If you’re interested you should read the ad below. The gist of the requirements is that you need to be good at writing English texts and you need to have a ‘feel’ for the tourism industry as well as a lot of experience with the internet. We would like you to start end of March / beginning of April, 2010. If this sounds like you and you’re looking for a great job in the internet business, you should apply.

The above might be a bit tough to read, so this is the text of the ad:

The company
Dragonfly Media is a young web design & internet marketing company based in Curacao. We have clients from all walks of life, but cater mostly to hospitality and legal clients. We provide professionalism, continuity and a balance between design , development and marketing.

We are looking for a CONTENT EDITOR

Job description
You wil be responsible for the content of a large, very popular, tourism website from top to bottom. This means that you will need to write engaging tourism-oriented copy in English, maintain communications with the client, call the smallest restaurants and the biggest hotels to collect data and enter everything in several different Content Management Systems.

This job will require a responsible person who can work well under pressure and has an independent attitude.
Training on the job will be provided.

Requirements

• Fluent in English (especially written English)
• Experience with writing copy
• Good ‘feel’ for the tourism and hospitality industry
• A lot of experience with the internet

Appreciated, but not required

• Grasp of other languages like Dutch, Spanish and/or German
• Experience with Content Management Systems
• Experience in marketing
• Experience with writing SEF web copy
• Great telephone voice

Application
Please send your resume and accompanying letter to Mrs. Bo Loefstok-Schillemans at bo@dgfmedia.net before March 08, 2010.
All aspects of your application need to be in English. For more information about Dragonfly Media visit www.dgfmedia.net.

November 26th, over 50 people from various branches, showed their interest in this topic by coming to Floris Suite Hotel to join the presentation.

As the speakers, we touched several social media (platforms) such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. We addressed the various benefits of using social media for business purposes.
Together with us, a panel of social media users (consisting of Bram Reukers from Heineken, Jerry Gesser of Stradius and Stefan Dubbeling of Floris Suite Hotel), was ready to answer questions of the audience.

At the end of the presentation, it turned out that the interest in using social media is there, but that sometimes the know-how is not.
One important question from the attendants was: Could you organize a training for people who want to use social media, but just don’t know how or where to start?

And of course we would be happy to do so. We will send an update to all people who expressed their interest in this training as soon as possible.

For those who couldn’t make it to the presentation, we would like to summarize the benefits and misconceptions of social media one more time.

Today’s digitally driven consumers now broadcast their experiences directly online via Social Media. The reality is that consumers are using social media to speak up, regardless of whether or not you are participating in the conversation. You better get involved now and see in which way you can use Social Media to benefit your business.

Wisely used, the benefits are:

Benefits

- More online conversation about your brand
- Quick turnaround
- Impact on Search Engine rankings
- Power of recommendation
- Compatible with traditional marketing
- Sidestepping Ad blindness
- Quick, up to the minute content
- Relation tool
- Primed audience
- Trackable results
- It’s ‘green’

Misconceptions

- Time consuming
- Employees spend too much time on social media
- Measuring the impact of Social Media is impossible
- Social Media is frivolous

Of course we have to make a note, especially with the benefits…

Just tweeting a bit without a plan won’t give you the benefits mentioned above, nor any revenue. As well as with using any other marketing or communication tool, you have to make a plan, a strategy, with measurable and realistic targets. Integrate social media into your overall marketing strategy and take it seriously!

We look forward to see you at one of our future presentations or trainings!

HSMAI will pay tribute to Dragonfly Media during the 20th annual HSMAI Adrian Awards Gala, a black-tie affair attended by more than 1,000 hospitality, travel and tourism marketing executives, on Feb. 1, 2010 at the New York Marriott Marquis.

Dragonfly Media is located in Curacao and specializes in Web design, web development and internet marketing. The company is owned and operated by Joost Schrier, Oscar Fuentes and Bo Loefstok – Schillemans and was established in 2006.
Dragonfly Media is recognized with two bronze awards for CASHA’s website www.apartmentscuracao.com and the website www.jacuracao.com, both in the category web marketing.
The website www.apartmentscuracao.com is a promotional website for the Curacao apartments and small hotels association (CASHA) and www.jacuracao.com focuses on the wedding & honeymoon market in Curacao.

This year’s contest attracted nearly 1,100 entries from around the world, with entries judged by top executives from all sectors of the industry.

In addition to celebrating Dragonfly Media’s award-winning work, the Gala honors lifetime achievement and the “Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales and Marketing.” All winning entries will be accessible in the Adrian Awards Winners Gallery online following the gala at www.adrianawards.com.

Tickets are $350 per seat or a table of 10 for $3,500 prior to Jan. 12, 2009. Visit www.AdrianAwards.com for more information on tickets/table purchases. Adrian Awards benefactor partners are DEPARTURES Magazine, Google, TravelCLICK and TripAdvisor.

