Martyn Collins, Festival Director at Digital City Festival

Words that I am learning to hate!

2016-04-08T13:09:00.003+01:00

Wow, I'm Stoked and Amazed at this Truly Awesome list.

So I thought I'd Reach Out and Share this with you to try and get your Respect and some well overdue Kudos. Phew!

The Water Diet ... and others I've tried

2016-04-02T15:04:00.001+01:00

The Water Diet

The water diet is not a diet in any conventional sense. Its title is not even correct.

You are not expected to only exist on water. However, I have named the water diet as such because drinking water, and nothing else, turned out to be a key to weight loss. A totally unexpected weight loss because I was not intentionally trying to diet.

I was due to take some exams over three consecutive weekends and made the decision to not drink alcohol until I had finished the course. Just simply stopping alcohol still left me with unwelcome options. What should I have instead? So I decided to keep things simple. I would only drink water. No coffee or tea. No soft drinks. Just water. Still water at that, not sparkling.

There were three interesting by-products of this diet.

Contrary to popular belief, water is not tasteless. Over the course of the three weeks, my palette became quite refined and there is a surprising difference of taste between different water.
I lost weight and my stomach became flatter. Amazing!
Once the exams were finished I went to the pub and managed to get pissed on just one pint!

So, in the space of three weeks, I'd developed better taste, got a flatter stomach and become a cheap date. I highly recommend the water diet.

The BORED Diet

One of my favourite diets, especially easy for me to stick to. On this diet, you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want it. The only hard and fast rule is that you drink a Bottle Of Red Every Day. This is an easy diet to follow unfortunately there is absolutely no weight loss gained as a consequence.

A very similar diet to the above involves drinking a bottle of Rosé every day. If you find yourself watching reruns of Downton Abbey and yearning to own a chihuahua you’ve probably been on it for too long.

The Red version is definitely my favourite.

The BOWED Diet

Yes, you’ve guessed it. Same as above but a bottle of refreshing white wine every day. Preferably a crisp New Zealand Sauv Blanc. A lovely summer alternative perhaps to the BORED diet.

NB Substituting a bottle of spirits for wine is definitely not recommended. Tommy Cooper went on a whisky diet once and before he knew it he'd lost 3 days.

The Leftover diet

This is a diet that is popular amongst parents of small children and people who endured rationing following WWII.

Prepare food for your children in the normal way. At the end of the meal collect all of the food that is leftover and put it onto one plate. This becomes your meal. You may want to re-heat this in the microwave.

What’s your favourite diet?

The Social Media recipe for success!

2016-03-26T03:00:00.000+00:00

It's one thing having all the ingredients necessary to make a cake, but without knowing a recipe and having the right equipment, it is unlikely that you will succeed.

However, with the ingredients and diligently following the recipe given to you by Delia (or Heston) then that cake will soon be coming out of the oven freshly baked for everyone to enjoy.

But will it be as good as the one Delia or Heston made?

It seems to me that a great deal that is written about Social Media marketing is based on the assumption that everyone knows (and has) all the ingredients necessary to whip up a successful campaign.

In my experience though there are many people out there still trying to get to grips with what the ingredients are, let alone know where to go to get a recipe.

Let me give you some pointers.

Here are the Social Media ingredients that most businesses need and some reasons why:

Twitter - the best way to quickly find the people you'd love to welcome as new customers
LinkedIn - a key platform for raising your profile within the corporate sector
YouTube - the global video platform that is much too important to ignore, consumers love it - so should you!
Facebook - a huge marketing opportunity especially when you can take advantage of all the personal information people provide
Google Plus - when Google enters the market with a Social Media platform you have to get involved - this one is growing and growing
Blogging - Google loves fresh content and a blog is the most efficient way of feeding the search engines - it's also a great way to engage with your customers
Flickr - bit of a dark horse to many but this photo sharing site is incredibly effective
Pinterest - brilliantly simple way to use imagery to promote your business - a top-driver of referral traffic

And for those businesses in Leisure or Retail you'll need the following as well:

TripAdvisor - massive opportunities await the business that learns how to properly exploit the world's leading travel planning and customer review website
Instagram - pictures speak and Instagram makes many look like much better photographers than they actually are - great for sharing too
Foursquare - fast emerging as essential to any business in hospitality and retail

So there you have it - all the ingredients.

