Check out the promotional video, below (in French):

TAPPING INTO WISDOM OF THE CROWD

Quebec City is a beautiful fortified city, combining its French heritage and culture with cobblestone streets, quaint boutiques and fabulous dining options. It is, however, a small city when compared with the average North-American metropolis or even with other big Canadian cities, including Toronto or nearby Montreal, which is only a 2 1/2 hours drive away. So competing on advertising money alone is hardly an option. Tapping into locals wisdom and pride, however, should make for a compelling combination, as this campaign strives to demonstrate.

As can be seen in the screenshot above (Yup, there’s some serious Pinterest influence here…), the microsite is rather simple. There are two options possible to participate in creating content:

• Vote in one of the various charts offered: things to do, family fun, best restaurants, best shopping, etc.
• Share a personal favorite spot or anecdote, what we call “coup de coeur” in French: a special place, a romantic spot, a cool or lesser-known bar, etc.

The interesting part is that participation is seamless and effortless, which makes it that much more likely that more and more folks will want to participate. Rewarding participation with appealing weekly prizes, including room nights at the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac and many other attractive gift certificates, should also contribute to the potential success of the campaign. But without a doubt, its most powerful aspect lies in how it ties in with the two key social platforms identified to generate buzz with targeted audiences: Facebook and Twitter. In fact, in order to participate, you can use either social login, and sharing is encouraged throughout the process, thus influencing participants’ networks to also take part in the contest and rankings, with the expected domino effect that Quebec City is hoping for. Thus, the Quebec effect.

A SECOND LIFE WITH SOCIAL PROOF

Another interesting aspect of this campaign is how Quebec City intends to use the content created from this 6-weeks campaign, giving it a second life through traditional media. How? As this campaign is mostly targeted towards domestic markets in the province of Quebec, instead of taking the usual double-page spread to promote Quebec City in the summer time in Montreal newspapers, for example, the idea will be to showcase the recommended suggestions by Jean Tremblay or Linda Bouchard. Not only a “local recommendation” carries more weight than a mere advertisement from the destination, but in this case it will be supported by public vote, i.e. Jean Tremblay’s local insight is a great one, as can be seen by the 312 votes of fellow Quebecois who agreed with it. In order to go beyond the John Smith or Jane Doe approach, Quebec City also recruited a few known characters, such as local singers (Karim Ouellet) or radio DJ (PY Lord). But perhaps the most famous one, at least in the province of Quebec, is the city’s mayor, Regis Labeaume, who does a great job as an ambassador for the region, its people and its attractions.

Quebec City has never been a trailblazer and was rather late to jump onboard the social media bandwagon, but this campaign marks a good intention to embrace collaborative platforms, even though there is still “control” over the brand perception and communications. I wonder who will be next to innovate, after Visit Philly’s leap of faith on Instagram, or Visit Sweden’s citizen approach on Twitter @sweden. What do you think? Have you heard of other novel approaches on social media to generate more buzz using locals? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

IS YOUR CEO OR BOSS LIKE A KID?

Now, as funny or cute as this video may be, it does remind us a little of how many folks working in small or big organizations nowadays actually still see the role of social media in businesses today, doesn’t it? Which is sad, really. Nevertheless, among my favorite quotes from this video:

“What is social media, anyway?”

“It doesn’t cost any money”

“Be social without being social”

“Teenagers… I think email is too slow for them”

There’s also one of the girls that mentions social media is where people share what they like and travel stories. It’s reassuring to hear a 9 year-old echo what has been showing up in studies after studies, including the most recent TripBarometer by TripAdvisor, confirming that online resources are key to travel decision-making.

Watching this video also made me laugh for different, more personal reasons. I have three boys, aged 3, 6 & 8. They know daddy works in marketing, although I still don’t think they understand my explanations or allegories about what marketing is. But since I have been speaking and consulting more specifically about social media and web marketing for the past two years, I sometimes find myself trying to explain to them what Facebook is about, or what a tweet is. And you know what? It’s bloody hard to explain! So hats off to the kids in this video, after all, for trying to make sense of this social media “thing”…

Ski by the sea at Le Massif

Before launching my own consulting and speaking career a year ago, I was fortunate enough to spend three years at the helm of marketing, sales and communications for a great touristic project in the province of Quebec, called Le Massif de Charlevoix. My boss was Daniel Gauthier, former president and co-founder of world-renowned Cirque du Soleil, who sold his 50% share of this highly profitable entertainment powerhouse back in 2001. Instead of retiring to some remote island and live the filthy-rich lifestyle of the rich and famous, Daniel stayed true to his heart and passions – he’s an avid and lifelong skier -, returning home to purchase an ailing ski hill that held huge potential, assuming anyone would invest and manage its development with a long-term vision. Thus was born the Massif de Charlevoix project, which now incorporates on-hill accommodations, a touring train between Quebec City and La Malbaie in the Charlevoix area, as well as planned year-round activities on the mountain.

HAVING A VISION AND STICKING TO IT

Between the day Daniel purchased the mountain in 2002 and the opening of its flagship hotel in Baie-Saint-Paul in the Fall of 2012, it’s been 10 long years in the making, with few highs, and many lows. Through thick and thin, he held on to his vision, despite of numerous challenges and pitfalls that would have deterred many others.

“I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all” – Alexis de Tocqueville

Having lived through the early days of the Cirque du Soleil, back in the mid-80s, Daniel knew that when you want to innovate, you will stir trouble. Cirque du Soleil wanted to reinvent the traditional circus and put on a real show, taking away the animals, inserting live music and a rich soundtrack, starting interactions with the crowd prior to entering the circus tent, etc. In a same fashion, he would often say to me: how can we reinvent the way people think of travel & hospitality? Is there a different way to do things?

INNOVATION IS NOT AN OPTION

The reason why I tell you this story today is because I sense an increasing amount of resistance when I blog, consult or speak on the topic of social media marketing and how businesses need to embrace this change, if they have not already. New technologies are enabling possibilities and processes we could not dream of 20, 10 or even 5 years ago. Some examples?

• Hotel lobbies are vanishing, replaced by staff handling reservations and check-in via digital tablet.
• Disney introduced RFID bracelets, whereby you can pre-load credit card information onto it then use it to enter Parks, pay your restaurant bills, shop in retail stores or even open your hotel room door, without having to swipe, sign or handle money along the way.
• Festivals and events offer participants opportunities to get into the action, with collaborative artwork, interactive games or via social media messaging displayed live on the dance floor.
• Airlines and railways have been offering automated kiosks to check-in, when it’s not directly via your smartphone device, for a few years now.
• Social media and the rise in adoption of mobile devices allows co-creation, collaborative platforms and community engagement that essentially shifts the communication paradigm: customers are no longer at the receiving end of push communications, they are now part of a complex, web ecosystem in which they play a key role. Thus, the term “egosystem” coined by Brian Solis.

And we could go on and on with various examples here, but you get the picture. So why is it, then, that organizations still refuse access to Facebook from the company desktop, knowing full-well that employees have their own smartphone from which they can access it, as 60% of its 1.1 billion users presently do? Or worse, it is estimated that 50% of small and medium-size companies in the province of Quebec do not have a web site yet. In 2013! For many, it’s a question of resources but when you dig a little closer, the truth often comes down to fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of transitioning to new ways of doing things, fear of entering the social media sphere, not knowing what we’ll talk about or how we’ll manage all these accounts…

In this fast-evolving context, innovation is therefore not an option, but rather an obligation. Status quo means falling behind not just your competitors but, more importantly, customers’ expectations, needs and wants.

FOUR KEY PRINCIPLES TO INNOVATE

I don’t believe there is one clear, cookie-cutter approach or silver bullet solution to spark innovation. Experience, however, has taught me these four important ingredients to bear in mind in order to innovate and succeed at it:

1. Think outside the box

We often hear this one, but what does it really mean? Thinking outside the box begins by refusing the status quo, and seeking to do things differently. Anytime I hear “we’ve already tried that”, “it’s how everyone else does it” or “that will never work”, I cringe. Sure, Einstein once said that doing same things repeatedly expecting different results was a sign of folly. Thus, thinking outside the box usually means going beyond your sphere of activity, seeking inspiration in different countries, or different industries. And often enough, it means creating a new space where you business will thrive, also known as navigating the unchartered waters of the blue ocean.

