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.

From the paper’s article about the Awards:

“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….

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Mando Rayo – He investigates the local taco scene, then blogs about it on Taco Journalism.  He told me that my best local taco joint is Juarez Mexican Bakery, and when Mando tells me where to go, I go. I eat. I’m happy.
6. 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.

A follow-up to my earlier post about not getting an HD video camera till you know what you’re getting into….

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.

Are you kidding me?

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.

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.

It gives radio/audio the worldwide reach that it never had before, as I discussed in this post about online radio and destination marketing for the Beaumont (TX) CVB.

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.  :)

Here is our episode:  talking social media, travel and tourism with Des Walsh.

(This is cross-posted on my BootsnAll Family Travel Logue.)

You won’t find a more powerful advocate for making the Web accessible to everyone than Glenda Watson Hyatt.  She has cerebral palsy but is able to control her left thumb, so that is how she does all of her typing and work on her terrific Do It Myself blog.

All of it.

With her left thumb.

It was particularly mind-blowing when she used a variety of technologies (including an electronic voice named Kate to sync to her slides) to give a presentation last year at the Chicago SOBCon social Web conference about how to make one’s blog accessible to those with disabilities.  (Here is a quick recap of Glenda’s presentation from WordPress blog publishing software expert Lorelle VanFossen.)

Glenda really opened our eyes that day to how the disabled often struggle to access the Web for work or personal enjoyment.  She has a wicked sense of humor, too; we all left her presentation laughing and enlightened (and many of us, myself included, considerably chastened by our own blindness to our disabled readers.)

We learned that the blind and vision-impaired can’t see our photos and graphics because we don’t include simple coding to describe them through the ALT tag (used by screen readers) and the deaf and hard of hearing can’t hear the sounds in our videos or podcasts because we don’t caption them or provide transcripts.

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?

For example, even if your whole lovely historic downtown is ADA-approved (Americans with Disabilities Act that requires buildings to accommodate wheelchairs, etc.) fewer will visit if they can’t get information or trip-planning assistance from your inaccessible Web site.

People use the Web to plan trips, and that includes the disabled.

Lorelle VanFossen points out in a Web accessibility article in the Blog Herald that….

“The Ever-Shifting Internet Population reports that 38% of Americans with disabilities surf the web and almost 20% of them say that their disability makes web browsing challenging. There are a wide range of estimates, but at least one in four visitors to your blog are disabled.

That’s a huge customer base you might be missing and not serving.”

The indefatigable Glenda never stops working to make the Web available to everyone.

To that end, she is launching the 2010 Accessibility 100 book with tips for simple ways to make your site more accessible, and she issued a writing challenge in support of the book launch:

Write 25 words about what accessibility means to you.

So, I did, and here’s my 25 word contribution:

“As the Web becomes more available across the world,  I don’t want my little pieces of it to be inaccessible through my own thoughtless ignorance.”

Take a moment to think about whether your destination marketing Web sites market to all of your possible visitors, including the disabled.

I’ve embedded a short video below that Lorelle shot during Glenda’s talk – you can see her equipment setup and hear some of her suggestions.  If you’d like to hire Glenda to work with you to improve your sites, she can do that, too.

(Here is the direct link to the video on Viddler if you can’t see the embedded viewing box.)

As a member of the Travel Insights 100 group of travel aficionados on UpTake, I’m looking forward to seeing all of the results of the latest member survey, asking us two questions:

• What trends or predictions do you forecast for the next year within the travel industry? and
• What are the dumbest moments in travel during the past year?

We could answer both questions or just one, so based on my talk at the recent Social Media Breakfast Austin, I chose to tackle the future. Here’s what I said in response to the Insights survey question….

“I predict the mainstreaming of social media into travel, helped along considerably by the cross-generational adoption of Facebook and the explosion of mobile/smartphones.

Not only is Grandma on Facebook, she’s going to figure out that her Blackberry (or iPhone or whatever it is) just put the Internet into her purse as well.

Lordy, now she can upload photos of her grandkids to her Facebook page while riding through “It’s A Small World After All” at Disney World!

Not within this year, but soon enough, social media is going to be “the way we do things” and will be as accepted and ubiquitous as email. No one advertises their services as an “Email Guru,” do they?