The question now is what recipe to choose and do you do it yourself, or hire a Heston and guarantee the results?

Social networking is completely out of control these days

2016-03-17T18:54:00.004+00:00

Social networking is completely out of control these days. But do the things we do online make sense in real life?

Follow as she tests social media activity on unsuspecting New Yorkers!

#saynotospec

2016-03-09T10:11:00.000+00:00

Watch People in Other Industries React Hilariously to Being Asked for Free Spec Work.

Brilliant video from Zulu Alpha Kilo. As they say, "Architects don’t give away their blueprints. Diners don’t fork out free meals. Personal Trainers don’t sign over their intellectual property on spec. This video pokes fun at the speculative creative bidding process in new business pitches. We believe there's a better way for agencies and clients to find the perfect match."

Get your first tackle in early

2016-02-24T09:59:00.003+00:00

The late, great Welsh center Ray Gravell made a point with this comment that I try and carry through to my work life.

If you know that you need to do something - do it!

Don't prevaricate. Don't delay. Just do it.

Digital Trends in the Travel and Hospitality Sector

2016-01-25T10:33:00.001+00:00

The ‘Digital Trends in the Travel and Hospitality Sector’ report, produced by Econsultancy in partnership with Adobe, explores how companies operating in this sector approach digital, as well as the key trends, opportunities and sector-specific issues shaping their digital strategies.

The research is based on a global survey of more than 170 senior digital and e-commerce executives, with responding companies including major hotel groups, travel agents, airlines, passenger ship operators and car firms.

Key themes emerging from the digital research:

There is a strong focus on digital transformation in the sector: The majority of travel companies, in particular, recognise the importance of having digital at the core of their business in order to meet the needs of technology and social-savvy travelers and tourists.
Importance of customer experience and blending the physical and digital: Whilst base growth is the overwhelming top business priority for the many companies surveyed, customer experience is a key area of focus for driving customer acquisition and retention. Brands are working hard to fuse physical and digital experiences in order to differentiate from their competitors.
Mobile is at the heart of every customer journey: In the travel sector, the mobile experience, in many respects, IS the customer experience or at least the glue that binds together the online and offline experience. Companies participating in this research have really grasped the importance of mobile and are more focused on this business imperative than their counterparts in other industries.
Data-driven customer centricity: Brands are beginning to recognise the importance of building a 360-degree view of the customer so they can pin-point exactly where they are on their customer journey and provide them with key information at the right time in the right context, irrespective of channel.
Personalisation and the importance of first-party data: The customer experience is increasingly about personalisation, with companies in understanding that applying the personal touch at scale is becoming a necessity rather than a ‘nice-to-have’ extra.
Social is here to stay: Social media plays an important role in many consumers’ lives, and companies in this space are working particularly hard to encourage and harness sentiments for their benefit.

To read the full report, visit Econsultancy.

If you like this article then please click Share :)

Like & Share

2016-01-05T12:16:00.000+00:00

Happy New Year all

My first tip for 2016 is to Like AND Share

If you want your content to reach anyone make sure that you ASK THEM to Like AND Share.

It doesn't matter what social media platform you prefer (LinkedIn, Facebook etc) they will all take more notice of your content if they see that people are Liking AND Sharing.

It's not a big effort on the readers part - they just have to click on the Share link.

So make sure you end all of your content with a simple reminder - If you like this article then please click Share :)

Facebook Moments app receives feature overhaul | Google grants rare access to server room

2015-09-01T13:57:00.003+01:00

In an expected move, Facebook has rolled out a number of exciting new features to its visual-based Facebook Moments app. Also, Google has granted access to its perabit-powered server rooms for the very first time

“Facebook Moments, the social network’s recently launched photo-sharing app that aims to address the problem of getting friends to send each other the photos they’ve been hoarding on their own phones, is expanding to video.
The app received its first major update today since its mid-June debut, and will now automatically create a video of your shared photos which you can customise, personalise and share back to Facebook.

