The travel industry is zooming ahead in social media adoption. According to this article on USA Today, intense competition within hospitality and travel is driving this accelerated adoption of social media tools. This same article provides a list of notable social media integration:
Social media are being incorporated at a rapid rate into every part of a journey, from making the reservation to finding out where to eat. For instance:
•As of August, Delta passengers can buy tickets on Delta’s Facebook page.
•Southwest has three staffers dedicated to monitoring and responding to queries made through social-media channels.
•Marriott is launching its Marriott Courtyard Facebook page Tuesday to issue messages about the chain and related information that might interest customers.
•Hyatt Hotels launched a Twitter account last year to serve as a virtual concierge. Staffers, based in Omaha, Australia and Mumbai, are instructed to respond to requests and questions within an hour, and are fielding queries ranging from where to find good sushi to alerts that a guest will be checking in late. The account has 12,000 followers. Hilton has a similar Twitter account.
Compared with other industries, the travel and hospitality sector is ahead of the curve in engaging social media, says Carl Howe, a director with the Yankee Group, a telecommunication market research firm.
It’s “mainly because there is so much concern about consumer perception,” he says. “There are a lot more choices for hotels than there are for cable providers, and the same is true for airlines.”
One thing the article doesn’t point out are the social media disasters that have hurt the travel and hospitality industry over the past few years. From “United Breaks Guitars” YouTube video to the story of Kevin Smith – who was deemed too fat to fly by Southwest – so he took his case up on Twitter. It’s good that the industry has taken note and is taking a proactive approach.
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Tags: Business, HospitalityIndustry, social media
I came across these today and found them very clever:
There are more of these on the DesignMom website.
Tags: advertisements, New media, retro ads
One of the best aspects of online marketing is the ability to measure performance almost instantly. Most webmasters these days know to have a form of web analytics software that provides insights on visitors, traffic performance etc. I use Google Analytics for this exact purpose as do most of the clients I work with. While Google Analytics is great for measuring the performance of the visitors to your website is is also helpful to be able to tie this performance directly to your online ads and activities. In other words you need to be able to measure your clients activities a full circle in order to maximize your marketing.
This is where the integration of Facebook Insights with Google Analytics becomes powerful. Until very recently Facebook didn’t offer a sophisticated analytics package. Facebook Insights was useful but in reality it wasn’t really that great. And to top it off analytics was only available if you had paid ads on Facebook. There was no real way of measuring the other things you were doing in your marketing efforts. So, for instance Facebook Insights wasn’t as useful if you were running a social media outreach and wanted to measure the performance of this traffic in Google Analytics.
Well, worry no more, Raven Internet Marketing, has introduced a tool called The Facebook Tool that is designed to fill this void. This tool helps you to manage and analyze multiple Fan Pages. The goal is to help you improve your efficiency. Plus this tool works seamlessly with Google Analytics providing that 360 view of your market.
Here is how the tool can benefit your social media campaign (from The Social Times):
- Gain better understanding of the performance of Fan Pages beyond what is provided by Facebook Insights
- Create custom, white-labeled reports on the data
- Schedule updates to ensure updates are posted during high-visibility periods
- Manage multiple Fan Pages all from within the Raven system
- Assign clients and management read-only access to view metrics at their convenience
Check it out and let me know what you think.
photo credit: The Car Spy
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Tags: Facebook, Facebook Insights, Google Analytics, Internet Marketing
I just noticed a sponsored link on Google Local Search while searching for a meeting venue in Phoenix, AZ. I noticed that the local map listing had a “sponsored link” section. I had never seen this before. I did some investigation and found that this comes from connecting your Google Places account to your Google AdWords account. In addition to connecting your accounts you then have to activate the connection. I don’t know if this is going to be a permanent feature – but apparently you’re not paying to be listed first (this only shows up on the second listing). So, the advertiser is only paying for a link. At this point its hard to be sure how that plays into the cost and value of using this feature. However, right now this feature can offer you a competitive advantage since not too many advertisers are aware.
Tags: Google, Google Local Search, Pay per click, Search Engine
Online reviews are the rage and while not every company may be soliciting them, customers on the other hand seem eager to post them online within any forum they find comfortable. Open ended and non-solicited customer reviews can be a very positive element for a company’s marketing. This is because they’re genuine and consequently the most persuasive as well. Due to the pervasive nature of reviews and range of sites across the Internet companies oftentimes do not even know what is being said about them – let alone address the negative comments.
Oftentimes the topic of reputation management is not discussed as part of the marketing strategy. However, with information dissemination facilitated by the Internet and the explosion of social media, online reputation management should be one of the items to consider as part of you an overall marketing strategy. One negative comment that resonates with your customer base could undo years and years of careful brand management and messaging. Online reputation management in one aspect of social media that can have an immediate ROI for your company. So, your reputation on the web needs your complete and full attention.
Getting Started with Online Reputation Management
When considering online reputation management it is very important to have a strategic framework for not only monitoring what is being said on the Internet about your company, but also to devise a mechanism for responding to negative comments and positive ones. The full scope of work should include the following:
- Set up alerts with the major search engines and follow through to the links as the alerts are delivered.
- Monitor social media sites, review sites, and online forums. It may be necessary for you to create accounts to do this.
- Develop a company wide mechanism for responding to negative comments within 24-48 hours.
- Respond appropriately to positive comments. You do not need to respond to every one of these but at least a few. It will make you look genuine.
Online Reputation Management Software Tools
The suggestions above are meant to be an initial start. In order to be proactive and totally alert you may need to deploy specialized online reputation management software programs. I would recommend any specialized software that is specific to your industry. This will make the process of staying on top of the conversation easier.
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Tags: Internet Marketing, online reputation management, social media
- Image via CrunchBase
I’m really curious to see how Microsoft and Yahoo merge their two independent PPC systems. Account transitions are slated for October and from what I understand all Yahoo accounts will be converted over to Bing AdCenter accounts. This means your AdCenter account will not be affected but if you have a Yahoo Search Marketing account then you may be in for a bumpy ride.
Joseph Kerschbaum over at Search Engine Watch has a detailed article on the status of the transition as well as how differing features between the two systems will be managed. There is reason to be apprehensive of the transition and Joseph has this suggestion:
Hopefully, all of the account transitions will go smoothly and advertisers won’t feel too much discomfort during the change.
However, I have one tip that is pretty straight forward and should save you a lot of headaches. To avoid all of these account merger issues, you should just open an adCenter account now and build it exactly how you want it. If you already have an adCenter account, then you’re already covered and you won’t need to do anything.
Take a look at Joseph’s article to see why he makes this recommendation.
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Tags: AdCenter, PPC, Search Marketing, Yahoo
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