Befriend The Search Engines

Fabulous littel bit of work here, worth visiting his site for more of it::::::::::::
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Imagine the travel and tourism industry without the Internet.
Hard to conceive, isn’t it? The travel industry was amongst the first to be transformed by the WWW. The Internet as a channel of distribution has become one of the most successful channels used by consumers to research travel options, compare prices and make reservations for airline tickets, hotel rooms and car rentals.

Is your website providing what travellers are looking for?

Recent research in Queensland has proven that even though tourism is one of the most successful application areas on the World Wide Web, Small and Medium Tourism websites are not optimised for search engines. This signifies that unfortunately the traveller cannot find what he is looking for about your property because it is not properly referenced for its key terms on search engines.

How can I tell if my tourism website is optimised?

Try Googling your tourism product by putting yourself in your customer’s shoes on Google.
You might also recognise the following common web design mistakes

• The title of each page of the website is exactly or almost the same and does not tell you (nor the search engines) what the page is about
• All the keywords for the page have been added in the meta tag
• There are too many links on a page
• Javascript, Images and Flash menus are being used instead of text menus.
• Sites built in Flash and sites using Frames are not search engine friendly and will not get indexed properly in search engines

How much is it going to cost to optimise my tourism website?

If your website is not search engine optimised its is just like having a phone number but not being listed in the phone book.

Can you afford to be paying for something that is being kept hidden from your target customers?
Search engine optimisation is not a costly exercise but a smart move. The revenue you will get from travellers now finding your website and being able to book your product will quickly cover our cost.
The other beauty of the online world is that everything we do is trackable and you will be able to, by yourself, realise that the changes we made were well worth it for your ROI.

Befriend The Search Engines | UntangleMyWeb.com

Social Networking Usage Surges Globally

According to the Nielsen Company, the global average time spent per person on social networking sites is now nearly five and half hours per month (February 2010 data), with Facebook accounting for the majority of that time. That’s up more than two hours from last year.

In arriving at that conclusion, Nielsen measured social network usage per person across 10 countries and compared that to data from the same time last year.

When looking at specific countries, Italy tops the charts with social network time per person just under six and a half hours per month (6:27:53), and Australia is a close second (6:02:34). The United States — which has the largest unique social networking audience — ranked third in usage with the average person spending just over six hours (6:02:34) on social networks.

What’s even more interesting is that Facebook — with its 400 million members — is far and away dominating the rest of the competition.
Facebook is the number-one social network destination worldwide and accounts for nearly six hours (5:52:00) per person with the average user logging in more than 19 times per month. What that boils down to is that the time spent on Facebook is almost five hours longer than the time spent on MySpace (0:59:33), the second closest social network in terms of time spent on site per person.
Nielsen also found that:

- Globally, the average Twitterer conducts three unique sessions for a total of 36 minutes per month.
- In the U.S. the active unique social network audience grew roughly 29% from 115 million in February 2009 to 149 million in February 2010.
- Active unique users of social networks are also up nearly 30% globally, rising from 244.2 million to 314.5 million collectively.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, sbayram


Google Nexus One: Now With Multitouch

Summary to tourism operators about link building

Great article about link building, here's his top 4 tips:

• If you receive an email asking you for a link such as Alice’s put it in the bin. If it sound legitimate, just check out the PageRank, Domain name age of their website, just how I did it below.
• Ask yourself: would visitors to the site I am getting a link from (their target market) benefit from reading your content?
• If you are about to hire a link building consultant (so if you were to put yourself in the shoes of TNS here) why don’t you ask them to provide you a list of 3 sites they developed a link building strategy for and check the links they got using the Yahoo! LinkDomain command?…. Mind you, that wouldn’t be enough would it? If TNS was their client you would see a link form “our” website as a link (provided I was gullible), and you would think these guys are good and would have no idea about the black-hat SEO techniques going in the background!
• This is why you need to ask any potential web partner what their link building processes are and if they cannot give you the full low down I wouldn’t touch them with a 10-foot barge pole.

Full article here: Tourism Internet Marketing | UntangleMyWeb.com

Social Media For Tourism specifically TripAdvisor

Brilliant, as I am asked for 101 TripAdvisor at least once a week! Read on and see more on his site:::: UntangleMyWeb.com

In Australia, TripAdvisor is one of the most well-known online reputation checker how I like to call it. For those who do not know, TripAdvisor is an Internet site that allows anyone to comment about their experience at any tourism/hospitality related business.

I am asked every second day for a step by step guide to TripAdvisor. As I did not seem to find a 101 Guide to TripAdvisor guide for tourism business owners, I thought I would fill the information gap!

image credit Steve Crane

Every established web surfers will check what is being said on TripAdvisor about the property he is about to book. Some even first start their search on the TripAdvisor site. What is fantastic (for those businesses who have a reputation management strategy in place) is that it can work as your best ally in terms of promoting your business.