“With the update, Facebook Moments will automatically create a music video for any grouping of six or more photos. You can then tap this video in the app to customise it further by changing the included photos and selecting from about a dozen different background music options. When you’re finished making your optional edits to this video, one more tap will share the video directly to Facebook and tag the friend or friends with whom you’re already sharing those photos.

“The added feature could make the app more compelling for those who didn’t yet see the value in the photo-syncing option it previously offered. As Facebook Moment’s early adopters begin to share out their video creations to Facebook for others to see, their friends may be more inspired to try out the app for themselves.”

To read the full article, visit TechCrunch.

Google grants rare access to its mammoth server rooms, 10 years after going it alone with own tech

“Google has given everyone a rare look inside its server rooms and detailed how keeps up with the massive growth of its search business. In a blog post, Amin Vadat said that the company’s current network, Jupiter, can deliver a petabit per second of total throughput. That means each of its 100,000 total servers can randomly speak to each other at a speed of 10Gb/s, a hundred times faster than the first-generation network it created in 2005. To get there, Google did something surprising – it built its own hardware from off-the-shelf parts.

“Back in 2004, Google decided to stray away from products created by established companies and build its own hardware using off-the-shelf chips from companies like Qualcomm. The aim was to put less onus on the hardware and more on software, something that’s impossible with off-the-shelf switches. Vadat explained that hardware switching is “manual and error prone, and could not scale to meet our needs.” Using software switching was not only cheaper for Google but easier to implement remotely – critical for a company whose bandwidth requirements have doubled every year.

“Google considers its servers as a key advantage over rivals like Microsoft and Amazon, so why is it talking now? For one, it’s recently started selling its cloud services to other businesses, so it’s keen to brag about them. It’s also being pragmatic – its data requirements are now so huge that it needs academic help to solve configuration and management challenges.”

To read the full post, visit Google’s Research blog.

Fast Company’s Falon Fatemi explains how her time at Google gave her the drive to become a budding entrepreneur

“As an eager, fresh-faced 19-year-old, I turned up at Google – at the time, a 3,000-person tech company – ready to dive headfirst into anything. Over the next six years, I discovered that the Google lifestyle meant more than just an on-site laundry service and free gourmet meals. I was one of the youngest employees on staff, but nobody held my hand. Within weeks, deadlines, duties, and complex projects began to pile up. I hadn’t even taken a finance class, yet I had two weeks to put together a strategy for entering Africa and Eastern Europe. I had to be resourceful.

“As a tech entrepreneur today, that sink-or-swim experience influences nearly every move I make. Here are five of my top takeaways from my time at Google early in my career.

“Working at Google gave me a set of values that have grounded my work ever since. What’s so remarkable about the company – and what I’ve tried to replicate ever since – is that team members at every tier have the power to affect company-wide change. That’s a benchmark every leader should strive for.”

To read the full article, visit Fast Company.

Facebook drones, Google balloons and a grand plan to bring the web to 3 billion people

2015-08-10T12:05:00.000+01:00

Facebook lifted the lid on their mammoth drone, Aquila, earlier this week. The drone is as wide as a Boeing 737, weighs 880 pounds and has been in development for the past 14 months. The drone plays a pivotal role in Facebook’s ambitious Internet.org plans to gift the world’s most remote areas with stable web connectivity.

Facebook plans to fly the drone over parts of the globe where infrastructure has yet to be built and use satellites to deploy connectivity for the masses. Ultimately, their goal is to offer free access to the world’s largest social network, and in turn expand its user base as even more Facebook drones are deployed throughout the world.

Facebook’s Vice President of Global Engineering and Infrastructure, Jay Parikh said: “Our goal is to accelerate the development of a new set of technologies that can drastically change the economics of deploying internet infrastructure.”

Former Facebook Product Manager, Antonio Garcia Martinez, wrote that despite of Facebook’s growing user base (1.48 billion as of this quarter), it’s actually running out of people to target. With China and Russia likely out of the question in terms of new sign-ups because of legal restrictions and, the company is facing a user dilemma.