Blue Ocean Strategy Concept Definition. Source: Wikipedia

2. Outline a clear vision

In a recent keynote session I attended, speaker Larry Benet said it best: “People don’t care how much you know until you show them how much you care”. Or as author Simon Sinek puts it: “People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it“. Whether it’s a multinational organization, a popular brand or a personal brand, customers will connect with your brand through its various channels: on premises, call centre, web, social media, mobile, etc.

Having a clear vision is one thing, communicating it and having employees live and breathe it is another. Brands that succeed are those where employees share and live the promise on an everyday basis. Some examples? Zappos, Apple or Southwest airlines, to name only these ones. When I was at Le Massif, that vision and its mission statement were incorporated into the recruiting process to ensure hired staff aligned with common values of ecofriendly development, respect and love of the great outdoors. The vision was therefore built-in the DNA and corporate culture, so to speak.

3. Put money where your mouth is

“You’ve got to spend some money to make some money”. This truism remains one that too many still question, or delay until they get THE big idea, or revolutionary concept, before they can invest in it. If you believe in an idea or innovation, do whatever is possible to get appropriate funding. Back in 1985, when Cirque du Soleil was only a year old, they bet the farm on their US tour, going to Los Angeles. They had enough money for the one-way trip only: it was either success at the end of the road, or everyone’s going home God knows how and there’s no more CDS. We all know what happened since.

If the brand promise is to be the best hotel experience or most awesome music festival around, the core product must deliver upon the promise yet often enough, the difference will come from the little details. And as we all know, the devil is in those details, which is where a brand can truly make a difference, whether through operational excellence or added value. But if you try to nickel & dime customers, you are short-changing them into a downward customer-experience spiral.

4. Failure is an option. Fear is not.

Last but not least, I often hear people not joining the social media realm because of fear: not enough time, not enough resources, not knowing where to begin, not knowing if we can sustain efforts, etc. The Red Cross and The US Army were among the first to get active on various social networks, and today can boast tremendous experience from the past 5-6 years. Did they fail along the way? Of course, but every failure, small or big, were that many opportunities to learn from, tweak their approach and improve processes and overall efficiency.

“Nothing is more dangerous than a dogmatic worldview – nothing more constraining, more blinding to innovation, more destructive of openness to novelty” – Stephen Jay Gould

As Thomas Edison once famously said: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” If you want to innovate, you must accept failure as a distinct possibility and embrace it. It’s much easier to sit back, observe and criticize than to get up and make a difference, even if it means trying a few times until reaching success. Don’t you think?

The folks at Mobiquity recently surveyed more than 1,000 people using their smartphones and tablets to plan and book their travel, resulting in an insightful report and infographic outlining key findings. Evaluating travelers’ experiences with 19 of the top travel brands provided interesting feedback such as:

THE GOOD NEWS

• After researching travel on tablets, 54% of tablet owners return to the Web to book, but 26% go on to use tablet sites to make bookings.
• In 2013, connected travelers have money to spend:

39% of tablet owners and 33% of smartphone owners plan to spend more than $500 on travel bookings via mobile sites.
36% of tablet owners and 40% of smartphone owners plan to spend more than $500 on travel bookings via mobile apps.

• 76% of smartphone owners and 35% of tablet owners want to use their devices to book travel or hotel rooms when they are on the go and have an immediate need.
• Tablet is the preferred device for future travel: 25% will use their tablet to plan and book travel within the next month.

THE BAD NEWS

• 52% of tablet owners and 60% of smartphone owners complained that mobile travel sites were slow to load.
• 51% of tablet owners said that search and selection options on travel apps were complicated, and 44% reported that sites were not optimized for a tablet.
• 20% of tablet owners were disappointed that apps were not integrated with their loyalty programs, which meant they couldn’t access or redeem points/miles.
• 35% of connected travelers would be less likely to book again with a travel brand after a slow, confusing or non-optimized experience when researching or booking travel on a mobile device.

SOME HIGHLIGHTED TRAVEL BRANDS

Travelocity comes out as the clear winner out of the overall mobile satisfaction rankings, both for its mobile app and website, and it’s interesting to see how much the OTAs are dominating this sphere, with Kayak, Expedia and Priceline also making the top 10. Airlines such as Delta, American and Southwest make the hit list, while Hilton, Marriott, Intercontinental and Starwood are the class leaders from the hotel industry.

Check out the full infographic below, or click here to download the complete report.

Top social media used in 2013

I recently had the pleasure to be among the 1,100 attendees at Social Media Examiner’s first live conference, held in San Diego earlier in April: Social Media Marketing World event, or #SMMW13 – the hashtag is still going strong on Twitter, if you want to jump in the conversation. During two days, the who’s who of social media speakers and strategists spoke during concurrent sessions and keynotes, providing attendees with a smorgasbord of knowledge, tips and strategic insights. To name but a few: Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, Mari Smith, Amy Porterfield, Jay Baer, Dave Kerpen, Mitch Joel, Mark Schaefer, Marcus Sheridan, Viveka von Rosen, etc. While it’s virtually impossible to summarize all of the content in a single post, I wanted to share some of the tidbits from Mike Stelzner‘s opening remarks, in particular regarding some of the hottest trends in the social media marketing sphere.

BLOGGING IS HOT… AGAIN!

Every year, Social Media Examiner comes out with its annual social media marketing report, based on feedback provided by thousands of marketers in North America and Europe mostly. One question specifically asks what marketers are most concerned about in social media, or wish to learn more about. In 2009 & 2010, social bookmarking was the key topic, Facebook was the big topic in 2011 while Google+ was the biggest one in 2012. What about 2013? This year, 62% of marketers want to know more about… blogging! It may sound surprising at first, knowing blogging is not particularly recent compared to other social media or collaborative networks. Yet, since blogging is at the heart of any good content marketing strategy, knowing how content is becoming key thus explains the growing importance of this tactic in the marketing communications toolkit.

It also ties in to ways of reaching out to influencers, specially when one realizes that 86% of social media influencers blog, according to Technorati. Thus, if a brand wishes to reach out to industry leaders and influencers, or if you are a personal brand or company that wishes to establish thought-leadership and credibility, blogging is certainly a key tactic that contributes to a strong digital brand and content marketing approach. Somewhat ironic to see blogging coming back as a key tactic, after more than a decade in existence, but as some folks say: blogging provides the fire, while social media is the fuel to make it spread!

VIDEOS ARE KEY

Top area for increased marketing efforts. Source: Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2013

Another interesting finding stemming from the upcoming 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report is the fact that Youtube is where 69% of marketers expect to put the most increased efforts in 2013.Video is big, always has been, and always will be, but it seems marketers are embracing it more and more as part of their brand strategy. Consider that more than 72 hours of video are uploaded to Youtube every minute, that it is the 2nd biggest search engine online and the number one search engine for travel within the 18-24 years old demographic, and one can easily understand why video has become pivotal for many organizations, in particular in the travel & hospitality vertical.

This echoes some of the findings from a Google Ipsos MediaCT study released last year, showing clearly the impact videos have on business, leisure or affluent travelers alike.

Source: Google Ipsos MediaCT, The 2012 Traveler, August 2012

IS PODCASTING BACK IN VOGUE?

Blogging and videos have been around for a while, so it may sound surprising to have them among the hot trends for 2013. Yet, we can easily see why it makes sense, since content is cornerstone to online marketing and crafting an efficient and lasting brand strategy, and both videos and blogging align with content requirements. But podcasting?

Podcasts were all the rage some 5-7 years ago, in particular when Apple launched its iTunes application, making it that much more accessible to the masses. Folks like Mitch Joel, president and founder of TwistImage, has been doing podcasts for years. Companies have tried it, but many moved on to sexier venues when social media became more popular: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram… It’s easy to see how podcasting would fall out of grace, as a non-visual, audio-only medium in a space where visual is increasingly becoming the norm should you wish to stand out.

Source: The Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2013

Nevertheless, we’re seeing more and more brands, marketers and social media strategists embrace podcasting as a tactical way to speak to niches and reach audiences with specific needs and wants. In fact, Mike Stelzner spoke of the “Podcasting anomaly”, mentioning that the interest in this tactical tool has increased by 8 times in the past year! That is, only 3% of marketers state using podcasts right now in the communications mix, but 24% wish to increase its usage in the coming year. Look around, and you actually may see this happening: more and more brands, including Social Media Examiner, have started offering weekly podcasts. So why the rage?

