If Jesse sounds a bit familiar but you can’t quite put your finger on where you heard of him, it might be because you’ve seen one of his slides on  Slideshare where his presentations have made it to number one numerous times.

Check out his newest entry, already with 15,000 views in only 2 days.

Now that you’ve seen the presentation, be sure to visit the solve99problems site, there’s some really useful stuff there (plus it’s just cool). You’re welcome.

Encore you say? Of course!

Location based services are totally different from other social networks in that they incorporate aspects of both the physical and the digital world. To put this in to perspective, we need to strip back a service like Foursquare to its most basic elements and look at whats left- Essentially we have a service that lets users keep up with where their friends are at any time. This brings me to my first Foursquare foux-pas:

Hotels are not my friends, so stop trying to add me! I’m not going to invite you out for drinks and you’re not going to help me move, so lets stop kidding ourselves. There is nothing worse than opening my inbox to a friend request from a hotel or resort, it just doesn’t make any sense. We have nothing to gain from each other, less considering we live on opposite sides of the world, so lets just give it up.

The second issue I have could happen to any businesses using Foursquare and might take a bit of proactive management to prevent, but will pay off:

Don’t let your staff become mayors! It’s so frustrating to your loyal customers who check in whenever they visit only to be beaten by Jimmy, the guy who works in the kitchen or Sue the front desk girl. Of course Jimmy and Sue are going to get the most check-ins, they work there. So managers, sit down and have the “Leave the check-ins to the customers chat” it might be a bit awkward, but trust me it will be for the best.

So what can a hotel do to keep up with the check-in craze? Simply put, stick with the basics. Make sure all your venue is listed on all check-in services and the details are correct and up to date. If you are feel up to it, try and leave some quality tips for your visitors.

If you are feeling extra ambitious, try offering some perks to those who check in, become mayors or even consider a mayors party. If you’re looking to build your brand via Foursquare, this is going to go a lot further than just friending random users.

So that’s it, pretty simple stuff. As usual, if anyone else has anything to add I’d love you to do so either in the comments or on the Facebook page.

For those of you still getting your head around location services, check out this awesome infographic from Mark Fidelman (@MarkFidelman)

Infographic By Mark Fidelman (Click to enlarge)

The response from the travel industry to Apples aggressive foray in to travel has been extremely varied- ranging from anger, to praise and everything in-between. Although this is (will be) a travel product, it’s a more complex issue than it first appears. Understanding Apples iTravel app means understanding difference between open and closed app ecosystems (Apple vs Google Android).

In pieces, the app has been done before: We’ve seen tv channel/program schedulers, nearby restaurants/activity finders have been done to death and using the iPhone as room key is new but not a totally original idea. What this app represents is the power of a closed, quality checked distribution system that sits in the hands of millions of consumers. Achieving this kind of wide spread adoption on the Android platform would have a few additional challenges, mainly the lack of product standardization across multiple handsets and the ability for user manipulation of the OS itself.

Image source: Tnooz.com

Standardization and mass distribution aside, the actual concept of the app is what strikes me as the most impressive aspect of the entire project. As Google have shown, the big players can step in to established markets, turn them upside-down and dominate very quickly. Thinking that Apple, who have an estimated 50 million iPhones in consumer hands worldwide, (Excluding iPod Touch and iPad) couldn’t do the same thing would be a serious under-estimation of their reach. If Apple were to go for the low hanging fruit and make iTravel a hotel meta-search product, they could be quite successful. The fact that they have chosen to create an app that uses the strengths of their product to fill a gap in the industry is refreshing. There are some negatives to this story, though, and they need to be brought up.

Patenting the functionality of an app is ridiculous. Actually, it’s downright silly and counter productive, even more so when it’s iTravel. Patenting the name of the app I could understand, but the actual functionally is taking it too far, especially when it’s this general. No third party developer could ensure their app is on every single phone, so the competition is all but beat right out of the gate.

I realize this is a glowing review of a product that has quite a few people up in arms, not to mention it hasn’t even been developed yet. If you have an opinion, positive or negative, by all means feel free to comment, there may be some very valid points that haven’t been brought up and I’d love to hear them.

Google is pretty strict about “buying links” and isn’t afraid to penalize anyone breaking the rules. Even the big guys are scared of Googles wrath (See Tnooz post: TripAdvisor CEO explains link policy, feels the hotel love). So how did some of the biggest OTA’s in the business nearly double their Alexa rank and traffic stats? Simple- partner with Google.