He added: “The solutions are: increase fertility in Internet-connected societies to produce more ‘Facebookers’ (unfeasible and slow), stage a political or military coup in China to unblock that market (American companies’ days of business development via colonialism are sadly over), or increase the total number of people on the Internet in poor countries. Internet.org is the realization of the last approach.”

To read more about Facebook’s plans to boost web connectivity, click here.

Google’s Project Loon is getting its first major client: the entire country of Sri Lanka. Google and the government of Sri Lanka have signed an agreement that will see the balloons providing connectivity across the entire country.

Sri Lanka’s IT Minister, Mangala Samaraweera told Lanka Business Online that “as a result of this agreement, the entire Sri Lankan island – every village from Dondra to Point Pedro – will be covered with affordable high speed internet using Google Loon’s balloon technology.”

The agreement marks the first time Project Loon will be widely adopted, outside of small tests providing connectivity to rural New Zealand.

To read more about Project Loon and Google’s agreement with the Sri Lankan government, click here.

Outernet is looking to gift the 3 billion people throughout the world without access to the web the chance to head online for the very firs time. The catch is, in order to get content to as many people as possible, Outernet’s connection only goes one way.

Outernet CEO, Syed Karim said: “We want to solve the information access problem as quickly and as efficiently as possible.”

Outernet sells a simple gadget called ‘Lighthouse’ that can connect to a satellite dish and download, but not upload, information such as Wikipedia entries, public domain texts, breaking news and a whole host of additional content. The device doubles up as a Wi-Fi hub, so that users can connect to it and download or browse text on their own devices.

To read more about Outernet’s pioneering new free service, click here.

LILY.CAMERA - Like, Want, Need

2015-08-04T10:26:00.000+01:00

Lily is the world's first throw-and-shoot camera. It lets anyone create cinematic footage previously reserved for professional filmmakers. Lily is waterproof, ultra-portable, and shoots stunning HD pictures and videos.

I can't wait to get one of these.

Pre-order now at https://www.lily.camera/

Alas poor Google+

2015-04-16T11:20:00.002+01:00

I knew him Horatio.

But not that well.

I mean I've got at least one Google+ profile but I've never paid it the same attention that Twitter, Facebook or Instagram get.

If you haven't heard Google+ is on the way out - what lessons have we learned?

Destination Management and Marketing Model

2015-02-25T09:52:00.000+00:00

Here's part two of the recent interview he gave me.

Destination Think! has created its “Destination Management and Marketing Model.” Can you describe what it is and how destinations can use it?

We worked on this for a very long time, and it’s a result of our journey as skilled individuals and within our company. And it’s really where our global presence has really paid off. The model incorporates everything a DMO does in a way you can wrap your head around and shows how all the pieces fit together.

The nice thing about the model is that it works on a very strategic, but also tactical, level. We use it to help our clients create their corporate strategy but also to design campaigns with specific objectives. It’s very flexible.

I won’t go into the details of the model itself because we’ve started a marathon blog series where we explain the model and will dive into the details. We’re almost a dozen posts in, so I encourage people to read it on our corporate blog.

As part of our model, we have also created a benchmarking tool. We rank about 30 categories of DMO activities from 1 to 5. We use it internally with clients to help our team quickly understand where a client is at in different areas of the business. And recently we’ve started producing it in a formal benchmarking assessment so clients can use it internally as well for strategic planning.

The benchmarking tool is the most effective way to assist in creating a multi-year roadmap for the organization. When you overlay your corporate strategy, you can see the areas of the business that need to move forward. And it communicates this very effectively with stakeholders as well.

What are some of the best ways a DMO can educate its team members, get inspiration and solve its challenges?

Part of the transition is a refocus and building new capabilities. That includes building new skillsets amongst team members, but also removing some of the fear of what they don’t understand.

Before you understand what skills and capabilities you need, you need to understand where you currently are. We have a few tactical audits we conduct to help our clients understand where they’re at and where they need to improve. It’s extremely practical. Presenting an audit is one of the best things to do. People learn a ton and get really excited. Based on the audit, we often recommend an education plan.

We used to run education workshops. People loved them. But it was hard to get people to where they need to be in a day. You can only take in so much information, and people tended to fall back into their old ways. When we started to train and then coach people, is when we really started to see results. You learn over time using real examples and have someone to collaborate with and ask questions of on a regular basis.