One possible explanation comes from the increasing amount of time we spend commuting to and from work, and more and more car manufacturers now integrating iTunes or other applications within dashboard designs. The end-result is making podcasts more easily available than ever, entertaining people and making a more productive usage of their time. Another reason is simply the fact that smartphones are becoming part of our everyday life, with over 1 billion of them in circulation right now and over 50% of new phones bought being smartphones.

So while we passionately discuss Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest and Instagram on a nearly everyday basis, isn’t it interesting to find out that the hottest marketing trends, according to marketers surveyed in this industry report, actually revert back to “old school” tools, i.e. blogging, videos, podcasts? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so do leave a comment in the section below.

VISIT PHILLY ON INSTAGRAM

Letting go of your twitter account is one thing, but how about handing over your Instagram account to a local? Well, that’s exactly what the folks at Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. (GPTMC), better known as Visit Philly, decided to do when launching their new Philadelphia neighborhoods campaign. Starting April 5th and during two full days, the Instagram account was managed by professional photographer David Maialetti. During 48 hours, Visit Philly’s followers thus experienced a new, different perspective of the city usually found on @maialetti, one of Philadelphia Weekly’s “9 Philadelphians to Follow on Instagram.”

The @visitphilly account is typically handled by a few people internally in the GPTMC social media team along with an on-staff photographer. But this is the first time the destination lets go of its account to hand it off to a local. And this is no one-shot deal: over the course of coming weeks and months, another 14 locals have been chosen to handle the account, yet not all are photographers. Some are designers, others have full-time office jobs but are perhaps avid instagramers in their free time. While Maialetti had full liberty to aim and shoot at any area of Philadelphia, these 14 guest-instagramers will each focus on one of Philadelphia’s 14 neighborhoods featured in this campaign. It will be interesting to follow this initiative as it unfolds throughout the year, until March 2014. Unless it gets extended indefinitely, of course…

A CALCULATED RISK

According to Caroline Bean, Director, Social Media at GPTMC, “We are taking a leap of faith, here. But David will be documenting any/all of Philadelphia during his stint. This is a strategy we are using, aligned with our new Philadelphia Neighborhoods campaign”, she says. By relying on seasoned instagramers, Visit Philly is also minimizing any potential risk that could arise with handing over their corporate account to complete strangers (or contentious citizens, as was the case in the earlier stages of the @sweden twitter account management).

And how will success be measured? “That’s a pretty good question”, Caroline admits. “We look at this initiative as an image-building component for Philadelphia, so it’s difficult to track precisely. That said, we’ll be tracking number of followers, likes and comments made on Instagram and shared across other social platforms stemming from this campaign”, she says. “We expect to gather some anecdotal evidence as well, throughout the year. We presently have about 2,800 photos with tagged with #VisitPhilly, and we suspect this number will grow as part of this initiative”.

WHERE DID THE INSPIRATION COME FROM?

I asked a final question to Caroline, wanting to know if they had drawn their inspiration from Visit Sweden’s initiatives or perhaps other destinations who are on the leading edge of social media. “Of course, we monitor what others do and we’re familiar with some of the initiatives out there. But our inspiration actually came from outside the travel industry, with the example of how New Yorker magazine has been tapping into guest photographers with Instagram. I believe we are the first destination to try this, so we’re excited about this campaign”.

Will this trend catch on with other destinations? Do you prefer to view pics from real photographers, destination staff or from locals? Personally, as long as the pictures are real, taken in the spur of the moment, and are stunning, I could not care less who took it. You? One thing is for sure: these kind of initiatives are bound to multiply, with more and more power going to locals and travelers alike.

Let me know what you think in the comment section below.

TIME-CONSUMING AND STICKY

A first finding from this report is that consumers spend more than 9 minutes on top-performing travel & hospitality sites, while the industry average sits at 7.7 minutes, making it the second most performing among industry analyzed.

Takeaway: Websites that performed best, most notably media and entertainment sites, tend to offer videos or rich media to boost time spent online. Thus, including presentations or visual displays via slideshare, podcasts or photo galleries are great ways to keep customers on your site longer.

A similar conclusion can be drawn when looking at the “stickiness” factor from various industry websites, where stickiness was calculated as the percentage of visits that result in more than one web page view. In this category, travel & hospitality actually scored highest of all, with a 57% stick rate. This is great news for top-performing sites, as Adobe suggests stick rate is perhaps the most important measure for acquisition and engagement which, if a site is well designed, can lead to increased conversion down the decision-making funnel.

Takeaway: Check-out this measure in your analytic dashboard and see how you compare with top-performing sites in the travel & hospitality industry. How can you ensure consumers visit more than one page on their next visit to your site?

PERFORMING WELL ON MOBILE & TABLETS, TOO

Looking at mobile usage also shone well on the travel & hospitality industry, which ranked second with an average of 10.9% of its total internet traffic coming from smartphones in the US during the month of January 2013.

These results are somewhat different than those found earlier in 2012, where it was estimated that 21% of all internet traffic to travel and hospitality websites was coming from mobile devices, with roughly 14% coming from smartphones and 7% from tablets. When looking at the chart below, focusing on tablet traffic, we see the growing importance of these devices in the travel decision-making ecosystem.

In terms of traffic from tablet devices, travel & hospitality leads all other industry with an average of 11.2% of all its internet traffic! Which means that, when combining with smartphone traffic, the industry average is now at 22.1% with top-performing sites seeing as much as 28.2% of their internet traffic coming from mobile devices!

Takeaway: Google Travel estimated that almost 25% of all travel-related searches online were coming from mobile devices by end of 2012 and this figure is expected to rise to 40% by end of 2013. This study by Adobe tends to confirm this trend, with a particular emphasis on the importance to have a strong tablet focus, specially knowing that conversions rates from these devices tend to surpass those from smartphones by a ratio of 3:1. So it’s no longer enough to simply have a mobile application or an optimized version of your website for mobile: a mobile-first or responsive web design approach is becoming a must!

TOURISM AUSTRALIA GETS SOCIAL

Fast-forward four years later, and one can quickly see how fast things have evolved in the social media sphere, in particular within the tourism & hospitality vertical. There are close to 200 airlines active on Twitter, almost 100% of hotel brands have a Facebook page while an increasing proportion of destinations are investing time and efforts on Pinterest and Instagram, two tools that did not even exist back in 2009. So when Tourism Australia recently announced the comeback of their famous contest, some wondered: why bring this back?

For one thing, this time around there isn’t just one job for grabs, but six. And more importantly, this contest is the fuel and content for a dynamic and complex online brand structure that Tourism Australia has been weaving. In essence, the folks at Tourism Australia understand that, as great and savvy as their marketing staff can be with social media, the real power to propel the destination’s brand resides with travelers, whether domestic or foreign, and citizens sharing experiences about everyday life in the land of Oz. Their vision is captured in this presentation, where they explain how Australia will become the most talked about travel destination in the world. Lofty ambition? Sure, and they may just pull it off, having already the biggest fan base on Facebook (8 million), Google+ and Instagram.

LETTING GO OF THE BRAND

In order for a travel destination to successfully achieve this vision, it must first come to accept that it no longer controls the brand – did it ever, in fact? Thus, it’s not so much “letting go” of the brand but rather acting as an MC, or the conductor of a symphonic orchestra, where the destination plays the guide, steering travelers towards online resources and discussion forums where information is readily accessible and credible, partly because of social proof and peer recognition.
This is also the direction taken by the folks at Tourism Montreal, in Canada. Back in 2009, they realized how important online marketing and communications had become, so they shifted almost all of their marketing dollars towards online initiatives, including a critically acclaimed experiential website, a content-rich blog and a dynamic approach on various social networks. Yet, in early 2012 they came to a similar realization as Tourism Australia: they needed the help of others to cut through the ever-increasing noise and really propel the Montreal brand to levels beyond the reach of media buy alone. They are presently in the midst of a series of fundamental, organizational changes that will be deployed to three key groups.

1. First, ongoing training is provided to all 80 employees, partly to enable them to manage a dynamic presence on various social networks, thus having more brand ambassadors active on various platforms. But also to integrate social media as part of the organizational culture, generating leads, answering customer queries or participating in community discussions.
2. Second, a strategy is being put in place to ensure Tourism Montreal’s 800 members (hotels, restaurants, attractions, etc.) have the tools in place to better understand and manage their presence on key social media. Training will be given and tools provided, such as a practical guide with do’s and dont’s, along with strategic considerations.
3. Last but not least, the vision by 2014 is to have local citizens partake in the social discussions, including domestic and foreign travelers alike.

IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT DOING SOCIAL. IT’S ABOUT BEING SOCIAL.

As Jay Baer famously said it, “companies that get it are those who are social, not those who do social” and this is the level where travel destinations and tourism suppliers will need to take it next. So when Tourism Australia executes its social vision, it goes so far as asking telecoms, hotel chains and other travel suppliers to work hand-in-hand in order to provide free wifi across the country. Why? To save travellers money while at destination? Perhaps, but the true reason is to enable travellers to use their mobile devices and access their favorite social media in order to share their experiences! As Tourism Australia’s general manager, Nick Baker, told the Sydney Morning Herald “Holidays are all about living in the moment”.

Other destinations have begun offering content-rich initiatives, while some even handed over their twitter account to local folks, such as @Sweden and @ThisIsVT. Who will be next to follow and truly embrace social, putting the brand’s discussion and perception in the hands and voices of the traveller and customer?

The findings here echo those found by TEXT100′s research last November, which I covered in How Digital Influence Travel Decisions Around The World. North America and the rest of the world seem to share similar patterns in seeking information online, yet it’s clear travel agents remain a stronger reference in countries like Australia or European countries like Spain, Italy and, to a lesser extent, France, the UK and Germany. What comes out, loud and clear though: travel review sites, OTAs and travel operator sites have surpassed family and friends as main source of information, as word-of-mouth is transforming itself into world-of-mouth!

Another huge finding, confirming what many expected or what many won’t acknowledge: free in-room wifi is now considered THE most important amenity when booking a trip, according to U.S. travelers. I am still trying to getting over the shock attending a conference in Atlantic City a couple of weeks ago, where in-room wifi at Caesars Hotel was ridiculously expensive, and it only covered the room, on one given device. Once you went to the conference center, or if you used your phone rather than your laptop, you had to purchase another package, at like US$49 for a four-hour session!

It’s also interesting to see that across the globe, people consider an average of seven properties prior to making the final reservation, thus prompting the ever-important question: what will they think of your property? What’s being said about it on TripAdvisor, Booking, Google Reviews or Expedia? How does your hotel website compare to competitors? Are you mobile optimized or better yet, have a website adapted for smartphones and tablets?

No surprises here either. These findings echo those from the research conducted by PhoCusWright in November 2012, on behalf of TripAdvisor. Other findings from the 2012 Hotel Review survey include:

• 74% state that they write reviews because they want to share a good experience with other travelers
• 67% of users state that, when available, they look at traveler-submitted photos to help them make hotel choices
• 59% of users state that when reading reviews, they ignore extreme comments
• In fact, only 5% of users state that they focus more on negative reviews to check for hotels and avoid potential pitfalls
• 57% of users agree that seeing hotel management responses to reviews generally makes them more likely to book it (versus a comparable hotel that didn’t respond to travelers)

Other findings from the PhoCusWright survey can be found here

While many people, me included, deemed 2012 the year that finally was the year of mobile, well, turns out we’re not quite there. Yet. Indeed it seems like customer adoption for mobile devices exceeds the speed at which brands and travel organizations are adapting to seize the opportunities within this booming channel. Thus, in 2013, there is still quite a bit of room to grow in and space to occupy for those who want to take a sizeable chunk of the market.

These stats are a great reminder that smartphones are much, much more than talking devices and that, in fact, there is more to mobile than just phones. We now carry tablets, laptops and other wireless devices that allow us to stay connected and share experiences with friends, parents and colleagues via our preferred social networks. As for social media, it may not play a conclusive role in the booking stage of the purchase funnel, but it certainly plays a key role during the experience, when we tend to share prominently, thus affecting our circle of friends, fans and followers.

Last but not least, it’s interesting to see how businesses are embracing social reviews to ensure everyone within companies can play a role to ensure great customer service and positive online reputation for the brand. It’s great to see how brands and travel industry stakeholders in the U.S. have taken the lead with regards to answering online comments, whether they are positive or negative.

Do any of these findings surprise you? I would be interested to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

Mari Smith

A household name in the social media strategy sphere, Mari is a true expert in all things related to Facebook marketing. She is co-author of “Facebook Marketing: an hour a day” and author of “The New Relationship Marketing”, host of a popular blog on www.marismith.com and if there is one person to follow on Facebook, it’s Mari: she has over 90,000 fans on her page! A great place to read tips and hear the latest in Facebook changes – and we all know how that alone can keep a person busy full-time… You can join the 187,000+ followers to catch up on her tweets @MariSmith

Heidi Cohen

Talk about someone who practices what she preaches! The tagline on Heidi’s website and blog reads as follows: actionable marketing expert. If you follow her on twitter @HeidiCohen or if you read her blog, that’s exactly what you get: experience-based marketing tips, solid and business-related advice that can be put into practice immediately. Heidi touches upon various topics related to social media marketing, content marketing and strategy, and she has a couple of ebooks available for free. Her blog has been voted into Social Media Examiner’s Top 10 blogs for two years in a row now, so there’s always great content there.

Gini Dietrich

Gotta love the name for Gini’s blog: Spin Sucks! It’s also what I have come to appreciate about her style, either in writing or on video. She says it like it is, or at least as she thinks it is, and she bases her arguments on solid observation and real-life experience. Her topics cover content marketing and social media for Public Relations professionals, yet any marketer will appreciate the tips and knowledge shared on her blog or via her twitter handle @GiniDietrich

Amy Porterfield

Just like Mari Smith, but with a different twist, if you want to know everything there is to know about Facebook marketing, Amy Porterfield is the right person to follow. With her real-life experience as a marketer with brands such as Harley Davidson and Tony Robbins, she shares her social media knowledge, strategies and tactics on a variety of influential blogs such as Mashable, Forbes or Huffington Post, as well as on her blog and numerous free webinars offered throughout the year. Join the 30,000+ subscribers to her Facebook page or follower on twitter @FB_Influence

Amber Naslund

One of the first blogs I ever subscribed to a couple of years ago was Brass Tack Thinking, which is written by Amber Naslund, also co-author of “The Now Revolution” (with Jay Baer). I have always appreciated her no-nonsense approach to discussing marketing, PR, social media strategy or communications topics, all with a very personal perspective. Her latest post is a great example of her useful, genuine and generous advice-giving: The No-Nonsense Guide to Getting Paid For Your Expertise. You can join her 52,000+ followers on twitter @AmberCadabra

Andrea Vahl

This is the only person on this list who actually “suffers” from a split personality! Andrea Vahl, on one side, is author of “Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies”, hosts a very influential blog, guest blogs on numerous industry blogs and is Community Manager for Social Media Examiner. On the other side, there’s Grandma Mary… well, they’re both the same person, really, and they both share useful tips on social media strategy, in particular on how to manage one’s presence on key social media platforms, i.e. Linkedin, Twitter, Google+, Facebook, etc. Check out her blog or follow Andrea on twitter @AndreaVahl

Viveka von Rosen

If you hear or search for terms such as Linkedin rock star, Linkedin expert or Linkedin authority, odds are you will come across Viveka von Rosen. She is the author of “Linkedin Marketing an hour a day” and truly is the go-to person for everything and anything related to Linkedin. She often creates video tutorials that are actually better and more dynamic than those produced by LinkedIn! Her blog is appropriately called Linked Into Business and you can participate in her popular tweet chat #LinkedinChat every Tuesday evenings at 8pm EST, co-moderated by @SteveCassady. You can join her 47,000+ followers on twitter @LinkedInExpert

Ann Handley

If you are interested in content marketing, how and why it applies within business strategies, then you must be familiar with Ann Handley. She is co-author of one of the best books ever published on the topic, “Content Rules”, is Chief Content Officer at Marketing Profs and a monthly contributor to Entrepreneur magazine. She has over 154,000+ followers on her twitter handle @MarketingProfs where she shares golden nuggets related to social media strategies and, you guessed it, content marketing!