I initially thought some of the increased traffic might be due to the industry recovering from the global finical crisis, so I compared the stats against an OTA that was not part of the Google maps “Experiment”. Have a look at the results-

Orbitz growth was very steady, but Expedia and Booking.com had sudden and very strong traffic increases. Hotels.com’s traffic growth was not as dramatic, but followed the same pattern as Expedia and Booking.com.

This may not seem like something that’s worth worrying about (or writing a blog post about, for that matter) but this hands some pretty big SEO and statistical benefits to OTA’s that have partnered with Google.

So is it fair? Should Google be allowed to give such a huge boost to those who “play their game”? I guess the fairness of the lucrative side benefit to getting in to bed with Google isn’t really a point of debate, Google invented the game and will play it how they see fit.

*Note- This is not a conspiracy theory nor do I think there is anything wrong with how this is being done, I simply feel the need to point out some interesting (possibly overlooked) statistics.

Gregg was good enough to answer a few of my questions about his new position:

PW: Is this position a first of it’s kind within Flight centre?

Gregg: It’s the first of its kind Globally, yes, but I’ve been doing the role for Canada for the past year and a bit. That said, Social Media really is global so we were speaking on behalf of the company globally (from Canada).

PW: Does this signal a change towards social media within the industry?

Gregg: That’s an interesting question. We are starting to see more and more companies participating with campaigns and/or being on social sites like Twitter and Facebook. I think it will be quite the year to see which companies put efforts towards Social Media and to what extent.

PW: This might not be something you can talk about just yet, but this kind of role is very new; what do you see falling under your “Jurisdiction”?

Gregg: It’s a bit early to answer that but we will be looking at what’s working across our various brands and regions and leveraging those successful strategies for the other areas.

PW: Finally, do you have any advice to people in smaller organizations that are thinking of taking social media for business seriously?

Gregg:I think that leveraging Social Media is an amazing way for organizations to know what customers and prospects are saying (about travel in general and about their business). There are a bunch of tools available (many free) that make it real easy to monitor and participate. I think it important to first determine what channels your customers and prospects are on, pick a few to focus on, and once successful start to grow out other channels.

A big congratulations to Gregg from Project Wander, I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

While running searches for various travel related keywords on Twitter, something really annoying kept popping up time and time again. @ messages to anyone who happened to mention any city name with an offer of cheap rates on travel sites. It wasn’t specific to any one brand, it seemed to be happening for all of the major players.

After analyzing some of the major offenders, I have put together a very short list of tips for anyone looking to use Twitter to drive sales on a travel site affiliate program. I think it’s worth mentioning I that I do not profess to be an affiliate marketing pro, I am simply an opinionated Twitter user who knows what will and will not work. Please try to experiment with these tips and mix in some of your own ideas as you go, this is by no means a science.

Twitter and real life = the same thing- It may be a new and exciting online world, but try not to over think things too much. Real life social rules still apply, they’ve just been slightly modified. Picture this scene: Two people are discussing their favorite North American ski resorts in public while on the way to work. Suddenly, a stranger interrupts and suggests they visit their travel agency for cheap deals on skiing and/or snowboarding packages. I’m not saying don’t message people on Twitter, but consider your approach before-hand.

Full profiles- Not having a bio, link and picture is a really great way to get ignored or reported as spam. It’s hard to find a non Twitter parallel for this one- the closest I could think of was cold calling someone without even telling them who you are. So fill it out, it only takes a few minutes and it’ll make you look 100 times more credible.

Be an expert- Pick a specific niche’ to focus on and engage local experts. For example, someone who focuses on selling Thailand could follow bloggers who specialize on the area, and then retweet their posts their own followers. This is really important as the people you’re selling to will check your profile before they click your link or follow you. If they see the same spamish message repeated over and over again, they’ll be less likely to trust you (give you money).

Be manual- Don’t be automatic! It may sound like a great idea to use a program that picks up pre-defined keywords and sends a link to those users, but it’s not. There is nothing less personal or more annoying that some auto-generated spam message interrupting your Twitter stream. Take the time to manually read your Twitter searches and reply with a considered, helpful comment. It may be more work, but it will pay off- picture laser vs. shotgun.

So that’s it for now. Those are four pretty simple tips, but they may be the difference between doing just okay selling on Twitter and blowing away the competition. If anyone has any extra tips, I’d love to hear from you.

