Elliott Ng will represent  UpTake during the PhocusWright 2009 Conference, Blogger Summit Town Hall on Wednesday, November 18th at 9:00 a.m. Ten topics were suggested by the panelists for discussion during a planning meeting a few weeks ago. We decided to collect the best posts and examples about each subject and showcase them. We hope this series lends itself to more insightful discussion during the Town Hall presentation.–Patricia Jenkins, Editor

How does social media marketing fit into your overall marketing plan? How to get corporate execs to buy into social media as part of your strategy? Some of the examples provided below demonstrate how corporate execs are warming up to social media marketing and factoring it into an overall strategy.

Lonely Planet (www.lonelyplanet.com/) – The dominant publisher of travel guide books is rapidly shifting from books written by LP writers to digital content partly aggregated from the community.  As a result, Lonely Planet has been ramping up their Thorn Tree Community Forum, factoring it into the future development of their main business, and encouraging their website visitors, guide book readers and purchasers to become contributors.

Lonely Planet CEO Matt Goldberg says the shift in focus towards the community and digital content is part of a plan to provide solutions to consumers’ needs, instead of being only a content provider.

Carnival (www.carnival.com) – The Carnival Cruise Line, as mentioned here, is aggregating UGC on Twitter and Flickr published by cruise passengers while on-board Carnival’s ships, and keeping up the engagement via John Heald’s blog, and CarnivalConnect.com - an in-house social media platform for their community, and FunShipIsland.com – an interactive virtual tour. All three sites now routinely bring in over 1 million visitors each, and are being used by Carnival for strategic brand positioning.

But it didn’t start like that. John Heald started blogging to create buzz for the launch of a new ship. CarnivalConnect was launched to encourage guests to send invitations to their friends and family. Carnival saw the potential across these platforms, and merged it all into an overall strategy of showing new visitors what’s happening on board, and allowing new and prospective visitors to engage with loyal customers via social media.

Banff Lake Louise Tourism (www.banfflakelouise.com/) – BLLT was chugging along like most other tourism organizations in Canada, when the Banff Crasher Squirrel popped into a photo and triggered a viral tsunami wave on social media platforms – over 300 blog-posts, 5,000+ tweets, and 650+ facebook posts.

BLLT understood the potential early, and set up a YouTube video, a twitter account for the squirrel, and a Facebook page, along with a search-engine marketing campaign with keyword “squirrel.” End result – $3 million in ad value, reaching out to 80 million people in North America and Europe via online channels, print and TV. The squirrel is now on billboards marketing Banff, and has established a permanent presence on social media platforms.

Affinia Hotels (www.affinia.com/) – For hotels wanting to wade into social media marketing, Affinia offers a valuable lesson – It’s all about listening, and responding on time. They’re all over Twitter, talking to their guests, offering assistance and answering queries.  Their My Affinia program allows guests to customize and pre-select in-room amenities – from pillows to iPods. Items are added on to this list or modified based on the feedback that the Affinia reps get from the social media chatter. 

Another good example of a hotel implementing social media marketing as part of an overall strategy is the Roger Smith hotel – details here. The fact that Chris Brogan gives them high marks for listening to their customers and being social-media savvy is a testament to their success at playing the game.

Southwest (www.southwest.com/) – Southwest Airlines looks at social media as an extension of their customer engagement offline. Their ‘Nuts About Southwest’ blog is a lot more popular than any blog owned or run by any other airline. The Blog-o-spondent video contest run on the blog went massively viral last year. The blog is updated constantly by a team of Southwest employees.

Newly uploaded videos can be seen every week on Southwest’s  youtube channel. Thousands of networked Southwest employees form a web that stretches into every corner of Linkedin. Jeremy Jameson, Corporate Strategist,  Strategic Planning for Southwest Airlines, says that the social media success is simply an online extension of their corporate culture of engaging in authentic relations and conversations with customers.

Virgin Atlantic (www.virgin-atlantic.com/) – Richard Branson’s mothership offers a valuable lesson in course correction. After taking flak last year over the firing of 13 employees who posted derogatory remarks about customers on Virgin’s corporate Facebook page, Virgin seems to have retooled their approach.

The airline now has a cross-functional Social Spaces Forum group comprised of personnel from eCommerce, PR, customer relations, product and service, marketing etc. The team works closely to understand the social marketplace, shape the direction for activity in social spaces and develop a framework for the business in this area, according to Allison Wightman, Head of Marketing Systems, Virgin Atlantic Airways.    

United (www.united.com/) – Again, a lesson in how to turn around a bad situation on the social media networks. Only, United hasn’t done it yet. I’m sure you’ve heard the viral Dave Carroll video on Youtube, which the Canadian singer created after United broke his guitar and refused to pay for it.

In a similar situation, Electronic Arts was hit with a user-uploaded video of a glitch in their game which showed Tiger Woods walking on water. EA promptly responded to this with a professional ad video featuring  Tiger walking on water, which in turn again went viral and nullified all the negative impact of the first video.

As Julie Sturgeon notes, the right approach for United would have been to co-opt Dave Carroll and turn it into an ad, or put out a video of their own in response. 

American Airlines (www.aa.com) – American isn’t usually counted amongst the savvy kids on the social media block, but they have taken a right step with the creation of BlackAtlas.com – a community site offering travel insights from an African-American perspective. No other airline has a brand community like this, and it should go a long way towards helping AA score some much needed social media creds.