About HSMAI
HSMAI is the hospitality industry source for knowledge, community, and recognition for leaders committed to professional development, sales growth, revenue optimization, marketing, and branding. With a strong focus on education, HSMAI has become the industry champion in identifying and communicating trends in the hospitality industry, and bringing together customers and members at annual events, including HSMAI’s Affordable Meetings®. Founded in 1927, HSMAI is an individual membership organization comprising more than 7,000 members worldwide, with 40 chapters in the Americas Region. For more information on HSMAI, contact the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International, 1760 Old Meadow Road, Suite 500, McLean, Va. 22102; (703) 506-3280; fax (703) 506-3266, or visit the website at www.hsmai.org.

The idea is that every week we will discuss one of the many cool features of the new dolfijnfm.com. This includes features like the integration of iTunes, Twitter & FaceBook, the ways of interacting with the site’s visitors and - of course - the new design.

We are currently in the design approval phase and will probably move on to actually building the site next week.

They have been working for some months now and we run into the name ‘Chicas’ every now and then. photographer Daphne Vermeulen, our strategic partner when it comes to photography, works with them a lot.

Today, they surprised us with a delicious lunch, to get to know us and Advertising/Publishing agency Bas Kok better. What a nice way to leave an impression!

At 12:30 Marijn, Gitva and Marcia walked in, loaded with grocery bags and set the table. We chatted, laughed and are excited to work directly with them in the future.
Thanks & good luck Chicas!!!

The first thing you notice when you see the new website is that it’s big and bold. The colors are vibrant, the font is large and the buttons are big. The new design captures not only part of the spirit of the island, but it also speaks to what people expect of a Caribbean island. No classical symphonies and sipping grappa in a garden here; this is salsa and cocktails on the beach.

Besides a great design and tons of content, the new website also has some interesting features. With the booking widget tourists can instantly book their trip through Travelocity, with the Vacation Matcher they can get hints about what to do on Curacao, with the discussion boards they can give each other tips and the list goes on.

Like every good website, this website is not finished yet. Over the coming months the site will get more content in the languages besides English (not everything was translated yet), more e-cards will be added, imagery will be updated and maps will be added.

We believe that the new curacao.com is an important step in the right direction for the Curacao Tourist Board and Curacao tourism in general. This new website will perform better in the search engines, it speaks more to what people expect from a Caribbean island (while also showing the uniqueness of Curacao) and it gives the CTB and the visitors more tools to interact with the website.

Dragonfly Media will continue to handle the website’s content and maintenance, as well as the advertising on the site. If you want to advertise on curacao.com, contact Claartje or Bo for rates and specs.

About TIG Global
TIG Global is the leading provider of full service, customized e-marketing solutions for the hospitality industry. Through its strategic approach to online marketing, TIG Global executes integrated marketing plans that leverage the latest e-marketing tools and consumer trends to maximize your results and investment. Created by hoteliers over seven years ago, TIG Global has honed its internet expertise to meet the unique needs of the hospitality industry.

Based in the Washington, DC area with a European office in London, TIG Global currently serves over 800 hospitality clients worldwide. TIG Global blends the creative talent of an ad agency with customized, Internet marketing solutions covering every angle – from initial website design and promotional email campaigns to social networking and statistical analysis of your website traffic. TIG Global also offers the most dedicated account service team in the industry.

The choice was limited; “SI” or “NO”, but the last few weeks the referendum was about the only thing people could talk about. We followed the discussions and campaigns in the newspapers, on tv and radio and -of course- online.

This referendum was the first major political event on Curacao that saw the battle being waged on the internet alongside the traditional channels. So, what happened online?

Websites
The NO-camp was first with a website about the referendum, vota-no.com. The Vota No website is a Wordpress site with a free template. When the site launched they not only advertised with it in the newspapers, but also online. This got them a lot of attention and for a while they were doing pretty good in the search engines.

The Vota No website’s design was a bit busy, but they largely stuck with the original template which something proves difficult on Curacao. It featured a lot of video and audio and was updated regularly. A pretty good site and an effective campaign. They could have paid more attention to SEO though. This would have given them many more visitors.

The next website was a website from the SI-camp, kuradigital.com. This website was a Joomla website with an edited template. The site was launched with a minimum of attention but since it was the first SI website it soon became the site to be associated with for the politicians of the SI-camp.

Kuradigital.com was a very straight site with mostly text. They had videos but these weren’t easy to find.The updates were always fast and they were the first ones of these sites to put te results of the referendum online. This website also did not pay any attention to SEO and were therefore not easy to find on the searche engines. Kuradigital.com had information in multiple languages, giving the site a better chance in different language search engines (although this can be confusing to visitors, especially when the languages are all mixed up like this website had).