TripAdvisor has got such a strong online presence that your property’s page on the site will appear on the first pages of Google when your business name is keyed in the search field. Even before your own website sometimes (yep!)

TripAdvisor negative reviews : why you should be aware

image credit this is your brain on lithium 

TripAdvisor can also kill your best marketing efforts - that is, if you have not yet tackled the challenge of online marketing or have chosen to stay “passive”. Why? Well, because anyone can say anything about anyone (aka: YOU) on the Internet (this is formally known as User Generated Content). Let me give you an example:
I was conducting an online marketing training session the other day with tourism operators.

Part of the workshop included the review of what potential guests might have said about their experience at your (accommodation) property on www.TripAdvisor.com. You should have seen the facial expression of a member of the audience, aka the accommodation property owner, when she realised that a past client has written an extremely negative review about her business.

If you are a tourism business for instance and decided to stay passive and not tackle the online world just yet, you are not simply staying in passive mode but doing your business some damage. People are most probably writing about you somewhere on the net. If not on TripAdvisor, probably somewhere else.

Tourism Online Strategy - How to I check my online reputation?

image credit Tub Gurnard

How do I check what is being said about me online?

1. Simply Google your business name to start with. Have a look through the first few pages of Google and see what has come up. You are meant to find something you did not know about!
2. Go to this page on TripAdvisor and put in your business name or part of it in the top left search box. Go go go, do it now!!! Also try your competitors!!!
3. While catching up on my RSS feeds from my favourite online marketing for tourism blogs, I discovered a little gem: Todd Lucier from TourismKeys.ca mentioned www.twing.com which is a search engine that crawls online forums - you know, forums, these online bars how I like to call them, where you can ask a question and expect a lot of useful answers. I have checked what people are asking about my local tourism region, Australia’s Gold Coast, and its rather amazing! There are people asking about where to stay, if such and such property is friendly and other recommending other properties that they have already stayed at… Talk about free marketing!
4. If you are even more game you could start checking if someone posted some photos of their holiday at your place on Flickr… If not, why don’t you start?

How can I take advantage of TripAdvisor to promote my business?

1. First of all, you need to get listed on TripAdvisor. You can get listed as an accommodation provider, an attraction, a restaurant or a resource such as transport provider, information centre. You will be able to write a short review about your property, add a photo as well. Now, you have done the easiest bit. (if this is too complicated or you are starting to pull your hair out, drop me a line I just love to do all this stuff!). But how to get client reviews??
2. How about about you ask each and every one of your client to visit TripAdvisor (make it easy for them, send them an email with the link to your property - just my 5 cents). If they have had a great experience, I am certain that they will be willing to help you out with your strategy a little. They can even upload their photos you know. If you would like more insight about this, contact me and I will give you a great little story!
3. Next thing you can do is pull the testimonials of TripAdvisor straight into the homepage of your website so that any potential client can read about how much fun past clients had at your proterty! This is done using RSS feeds. This is how you add your trip advisor reviews to your website.

What will I do if someone writes a negative review on TripAdisor about my property?

1. DO NOT STAY PASSIVE! Act! Respond to people’s reviews, and say your side of the story, and what you tried to do to fix the problem.
2. You can also contact the unsatisfied client and offer them a free night at your property for instance. The end goal is for other TripAdvisor readers to see that you are aware of this unfortunate exception and that you are reacting. This is a very old term used in hospitality and called Service Recovery. You have most probably be doing so in the offline world. Now it is just time to realise that there are many more people reading and hearing about you online!

Happy Tripping!
Social Media For Tourism | UntangleMyWeb.com

What is Affiliate Marketing? and why do you need to know?

Well written, see his blog for more: Tourism Smart Marketing

You join a company's affiliate program and once you're approved, you get a special code that you include on all links you have to their site. When someone visits your site, clicks on one of your affiliate links, and then goes to the vendor and actually buys a product or service, you are paid a small commission.

For example, if you were to sign up as an Amazon.com Associate (Amazon calls their affiliates "associates") you can easily use its Associates area to search for a particular product and then be shown the exact code you need to embed an affiliate link on your own Web page or weblog.

This sales model might not seem earth-shattering, but it is estimated that affiliates accounted for a total of $6.5 billion in sales in 2005. That's a lot of commissions!

Remember, the beautiful thing about an affiliate program is that there's no salary to pay, no health benefits, no office to stock, no computer to buy. In fact, a company can double or even triple its affiliates without incurring any cost whatsoever. It's the sales version of "pay per click": affiliates are only paid when the transaction is completed, so there's no risk.