Kristi Hines

I discovered Kristi Hines as part of a Social Media Examiner networking club focusing on blogging. Kristi is the mastermind behind kikolani, a hugely successful blog that specializes in blog marketing and where you can find sharp blogging tips for personal and professional bloggers alike. Lots of how-to posts, ways to enhance your writing or reach wider audiences, and much more. She is a regular contributor to various Power 150 blogs, and you can follow her on twitter @kikolani or on Google+

TRIBE MATES

I could not bring myself to make the final cut, as I wanted to highlight four women bloggers I have discovered in the past year thanks to Triberr. Gazalla Gaya writes on Web Content Blog where she shares tips about SEO, blogging and content marketing. Ruth Zive shares marketing strategy and resources on MarketingWise. Carol Lynn Rivera is the editor and social manager for Web.Search.Social, a great multi-author blog for all things marketing. Mila Araujo shares her perspective on a variety of topics, not only marketing or social media related, but always with an original twist on milaspage. I have learned a great deal commenting and sharing with these four women throughout the past year, so I recommend you do the same and discover their blogs asap!

There you have it, ten women (well, 13 if you read all the way to here) with plenty of content to read, follow and share with your networks. Who else would you add to this list? Let me know in the comments section below.

1. HAVE A CONTENT MARKETING MISSION STATEMENT

One of the most important takeaways came from the opening keynote by Content Marketing Institute founder, Joe Pullizi, when he stated the importance for brands to have a clear content marketing mission statement in place. Thus, before starting to produce content, an organization should be clear about its strategy, by first answering these three questions:

1. Who is our core target audience?
2. What will be delivered?
3. What is the expected outcome for the audience?

One might argue that this actually represents the equivalent of what a brand mission statement actually is, which would be correct to a large extent. I recall doing this exercise with a ski resort where we had analyzed the sentiment, tone and nature of comments on the Facebook page in order to better understand what it was that drew loyal fans to engage with the brand online. Doing so allowed to better define the target audience as avid powder hounds, urban dwellers seeking getaways to the mountain and, in more generic terms, folks who felt they were still kids at heart! This process helped develop powerful persona, allowing to have a clear tone and manner in how to deliver content, both offline and online. The expected outcome was also defined in terms of giving away generous information, humorous visuals and tongue-in-cheek, real-time comments. In other words, brand advocates had to recognize online what they had grown to know and appreciate of the brand offline in the past 30 years.

2. IDENTIFY TACTICS

The next step is perhaps the most difficult one: choosing among the various communications tactics. With the explosion of social media, mobile devices and collaborative platforms, which ones are the most adequate to achieve your objectives? Here is a brief list of possibilities:

• Corporate blog
• Content-rich website
• Podcasts
• Videos
• Photos
• Whitepapers
• Newsletters
• Webinars
• Case studies, ebooks & white papers
• FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

In the hospitality sphere, photos and videos have a disproportionate importance when potential clients are still in the early stages of the decision-making process, drawing aspiration for a new travel destination or considering accommodation options. Yet when it’s time to book, content may be king but context is queen: a mobile optimized site can make or break the deal nowadays, so industry players are adapting to this reality. Content is also what is being generated by users on sites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp, influencing other travelers in their decision-making along the way. Hospitality decision-makers need to manage their e-reputation in order stay competitive and avert potential crises. (Read: 7 steps to manage your e-reputation)

3. ALLOCATE RESOURCES

Having a clear mission statement and identifying the proper channels and tactics will only bring you as far as the resources you put in place to achieve inherent goals. In the hospitality industry, a vast majority of organizations are actually medium-sized, small or very small, which means limited resources in place to create any content whatsoever. An original content marketing approach can however overcome these hurdles. Some examples include:

• A restaurant owner noticed patrons often taking pictures of food items via their mobile devices, so he decided to create a menu inspired by the Instagram visuals. Crowdsourcing thus replaced costly, frequent professional photo sessions as well as tapping into social proof for validation of what’s good and popular on the menu;
• A year-round resort with ski hill and golf courses noticed its call center experienced seasonal downtimes or weekly highs and lows. They trained and retrained the staff in order for them to have necessary skill sets to monitor online conversations and engage on platforms such as Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, Linkedin and even public forums or blogs. It was an novel approach to re-purposing job definitions while responding to a corporate need;
• A hotel property could hardly justify having its marketing person handle exclusively web content and social media until they built a series of metrics about what situations were being handled. Turns out only 35-40% of topics were related to marketing: advertising, promotions, etc. The balance was a mix of customer service issues, operations, and even community-based topics, i.e. Public Affairs.

4. MONITOR CONVERSATIONS

Feedback is provided on a daily basis in the hospitality world, both online and offline. While we have various systems and tools in place to monitor what’s being said online, how do we capture the essence of offline feedback? There are three key components to consider:

1. You need to have some kind of tracking system, or content management system (CMS) for your organizations. Hotels are used to property management systems, while most brands have some kind of customer relationship management (CRM) tool in place, allowing to capture customer feedback, preferences and integration with historical transactional data.
2. Staff needs to be trained, with often refreshers, on the significance of capturing verbal and non-verbal feedback from customers. In particular when a customer seems annoyed or troubled, prompting for feedback is of utmost importance. Without doing so, the CMS will reproduce the good old principle of “garbage in, garbage out”…
3. Acknowledge the feedback. Customers love to share experiences and give ideas, but they will cease to do so if they don’t get the feeling their comments are making a difference or are being heard at all. Even if the feedback was given at the reception desk or via a paper form left in the room, good practice is to send out an email acknowledgement to the client, thanking her for the ideas and, if possible, providing results or answers to the questions raised.

Monitoring conversations, both online and offline, is perhaps the most powerful way to keep coming up with fresh, relevant content for your target audience since it will address questions or concerns that resonate with the passionate base of customers who are already sharing about your brand.

5. TEST NEW IDEAS AND PLATFORMS

While it’s important to have a strategy in place as you start the year, it’s equally important to seize new opportunities as they become available in order to gain a competitive edge. It is fair to say that early in 2012, not many travel industry marketers had identified Pinterest or Instagram as part of their marketing tool box, yet those who saw its potential quickly jumped onboard to take advantage of its benefits with a growing customer base. Testing new ideas can also mean new kinds of contests and tweaking your approach in order to make the most of your presence on Facebook, for example.

Testing new ideas or platforms can sometimes mean you will fail, or perhaps not achieve the desired results, but this needs to be factored in as part of the social media journey online. KLM keeps coming up with novel concepts to engage with its customer base, some better hits than others, but always leading edge. Its most recent initiative: Must See Map. A brilliant idea where content is actually generated by your own circle of friends…

6. DEFINE SUCCESS AND MEASURE IT

Last but not least, there needs to be accountability and a way to measure what is being done. Before a brand decides to invest more into its content marketing endeavors it will obviously seek to know what return it is yielding with its ongoing efforts. Now, there are countless articles, books and blogs that cover the specific topic of social media ROI and the challenge it represents, so I will not go in-depth here – I did cover it in The 7 Business Drivers of a Social Media Strategy. You should however be clear about how you will define the success of your content marketing, which usually refers to one of the following objectives:

• Increase revenues
• Decrease operational costs
• Enhance customer experience

The last example comes from Groupe Germain, owners of boutique hotels in Canada. I love how they used Instagram to connect with their connected, mobile customer base in this contest, seeking creativity while crafting a mural for their newly-opened Alt hotel in Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.

In this case, metrics are provided, in terms of photos generated, awareness and buzz created. Yet, it was also a novel product development approach, impacting positively customer experience – the mural is a key part of the newly designed lobby – while potentially reducing the operational cost, had they decided to go with a professional firm to do everything by themselves rather than crowdsourcing it.

Do you have other examples of brands making great use of content marketing in the hospitality realm? Or perhaps in a different vertical? I would love to hear your thoughts.

VERY HANDY, INDEED!

Singapore is already a destination where wifi is virtually accessible everywhere, helping it achieve What is Takes to Become a Digital Destination. Yet, even though many people remain connected while traveling abroad, there are folks who don’t own smartphones or tablets and those who choose not to bring their mobile devices with them simply to avoid skyrocketing roaming fees while away in foreign countries. With this in mind, Singapore travel officials came up with a great idea: it is now possible to rent a handy when staying in Singapore, for the very reasonable cost of SGD$15 per day (roughly US$12).

The description on their dedicated site says it all: “More than a mere mobile travel guide, each handy device comes with a built-in city guide, with categories covering restaurants, shops, experiences, bars, and attractions. With just a few clicks, users can pinpoint their exact location on a map, reserve a table at a waterfront restaurant, or navigate their way to the nearest attraction.”

LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL CALLS

The most surprising feature of these handy phones is the fact that you get unlimited local AND international calls included in the daily rental price, which means there are no reasons not to stay in touch with loved ones, no matter where they live. You also get 3G internet access which means you can use this device as personal or business hotspot should you have to work or connect with the office while on your trip. There are also a variety of apps to enhance the traveler’s experience while at the destination, including maps, digital publications, translation services along with games and entertainment options.