Learning from and connecting with colleagues is also important. We run our #SoMeT conferences in the US, Europe and Australia where DMOs share their learning about reinventing their DMO. It’s a very inspirational experience for people, including at the leadership, C-suite level. You walk away with new ideas, a chance to see what your competitors and colleagues are doing, as well as expand your network.

And finally, if a DMO has a limited budget, what is the one thing they should focus their efforts on?

I wish there was a magic bullet, but there isn’t. Every DMO is different. Too often people chase the latest marketing trend but for what purpose? Most DMOs are already stretched, so you need to think about what to stop before you think about what else to do.

I think understanding where you currently are and having a strategy is important to create focus. If a client asks me that question at the start of our relationship, I would tell them that our assessment is the best place to begin. Everything else will flow from there.

End.

Join the LinkedIn group A New Model for Destination Marketing to gain more insights into how DMOs across the world are facing up to the challenges of marketing today.

An interview with William Bakker

2015-01-27T10:29:00.002+00:00

William Bakker is a veteran destination marketer, with 11 years of experience working at Destination British Columbia under his belt. Today, he leads Destination Think!'s strategy team and has worked with hundreds of destination marketing organizations around the world. Destination Think is a strategic consultancy and digital marketing agency with offices in Vancouver, Amsterdam and Sydney (plus four satellite offices in the US and Toronto).

William is a highly sought-after keynote speaker and writes his own blog about leadership, marketing, travel and at DestinationThink.com. His observations, thoughts and conclusions shape the way Destination Think! help destination marketers thrive in the 21st century.

Can you tell us a bit about your background working with destinations?

I started at Destination British Columbia in 1999. It was called Tourism British Columbia back then. I was the first person they hired to support the website and I was responsible for everything digital. When I left there I was part of the management team and lead a team of more than 12 people.

The last four years at Destination Think! I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with dozens of DMOs around the world. I’ve also spoken at more than 50 tourism conferences, and attended even more. It gives me a really good picture of what the challenges are, what the best ways to manage them are, and why.

But it’s really our team that makes Destination Think! great. We have about a dozen staff members who used to work at DMOs. Sometimes I think we know our clients better than they know themselves. And that’s what we need, because that’s when we can add real value. We see what works.

Why do you think there is a need for destination marketing to evolve?

Because there is an unbelievably exciting opportunity to be more effective and efficient than a DMO ever has been and to connect better with consumers, provide more value to industry, grow the economy in a sustainable way and improve the quality of life for residents as well.

Compared to 15 years ago, we’re dealing with a radically different marketing landscape, a new breed of travelers and global competitors that operate on a level playing field. A DMO can do more with less, manage the politics in much better ways and ultimately deliver real value.

In what way?

It starts by accepting that you can’t build a destination brand yourself anymore because the volume of stories from other people drowns your message out, and they’re also more credible. Word-of-mouth has always been the most important when it comes to travel motivations, but now in social it’s exponentially important.

It’s really not that complicated to wrap your head around and it’s all there for the taking. It’s just a different way of thinking and operating. You can see examples of where things are going all around you. DMOs with toes in the water stand out already. And the leaders that move now get a head start.

Could you give us some of these examples?

Look at how Tourism Australia manages their Facebook page. It couldn’t be simpler, and it’s insanely effective. There’s no way they could ever buy that kind of exposure, even with their deep pockets.

Destination British Columbia and others encourage visitors to share their photos in their own channels. Hundreds of thousands of amazing photos shared.

And Tourism Queensland worked with influencers in their #Room753 program. Oostende used instagram photographers to source photos for their printed brochure. South Africa is incorporating storytelling into their website that tells the story about Gandhi in South Africa. And Antwerp in Belgium is marketing to the fashion niche by working with fashion influencers.

Those are just some examples off the top of my head. There are examples all over. But you know what, most of us know this. Because no matter where I go or who I talk to, everyone agrees with what we’re saying and most agree what the focus and priorities should be. But then change happens very slowly, or not at all.

Why do you think that is?