Mobile is going to explode because there are going to be multiple handset options available across all of the major carriers, thanks to Google’s Android (I don’t think Palm can recover their dominance, nor Windows Mobile, unless they do something extraordinary very soon. RIM/Blackberry and maybe Nokia have more of a fighting chance for impact.)

Go, Grandma, go!”

I’ll pop up an update post when the rest of the Insights results come out later this week.

Blog Carnival

carnival of cities

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Welcome to this edition of the Carnival of Cities, where we tour the world in a single blog post through the eyes and words of contributing bloggers.

The focus is on any aspect of one, single city (or a fair-sized town.)  Any blogger is welcome to submit a post for possible inclusion. It’s normally posted every other Wednesday, but I was tied up with another project yesterday.

I’ve been running this blog carnival off and on since February 2007. It’s often found on the “host blog” (currently my BootsnAll Family Travel Guide) but like any carnival it moves around, and other bloggers take turns hosting.

Today I’m hosting it here on Sheila’s Guide so that my tourism and travel readers can see a wide variety of blogging topics and talent.

Off we go….

Cities in the Americas

San Juan, Puerto Rico BW presents La Bombonera Old San Juan posted at Visit The Coqui, saying, “one of the most popular places with locals and visitors to grab a quick snack or a hearty meal in Old San Juan.”

Washington, DC Jon presents Celebrate New Year’s in 1960s Mad Men Style posted at The PlanetEye Traveler – Washington DC, saying, “Here’s a fun was to spend New Year’s Eve in Washington, DC.”

Los Angeles, California Peter Kimmich presents Top 5 Los Angeles Breakfast Restaurants That Won’t Break the Bank posted at TryOurLA, saying, “Some of the favorite local breakfast spots in Los Angeles.”

New York, New York A NY Nerd presents Crocodile Lounge Trivia Night posted at Nerd-NY, saying, “A review of a really fun quiz night in New York City.”

Washington, DC Jack Norell presents Holocaust Museum, Washington D.C. posted at Eyeflare – Travel Articles and Tips, saying, “DC’s Holocaust Museum is one of the more sobering institutions in a city which has a wealth of reminders of human folly and pain. Well worth a visit and the impact will remain with you for a long time.”

Bogota, Columbia Filip Ziolkowski presents Colombia, Bogota, Streets of Candelaria vol.1 posted at South Central North America, Asia, Australia, Europe: Backpacking around the world, saying, “Round the world in Bogota.”

Tallahassee, Florida Joe Manausa presents Erwin Jackson Asks Tallahassee To Demand More posted at Tallahassee Real Estate Blog, saying, “The Tallahassee City Commission cooked up a plan to give themselves an unlawful raise by calling it something else. They called it “deferred compensation.” Yet they deferred no compensation, they continued to cash their fully-funded paychecks, and they each received an additional $22K per year!”

Burlington, Vermont Miss Magpie presents Downtown Charlie Brown posted at FindandGoSeek.net, saying, “Just a few family friendly things I love about Burlington, Vermont.”

Cities in Africa

Swakopmund, Namibia Emily Hutto presents Swakopmund posted at Global Osmosis.

Cities in Asia

Taipei, Taiwan Sander presents Wanhua Buddhist Festival posted at Searider Zander, saying, “Here’s what’s happening in Taipei recently. You probably won’t get to hear about this kind of festival unless you live here yourself, as you kind of have to have grown up here to know about it – unless someone tips you off.”

Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Jonny presents Museums in Saigon posted at Vietnam Travel, saying, “A blog post covering the museums of Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City. Cheers! Jonny.”

Cities in Europe

Madrid, Spain Andy Hayes presents A Foodie’s Guide to Madrid posted at Sharing Travel Experiences, saying, “Hungry? Look no further than Madrid, where we’ve got every meal of the day covered (and more!).”

Luxembourg City, Luxembourg Mark presents 1000 Years in 100 Minutes (Luxembourg) posted at Travel Wonders of the World, saying, “A wonderful walking tour of historic Luxembourg City.”

Frankfurt, Germany Martin Andrews presents Amazing Cheap Discount Travel Deals To Frankfurt Germany posted at Globe Cheap Travel.

Vienna, Austria ivanisko presents A Report from Vienna posted at Bookstore Guide, saying, “In the latest addition to our ‘Reports’ section we explore the English language bookstore scene in the city of Vienna.”