The reservation process is pretty straightforward. Fill up the online form, press submit and then receive an email confirmation before making it to the destination. Once arrived, you just need to pick up your handy at the Singapore Visitors Centre.

Too good to be true? Sometimes, it’s the simple ideas that are the most efficient… and impactful! It will be interesting to see the uptake of this initiative, and the metrics in place to evaluate the success with local hospitality players. When shall we a similar initiative in North America?

HISTORY OF CONTENT MARKETING

While it may seem that content is a nascent marketing function, truth is people and brands have been using content to drive people towards action through compelling storytelling for decades, if not centuries. John Deere has been publishing its own magazine The Furrow for almost a century now, and you can think of Kraft and its What’s Cooking magazine among other examples of custom publishing.

Click here to view the embedded video.

BRANDS NOW HAVE DUAL MARKETING ROLES

One thing that now seems clear is that brands today have two roles: they need to use savvy marketing with their own product through channel distribution, sales tactics and other marketing strategies relevant to their industry and niche. They also need to think and act as publishers, putting a growing emphasis on owned media rather than investing traditionally through paid media. In both presentations, the examples of Coca-Cola and Red Bull were given as the quintessence of managing well owned platforms to push content that is not, at first glance, always related to the product. In fact, in many cases, it’s simply creating awareness and working on brand positioning as market leaders.

This Coca-Cola video explains their shift from being a creative leader to a content leader. As Mark W. Schaefer also showed during his presentation, Coca-Cola even goes so far as including dissenting opinions about their strategy… on their own blog!

Click here to view the embedded video.

CONTENT MARKETING CHALLENGES FOR BRANDS

One of the most important takeaways from Joe Pullizi’s keynote session is the need for brands to have a content marketing mission statement in place. This involves defining:

1. Core target audience
2. What will be delivered
3. The outcome for the audience

A great example is the content marketing mission statement developed by Inc. online magazine:

Who is their core target audience? Entrepreneurs and business owners. What will be delivered? Useful information, advice, insights and resources. What is the outcome for the audience? Getting the resources and inspiration to run and grow their business.

THE 5 OBSTACLES TO CONTENT MARKETING

According to Mark W. Schaefer, every company will basically come across five common land mines to some extent or another, as detailed in the visual below:

Source: Mark W. Schaefer

Budget can certainly be an issue, in particular when there is no buy-in at the C-level. Since content marketing is a long-term investment, it can sometimes be difficult to demonstrate results quickly, so budgets tend to go to shiny tools, TV ads or big outdoor billboards that seem to have impact. Return on investment, or ROI, is certainly important but it needs to be put into perspective of the role being played by content marketing. As social media, blogging and other content marketing initiatives are demanding more and more resources, the need to demonstrate return on those efforts will continue to be a challenge. The tech side of things represents a challenge whereby how do you integrate increasing streams of data coming from various customer touch points, whether it’s the corporate blog, call centre, social media accounts, and so on? A similar challenge can come from legal, where content is no longer controlled and coming from a single department, i.e. Public Affairs, Communications. With collaborative content creation, real-time communications are making approval procedures antiquated so organizations need to adapt. Last but not least, corporate culture also needs to adapt in order to be social, rather than to do social. This means ongoing training will be required, hiring practices revisited and having a social media policy in place to provide guidelines.

CONTENT MARKETING, BRANDING AND ADVERTISING

So where does content marketing fit into a brand’s equation and marketing budgets? To some, content marketing is the new advertising, meaning more and more brands ought to shift budgets towards owned media rather than invest in ephemeral campaigns on paid media. Not sure everybody can do like Coca-Cola or Red Bull, yet they invest large sums into their endeavors so it becomes more of a strategic approach rather than strictly a budget allocation matter. Many brands still invest in a 30 seconds spot during the Super Bowl, yet you will also see them spread the buzz days before via Youtube and social media. Finally, Chris Brogan recently wrote that Content Marketing is Not Branding, and he makes some very valid points. A must-read!

It will be interesting to see these aspects hopefully addressed during the next three weeks of Content Success Summit. Feel free to share or comment in the section below.

1. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT YOUR BRAND

There are numerous free tools allowing you to discover what people are saying about you and your brand on social media, forums or blogs. One of my favorites is Social Mention, which lists mentions about your brand but also provides information about sentiment, i.e. positive, negative, neutral. I also like the fact we can see keywords used, users who mention the brand, on which platform, and so on.

Screen shot of a search for “Hard Rock Hotel San Diego” on Social Mention

Other free tools worth your while are Topsy, as well as Google services such as Google News and Google Alerts. If you use a social media dashboard such as Hootsuite, SproutSocial, SocialBro or TweetDeck, they are also useful to monitor conversations about a brand, assuming you set up streams and filters relevant to your company and industry.

2. INVEST IN KEYWORDS & SEO

If you did your due diligence in step one, you ought to know what are the keywords people and customers use in order to find you, your brand or your competitors. A strong content marketing strategy stems from knowing the right triggers in your target audience’s mind, in order for you to fulfill their needs and wants with pertinent information. Assuming these keywords and information are aligned with your product and services, you must ensure content is formulated with this in mind across all communication channels, offline and online, including web sites, newsletters, blog, social media, press releases, etc. Search engine optimization (SEO) thus becomes more accurate and relevant, and will segue into more efficient search engine marketing (SEM).

From a marketing stand point, you can access this kind of information as well as your competitors’ to better understand which keywords are generating web traffic and on which keywords you may want to invest in AdWords campaigns. The best place to start is by looking at your own web site analytics, i.e. with Google Analytics, or with sites such as compete.com or alexa.com. In this example, you can see keywords that would be relevant for the Westin San Francisco:

Keywords for the Westin San Francisco on alexa.com

Staying sharp on this front ensures you know who, when and what is being searched regarding your property or destination. This is also an important component of managing your online reputation.

3. IDENTIFY AND ENGAGE INFLUENCERS

Imagine Lady Gaga or some celebrity mentioning your product or service, raving about it to its millions of followers. How cool would that be, right? But turn it around, and what happens if a known influencer rips your property or destination apart on his or her blog, mentioning the horrible service received and vowing never to return? While these extreme situations don’t happen that often, there are people raving or trashing your brand on a daily basis on the blogosphere and social media. You can’t monitor it all, but you certainly want to address those who have the biggest potential for ripple effects and multiplication.

The field of “influence marketing” is still nascent, yet there are three important players that claim to evaluate your influence online: Klout, Kred and PeerIndex. There are various opinions on how precise these influence scores really are, and to what extent one should give any of these indicators credit, but whatever tool you use, you do need to unravel who are the people you want to have on your side as brand loyalists to spread the good word. Once you know who are the folks that you really should connect with in your town, your industry or your field of expertise, then you can engage with them. Not promote or push your promotions down their throat. Engage.

This can happen through various Twitter chats or perhaps even on Facebook, but the two best places in my opinion are via Linkedin Groups and Google+ communities. Like-minded people share questions, answers, comments and opinions according to groups and communities, which represents a great opportunity to meet folks that can later on turn into friends, clients and brand advocates.

4. STRATEGIC ONGOING MONITORING

What you did in Step 1, you basically need to continue doing on an ongoing basis. This is akin to the rinse & repeat formula! In order to be more strategic in your approach, you may want to consider more sophisticated tools, such as Radian6, Sysomos, Beehive and other premium platforms that monitor not only conversations online but also sentiment, in much more detailed ways than free tools can allow. Doing this can help identifying shifts in popular sentiment about your brand, allowing you to be proactive with the situation at hand rather than reacting once it’s too late.

Being strategic also means identifying platforms that are essential in your brand reputation management. While Facebook is the king of social media right now, it may not be where most of your efforts should go if it’s not where your clients are or where they choose to engage with you. If you are a hotel, you will want to monitor and respond to comments made on Tripadvisor, Bookings.com or Google Places. As a restaurant owner, you would keep a close eye on Yelp, OpenTable or FoodSpotting.

5. CREATE A MULTI-PLATFORM CONTENT CALENDAR

Having an editorial calendar is one of the golden rules in content marketing, yet one common mistake made by organizations is to deal with tactics in isolation, regardless of what may be happening in other departments of the organization or with external parties. A multi-platform content calendar thus should stem from business objectives on a yearly basis, and highlight strategies in key departments (Sales, Marketing, Communications, Public Affairs, Human Resources, Customer Service) and tactics employed, offline and online.