Politics is what often bogs things down. It’s real and we don’t underestimate it. We help our clients deal with it. Because just like marketing has changed, so has communication on the stakeholder side. You can manage the politics in a whole new way as well. By being more open, transparent and collaborative. I’ve seen it work and it’s super exciting.

Look at the Usus program Visit Sørlandet is running in Southern Norway. They are training their industry in a very collaborative way and rally them behind a common goal in the process. Eindhoven365 created their brand via a hands-on collaboration with all stakeholders. And I’m not talking about running a few focus groups to create the appearance of collaboration. They really collaborated, and as a result the whole city is bought in.

But it’s not the politics that really slow innovation down. It’s often the culture the politics has created that gets in the way. Past mistakes and the fear of a backlash often creates a very conservative and risk-averse culture. As a result, tactics are extremely conservative and safe, often with mediocre results.

The people who work at DMOs are great. But they’re often stuck in this culture and they don’t know how to escape it, from the top down to the bottom. Changing a culture is tough. It took time but we figured out a way to do it. Change the culture and magic happens.

How do you do it?

When we walk into an organization, we do two things: we benchmark the current state of things, through our DMO assessment. We basically go out and talk to everybody in the organization, at least every department. We also try to talk to some stakeholders. We produce a report that documents the current state against best practices. It includes everything, all activities, how they work with stakeholder and the culture as well.

Then we create a strategy and a roadmap. The strategy includes the unique things that will make the DMO successful. The roadmap provides focus and is also designed to change the culture. That’s why the priorities are sometimes not necessarily focused on marketing, but on culture.

We look at the assessment and identify the places in the organization to address the culture and when. For example, we might need to start by showing a quick win to or for the stakeholders. So we’ll put together a simple project to demonstrate that. People see the results and a light comes on.

It can take time. And every DMO is different. But once enough people have seen the light, the whole place tips over and that’s an exciting moment.

End of Part 1

Join the LinkedIn group A New Model for Destination Marketing to gain more insights into how DMOs across the world are facing up to the challenges of marketing today.

In space no-one can hear you scream

2015-01-21T13:07:00.003+00:00

You're thinking about a new website. You're thinking a lot about your new website. It's got to look great. It's message really needs to resonate with people who visit. More than that they need to contact you and buy something.

That is, of course, if they can ever find your website!

In presentations I've often referred to the Internet as being the universe with your website being just one of the billions of stars that make up the night sky.

The brightest stars are easy to find - in my analogy Google would be the sun, Facebook would be Sirius, YouTube would be Betelgeuse, and so on. But your website! How are people ever going to find it? What can you do get your fair share of stargazers?

NASA has recently created the sharpest large composite image ever taken of the sprawling mass of stars, space dust, and more, a vast 1.5 billion pixels that together cover a 61,000 light year long section of the galaxy.

The detail allows astronomers to be able to make out individual stars over a significant section of an external spiral galaxy.

Nowadays it could well be easier to find a new star in a far off galaxy than for prospective customers to find your website. It's enough to make you scream!

Check out NASA's video while you ponder that problem.

Visit Mum - Well Done British Airways

2014-10-29T14:52:00.000+00:00

This advert from British Airways is, for me, where Destination Marketing should take some considerable influence.

Take 5 minutes to watch it and understand the essence of travel.

Spending money on a new website?

2014-10-27T13:42:00.000+00:00

Spending money on a new website without having a Social Media strategy in place is like getting all dressed up but then not going out!

No one will notice.

16 years ago the most common question I was asked was

"do you think we need a website?

The answer of course was yes.

Today the most common question I'm asked is

"do we need to be on Social Media?

The simple answer is again yes but things are not so simple anymore.

Today a business will spend a lot of money on a website and then do nothing to drive traffic toward it.

It is not just about having a single online presence on the Internet. There are new digital marketing platforms being launched daily (it seems).

But having spent all your money on building a shiny new website maybe the question should be

"how do I drive traffic to my website?

The simple answer ... Social Media!

Quick Facebook Marketing Tip: SHARE is better than LIKE

2014-09-24T14:27:00.002+01:00

Facebook LIKES are great. But to really become effective at getting your message out to more people you need to encourage your followers to SHARE.

