You know that part of CVB that deals with meetings? CVB stands for Convention and Visitors Bureau, after all.
How can you find and connect with the right people and encourage them to consider your destination or venue for their event, when there are so many social media channels – blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter – and so little time?
Join us for a special Tourism Currents webinar on Wednesday, May 18, 2011 starting at 2 pm Central, and we’ll show you how to book more meetings using focused and intelligent social networking with the event planners you want to reach.
We’re excited to be partnering with DMAI (Destination Marketing Association International) and their empowerMINT one-stop RFP service for meeting planners, to bring you this online session. It’s part of a series of interesting educational events leading up to our Tourism track at this year’s BlogWorld and New Media Expo West 2011 (Los Angeles CA, Nov 3 – 5.)
The webinar includes an hour with me, my Tourism Currents co-founder Becky McCray and our (always entertaining!) insights into social networking to connect with meeting planners, then 30 more minutes of Q&A….90 minutes of solid info.
Sound good? Let us help YOU fill those meeting spaces!
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At a recent gathering for some Chamber of Commerce staff, I heard one of them say that his boss is rather dismissive of any time spent on the Chamber’s Facebook Page, yet if the Chamber is not successful on Facebook, that is seen as a failure.
Rock, meet Hard Place.
I’d love to tell that boss that if Facebook is part of an organization’s communications strategy, then interacting with customers or prospects on Facebook is work. It is not “goofing off.”
Welcome to the modern world – Facebook for business is work. It is part of that Chamber communicator’s job to connect with not only Chamber members, but also people in the community who might become members, including hardworking entrepreneurs who may have never considered the Chamber as an asset for growing their business.
The Chamber should be the hub of business development and economic growth in a community, and one way to interact with the community is through social media channels like Facebook.
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We tell tourism clients all the time that they need to occasionally go where the geeks are to really stay up to speed on social media tools and culture.
One of the conferences that we recommend attending at least once is the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) tech conference held every March in Austin, Texas. In 2010 it outsold the SXSW Music festival (generally much better known) for the first time.
With all of the hype and hoopla and buzz about social media influencer outreach, it’s inevitable that some stupidity will ensue.
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It covers all that any hotel or restaurant needs to know about getting started using social media tools for marketing, and it’s full of ideas and examples.
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How would your 25-year-old self react if he or she heard you say, ”I’m too old to figure out all of this technology and social media stuff?”
Think about the words that might be used.
“Age has nothing to do with it.”
“You’re smart; what’s the problem?”
“You only need to be willing to learn and try.”
“If you can’t see the little smartphone screen, then put on some of those reading glasses you guys use.”
“But you love to write….tell stories….talk on the phone….see a good movie or TV show….meet people….share photos…. Is this so different?”
“Has this really happened to you? Why?”
Why, indeed.
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My co-founder Becky McCray and I run a unique, high-energy learning community that is hyper-focused on teaching tourism and hospitality industry professionals how to use that big pile of social media tools (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc.) to more effectively tell the stories of their destinations and attractions.
We get specific about topics like how to use Twitter for fall foliage reports, how to use Facebook to promote your festival and what’s important for a successful blogger press trip/fam tour.
Compelling stories convince people to visit your town. The social Web is the ideal place to tell those stories (it’s made for the tourism little guy, too) and it connects with others who love and support you….we call them your “online champions network.”
Our courses help you make sense of it all.
They are organized to provide basic social media overview information to those who need it (through a quick Intro Workshop or a three-part All the Basics course) or more advanced how-to specifics to those who are ready for it through the three-part Results Multipliers class (which dives deep into unique destination marketing topics like mobile-friendly tours.)
If you are geared up to really make things happen for the long haul, the Tourism Currents six month Full Course combines the Basic and Multipliers, then throws in the Intro Workshop as a bonus.
Every course is a combination of multi-part lessons, exclusive videos with experts and a wrap-up printable checklist, plus there’s a member forum for detailed discussions.
The Austin American-Statesman launched the Texas Social Media Awards last year, and I’m humbled to tell you that the 2010 award winners were just announced and I’m one of the awardees.
Thanks very much to the judges on the Statesman staff and to those who supported my nomination.
It is truly an honor to be recognized in such a constantly-changing space and with so many other fine people.
“In the year since the awards were first held, social media sites increasingly have become a part of daily life. ‘We’ve gone from people who were early adopters and having fun with the technology to people using it for business and nonprofits in ways I’ve never even thought of before,’ says American-Statesman social media editor Robert Quigley.”
I sincerely hope that my work in the social Web is helpful to the tourism and travel communities.
Take a gander at the list of awardees to appreciate the variety of folks, and allow me to give a special shout-out to a few of them….
Michelle Greer – last year’s overall winner and one of this year’s judges. A tireless advocate of using tech for worthy causes and an expert on cloud computing with Rackspace.
Jennifer Navarrete – A good friend and occasional business colleague, Jennifer is the driving force behind much of San Antonio’s tech scene, plus she’s a dynamite podcaster at (among other shows) Tech in Twenty.
Dara Quackenbush – Dara is a PR professor at Texas State, and I love watching how she brings her students into modern PR, done right. Here’s her class blog where they practice what they learn.
Jenn Dearing Davis and Hayes Davis – They tweet and tell us about good deals, on CheapTweet. They appreciate all of us on a budget. They are super-nice. Drawbacks = none.
Hugh MacLeod – He draws quirky cartoons at Gaping Void. He does marketing for a South African winery from his location in Alpine, Texas; hey, it’s the Web so it makes sense to me.
I’m thrilled to be in such company, and thanks again for your support.
You know that part of CVB that deals with meetings? CVB stands for Convention and Visitors Bureau, after all.