According to Roger Frizell, American’s vice president of corporate communications, they’re planning a site in 2010 which would collect in one place all the social media videos and chatter about AA. American, he says, intends to be a part of the conversation, instead of just letting it happen without them. 

Wyndham (www.wyndham.com/) – Again, Wyndham is probably the only hotel group to offer a community site – Womenontheirway.com – which aims simply to foster a sense of community among female travelers.

This community goes a long way towards humanizing Wyndham and adds a touch of gentleness  to the corporate image.

Elliott Ng will represent  UpTake during  the PhocusWright 2009 Conference, Blogger Summit Town Hall on Wednesday, November 18th at 9:00 a.m. Ten topics were suggested by the panelists for discussion during a planning meeting a few weeks ago. We decided to collect the best posts and  examples about each subject and showcase them. We hope this series lends itself to more insightful discussion during the Town Hall presentation.–Patricia Jenkins, Editor

We are now at a stage where the market is social media. It is simply not enough for companies to jump in occasionally, talk to  journalists and industry insiders, and hope to create some buzz with a press release.  Travel companies are increasingly targeting consumers directly on Twitter and Facebook.

Here’s a list of the top travel brands making positive use of social media to target consumers directly.

JetBlue (www.jetblue.com/) – Offers time-limited deals announced on twitter for last minute flights every Tuesday. More information here and follow on twitter @JetBlueCheeps.

United (www.united.com/) - United has a similar offer for twitter users called Twares – special fares available only via Twitter. More information here and follow on twitter @UnitedAirlines.

 

Hyatt (www.hyatt.com/) – Hyatt was the first major hotel group to offer a global 24/7 ’Twitter Concierge.’ Almost every major travel brand offers customer service via social media, but Hyatt was the first to specifically name it and create a separate account (@HyattConcierge). They’re now asking guests to use it to book spa appointments, dinner reservations, etc and make special requests.

 

Starwood (www.starwoodhotels.com/) - Starwood has taken the unique step of creating a  clearing house for all the social media chatter about Starwood – on blogs, apps, facebook updates and on twitter. This allows them to make use of user-generated content on social media as a means of providing real-time information and updates to their SPG members.

 

Joie de Vivre (www.jdvhotels.com/) – JDV offers special deals via Twitter Tuesdays and Facebook Fridays. The offers go out at a different time every week and are only good for one hour, so unless you’re following JDV on both twitter and facebook, you’ll miss these deals.

 

Fairmont (www.fairmont.com/) – Their main account (@FairmontHotels), in addition to the usual interaction, deals and ’suite tweets,’ also regularly puts out twitter-only deals and runs innovative contests with free prizes – usually a free stay at a Fairmont.

 

 

Marriott (www.marriott.com/) – Marriott’s social media efforts encompass all the usual avenues – deals, twitter-only deals, contests and special offers. Their most recent ’Tweet Yourself to Hawaii’ contest  is a pretty big success, and is earning them a ton of followers and fans on both twitter and facebook, and generating a lot of press.

 

Note:- As far as Fairmont, Starwood and Marriott are concerned, their brands, executives and even hotels have an active  presence on twitter and facebook.

For example, Starwood’s Aloft brand has one main account, and then each of their hotels has a separate account – and the entire effort looks like its been well planned to manage future growth.

Fairmont’s individual hotels also have their own twitter accounts, and are quite aggressive in marketing themselves. The Fairmont Chicago went so far as to hire a marketing company to manage and promote a twitter contest.

Marriot’s Ritz-Carlton brand similarly has an official a/c, the individual hotels have their own accounts and their key executives also maintain active profiles. Their co-ordination was plainly evident when their Jakarta hotels were attacked with bombs earlier this year in July, and all their accounts were tweeting information at various levels. 

Marriott (@MarriottIntl) provided the official responses, Ritz-Carlton CEO Simon Cooper (@SimonFCooper) provided the sympathy and a human face, while Alison Sitch, corp. director for PR (@RitzCarltonPR), provided active assistance.

The three travel brands listed below also need to be commended for their innovative use of social media to connect with consumers and improve brand visibility and image.

V Australia (www.vaustralia.com.au/) – V Australia has taken twitter by storm with their 4320LA and 4320SYD twitter contests. It helped promote their twitter presence, their brand and the destinations – Los Angeles and Sydney.

 

 

Travelocity (www.travelocity.com/) – Travelocity’s Roaming Gnome doesn’t just travel on site and in real life. He also has a sizeable presence on Myspace, Facebook and Twitter. Putting the Roaming Gnome as their public face on social media platforms helps Travelocity connect with consumers.

 

Carnival (www.carnival.com/) – The Carnival Cruise Line has a unique strategy - They get tons of free publicity on Twitter by  aggregating tweets and blog posts from people on-board their ships. Here’s a recent sample. To further this angle, Senior Cruise Director John Heald blogs about his life as a cruise director, offering behind-the-scenes insight. Carnival has also set up an in-house social network – CarnivalConnections - for building and maintaining an active community.

State Fairs Using Social Media

Introduction

In preparing the Best State Fairs post, I had the opportunity to visit the websites of most, if not all, of the state fairs in the United States.  Website quality, currency, and usability varied greatly, and I also observed a large variability in the state fair organizations’ use of social media.

These are the impressions I came away with:

State Fair Websites

State Fairs’ websites vary immensely in quality.  Many are professionally done, easy-to-use, and pleasing to look at.  Others appear to have been designed fifteen years ago without being brought up-to-date as technologies have evolved.  Still others garner only a small portion of a greater organization’s website.  One state, Hawaii, appears to have a state farm fair, but I could not find a website for it.