San Sebastian, Spain Jeanne presents San Sebastian Tapas Or Pintxos posted at soultravelers3, saying, “We’ve had great tapas all over Spain, but think San Sebastian has the best tapas crawl!”

London, United Kingdom Victoria Wallop presents Christmas Past posted at It’s a small world after all, saying, “A very special musuem in East London celebrates Christmas traditions from 1600 to the present day.”

That concludes this edition, and thanks for visiting.

Please submit your (one, non-spammy) blog post to the next edition of the Carnival of Cities using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Although I’m not personally a big fan of press trips/”fam” (familiarization) tours, I will admit that one of the major upsides to the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s So Much More Hawaii blogger tour was the chance to meet some of the extraordinarily creative wired writers, photographers and videographers who were on that particular trip.

Let me introduce you to one of them – Mark Tafoya of Culinary Media Network (@ChefMark on Twitter) – and through some of his videos, explain how your destination can benefit from culinary blogger coverage (either through press trips that include them, or even better, by also finding and supporting your own local foodie bloggers.)

Culinary tourism highlights your local restaurants, farms, cooking schools, bakeries, chefs, etc. as a way of attracting visitors to your destination.  A few places that are significantly developing culinary tourism include Asheville, North Carolina, British Columbia in Canada and Fredericksburg, Texas. The NAFDMA blog, in another example, supports farmer’s markets/agricultural tourism and how that ties into bringing foodie visitors to your town.

Don’t forget the online work of your locals, either, like Massachusett’s Diary of a Locavore in the Cape Cod area, Austin’s Texas Locavore or the Cincinnati Locavore.

Good food writing is very visual, so a blogger who can also shoot mouthwatering photos or video is a major bonus; that’s exactly what Mark Tafoya does with his video blogging (or “vlogging.”)  Not only does a food blogger have a much bigger “content tool bag” than his/her print counterpart (they can do video, photos and audio podcasting in addition to text) but a blogger like Mark also has a strong presence on other social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.  Their content about your destination simply shows up in more places online than it ever could with a one-off magazine article.

When we were together in Hawaii, I was in awe of Mark’s ability to shoot quick videos and photos (everything from a Kauai coffee plantation to a Big Island abalone farm to a Honolulu fish market) then upload them simultaneously to numerous places online.  His many fans, friends and fellow foodies were constantly interacting with him through his iPhone, which made it even more fun and spread his work even further.

Here are two examples of what a savvy food blogger can do in two very different locations:  Virginia and Hawaii.

The Virginia videos were filmed in Colonial Williamsburg and historic Jamestown; they cover Colonial-era baking and cooking.  They are more polished because they were shot at a slower pace and there was more time to smooth and edit them.

**  Here is the URL directly to the Virginia videos if you are reading this in RSS or can’t see the box below. **

The Hawaii videos were much more of an “on the fly” production.

We were moving from island to island, with only evening hotel time to do any significant video editing or uploading. Mark did lots of “Quick Bites” segments, with basic equipment and sometimes-iffy Internet connections, but the immediacy is part of the charm (you can see my son and I in the “Volcano Lunch” QuickBites segment.)

**  Here is the URL directly to the Hawaii videos if you are reading this in RSS or can’t see the box below. **

Based on Mark’s examples, think about how you might incorporate a culinary travel blogger’s work into your destination marketing efforts. I’d love to hear any of your ideas in the comments below.

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….

• Your prospective visitors are probably there already. Facebook is no longer a “young person’s thing” – the fastest-growing demographic is aged 35 and older (with a big spike from women over 55….women outnumber men on Facebook.)

• 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.

Need some kick-off ideas for your posts?  Here are 30 content ideas for your organization’s Facebook Fan Page.

Now, go knock ‘em dead (and leave a comment below if you have any questions or further suggestions – thanks!)

What do people who live and breathe travel have to say about Twitter?

Look no further than a recent survey of members of the Travel Insights 100.

It’s a group of 100 travel writers, bloggers and thought leaders across eight travel categories, and yes, I am honored to be a part of the 100, a wonderful project co-sponsored by Tips From the T-List, the BootsnAll Travel Network and UpTake.

So, what do we think about Twitter?

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.

How do we decide who to follow?

As fellow 100 member Vera Marie Badertscher pointed out in her analysis post about the results:

“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:

Travel Insights 100 Media Page.