As in life the more Shares you have the less you need to care how many people Like you!

10 Mind-Blowing Facts About The Internet

2014-09-24T08:51:00.002+01:00

Anqor - the new global device, get online anywhere, anytime!

2014-08-21T12:28:00.000+01:00

Anyone who does a lot of travelling should keep an eye on how a new product called Anqor is developing.

A single click brings you online anywhere in the world. No roaming and no more frustrations - access at all times.

Liberating the mobile internet

One of the basic principles of the World Wide Web, is that it should be accessible from anywhere in the world. With millions of mobile devices, the internet is essential to staying connected. It is the gateway to new knowledge, reference, and inspiration. It is the lifeline for your network, colleagues, and family while you are on the go. It is providing the freedom to work from anywhere, whenever it suits you.

Access to the internet on your mobile device is liberating. However, those mobile devices are often not granting you a satisfactory experience – especially not when traveling abroad.

Imagine a device the size of two smartphones in your pocket or bag, a single click, and you are online anywhere in the world. It will even find the best available connection at a low, fixed price. There are no worries about outrageous roaming prices, and no limitations on your experience due to bad connection quality, or because you are bound by the services of a particular provider.

How to Deliver Outstanding Customer Service With Social Media

2014-08-04T11:12:00.001+01:00

Are you responding to customers on social media?

Do you customize your interactions with them?

Your brand and online reputation depend on how you provide social media customer service.

In this article you will find four ways social media conversations create an extraordinary customer experience that inspires loyalty and word-of-mouth recommendations.

#1: Create Unforgettable Experiences

One of the great benefits of providing customer support on social media is being able to connect with consumers in real time. You see a need and you fill it. You hear a problem and you solve it.

Handling customer issues on a public stage can benefit both you and the customer you’re working with—especially if you go above and beyond a generic “Please call us so we can resolve the issue.”

Take the story of Paul Young and his unfortunate incident on the way to work. One rainy Friday morning in New York City, he jumped on his CitiBike and headed to work for a day of back-to-back meetings.

As he rounded a corner, the slippery street got the best of him, causing his bike—and him—to crash to the wet ground.

Paul tweeted about his misadventure and was surprised at what happened next:

Read the whole article at Social Media Examiner

5 Reasons why you should Blog

2014-07-25T13:46:00.002+01:00

Blogs and blogging is not new.

And companies that are serious about their marketing and keeping customers happy are now serial bloggers.

They become addicted to the followers they generate, the Search love that Google bestows upon them and the new business opportunities realised.

Today blogging is an essential component of a Social Media strategy.

If you are not already blogging for your company, here are five great reasons why you should:

1. Search Engines

Having a Blog gives your company more opportunities to show up in search results. Without a Blog, someone searching relevant keywords for your site may only find your homepage. By blogging about timely subjects on a regular basis - with relevant keywords - each post has the chance to show up in search. If your Blog has a clear link back to your main site - as it should - the traffic to your Blog has the opportunity to drive people to your main website as well.

2. Google loves Blogs

Google wants to provide users with more up-to-date and relevant search results. Essentially, the search giant now ranks sites with fresh content higher than static, unchanging sites. With a Blog, you have the capacity to very easily add new, fresh content whenever you want so those Google bots will continue to recognize your site and your business will be found more easily online.

3. Social Media hub

A company Blog is the ideal place to create the content that you share on other Social Media channels. Why drive your followers and fans to other sources when you can direct them to your site? Detailed posts on interesting topics or new products also serve as the destination for potential new customers, rather than sending everyone directly to the homepage to search for the relevant information on their own.

4. PR coverage!

Any mention of your business, product or service that appears in the news must be quickly grabbed and placed on your own Blog. Writing a blog post to summarize and link to the coverage gives the story a new online home - your Blog, a cozy place where it can live forever. Again, this is a great place to direct fans and followers to and spread more Social Media content from.

5. Get personal

A Blog is also a great place for current and potential customers/clients/employees to learn more about your company. Posts about team members or company outings and events - as well as the writing style on the blog - can tell someone a lot about your organization on a more personal level.