State Fairs’ Use of Social Media

I was pleasantly surprised to see that a majority of state fairs are using one or more forms of social media.  The most popular are Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, with many using two or three of these.  A few state fairs are using photo or video sharing sites or writing a blog, but these are still rare.

Social media is used to present information and updates as well as to host contests and giveaways sponsored by the state fairs.  As is the case in any field, the quality of use of social media has wide variance.  Some accounts are only updated when it’s fair time, while others post updates year-round.  Some have only a few followers, while others have thousands of fans interacting.  While most Facebook accounts are “fan” pages; several are still using “friend” pages and requiring people to be approved manually before being allowed to see any information on the page.

Promotion of Social Media

This is perhaps the area that surprised me the most.  While many organizations display buttons linking to their social media presences on the front pages of their websites, in many cases I could not find links to the social media formats anywhere on the web pages.  This was true of several state fairs that are very active in their use of social media.  It is surprising that they would not place buttons linking to their social media presences on their websites’ front pages.  Buttons that are displayed on websites range from gaudy and almost overwhelming to tiny and hidden, but the majority of those that had buttons are using appropriate sizes and locations so that the buttons are both visible and fit with the page design.

If I did not find buttons for social media on the site, I searched in Google:  statename state fair twitter (or facebook or myspace).  I found many social media accounts through these searches which were not promoted on their respective websites.  Still more surprising was the fact that occasionally one social media account would be linked, but others would not, i.e. Twitter account linked but Facebook page not.  Notations of these cases are made in the data below.

Keeping Current with Social Media

This may be the biggest challenge for fair organizations.  Many of the state fair social media accounts are not updated consistently.  Others were set up and never used, or used for one or two posts before being abandoned.

I wrote @ replies on Twitter to many of the state fair organizations three days ago and have only received replies from two.  I will update if I receive further replies.  I am interested to see the level of interactivity between the fairs and their fans in social media.

Final Thoughts

State fairs, like other tourism venues, need to add social media to their marketing toolbox.  When deciding which media to use, they will need to decide which avenues they can best use to dispense information and interact with their users, while being aware of the time involved in social media.  They must choose carefully so that they can keep up with what they begin.  It is better to use one or two aspects of social media well than to have a flurry of accounts that are seldom updated.

If state fairs are indeed using social media, they need to have links on the front pages of their fair websites to those social media accounts.  As more and more people use social media, they will be looking for a quick link to Twitter or Facebook.  Catching people when they visit a fair’s website, and having them subscribe to a feed from Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace, will keep forthcoming information in front of those people for a long time.  It needs to be visible and easily accessible.

Facebook pages should be “fan” pages rather than requiring friendships to be approved.

I was surprised that more are not using photo-sharing groups such as Flickr groups being used by the state fairs.

Numbers

While the individual states’ data are listed below, this is a general breakdown:

51 state fair websites were examined.  (Some states have multiple state fairs.)

Of those 51, I found no social media presence for 8, while 43 are using one or more forms of social media.   13 of the 43 have no links to their social media presence from the front page of their state fair’s website.

Media being used:

• 35 Twitter
• 28 Facebook “fan” page
• 21 MySpace
• 10 Facebook “friend” page
• 9 Blog
• 6 YouTube
• 1 Shutterfly
• 1 Podcast
• 1 UStream
• 1 Flickr

Data

Below are listings of social media being used by the various state fairs, as found by visiting state fair websites and conducting Google searches on 9/19/09.  I did my best to examine the front pages of the websites, but I did not comb through an entire website to look for social media links.  Keep in mind that this type of information changes rapidly, so it may not remain current.  Also, the accounts listed will vary greatly in their currency of use.  The twitter accounts with only one or two posts are listed along with the Facebook pages with tens of thousands of fans.

This information is presented as a snapshot of the state fair organizations and how many types of social media they are using.

Alabama (Greater Gulf State Fair):

• Twitter
• Facebook Fan Page
• MySpace
• Shutterfly
• YouTube

Alaska (Tanana Valley State Fair, Fairbanks):

• MySpace

Alaska (Alaska State Fair, Palmer):

• Facebook Friend Page
• MySpace
• Podcasts accessible from site’s front page.

Arkansas State Fair:

• Twitter
• Facebook Friend Page
• MySpace

Arizona State Fair:

• Facebook Fan Page
• MySpace
• Twitter

California State Fair:

• Blog
• Facebook Fan Page
• MySpace
• Twitter

Colorado State Fair:

• MySpace
• Twitter
• Blog

Connecticut:  Holds multiple fairs.  No social media information found for Association of Connecticut Fairs, the parent organization.

Delaware State Fair:

• MySpace
• Facebook Fan Page

Florida State Fair:

• MySpace (Found through Google search; no link from fair’s front page.)

Georgia (Georgia State Fair):  No social media found.

Georgia (North Georgia State Fair):

• Twitter
• Facebook Friend Page

Hawaii (Hawaii State Farm Fair):  No website or social media found.

Idaho (Eastern Idaho State Fair):  No social media found.

Idaho (Western Idaho Fair):  No social media found.

Illinois State Fair:  No links to social media from site’s main page.  Found through Google search.

• MySpace
• Facebook Friend Page
• Twitter

Indiana State Fair:

• Facebook Fan Page
• Twitter

Iowa State Fair:

• YouTube
• Blog
• MySpace
• Twitter
• Facebook Fan Page

Kansas State Fair:

• Twitter
• Facebook Fan Page
• UStream
• Blog
• MySpace
• YouTube

Kentucky State Fair:  No links from website main page.  Found through Google search.