Of course you heard, the entire travel industry has talked about nothing else since it happened. You might be wondering why I’m writing something about this now, so long after the fact. Well, I wanted to wait and come up with something original, not just a re-write of the same old commentary. To be honest, I was going to leave it up to the pros, but a few of you contacted me asking for my thoughts- I will try to be brief.

This was no surprise, in fact it would have been surprising had Google NOT bought ITA. As I showed about a month ago, when Google couldn’t buy its way in to the travel industry via Kayak (rumor) it declared them a competitor and then proceeded to purchase the company that powered it’s flight search, ITA. To be totally honest, flight stuff isn’t really my forte’ and others have already discussed the technical aspects to death, so I’d rather look at the psychology behind the purchase and the reactions of the industry.

Above all else, Google as one goal: To be the best in search. In the beginning this was limited to just website search, but as time went on and the online market matured, opportunities started to present themselves. Job search, online video search and real-estate search to name a few, but the biggest cash cow of them all was always travel. What Google would have found out, (probably quite quickly) was that online travel not only has some well established players, but some seriously ancient technology that’s being held in some kind of of gate-keeper-esque fashion by a few powerful brands. Any moves to buy or infiltrate their way in to these organizations would have been expensive, and more importantly, very obvious.

To get around this set-back, Google tried to play it smart by (again, rumored) buying an up and coming player in travel search, Kayak.com. Kayak were relatively new on the scene but were not receptive to the offer, allegedly asking for far too much cash. Annoyed but not discouraged, Google went on to integrate hotel aggregation in to map searches and has now purchasing ITA to seal the deal.

It’s almost like a soap opera!

I will be the first to admit that Google’s influence has gotten unimaginably huge. It’s so huge, that they enter a market and have the power change it forever (Video, Maps, email etc.,). The online travel industry is right to be nervous, because lets be honest, we’ve had it easy for long time. Companies have survived using traditional thinking and old technology for so long that the thought of someone like Google throwing their hat in the ring is game changing. And finally I get to my point: I think in the long run, it’s a good thing.

There will be casualties, but Google will force everyone to step up their game. No one will get away with half-baked solutions; what was good enough before needs to be great now. In the past, there was no reason for businesses to run when the competition was only walking, but Google will hit the ground sprinting.

In conclusion, I see this as a potential catalyst for positive change within the travel industry, with consumers seeing some serious benefit. Over next few years we will could have a one horse race or a renaissance within online travel with brands reaching new levels of innovation and success or disappearing in to travel history- either way it’s going to get interesting.

What I’d really like to hear is what you think. What will Google do to travel? Will it be positive or negative? Join the debate in the comments below.

Simpliflying.com, the highly acclaimed aviation branding and technology blog by Shashank Nigam, has impressed me again. Shashank has come up with the monthly award, “Simpliflying Heroes” to celebrate those within the aviation industry who have performed above and beyond their duties using social media. The criteria looks like this:

Did the individual:

• help change the status quo with regards to social media in the organization?
• bring on-board other team members and senior management before executing?
• lead by example when it came to interacting with customers?
• actions result in the organization achieve its business objectives better?
• demonstrate leadership in the situation?

I had the chance to send some questions Shashank’s way about the award, and this is what he said:

PW: What inspired you to start the Simpliflying Heroes award?

Shashank: As airlines struggle to grasp the realities of interacting with customers through emerging technologies, it is almost always an individual within the organization who acts as a catalyst for adapting to new ways of doing business. And it’s important to hightlight the efforts of these individuals, like Aurelie Valtat of EuroControl – our first winner!

PW: What sort of effect do you hope this will have on your sector of the industry?

Shashank: The goal is by highlighting efforts of one individual each month, we will inspire many more people in airlines around the world who can relate to the story, and pick up the baton at their own airline. Hence, forming a tribe of SimpliFlying Heroes, who are harbingering a new era of customer interaction and doing business in airlines. After all, they haven’t been consistently profitable for the last 50 years by doing the same old things. Might as well try something new.

As Shashank mentioned, Simpliflying already have a winner for this month- Aurelie Valtat from Eurocontrol. I’m a big fan of Simpliflying.com and I think Simpliflying Heroes is a great idea, so head over and cast your vote for the month!

Ready for this? The Travelport Universal Desktop in all it’s glory! Found on Facebook page for Clutch Interactive, the pictures show a lot more than we have seen in the past. I think it’s safe to assume this won’t stay up for too much longer.

Most seem to be still in the design phase, but a couple show some of the functionality we might expect to see in the final product. I won’t keep you waiting, enjoy.

(Click thumbnails for full-size images)