Below is a quote from the foreword of the 360i Social Marketing Playbook a useful guide on how to engage with customers in an environment where old marketing rules no longer apply:
Social Marketing eliminates the middlemen, providing brands with the unique opportunity to have direct relationship with their customers
There is a lot of chatter about the topic of social media and social networking but uncertainty still remains regarding the right approach by companies and how to correctly use the tools available to make their marketing successful. This paper touches on these issues and seems to be a useful guide.
I found this interesting quote today on the Radian6 blog:
It’s a pretty common question: “What, exactly, am I listening to if no one’s talking about me or my brand?”Jun 2009
It covers the issue many smaller organizations face when it comes to the social web. This is often the case for individual hotels or destinations that are not on everyone’s radar all the time.
Follow the advice given in the article and you can’t go wrong.
is the title of an article in The McKinsey Quarterly - Strategy in Practice. It deals mainly with the important issues corporations need to be dealing with in today’s difficult environment when it comes to their reputation, there are important insights and lessons to be learned, relevant to DMOs who are not dealing with a crisis situation or bad reputation for themselves or the destination they represent. The article contains useful information on how to deal with different constituencies and stakeholders to gain their trust and support. These are key issues for DMOs when it comes to funding and sometimes even justifying their very reason for existing.
The importance of using the right tools available in today’s change media world effectively to attain key objectives is outlined as well. Today’s reputation management environment is very different from that only a few years ago and requires appropriate action to be effective. This is a primer on how to navigate the waters whether they are stormy or calm.
Of course, widget are nothing new on blogs or sites but I found this new one introduced by VisualDNA adds an interesting twist that should make it much more fun for site visitors to use. Here’s Stephen Fry telling you how it works:
As a matter of fact, you can try it out right here on this blog. Just at bit down on the right hand side is an attractive selection of pictures to click on. Based on the clicks the tool will determine your preferences, or travel related DNA and offer the products it determines are most relevant to you.
There are different shop options and the widget can be personalized. If you’re interested in having your own, just go to http://shops.visualdna.comand click “Create a shop”, you should then be prompted for an access code. Please enter “buhlerworksvisualdnashops” and you should be able to set up a PRO shop of your own.
Reads the title of the Travolution blog post guest written by Mark Seall which I found very thought provoking.
I thought it might be useful to repeat my comments here as well:
If the major travel players are indeed aware of the fast changing environment they are operating in, it isn’t reflected in how their web presence looks like and how they market their product. It all comes along fairly conservatively.
The discussion reminds me of this recent article in The New Yorker magazine by Malcolm Gladwell. The innovators (Davids) of the first phase have in only a few years become the legacy players (Goliaths). It seems the next group of market entrants ready to challenge them are entering the scene under the web 2.0 banner generally describing the social web and the tools it brings along.
With recommendations by friends and relatives having been a major influence factor of travel decisions for decades now, it is only normal that with these new social tools being developed and introduced in the marketplace, this key element will be turbo-charged to a new degree.
The innovators who are capitalizing on this part of the travel process are challenging the established players as they themselves did when entering the scene more than a decade ago automating the first and easier part, the transaction which we all know is not where travel process begins. The game is on. Should be interesting to watch who the new winners will be.
By the way a similar discussion on the topic of legacy OTAs has been held recently on Dennis Schaal’s blog here. Great stuff.
also referred to as Web 3.0, Linked Data, Semantic Web is covered in this very informative post on ReadWriteWeb. There has been a lot of discussion for quite some time, mostly in tech circles on the topic of what is coming next on the web in terms of developments that will make it a smarter web than it is today. Unfortunately the focus often is on the terminology and the dislikes expressed by some about the term web 3.0 when it should be on what is just a phase in the constantly developing web and the advantages the changes bring about. The objective is to make the web more intelligent and the tools to achieve it are to be found in the areas described in RWW article. The public using the web will not care about what the new phase is called or how the underlying structure is built but in how it improves their experience in the use of the web for whatever purpose they chose.
What is obvious to me is that the developments happening in this area will have an impact on how travel is planned, researched and booked on the web over the coming years as more sites are launching that take advantage of the underlying tools. It should be an exciting new phase, whatever name it is called.
Today’s the tenth Anniversary of The Cluetrain Manifesto - The end of business as usual. Here’s part of the introduction:
A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.
Now, ten years on a lot of fundamental changes many brought about by this seminal work have happened and the 95 theses seem mostly as relevant as ever, however, what struck me is thesis 87:
We’d like it if you got what’s going on here. That’d be real nice. But it would be a big mistake to think we’re holding our breath.
I don’t know about you, but this still resonates with me. With all we have learned and the great tools at our disposal, how many companies don’t really seem to get it? How many are still practicing controlled one way communications and marketing speak? We all have our examples and they can be found in any industry.
Will this still be the case when we celebrate cluetrainplus15? I definitely hope not. By that time let’s hope everyone finally gets it.
Came across a great blog post here with a recap of a panel discussion with Peter Kim, Jeremiah Owyand and Charlene Li, three leading voices on social media at the Web 2.0 conference. Below is my comment on it
Excellent comments about some fundamental issues relevant to social media and its use, non-use or abuse by corporations. It is clear to me that we are in the midst of a process that is clearly evolving fast but is still in an early stage when it comes to complete awareness of the subject and its implications on business by the corporate world, especially C-level executives who are not on the leading edge here and are not following the topic on a constant basis as most of the subject matter experts do.
It seems that the whole question of who should deal with this latest “new thing” is still being kicked around between departments and within hierarchies that are more complex the larger the organization. The more it is discussed and dissected, the more it loses spontaneity required to make it a genuine, fresh voice and becomes just more corporate speak. If social media is approached as just another vehicle for PR speak, is it any wonder that the results and the ever present ROI are disappointing?
Social media and participation in social networks requires an open and fresh approach not a continuation of the marketing communications status quo to be effective.
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