• Twitter
• MySpace
• Facebook Fan Page

Louisiana (Greater Baton Rouge State Fair):  MySpace linked from main page, but not Twitter or Facebook.

• MySpace
• Twitter
• Facebook Fan Page

Maine (Bangor State Fair):  Facebook linked from main website page, but Twitter found through Google search.

• Facebook Fan Page
• Twitter

Maryland State Fair:

• Twitter (Not linked from fair website main page; found through Google search.)

Massachusetts (The Big E):

• Facebook Fan Page
• Twitter
• Blog

Michigan State Fair:

• Facebook Fan Page (found through Google search)

Minnesota State Fair: (Found through Google search; no links from website main page.)

• Facebook Fan Page
• Twitter

Mississippi State Fair:  The Mississippi State Fair itself only gets a single page on the Fair Commission website.

• Facebook Fan Page  (found through search, not linked from fair page)

Missouri State Fair:  No social media listed on main website.

• Twitter (two tweets; directs to Dept of Agriculture for fair updates)

Montana State Fair:  Social media not found on fair’s website primary page.

• MySpace
• Twitter
• Facebook Friend Page

Nebraska State Fair:  All found through Google search.

• Twitter
• Facebook Friend Page
• MySpace (Nebraska State Fair 1868 Foundation page)

Nevada State Fair:

• Facebook Fan Page
• Twitter (account hasn’t been used yet)

New Jersey State Fair:  No social media found on website or by search.

New Mexico State Fair:

• Facebook Fan Page

New York State Fair:

• Facebook Fan Page
• Twitter
• Also has text-message alert system

North Carolina State Fair:

• Facebook Friend Page
• Blog
• Twitter
• Flickr
• MySpace
• YouTube

North Dakota State Fair:

• Blog
• Twitter
• Facebook Fan Page
• YouTube
• MySpace

Ohio State Fair:

• Facebook Fan Page
• Twitter
• Blog

Oklahoma State Fair:

• Facebook Fan Page
• Twitter

Oregon State Fair:

• Facebook Fan Page
• Twitter

Pennsylvania:  Has multiple county fairs. No social media found for main association.

South Carolina State Fair:

• Twitter
• Facebook Friend Page

South Dakota State Fair:

• Facebook Fan Page (Found through search, not fair website)

Tennessee State Fair:

• Twitter
• Facebook Fan Page
• Blog

Texas (State Fair of Texas):

• Twitter (linked from website)
• Facebook Fan Page (not linked from website)

Texas (North Texas State Fair):

• Twitter

Utah State Fair:

• Facebook Fan Page
• Twitter
• MySpace

Vermont State Fair:

• Facebook Friend Page
• MySpace

Virginia State Fair: No social media found.

Washington (Puyallup Fair):  Social media found through search.  Washington has multiple state fairs, several of which are active in social media.

• Twitter
• Facebook Fan Page

West Virginia State Fair: Not on fair’s front page; found through search.

• Twitter
• Facebook Friend Page
• MySpace

Wisconsin State Fair:

• Twitter
• Facebook Fan Page

Wyoming State Fair:

• Twitter
• YouTube
• Facebook Fan Page (found through search)

Photo credit:  Joe Shlabotnik on flickr

Linda (minnemom) writes about family travel at Travels with Children.

Editor’s note: Gene McKenna is one of UpTake’s founders and he believes in the power of the Wiki. Gene sees Wikipedia as a solid information source for travelers’ seeking information about other countries, cities and towns they plan to visit. The problem is he fears wikibullies are going to take over and squash the grass roots, open sourced information which is the basis of Wikipedia and the source of its rich information. This essay is his quest to stop wikibullying. 

I can hardly claim to be a Wikipedia Newbie – my first edit was Feb 18th, 2004 about Cesar Chavez. I’ve probably done a few hundred edits since then on maybe a dozen or two pages, and I have created several pages.

And that experience has taught me that Wikipedia has become a house of bullies.

Speedy Deletion

Back in 2004 Wikipedia was a very friendly place and contributions from just about anyone were welcome. In 2009, I challenge a newbie to create an article on Wikipedia and have that article exist for an entire week. Guaranteed, your article will be marked for “speedy deletion” within about two minutes of its creation.

I’ve had a page deleted for being ‘too commercial’ even when the page was describing a non-profit group of volunteers that have been operating a ski hill for over fifty years. When I put the page back up some Wiki-bully warned me that putting back a deleted page is “a sure way to piss people off around here”- as if I am I am not a person “around here” and as if I shouldn’t be upset that someone deleted my page!

Now that same page, having survived a month of its second life, is marked as “not notable” and may be deleted soon. Perhaps every elitist Wiki-bully learned to ski at Vail or Aspen, but where I am from, Kettlebowl is a pretty notable ski hill.

So I am learning to be a bully too! My photos were being deleted left and right. It didn’t matter if I checked the box that I totally, ultimately swear that this is my own work and I agree to share it with the world. If some Wiki-bully didn’t like it – poof! It was gone. So I have found that if I put it back with a terse comment in the description like “Don’t delete my photo again!!!!” it is more likely to be left undeleted. Now I’m a bully too!

