Eye For Travel delivers a great social media conference

I attended the Eye For Travel, Social Media for Travel conference at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco. Approximately 150 to 200 people attended the well-organized and captivating event.  Eye For Travel lined up a host of compelling speakers who use social media to drive their businesses.  I was looking for insights into how to use social media to increase traffic and revenue on travel sites.

I found some travel companies (Marriott, Southwest, Disney) embraced social media and others are still not unwilling to even test its power (WestJet). 

Key learnings were:

1. Jump in. Your customers are already there. Even if you are not involved in social media, your customers are and they are talking about you.  For example, Marriott’s recently launched corporate facebook account has a few thousand fans.  But one of their customers created a facebook account about Marriott–completely independently and his account has 10,600 fans. Due to the popularity of this fan’s account, Marriott works cooperatively with them, now.  The Marriott properties each have their own twitter account to talk to customers.

2.  Create compelling content. Content brings the brand to life and engages the customer. Massive amounts of content may help search results, but if it is not well written or presented it will hurt your brand in the short and long term.

Southwest uses social media to make their brand real

3. Social media can make the brand real. Southwest, a brand that excels in connecting with customers on and offline uses SM to “make their brand real.”They believe it adds breadth and depth to their brand and helps bring it to life.  They utilize each facet of social media to build and support one another. Here is what they do:

• Twitter is a perfect way to keep followers informed about what is happening right now (weather delays, ariport changes)
• YouTube is used to differentiate Southwest from its competitors. Their “No  Fee” campaign received 70K views thus far on youtube.
• LinkedIn–is their most cost effective tool they have for recruiting and is relied upon by their “People” department
• Blog–spreads the word to a vast audience of about boarding changes and expansion plans. The Southwest blog reader is interested in the business model of Southwest

4. Use social media to build the brand. Consumers still trust the brand and brands still matter more to the individual consumer than a host of reviews about a hotel said Glenn Fogel of Priceline. But the brand is becoming less relevant as consumers look to one another for ideas and support, Duncan Wardle of Disney Parks and Resorts.

5.  Get involved. Jeff Hanson of the Marriott advised companies thinking of entering the realm of social media to “Think big, start small and move fast.” In other words, set big goals, realize it is a big commitment, but you try to be everywhere, focus on one or two areas initially. learn and then launch the big iniatives.

6. Begin dabbling. There were quite a few speakers who recommended developing a strategy before starting a foray into media. I agree, but don’t get stuck, instead get started on a personal level first. The easiest point of entry is via twitter. You can follow me (patjenkins) and a few others following me from the travel industry on twitter.  Watch the conversations, you don’t have to participate. Ask your local teenager or savvy friend to give you a tour of facebook and then set up a personal account and watch your connections grow and renew.  Start a blog. It is free and easy to create a personal blog to see how it works, a friend of mine trained me on the basics in fifteen minutes.  Once you have dabbled on a personal level, then do the same for your company.  You will soon realize the power of social media on your life and your business. After a few weeks, you will understand which social media tools are  best for your company, your products and your brand. Still have questions? Askfor help from me or someone you met at the conference. The thing about social media users is we like to connect and help and share.

Social media is an effective marketing tool to build your brand. It is cost effective, measurable and can have enormous positive impact.  Get started today.

Finally, I highly recommend this conference. The expertise of the speakers was phenomenal, the content compelling and it was small enough to meet many of the key presenters. Plus it delivered information to help the novice social media marketer and those who have been involved at much more in depth level.

Go next year.

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