The last major referendum website to launch was desidido.com, a Joomla website with an edited template as well. This website received a lot of attention with mostly off-line campaigns. Large billboards were erected, advertisements were placed in all newspapers and they handed out desidido-parafernalia at every event of some significance.

The people behind desidido.com obviously have design skills. The site looked very slick and its design was carried through well. Technically it wasn’t very good though. Like the other websites, they updated their content regularly and fast. They were late with launching the website and implementing SEO, but they are the only site that did do something with SEO. In the last week before the referendum this website was the only referendum website that could consistently be found in Google with different related search phrases.

Other websites of note were awelsi.com (a SI site for young people), vota-si.com (a NO site with videos) and referendummei15.com (objective informational site).

It’s difficult to say which camp did the best job with their website(s). The NO-camp was the first (which scores big points in my book) and was the most cohesive, but they also played a slightly dirty trick with the vota-si.com website. The SI-camp had the better looking site and they did well in the search engines in the end, but they were divided with two main sites and they were very late. I would rule this one 52-48 in the favor of the NO-camp.

Social Media
The campaigns were not only waged through dedicated websites, but also through social media.

The Si-camp was very active in social media. As the invented personality ‘Se, Sua‘ they created a Hyves page and a FaceBook group. Lawyer Eric R. de Vries created a LinkedIn group and Bob Harms created a FaceBook cause. The SI-camp even sent out a chain e-mail (yes, very 90-ies) which people had to forward and cc to the originator.

The NO-camp was notably less active in the world of social media. The only thing we could find was a FaceBook group with only a few members. There is a hyves page on votano.hyves.nl, but this one was made by the SI-camp to block it for the NO-camp (so, it’s -1 vs -1 in the race for the ethical award).

Neither of the camps was active on Twitter. Some individual protagonists were active on Twitter (NO: @sablikatriumph, SI: @ovel), but there appeared to be no cohesive effort in that arena.

Real-time
The internet is specifically useful when you want to provide information/opinion in real-time. The Curacao “Registro Sivil” updated their website in (near) real-time when the results from the voting booths were coming in. This meant that they regularly uploaded two images with numbers and graphs. So, by continually refreshing the site you could follow the results coming in.

While the results were coming in TeleCuracao updated its status on FaceBook to communicate the results and we did the same on Twitter. After the final result was in there was a massive flurry of activity on Twitter, Hyves and Facebook when people updated family and friends.

Next elections
All in all it seems safe to say that - for the first time in Curacao history - part of the campaigns for this referendum was wagered online. It would take more metrics and insider information to gauge the impact these campaigns had, but we believe that they did have an impact for the simple reason that people are looking online for information. So, the campaign that’s more visible will have a bigger chance of having their say and influencing people’s opinions at the next elections.

Next year we will have ‘normal’ elections again. If the above trend continues we will probably -hopefully- see that the political parties will become more active online. If you look at the state of the websites of the political parties now (if you can find them) you will see that some are not finished and that the only party website with information about the referendum is of one of the smallest parties. This means that there is a lot of work to be done, but it also means that this is a big opportunity for the parties to score.

The reason I’ve placed it here is the amount of views and comments this video has gotten. At the time of writing this video was viewed 32,847 times and got 263 comments. Even worse (for Sears that is); when you search on YouTube for Sears it’s in the 8th place (in 5th if you search for Sears dishwasher). And if you search for a Sears dishwasher in Google there are 3 results on the first page with complaints about Sears.

I don’t know Sears intimately but my impression of the company right now is not a very good one…

At last night’s “Best of the Best Awards” Gala HSMAI Curacao’s Director Steven Damiana and President- Elect Rosann Jansen were awarded with the best Small Chapter in the categories of Websites, Communications & Customer Interaction Program.

We are very proud of the HSMAI Curacao Chapter for this superb achievement and we’re doubly proud because DGF built the website and our own Bo Loefstok-Schillemans is VP of Communications at HSMAI Curacao.

One of the latest additions to Twitter on Curacao is the local radio station Dolfijn FM. They inaugurated their account today under the moniker @dolfijnfm and appear to be very enthusiastic about it. They even put a widget with their updates on their website the same day.

Some resources for Twitter on Curacao:

• Twhirl - a stand-alone application built on Adobe AIR that you can use to follow Twitter from your desktop
• WeFollow - a directory of Twitter users ordered by tags and the amount of followers (tag Curacao)
• CuracaoTechnology - a blog post about the use of Twitter on Curacao (in Dutch)
• Wordpress plugins - some tools and widgets to put your tweets on your blog
• Some of the other Curacao Twitter users - @acesuares, @basvandorst, @CuracaoNieuws, @curacaotechnews, @MementoVivi, @Morap, @TheoCuracao and our own account is @dgfmedia