‘Bot Bullies

A good way to tell how bad the bully situation is, is by counting the number of ‘bots’ that edit your page vs the number of humans. A ‘bot’ is a computer program that reads pages and makes changes automatically so a human bully doesn’t even have to bother with you. One bot exists solely to annoy me by changing statements like ‘4th of July’ to ‘4 July’. The name of this ‘bot’ even indicates that its creator sees himself as a bully – it’s called ‘Smackbot’. I imagine the creator of Smackbot was a kid that no one listened to in high school so now he is going to smack everyone around on Wikipedia. Way to go Smackbot-man!

Complex Rituals

Part of the problem, to be sure, is not that everyone on Wikipedia is a bully. I am sure that most of the heavy Wikipedia users are great people and they mean well. But they may forget that newbies aren’t born knowing the proper communication protocols of the wiki-community nor are they adept at wikipedia’s ridiculously crazy user interface and syntax.

For a newbie, it is not obvious, for example, that if you have a question about why some ’smackbot’ changed your page or why your article about the greatest raptor conservationist in America is considered Unambiguous advertising or promotion, that the proper thing to do is to go to that person’s (or robot’s?) talk page, look past all the wonderful awards he has won, and edit his talk page to leave a question. (Actually, I still don’t know if that is the right thing to do.)

And if you do edit someone’s talk page, don’t dare get that process wrong, because some Wikipedians have extensive instructions on their talk page about the correct way to write on their talk page and they will clearly be upset if you don’t write on their talk page correctly. At least one of them made a useful widget to help ensure you can write on his talk page correctly.

Of course, dear Newbie, you know that when you edit someone’s talk page you should sign your name by typing ~~~~ – that is obvious, isn’t it? And when you go to upload that photo (that will soon be deleted) and you first login to wikipedia, you will then be told that you should really be logged in to wiki-MEDIA instead. What’s more inviting than having two make two new online accounts in order to contribute?

Britannica

Between the learning curve of Wikipedia culture, the Wikipedia UI and the tolerance of some of its bullies for people not already steeped in that culture … who has time for this?

Wikipedia is dead – the Britannica staff has taken over.

Click here to read Gene’s proposal for how to make Wikipedia more inclusive and Newbie-friendly.

Return to Gene’s Home Page

RThe importance and growing clout of Twitter as a gateway for the travel industry to tap consumers can no longer be denied.

This has in turn unleashed a flurry of twitter applications and websites intent on helping travel marketeers and travelers connect and find what they’re looking for - on and via Twitter.

Of course, it’s early days yet, but just as iPhone travel apps like FlightTracker have made it into the list of top 35 iPhone apps this year, it’s a good bet that some of these twitter travel apps and sites too are headed for the big time.

Here’s an updated list of these twitter travel apps and sites:

TwtTRIP (@twtTRIP) - A travel organizer tool that helps you to share your travel plans, meet people and plan your next adventure on Twitter and other social media sites.

Trazzler Buzz (@Trazzler) – Tells you which destinations and regions are trending hot on Twitter, so you know where to go.

Schmap Geotweets (@schmap) – Add maps to your tweets, and share local restaurants, bars and travel adventures with your followers.

Twihotels (@TwiHotels) – Tweets your hotel requirements on Twitter, and connects you with destination hotels and/or twitter users who are in a position to offer unbiased and first-person hotel reviews.

ArrivedOK (@arrivedok) -  Instantly notify your friends and family when you arrive at airports worldwide. Their mobile twitter add-on application lets you tweet from your cell phone – free of charge – even from abroad, avoiding charges for SMS, voice or data transfer.

Twaller (@mytwaller) – Real-time travel related tweets ( #travel ) pulled in from Twitter, sorted by locations and categories.

Wanderlisting (@Wanderlisting) – Filters Twitter to provide you with up-to-the-minute news, deals, tips and tales from the world’s leading travel experts, bloggers and explorers and presents them to you in one convenient location.

Related Posts:

Twitter’s Travel Search: the Start of Something Big by Dennis Schaal

It’s time for 4320:SYD – stage 2 of V Australia’s quirky twitter contest. At stake – a free 3 day trip for a group of three from Los Angeles to Sydney, instant fame as an elite tweeter, and round the world tickets with V Australia and Virgin Atlantic.

In stage 1, which was called 4320LA, the winning team came to LA from Sydney and cranked out 4320 tweets in an equal number of minutes – (3 days & nights non-stop) - to win the grand prize of round the world tickets with V Australia and Virgin Atlantic.

The same shtick applies to 4320SYD, but the currents are flowing in the other direction, and the winning team will be flying from LA to Sydney on September 8, 2009 to test their tweeting skills to the max.

Once in Sydney, the trio will experience the ultimate non-stop three day adventure down-under, from swimming with sharks to enjoying a beer at the Opera Bar at the Sydney Opera House and, of course, scaling the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge. 

It’s not all shrimps on the ‘barbie’ and ‘coldies’ however, as between them the team will need to ‘tweet’ every single minute of the 4320 minutes they are in Sydney.

Competition entries will be accepted until Aug 21, 2009. All you have to do is tweet in your entry about why you deserve to be the winner. For more details or to submit your entry, visit the contest website www.4320SYD.com. On twitter – @VAustralia and @4320SYD.

Virgin Australia is running a quirky promo contest called 4320LA, where you stand to win 3 round-the-world tickets on Virgin Atlantic and V Australia.

All you have to do is spend three days checking out the attractions in Los Angeles. And send in a tweet once every minute…

That’s 4320 tweets in the same number of minutes. Thankfully, the contest involves three people, so you and two friends can divvy up the tweets amongst yourselves.

Way it works is that the winning group gets a free trip to Los Angeles, where they have to prove their extreme twitter endurance. If successful, the winning trio then gets the 3 round-the-world tickets.