Having this long-term, holistic view helps prevent situations such as Qantas airlines’ #QantasLuxury campaign fail in 2011. We are all too familiar with the “left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing” syndrom, but having tools like a multi-platform content calendar in place, along with regular cross-functional team meetings, can address potential public mishaps like McDonald’s #McDStories or Wendy’s #HeresTheBeef. (Click here for more on these)

6. INVOLVE EMPLOYEES AND BRAND EVANGELISTS

Having a thriving community online, whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin is great in many ways: it can help foster new ideas for product and service development, help with cross-promotion, retention and loyalty. Brands who encourage employees to engage on social media, such as Zappos or Nordstrom, can also benefit from an extended reach and more diverse voice that helps “humanize” the brand and have more authentic conversations. Of course, this assumes you already have a clear social media policy in place or an organizational culture where social and transparency are ingrained with corporate genetics.

Having employees and brand evangelists you can count on is a distinct advantage if and when a crisis arises, as they can and will advocate in your favor, so you have an “army” of social collaborators to restate the facts, as a situation may require, on various platforms where your marketing or communications team alone could hardly outreach with equivalent efficiency.

7. EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

Last but not least: be prepared! While it is technically impossible to expect the unexpected, you can at least prepare for a crisis situation. If you work in a ski resort, what happens if a gondola or chairlift falls, killing many people on the spot? These are hypothetical situations that resorts should already be prepared for, but now that news break on Twitter, with real-time photos taken via Instagram, how would you deal with it?

A crisis management strategy needs to be in place, along with running drills for hypothetical situations. Who’s in command? Who is the spokesperson? What content goes on social platforms, who is entitled to communicate, which channels are prioritized, etc. These questions can and should be identified before a situation occurs, so that when the unexpected happens, you will know what to do.

Has your experience been different and would you have other insights in managing a brand’s e-reputation? I would love to hear your feedback in the comment section below.

• There are now more than 1 billion users on Facebook, with an estimated 743 million active users (active at least once in the past month)
• 58% of its user base access Facebook daily, while 23% access it 5+ times per day!
• More than 60% of users access their Facebook account via a mobile device
• More than 1 million websites have integrated with Facebook
• There are over 300 million photos uploaded to Facebook every single day
• There are over 500+ million “likes” per day
• 1 out of every 7 minutes online is spent on Facebook. The average session per visit is 20 minutes…

These are all mind-boggling statistics that can now be put into motion to power the Graph Search engine. Well, lo and behold, I was granted access a few days ago and so here are my first thoughts on the new shiny tool.

A FACEBOOK SEARCH REVOLUTION

My very first impression when I made the switch to Graph Search was: great, let’s start using this beast! Until I realized they had changed the look & feel on my Timeline…

As you can see, the biggest change is in the top navigation bar. Friend requests, messages and notifications that used to be on the left-hand side are now on the right. The left-hand side is now left alone and in priority for Graph Search. Once you get used to this fact, everything else is pretty much the same as it was.

Once you hover your mouse over the Graph Search area, in the top-left corner of your Facebook page, you are then given the following options to search within Facebook:

• My friends
• Photos of my friends
• Restaurants nearby
• Games my friends play
• Music my friends like
• Photos I have liked

Of course, these are just the suggested most popular types of searches Facebook assumes we will want to make, but you can type in pretty much anything you want and see what results Graph Search will yield.

LIMITED RESULTS… FOR NOW

When a friend of mine asked about recommendations for a good restaurant in Quebec City, where I live, I thought to myself: perfect, let’s try the new Graph Search! Here is the screen shot of the results:

Very disappointing results, since all these restaurants are actually in Montreal, not Quebec City! In case you wonder, the two cities are about 280 km away, or a 3-hours drive…

Being an active Foursquare user, I decided to search with the same criteria, that is: “restaurants”, in “Quebec City”. The results were impressive: numerous recommendations, many tips left by friends, colleagues or acquaintances, in varied types of restaurants in Old-Quebec, Downtown, South Shore, etc. No doubt, Foursquare was a much better tool in this specific example.

In this example, with the query “Things to do in Montreal”, the last two categories of results are web searches within Bing.

Now, it must be said that when using Graph Search, if Facebook cannot yield results within its database, it defaults to classic search results, using Bing. While Microsoft’s search engine certainly doesn’t have the market share of Google (66.9%), it still holds the number two position at 16% and it’s safe to assume this new feature within Facebook will likely benefit the search engine in the long term.

In that sense, Facebook’s Graph Search holds a much bigger, more complete set of tools to answer queries that go beyond the simple example I used above. If you consider simply one suggested category, such as “Photos I liked”, it can potentially become a great way to search through all the photos liked throughout the years. I apparently “liked” more than 100 photos so far, which is easy to believe since I’ve been active on the network since 2007. Thus, it can become a reference tool to dig into personal Facebook archives.

WILL IT STICK?

The biggest question, however, remains if this new feature will “stick” with Facebook users. That is, will it become a part of our everyday life and can it become a reflex in our Facebook routine. Many people claim this new search functionality means the end of Foursquare and other location-based applications, and even perhaps user-generated content platforms such as Yelp or Tripadvisor. I don’t think so.

The reason is quite simple: we are creatures of habit. You don’t search for things on internet, you “Google” them. And when you want to know about a hotel or attractions for an upcoming trip, you check out other travelers’ opinions on Tripadvisor. Just because some of my friends may have “liked” a hotel page, or even perhaps made a comment on one of them because they stayed there 4 years ago, doesn’t make that review more pertinent to me. I still prefer to sift through the 29 comments made by travelers who were there in the past month.

Going back to Graph Search, I am not convinced we will suddenly develop the reflex to “Facebook” our next search, specially if results are sub-par during the first few queries. Sure, I realize the functionality was just launched, in English only. One can only assume results will get better as user comments are taken into consideration, more languages are added and the search algorithm is tweaked accordingly. But will it be enough?

Lastly, how will brands and advertising stake a claim into this new search entity? Facebook has not gone forward on the matter yet, but we can only assume there are plans to monetize this promising new feature. Would it actually enhance the experience or muddy the waters even more?

Have you tried the new Graph Search? I would love to have your opinion on this in the comment section below.

Notice how Google+ is actually NOT listed as a stand-alone silo but rather stems from the heart of Google Search, the content you share (presumably through your blog, public social platforms and Google+) and the people you share it with, i.e. Your Circles. This says a lot, in particular to those nay-sayers of Google+ as “just another social media”.

TRAVEL IS MUCH MORE THAN GOOGLE TRAVEL

Now, if you look closely at this diagram, it would seem that travel is but a line in the overall Google equation. That ain’t necessarily so. Ever since 2010, when Google acquired ITA Software, a dominant online travel agency, many people in the travel industry have been waiting to see when and how Google would be making its big move into this sphere. Truth is, Google has been moving slowly but surely towards online travel domination ever since that time. For example:

• Launch of its Google Hotel Finder functionality in July of 2011 to fight off meta-search engines such as Kayak which, incidentally, was acquired by Priceline last November.
• Around the same time, launch of Google Flight Search, entering the realm of flights and transportation. In 2012, this lead to the experimental Google Flight Explorer, a tool that seems interesting at first glance. But is it being used?
• Acquisition of Zagat, in september 2011. Zagat is best known for its restaurants reviews and comments, coming from over 350,000 ‘surveyors’ across North America and Europe, mostly.
• Acquisition of Frommers, in August 2012. This move was both a sign that Google was serious about travel and hospitality AND it wanted to position itself as the leader with quality content in this realm.

These are just a few of the key elements that define the Google travel ecosystem as explained by the folks at Travopia in this excellent analysis:

In the above diagram, we can see where Google does not yet have a foothold, but as the speed things are evolving, I am not even sure this will still be accurate in 2013. And it says nothing about how more and more people are getting savvy about online travel search and its influence in the travel purchase funnel. For more on this, read How Travelers Use Online Sources for Travel-Decision Making.

GOOGLE NOW AND THE POWER OF MOBILE

Yet, it is perhaps through its mobile application that Google will disrupt travel in its biggest way, bringing in the ever-important notion of ‘real time’. One of the most underrated novelty of 2012 was Google Now, a mobile personal assistant that some compare to Apple’s Siri. Among other things, Google Now addresses the “trip management” box in the above diagram by assisting with schedules, traffic itineraries and estimated times, and much more. It therefore encompasses your trip details, just like an application like Tripit would do, but with all the Google information related to maps, nearby restaurants, reviews or schedules it can tap into from its Google Earth, Google Maps, Zagat or Frommers content.

