows why ROI is hard to prove.” Hmmm, not really.

The standard ROI mathematical formula has not changed; it is still Investment Gains minus Cost of Investment, divided by Cost of Investment.

Whether you use one of the infographic’s tools or all of them, you cannot measure Gains – your investment bringing positive results – or decide whether those results are worth the cost you must pay unless you first establish goals to achieve, and then choose metrics/KPIs to track to see if you’re achieving those goals.

The need to have goals, and metrics to measure progress toward goals, is not changed by some scary-looking pile of social media tools and platforms.

And no;  raw numbers of Facebook Page or Twitter followers do not prove anything except perhaps the ROI of an elementary school education – we can successfully count!  :)

Sorry, But Suck It Up

It is our J-O-B job to stay up to speed in our profession.  To do that for social media, find scouts and mentors who can alert you to potentially important developments, track of-the-moment info via conference and chat Twitter hashtags and go where the geeks are both online and offline to keep up.

If you looked at the infographic above and hardly recognized any of the services, that means you need a better way to stay plugged in to social communications developments, because there aren’t many surprises up there.

Sorry to sound harsh, but there it is.

None of us know everything….it’s the ones who know what they don’t know, and then hustle to intelligently keep filling those knowledge gaps, who will succeed in our complex world.

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After a thoroughly enjoyable day speaking and participating in Dell’s pre-SXSW Unconference for Small Business, I was asked at the after party why we at Tourism Currents feel so strongly that technology and social media can be helpful for tourism and hospitality.

Here’s my answer (despite bronchitis!) in less than 2 minutes:

(Direct link to the video on Dell’s Vimeo channel if you can’t see the embed box below)

Thanks, Dell, for bringing us into your “house” to talk business and make new friends.

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This is a guest post by Chris Fancher, educator and speaker. He’s also my husband, and I thought his recent experience at a destination was worth sharing, so I pestered asked him to give me a writeup.

Sometimes you just need a little help from a local.

Earlier this month I attended EduCon 2012 held at the Science Leadership Academy (SLA) in Philadelphia. The last time I was in the city for any length of time was in the early 90′s, and I have never been there for more than 4 or 5 hours.  I knew that when I arrived at the airport, I would need to figure out how to get to my hotel and then to the conference venue.

My first thought was that the hotel would have information about getting around town and, at a minimum, would have straightforward directions on their website for traveling from the airport to the hotel. But, I was sadly mistaken – I couldn’t find anything labeled “how to get here” or “directions.”

Another option and a great resource is the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation;  Caroline from the GPTMC tweets at @VisitPhilly.  I did the “Hi, I’m looking forward to coming to your town” tweet and she quickly said Hi back, and said I should ask for anything I needed and she’d be available to help.

The last option I looked at was the EduConcierge from the EduCon web page. Since the conference is being held at a high school, they use students for their concierge staff….and they are amazing.

They had already created directions to the subway from each of the four main conference hotels. They had directions posted for driving into the city, getting in from the airport and even arriving via the Amtrak station.

The student running the @EduConcierge account tweeted that they had upgraded their EduConcierge Central website and those following the account should look it over. I did, loved what I saw and I thanked them in a tweet. They immediately said, “No problem!” and told me they were there for us any time, so I asked about the walk from my hotel to the Science Leadership Academy. They said it was a short walk of 6 blocks and that they walk it all the time. They also suggested that if it is cold or there is bad weather, I could take the Trolley.

The next thing I knew, they had sent a Twitpic of the Trolley line map from the station with arrow annotations explaining that I could walk above ground to the station, or I could go below the street through another route to get to the station.

That simple Twitpic, as they say, was worth a thousand words.

I now had an idea of not only the direction to the conference from my hotel, but I also knew how to get to the Trolley station above or below ground.

Why can’t hotels and CVBs also provide this simple assistance to their guests?

It took only a few minutes to take the picture and annotate it with arrows, but it saved me hours of frustration from trying to figure these things out on my own.

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First in a blog post series for the get-revved-up week between Christmas and New Year’s

Here’s a way to reach fans of your destination who live far away, but still want to connect even when they can’t visit …. tell them how to find and listen to your hometown radio stations that stream online.

People who enjoy familiar music, a long-time DJ’s voice or a particular show may not even know that they can now hear those sounds on the web, even when their regular radio is nowhere near the station’s terrestrial broadcast tower.

For example, my at-home radio is always tuned to FM 89.5 KMFA in Austin. It’s a public, listener-supported station that plays classical music in Central Texas. Unlike KUT, the other public station in town, KMFA does not have standard NPR fare like All Things Considered. It simply provides a wide variety of classical music, 24 hours a day. I love it.

When I’m far away from home in a hotel room, I do look for local stations, but even in music-rich places like New Orleans I seem to have a heck of a time finding them (or getting the hotel’s bedside clock radio to pick them up.) Often I default to playing KMFA in my room through my laptop, which is a nice homey Austin touch on a busy morning when I’m prepping to speak at a conference, for example.

Rev-up recommendation for you:

**  Do a little destination marketing with radio in 2012.

—->>  Write up a blog post that tells visitors where to find 3-4 of your best local radio stations online. Include their AM and/or FM station numbers for people to dial into when they are physically in town. Link to each of the station websites in your post.

—->>  Put a link to the post in a Facebook Page update. Tag the radio stations in your update.

—->>  Tweet the link to your post 2-3 times on Twitter, over a few days, at different times. Include the station or DJ Twitter handles.

—->>  Summarize the post as part of your email newsletter.

—->>  Ask the stations if your CVB or DMO can be a guest on any of the shows that cover local events or festivals, then make sure that your blog/Facebook Page/tweets/newsletter let people know when to tune in to hear you talk up your town. Shoot a short video of you on the air, and put that on YouTube, with a link back to your blog post in the video description.

Can you think of any other way to use radio to connect with visitors?

Oh, and I did finally find a great New Orleans station that streams local music and shows:  WWOZ online, or dial up 90.7 FM when you’re there.

Want more help and training in social communications, tourism and hospitality?  That’s why we started Tourism Currents.

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Thank you, Mom.

Both my mother (a long-time journalist) and I are members of the AWC (Association for Women in Communications.)

This year, Mom noticed that there was a new category, Personal Blogs, in the Online Media section of AWC’s annual Clarion communications awards.

She encouraged me to enter this blog in competition for a Clarion.

Like a good Mom, she then followed up just before the deadline to ensure I’d entered. I’d totally forgotten, of course, and had to race off to the post office to mail in my paperwork.

So, it was pretty cool to attend the 2011 AWC National Conference in Tulsa with Mom last month, have her in the room when I spoke with Maria Henneberry about more effective webinars, and then turn around and win the Clarion for Sheila’s Guide.

Thank you to all of my readers for your support since I launched the blog in September 2008, and thanks, Mom, for always encouraging me to excel.

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At the national conference for the AWC (Association for Women in Communications) I was excited to speak at a session with Maria Henneberry about creating and conducting online training through webinars.

AWC organizes and runs a webinar series about a variety of communications topics (I’m on the Tech Committee that finds topics and speakers) plus we run webinars at Tourism Currents related to social media, technology and tourism/hospitality.

So, I have webinars on the brain these days. What are the main things to remember?

Do NOT make boring slide decks, take advantage of the web and multimedia tools, remember that your voice must show the enthusiasm you feel (since in many cases attendees can’t see you) and keep an eye on online presentation tools like Zipcast that easily and cheaply bring video into the mix.

Here’s the direct link to the webinar how-to presentation on my SlideShare channel, and let me know in the comments below if you have questions or feedback.

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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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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.

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