Virgin says that the campaign was inspired by trends showing Australians continue to travel overseas but are increasingly value conscious and keen to cram in as much action and activities into shorter breaks.

V Australia, in partnership with Nova Radio, has already kicked off the first round of this contest, and the three winners – Kelvin Yap (24), Nathan Hackett (25) and Matt Hodges (24) - are in LA July 21-23, tweeting away at a rate of 1 tweet/min.

Apparently, sending in a tweet a minute isn’t hard enough for them, so they’ve decided to also pose with one new person every single minute in LA. You can see the tweets and pictures and follow along here – www.4320la.com and @4320LA.

The second half of the contest is scheduled for August, so you might want to start following that twitter account if you want to take a shot at it in the next round. Especially if you’re in Sydney.

It’s no secret that travel promoters are trying to make use of social media. High profile examples are the headline-grabbing efforts of a California winery and the government of Queensland, Australia, which offered “dream jobs” for lucky hires who were to post videos, blogs and Tweets about their boss’s pleasant destinations.

As fun as those actions were, everyone who uses social media understands that the best-received social media messages come from other travelers, not employees. That’s why I’m a lot more likely to take the advice of a random stranger whose review is posted on UpTake’s Napa page about what to do in wine country than from whoever Murphy-Goode hires to be their “lifestyle correspondent.” (They’re announcing the winner of the $10,000-a-month “job” July 21.)

This is why I’m intrigued by Visitor Review, a platform created by British company’s Digital Visitor that is up for a travel industry award in its home country. Visitor Review gives companies the technology to post visitor videos on the company Web site, turning satisfied customers into spokespeople to whom customers in the social media age might really listen. Of course, since the Web sites belong to the travel provider or organization, Visitor Review does not replace an unbiased forum like UpTake. The site using Visitor Review is going to want to hand-pick only the most complimentary reviews.

Still, the platform seems like a really useful tool to allow companies to get the word out about their good points in a very compelling format. Customers include the SS Great Britain and VisitBritain.com.

Photo by Jeffisageek, used via Creative Commons license.

For our packed travel blogging panel at the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) tech conference in Austin, my co-presenter Pam Mandel and I put together a surprise for our attendees – a travel swag/gift bag.

We wanted to put some of our favorite goodies into the hands of our digitally-chatty attendees, so we included magazines that we’ve written for, information about books we like and products and services that we support (many of them based in Austin or Central Texas.)

So many companies were unfailingly gracious in response to our requests, and I’d like to show specifically why reaching out to online travel enthusiasts and travel bloggers is a good marketing and public relations move for a wide variety of businesses. Every link below is one more effort to land a roundhouse punch against “there’s not enough ROI (Return on Investment) in social media marketing.”

First, travel blogging panel attendees were enthused about getting an unexpected gift. From a SXSW overview blog post by content aggregators OneSpot:

“The travel blogging panel (#sxswtravel) had grab bags for each attendant ready on our chairs when we walked in. I felt like a Fashion Week attendee! The bag had better swag than the official Interactive [one] (did anyone else get the leather notepad [provided by Condé Nast Traveler.] How sweet was that!)”

Individuals at the panel reacted to the surprise bag on Twitter.

• Bill Hunt (a global marketing guy) liked it.
• Small business expert Becky McCray commented on it.
• Travel writer and Traveling Mama Shannon Hurst Lane talked about it.

Then, panel attendees tweeted about specific bag items.

• Many liked the sample pralines from local Austin company Lammes Candies – traveler CouchSurfingOri talked about the Lammes habanero praline, and so did hedge fund talent recruiter Kim Haynes and Download Squad tech writer CJClark.
• Krista Parry (Park City, Utah resorts PR and marketing) cheered the stickers provided by the Alltop.com Travel topic channel.
• Canadian travel internet marketing guru Todd Lucier was ready to cash in his bag’s Blue Bell Ice Cream free pint certificate, and he told his friends about it.
• The SXSWi Guide talked about Texas Highways magazine.
• And I talked about several of the companies – here’s my tweet on Austin SegCity Segway tours.

So what? What’s the reach?

Well, if you add up the Twitter follower numbers for each person that I’ve linked to above, that’s a total of 23,279 followers of just a few people tweeting about a tech conference giveaway bag.

The products and companies involved with this bag can also be searched and found on the the Flickr photo-sharing Web site, because I described the bag and linked to every contributor in:

• this photo of the contents (also seen at the top of this post.)
• this photo of Pam and I with the bags, recently also added to the City of Round Rock Flickr photo pool because their CVB provided the bags.
• this photo of the bags set out in chairs before the panel started, also now in the City of Round Rock pool.

(I threw in a Flickr photo of bag contributor Driskill Hotel’s historic bar, with a link to them, of course.)

Finally, this travel panel was not confined to listeners inside the Austin Convention Center; it had, and still has, a reach outside the room.

It was livestreamed to the Web via Qik on a cell phone. Travel enthusiasts around the world watched it as it happened (including my boss at the BootsnAll Travel Network, Sean Keener, who watched from New Zealand) and it’s now archived for anyone to see at any time:

• Part One of the panel video (119 views as of this date.)
• Part Two of the panel video (143 views as of this date.)

If a business is looking for a way to get eyes on their high-quality product or service AND take advantage of the power of Web and word-of-mouth marketing, I heartily recommend investigating how to connect with social media-savvy travelers.

Here are the Web sites of every company that contributed to the bag – smart marketing folks, every one of them.