Unsurprisingly, a small number of affiliates generate the majority of sales just as one or two retail outlets will lead their corporations in sales. Indeed, a common figure you hear when you talk with companies that have affiliate programs is that 5% of affiliates generate about 95% of sales.

If you are a tourism business looking for a way to increase online bookings or sales, you should definitely be considering an affiliate marketing program. What better way to empower thousands of other Internet people to help you sell your service or product, and you only have to pay them when you get a new customer!

Tourism Smart Marketing :: Affiliate Marketing

Facebook / Twitter / Myspace Hacking: How To Keep It From Happening To You | Smackdown!

I want to thank you for writing this. Excellent reference and resource. I’m going right now to follow you on twitter.

Over the past few weeks I have noticed a sharp increase of scammers trying to get my Facebook password, and not too long ago a few people I know actually fell prey to it. Recently there was an outbreak of of similar activity on Twitter, where the attempts were being spread through direct messages, and Myspace has seen it’s share of woes with these issue as well. The methods being used to try and trick users into giving their passwords away are collectively known as phishing attempts, where the members of the site are sent a message, either through the site itself or in an email, that contains a link or instructions that if followed result in their passwords being given away.

Full article here:
Facebook / Twitter / Myspace Hacking: How To Keep It From Happening To You | Smackdown!

The Extra Minute: Marketing Green Initiatives

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.6KB)

In honor of Earth Day, The Extra Minute serves up a special edition. The topic… Marketing Green Initiatives.
Natalie Eisenberg, account executive at Lawrence & Schiller, prepared this list of six suggestions for companies that have been hesitant to take the first steps into marketing their efforts to sustain the environment.

1. Don’t Wait. You don’t have to be completely green before promoting your efforts. Celebrate and communicate your small successes.
2. Perfection is not the goal. Focus on progress and improvement.
3. Be Yourself. Stay true to your brand voice and personality when tackling and marketing environmental efforts.
4. “What’s in it for me?” Green fatigue is real. Be ware of ’save the world’ messages. Instead communicate the primary benefits for your customers.
5. Walk the walk. Do as much as possible.
6. Be Prepared. Expect criticism. Get ready to explain your company’s position.

From: The Extra Minute: Marketing Green Initiatives | L&S Unscripted

SEM is Not Just PPC « Tourism Online Marketing – Tips & Online Strategies

Sounds like a very simple concept but many traditional marketers and CMO’s still think that SEM refers to buying keywords such as Adwords.

SEM (search engine marketing) encompasses both SEO and PPC.

SEO stands for search engine optimization; this is also referred to as organic search or natural search.

PPC stands for pay per click and also known as paid search; other think of PPC as just Google Adwords but I guess it speaks to Google’s dominance of the market place.

So in short, next time someone mentions SEM, remember that it’s both SEO and PPC.

SEM is Not Just PPC « Tourism Online Marketing – Tips & Online Strategies

How to hide Facebook Profile from Indexing on Search Engines like Google

Google, Yahoo and Bing integrated the real time search results on their pages. Before that as well they were showing the facebook profile page of facebook users on their search results for certain keywords. If you want to hide your facebook profile (for some personal reasons) from indexing on search engines like google, Yahoo, Bing etc then you can use the Privacy Settings properly to control that.

Privacy Settings to avoid showing your profile on Search Engines

1. Login to your facebook account and go to the Settings tab at top – right corner of profile page

2. Select “Privacy Settings” from the dropdown

3. Select “Search” from the list of security options

4. Click on “Change Settings”, a popup will prompt asking for your facebook password

5. Enter you password and then uncheck the box “Allow Indexing” under Public Search ResultsYou should complete this settings changes just after creating your account as it is difficult to avoid showing your profile after indexing is done. Your profile indexing may take at least 5 – 6 days for completion, so remove the check under this period only.

How to hide Facebook Profile from Indexing on Search Engines like Google

Twitter Guide Book – How To, Tips and Instructions by Mashable

For those who are not yet using Twitter effectively (silly you!), here's a great guide:

"Twitter is a social network used by millions of people, and thousands more are signing up every day to send short messages to groups of friends.

But where's the user manual for Twitter? Where do new Twitter users go to learn about Tweeting, retweets, hashtags and customizing your Twitter profile? Where do you go if you want to know all about building a community on Twitter, or using Twitter for business? How can you find advanced tools for using Twitter on your phone or your desktop?

To answer all these questions and more, we've assembled The Twitter Guide Book, a complete collection of resources for mastering Twitter. Happy Tweeting!"

- Pete Cashmore, @Mashup

Twitter Guide Book – How To, Tips and Instructions by Mashable