Based on an article in PR Daily

The private sector has to become responsible for Destination Marketing

2014-07-16T23:00:00.000+01:00

Endangered species

Tourism providers need to become individually and collectively better at marketing themselves, each other and their own destination.

I believe that if you can raise the game of the private sector then this ultimately will address all the long-standing issues still being debated re TBIDs, State Aid, the role of DMOs, OTAs, market failure etc.

The private sector has to become responsible for Destination Marketing.

Anna Pollock's take on it is that "DMOs and tourism providers need to perceive their customers as whole people having a complete experience of which their product is a part - then they would not need to be told to do the obvious! Sadly the industry has grown up with an industrial mindset that breaks a complete experience into products and talks about destination visitors as consumers. Time to join up the dots. The destination in which providers work collaboratively to ensure the visitor gets all the information he wants, when he wants it (ie before, during and after the trip) is the one that will succeed."

In the absence of the above a justification for public sector intervention based on correction of this 'market failure' was formed, leaving many private sector businesses to believe that they could afford to invest less in their own marketing efforts. After all they had a very well funded DMO to pick up all the marketing slack.

With or without a DMO a great many tourism businesses are not only marketing themselves (& their destinations) poorly; they have developed a mindset that makes them resistant to all investment in better marketing support for their own business. Not only do these businesses need new marketing skills (or access to the appropriate support) they need to understand that their existing marketing budgets need to be better spent.

The combined existing marketing spend of tourism providers makes for a substantial budget - at least 50% of which is spent on marketing that has no ROI.

On-line marketing is getting easier - not harder. Platform technologies open up all sorts of options for collaborative marketing that:

increase the probability of a new customer booking
because the customer is being given the information / service they need
enabling that booking to be made on the providers own website ie no commission to OTA/DMO

There are some simple Social Media / Digital Marketing basics that if applied consistently across the board by tourism providers would make a huge difference at a Destination level.

My opinions are only concerned with trying to create a much improved visitor economy, exploring new innovation and collaboration and raising our collective game.

DMOs should stop feeling threatened and start engaging and sharing. This debate is not about them - it is about all of us.

Social Media - The DO NOTHING Strategy

2014-07-07T14:26:00.000+01:00

The office phone is ringing

You answer it.

Someone walks into the business.

You greet them.

An enquiry form from your website is received.

You follow up with an email or a call.

A tweet mentions your business...

DO NOTHING!

Someone posts a question on your company Facebook page.

DO NOTHING!

Your corporate video is liked on YouTube.

DO NOTHING!

In fact whenever anything happens on Social Media ensure that your company response is to DO NOTHING.

It does not matter that you have gone to the trouble of setting up your company profile on all the leading Social Media channels.

It does not matter that you have placed prominent links to these channels from your website and printed them on all your corporate stationery.

It does not matter that your competitors actively use Social Media to engage with customers, respond to enquiries, manage their reputation and win new business.

In an era where 93% of Shoppers buying decisions are influenced by Social Media the most important thing your business should DO is - NOTHING!

Don't make the mistake of setting your business up on Social Media - and then ignoring it.

What would happen to your business if you stopped answering the phone, greeting guests and following up enquiries?

Ultimately you really would end up DOing NOTHING!

10 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use Social Media

2014-07-02T10:00:00.000+01:00

Social Media Marketing for business is not that new anymore.

However a lot of businesses still ignore it!

After all Social Media is a very different way of communicating your company or brand message - and with that comes challenges, difficulties and threats.

There is also the joy of learning new and successful ways of marketing.

But still, maybe you should not use Social Media because it is not for you just yet!

Here are 10 reasons not to use Social Media:

You don’t want any new customers as you are already too busy
You want to give your competition a head start
You don’t want to hear what your customers are saying
You’re afraid people might say nasty things about you
I like to keep things simple and it’s all a bit complex with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and all that stuff
Social media sites are largely populated with people who have nothing better to do with their time
You are a traditionalist and value the “good old days”
You don’t want to be found
You don’t want to be heard
You like spending money on advertising that you can’t measure

Can you think of some more reasons why you should not use Social Media?

Based on an original article source: JeffBullas