*** Condé Nast Traveler
*** National Geographic Traveler
*** Texas Highways
*** Lammes Candies
*** Tesoros Trading Company
*** Blue Bell Creameries
*** BootsnAll Travel Network
*** Austin, Texas CVB
*** Round Rock, Texas CVB
*** SegCity Austin Segway Tours
*** Yapta ticket price tracking
*** Moo.com printing
*** Alltop.com
*** Driskill Hotel
*** Austin Museum of Art
*** “Historic Hotels of Texas” guidebook, by Liz Carmack
*** Office of the Governor, Texas Economic Development including Texas tourism
*** “Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune” guidebook, by Tim Leffel

Many travel providers, writers, and journalists are asking themselves “how will social media affect how consumers plan travel?”  And  I thought I’d offer a case study of my own experience with online word-of-mouth through Twitter.

I just returned from my babymoon, a last chance for my wife and me to get away from the (first two) kids and spend time with each other before our third kid comes in May.  It was a great trip–thanks to Twitter!

How did Twitter play a role in Travel Planning?

First, I used Orbitz to research and book flights. Second, to research hotels, I used UpTake and my favorite Hawaii guidebook, Big Island Revealed, including the fabulous companion Website with aerials of all the hotels and resorts.  Finally I booked the hotel/car package on Orbitz.  (Note: I highly recommend this tour book!)

I then turned almost exclusively to Twitter to get travel planning advice.  The results were amazing.  Skeptics might say that I have a much larger, more travel-oriented network on Twitter than most people.  But this case study might provide some insight into how word-of-mouth can spread via Twitter.

@fairmonthotels

Mike Taylor, who manages the @fairmonthotels Twitter account, contacted me after I shared that I had booked at the Fairmont Orchid on the Kohala Coast of the Island of Hawaii.   I asked him some follow up questions, and he connected me to Jaisy Jardine, PR Manager at the Fairmont Orchid who suggested an oceanfront couples massage and a great dive for local:

We have 5 massage cabanas that are right on the water, and if you are lucky, our resident honu (turtles) might stop by to say hello!

[If you are headed over to see Hawaii Volcanoes National Park] be sure to stop by Tex Drive In which makes the most amazing malasadas or Portuguese donuts for you to taste!

The couples massage was a bit more money than we wanted to spend (typical resort prices) but we did stop by Tex Drive In in Honoka’a on our drive to Hilo, and the malasadas were truly a memorable experience we wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Jaisy also recommended some cultural hikes that were available at the hotel.

Twitter enabled individuals at Fairmont Hotels to personally get in front of the brand, and make a connection.  Critics might argue that there is no way a brand can serve customers on such a personal basis at scale.   But in these challenging economic times, brands need to find ways to create those memorable experiences that will create positive word of mouth and recommendations to friends that will convince people to risk their scarce vacation dollars on a meaningful experience.

We had a great time at the Fairmont Orchid and would go their again for another romantic getaway.  If you go, be sure to sign up (at no cost) for the Fairmont President’s Club that provides member benefits including free internet, free local phone calls, and discounts on spa services.

@nathankam

I also got some excellent advice from Nathan Kam aka @nathankam, who works for McNeil Wilson Communications, the PR firm serving Hawaii Visitor and Convention Bureau.  As another person who grew up on the Big Island,  Nathan provided an excellent recommendation to go to the upcountry town of Waimea, about 25 minutes northeast of the Kohala Coast resort area where our hotel was.  Waimea is a quiet ranching and farming town that is surrounded by rolling hills, green pastures, and herds of cattle. It also is home to Merriman’s, a pioneer of Hawaii Regional gourmet cuisine.  This was by far one of the most enjoyable meals I’ve had in my life.  I ate sauteed moi, which was traditionally prepared only for the Hawaiian kings, which was served whole over filet mignon fried rice.  My wife ordered sushi-quality farm-raised Kona kampachi, steamed over mashed sweet-potatoes.

Nathan offered other advice, including:

• kayaking in Kealakekua Bay, which we ended up doing (see below)
• Experiencing authentic local food and local ambience at the restaurant in the Manago Hotel.
• Visiting Kona Town along the main Ali’i Drive (which I thought was afflicted by an epidemic of gift and souvenir shops)
• Going to the Hawaiian Vanilla Company for a lunch or afternoon tea, and a tour of the farm.  This sounded very romantic but we ran out of time.
• Stop at Honoka’a and have malasadas at Tex Drive In (which we did).

@govisithawaii

I also connected with Sheila Beal aka @govisithawaii of GoVisitHawaii.com, who is passionate about Hawaii and had incredible and detailed advice about creating a great romantic experience.  In fact she has a great Big Island vacation guide that links to many of her most useful posts on the Big Island.  Here’s what she wrote:

• Brown’s Beach House Restaurant (at the Fairmont)  has one of the most romantic dinner settings on the Big Island. It’s basically just a few steps to the beach and has a great sunset view and tiki torches. Ah, so romantic! To have the best view, book dinner for 5:30 when the restaurant opens and pace your dinner through sunset and the sky colors after sunset.  I just checked their website and it says they have entertainment Tuesday – Saturday.
• Plan a sunset picnic on the beach. You can get picnic supplies at the Foodland located at the Shops at Mauna Lani which is less than a mile from where you’ll be staying at the Fairmont. Spencer and Hapuna State Beach Parks are nearby. Surprisingly, you’ll find the beaches to be rather quiet and almost empty at sunset. There’s a pathway that goes along the shoreline between the Fairmont and Mauna Lani. I love this little stretch and I think you might also scope out a nice sunset picnic spot there, too. (Elliott: the paved path runs out between the hotels, so wear sturdy sandals to walk all the way)
• Take a sunset sail where you’re also very likely to see humpback whales as well. It’s almost like getting two tours for the price of one, plus dinner. Here’s the cruise we took in March on a catamaran run by Ocean Sports company.

