Why Use Facebook for Business?

Should your business be on Facebook? As part of American Express's Social Media Show + Tell series, Facebook employee Neha Kulkarni explains how the world's largest social networking site can help you attract and connect with customers.

   


If you need some help making the most of the opportunities now available to you through Social Media please drop me an email and I'll get back to you straightaway.

2012 is going to be “the Year of SoLoMo” for travel marketers – Social, Local and Mobile

Social, local, and mobile are lending a new dimension to plans of travel marketers. 

To get started, travel brands must have a mobile website optimised with fresh, local content and location-based offers; accurate and optimised listings on local mobile directories; and mobile engagement via SMS and social platforms.

7 Steps To Creating a Social Media Strategy

Nice and simple. Short and to the point.

Here are 7 tips on how to create a Social Media strategy for your hotel.

1. Identify Objectives – What is your main goal? 

Set objectives based on a clear understanding of how Social Media changes the communication loop between your hotels and your guests. Social Media is not about reaching a mass audience and blasting out discounts or advertising. Social Media is about reaching influencers and key decision makers, developing relationships, having conversations, building an online community and gaining insight into your prospect’s needs.

Pinterest and Exotic #FriFotos

Do we really need another social network to waste hours of our lives? 

Better yet, how has a network that is still invitation-only managed to get 2.7 million users (and that is just those who are signing in with Facebook)?

Pinterest is a social bookmarking tool used to “pin” images found around the Web into categorized collections, or boards. Think of it like an interactive, shareable scrapbook. Like any good social network, you can follow other users, share their content, make comments, and tag users. Similar to a Twitter stream, you get real-time updates of what the people you follow are pinning. You can also easily share your pins on Facebook and Twitter.

Why People Are Obsessed

7 Video Best Practices in the Era of Social Media

If a picture is worth a thousand words, you could say that a video is priceless.


We live in a time when a single video can tell your story, tip your brand — or change our world. 

Over two billion videos are downloaded every day on YouTube. That is roughly equivalent to the programming that the three major television networks put out. In one year. And, in my estimation: user-generated videos are just getting started. As these tools (such as smartphones) become more pervasive — and they are — an increasing number of people will produce video content.

Social Media ROI Metrics Still Chaotic

Brand marketers continue to struggle with determining return on investment for social media campaigns. Eighty-eight percent admit to gaining positive ROI on campaigns, but a study released Wednesday from Wildfire, a social media platform company, shows that the metrics remain all over the map.

While inconsistencies make it difficult to create and follow industry standards, Wildfire CEO Victoria Ransom said 75% of survey participants said they still plan to increase their social media budgets this year.

Gaining positive ROI is great, but what do marketers measure?

President Obama's new National Travel & Tourism Strategy

Speaking at Walt Disney Resort in Orlando, Florida on Thursday, U.S. President Barack Obama announced a national strategy to boost international arrivals in the United States.

The number of travelers from emerging economies with growing middle classes in China, Brazil, and India are projected to grow by 135%, 274% and 50% respectively by 2016 (compared to 2010).

(I think we'd like a similar policy for the UK please Mr Cameron! - Editor)

How travel marketers calculate ROI on social media and why the future is mobile

Via SimpliFlying – Helping airlines and airports engage travelers profitably | Grab the code to embed this infographic on your site.

How “Fresh” is Your Hotel Website?

Every year, Google makes more than 500 updates to its search algorithm. The most significant update in 2011 was the Google Panda Update, now in version 2.5, which made most hotel websites obsolete by introducing very strict requirements for content, interactivity, and page download speeds. 

This required sites to generate engaging and unique website content (as opposed to bland, old and tired content) that would intrigue users and increase the site’s “stickiness.”

After frustrating hospitality digital marketers with the seemingly never-ending Panda update saga, Google went a step further by releasing the broadest, most-impactful algorithmic change to date, just to keep us all on our toes.

BBVA and Google team up for tourism data - FT.com

BBVA, Spain’s second-largest bank by assets, is teaming up with Google to use its search engine results to provide advanced forecasts of hotel and tourism demand in the country, part of a plan to market real-time economic indicators to its clients.

Read more:

BBVA and Google team up for tourism data - FT.com:

What hotels should do with Google+ and why it matters

Hotels already have trouble finding the time and manpower to manage Facebook or Twitter, and these two outlets still win out over Google+ in the “Great Social Battle.” 

So, what is a hotel to do, when Google is suggesting that its newest venture is a key factor in search engine performance?

The Luxury Consumer in the New Digital World

As we start a brand new year, the social media universe is full of predictions about what’s next for digital media. No wonder. 

Digital media has been used to influence public opinion, organize protests, unveil new products and ideas, and broadcast events in real-time.