Elliott here.  I’m sure I would have missed the sunset night after night without Sheila’s tip.  It takes planning to make a 5:30 dinner reservation and show up on time.  We ended up eating at the Ocean Bar right next to Brown’s Beach House which provides a less formal dining experience than Brown’s, but still has exceptional Hawaiian fusion cuisine at a lower cost.  The service was friendly and gracious, and we watched the sunset across a sandy lagoon.  As a bonus, we even saw whales breaching. Highly recommended as a less costly, reservation free, tablecloth free alternative to Brown’s or CanoeHouse at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel (see below).  Thank you Sheila!  Here’s what we saw:

The last night on the Island, we also ate at the CanoeHouse at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel, which also provides outdoor seating where you can watch the sunset.  The food was good but not great.  The sushi looked a bit amateurish, with serrated edges and served on a bread plate instead of a wooden block.  The service was less knowledgeable than Merriman’s and less enthusiastic than the Ocean Bar.  And the location was slightly less amazing than Brown’s and the Ocean Bar.  We should have listened to Sheila and just went back to Brown’s or even ate at the Ocean Bar one more night.

Some Specific Babymoon Tips from @govisithawaii

We got some great advice on what NOT to do on a babymoon from @govisithawaii.  Sheila wrote two great posts about What to Do in One Day on the Kona Side, and What to Do in One Day on the Hilo Side.  The Hilo post outlines a trip to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park but Sheila recommended that we not go.

Here’s what she said:

Since your wife is expecting, there are some things you should avoid:

• To be on the safe side, you may want to avoid Volcanoes National Park and the lava flow viewing point because of the volcanic fumes. See the photo of this sign.
• Avoid going to Mauna Kea for sightseeing and stargazing. The oxygen levels are lower there and dangerous for those who are pregnant.

Elliott here.  Great tips @govisithawaii!

@nerdseyeview

I also spoke to Pam Mandel aka @nerdseyeview at Nerd’s Eye View.  She made a number of suggestions, but her best advice was where NOT to go:  the Volcanoes.

According to Pam, if we go to see the Volcanoes “Leave early, it will take you all damn day. Also, the weather can be a good 20 degrees colder on the mountain and it might rain. It does NOT wreck the experience, but you want to be prepared.”

Elliott here.  Its clear that one of the biggest mistakes a first-time visitor can make is underestimating the size of the Big Island, especially if they have visited one of the smaller islands before.  Not only is the island the size of the State of Connecticut, but the roads are often just two-lane highways with limited passing opportunities because of the constant traffic flow.  Don’t overestimate how fast you can go.  Slow traffic, large distances, and poor time planning (on my part, of course) resulted in some…er…marital discord on this otherwise harmonious babymoon.

Pam made some other suggestions:

• Go to the North Kohala coast town of Hawi.  Pam: “Half an hour north (give or take) from where you’re staying. Cute cafes, shopping, galleries”
• Go Outrigger Canoe Paddling.
• See a Petroglyph Reserve
• Snorkel cruise – Pam: “You want Kealakekua Bay. Terrific service, even for non-swimmers. And a must do on my list of Hawaii activities.”  Pam recommended the Fair Wind II:  which also has a smaller, more expensive boat called Hula Kai which we ended up going on.
• Pu’uhonua a Honaunau Park aka Place of Refuge Park-http://www.nps.gov/puho
  Pam: “Another do not miss. Bring a lunch and some drinks. There’s a soda machine at the park, but not much else. Go early in the day if you can.”  We didn’t have time to walk through the City of Refuge, but our snorkel cruise passed by it and we snorkeled a spot just south of the Place of Refuge.
• Holualoa, above Kona.  Pam: “also, cute galleries, food, cafes, and Sam Rosen’s Ukulele Gallery”

We ended up going on the Hula Kai:

It was well worth the extra money.  We paid $155/adult vs. $119/adult.  The Fair Wind departed with a full complement of 80+ people.  The Hula Kai set off with only 18+ people on a boat with 40-50 capacity.  It felt like a private charter!  And we took advantage of a Web booking special that gave us 50% off on an additional Whale watching cruise (which I would only recommend if you love whales and/or nature photography and am adequately geared up with a 100-400mm telephoto lens like many of our fellow passengers).

@MudslideMama

Our blogging partner, @MudslideMama of the Traveling Mamas, has a number of relevant posts relating to both family and romantic travels:

• Review of the Fairmont Orchid (Suite101)
• Best Free things to do on Big Island (Suite101)
• Review of the Gathering of the Kings
• Review of Dolphin Quest dolphin experience at Hilton Waikoloa
• Review of the Fair Winds II Snorkel Cruise
• Waikoloa Petroglyph Field

All in all, it was an exceptional experience.

As I said, I have a large number of people that I follow and that follow me in return on Twitter.  And a significant group of these people are in the travel industry in one way, shape or form.  But I hope it provides some example of how powerful word of mouth can be when passionate people use social media to make their voice heard.  And when this happens, more people will attain the memorable experiences they are seeking when going on leisure travel, which can only be a great thing for the travel industry!

All photos by elliottng, Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0