In fact, out of the 21 cards displayed by the application, there are eight that are directly related to the travel sphere. Namely:

1. Flights – Shows your flight schedules, gate changes, traffic itinerary and information to or from the airport
2. Hotels – Displays directions to your hotel upon arrival to your destination
3. Restaurants – Pops up reminders when you ought to leave in order to reach the restaurant based on real-time estimated travel time
4. Events – Provides information and details about an event, sends reminders if you purchased tickets
5. Public Transit – Displays next bus / train when you are at a bus / train station, gives estimated times of arrivals and details of itinerary
6. Places – Suggests nearby places of interest, bars and restaurants, based on your location
7. Nearby Attractions – Displays nearby attractions to visit [pulled from Zagat]
8. Nearby Photo spots – Displays nearby photo spots with estimated time to get there

What’s next for Google in the travel vertical? With such an online domination, the one question that begs to be answered is probably: what if Google went into e-commerce? Or said differently: what if Google became transactional, as a full-fledged online travel agency? How disruptive would THAT be?

Not sure the regulators would allow this to begin with, but travel industry players need to take notice. Are you making the most of your presence online and via Google tools? Have you claimed your Place on Google? Are you monitoring reviews? Do you have a Google+ Brand Page? Do you have a Youtube dedicated channel or videos uploaded on the platform? How is your property or destination portrayed on Google Now?

I’d be interested to hear your feedback on this, so feel free to leave your comments in the section below.

SO WHAT, RIGHT?

Reading that story reminded me of this Hubspot cartoon from three years ago, in case you may have missed it.

There are essentially two schools of thought on this one. Some folks think it’s alright to self-proclaim yourself as an expert, guru, ninja, or jedi, if indeed you have relevant expertise and know-how. Others feel it’s ridiculous to even claim such expertise when the social media field is so nascent. I believe there is some truth in both opposing views, actually.

Personally, I find it somewhat pompous to call oneself any qualifier such as ‘guru’ or ‘jedi’. These terms are usually associated with someone who’s dedicated his or her life to learning in a given field. Sure, we get it, there is a tongue-in-cheek aspect in play here. I concur with B.L. Ochman that such terms are perhaps acceptable when bestowed upon someone, not when you self-proclaim. Just today, I came across a post announcing the presence of a social media guru, speaking at a Travel Agent summit coming up in Las Vegas. Out of curiosity, I checked out that person’s profile on Twitter, her blog and website. Yup, this lady certainly seems to have lots of experience in the travel industry and seems to fit the qualifier. And she doesn’t call herself a guru anywhere on her blog, website or Twitter bio. Call it being humble, or just plain common sense.

HOW LONG ‘TIL ANYONE CAN BE A SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT?

The real underlying question with this debate is perhaps this one: is there really such a thing as a social media expert? I don’t want to rehash last year’s debate over the claim only folks under 25 can properly manage social media because they understand it best (Read the story on Forbes). Or if you’ve read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, you know of his theory that it takes 10,000 hours working in a field or specialty in order to be considered an ‘expert’. Either way, if and when you hire a social media consultant to help with your situation, what you look for usually is:

• Track-record with other clients, i.e. recommendations on Linkedin or testimonials on website
• Case studies with recent clients: what was done, what were the objectives, how success was measured, what worked or not, etc.
• Tangible thought-leadership: personal or corporate blog, guest blogging, active and engaging presence on various social media, i.e. Twitter, Google+. Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook.
• Experience in your niche or industry
• Strategic thinking, or out-of-the-box approaches to solving problems

These are the aspects that rise to the top when considering working with a social media marketer. Some companies may require someone who is 100% savvy in social media, knowing the nuts and bolts of every modifications to Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm. Others will prefer someone who knows quite a bit about social media utilization, more than most people in fact, but who can also speak to SEO, AdWords campaigns or content marketing strategies across various company departments.

SEPARATING THE WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF

And that’s just the problem, ain’t it: how do you know which ones are the real experts? Well, when you see guru, jedi, maven or ninja, it’s usually a blunt giveaway: look the other way, and run! As far as I’m concerned, that doesn’t just apply to social media but to any field, really. I would rather work with a “real estate agent who listens to customer needs and gets the job done” rather than a “real estate rock star who broke every sales record for the past 12 years”. But hey, that’s me and I don’t judge folks who’d prefer to work with the latter.

So sure, there are people who claim to be social media experts because they’ve been on Facebook for the past five years, have a Klout score of 72 and count on 10,000 followers on Twitter, yet have little to no business experience. A little probing usually will allow to shed some light and get the clear picture before you commit to anything you might regret.

In 2013, travel brands are facing the next paradigm shift, which has been brewing over the past two to three years: the mobile revolution.

MOBILE, A KEY DRIVER IN DIGITAL TRAVEL GROWTH

According to a recent report from emarketer, total spending on online travel is expected to reach over $120 billion by the end of 2012 and should reach close to $129 billion by end of 2013, a yearly growth of 8%. Compared to overall online retail sales, online growth for travel is slow, mostly due to a certain level of maturity in the market. The US mobile travel market, however, is a different story. In 2012, it is estimated that 16 million Americans will have booked travel via a mobile device. By 2016, this number is expected to more than double to 36.7 million!

During this same time period, significantly more mobile users will not only purchase travel on their phones or tablets but also research their next destination, hotel or event through their device. People use their devices at hand to dream of their next trip, and this is where opportunities abound for travel marketers around the world in order to reach potential customer upstream, while they are still in aspirational research mode. In a study conducted this past November by Expedia MediaSolutions and ComScore, 2 in 3 mobile device owning travelers admitted to travel dreaming at least once a month or more!

FROM SOLOMO TO MOBILE-ONLY

One of the biggest etourism trends of 2012 was the rise of solomo, the convergence of social, local and mobile. Social and mobile are a natural fit: simply consider that 58% of all Facebook users access their account through a mobile device. In fact, social media represents the second most popular activity on mobile devices, after internet access, according to a survey conducted by O2 in the United Kingdom during the summer of 2012. Mobile users spend on average more than 17 minutes per day browsing and interacting through their various social accounts. What about local?

Geo-localization applications like Foursquare have been fighting hard to make their way and gain massive adoption, with limited success so far. At first a gaming application, where users could earn badges after so many check-ins at a given location, Foursquare has morphed into a full-fledged application to discover things to do, eat or see once in a given destination. Thus, mobile becomes a way to find new restaurants, according to peer reviews and comments left by friends from your network. OpenTable or Yelp are similar applications, and then there is Google also playing in this sphere, especially since it acquired the online travel agency ITA, restaurant reviews from Zagat and travel publisher Frommers.

Source: Nielsen study, with TelMetrics. Published in Tnooz, August 9th, 2012.

There are some, however, who believe mobile is much more than a channel and that it therefore deserves a core focus in the overall travel marketing strategy. Already, Google estimates that 25% of all travel-related searches are conducted via a mobile device, a figure that reaches 33% of searches specifically for accommodations. And looking at this chart taken from a Google study conducted in August 2012, the percentage is even higher when observing behaviors among leisure and business travelers. So it won’t be a stretch before we see things evolving from a “mobile-first” mentality to a “mobile-only” approach in the near future.

REAL-TIME & LAST-MINUTE ARE THE NEXT BATTLEFIELD

Whether it is for holiday packages, airfares or hotel and accommodations, more and more searches are now made last minute, which equates in most cases to mobile devices. Major online travel agencies have all developed sophisticated applications and mobile-friendly sites in order to capture this new reality, where estimates vary between 10-30% of all online bookings.

New players are entering the field, such as HotelTonight, a mobile application offering last-minute hotel deals providing up to 70% discounts for same-day reservations. Hotels dump their unused inventory, while mobile travelers take advantage of last-minute deals, a win-win situation, right? Not everyone agrees, as some hotel industry experts believe mobile channel should never be discounted, in particular when bookings are last-minute. The law of offer & demand will prevail, in the end…

KEY TAKEWAYS

1. Mobile device ownership will continue to grow worldwide, and internet traffic will continue to shift from PC to tablets and smartphone devices;
2. Applications drive travel brand engagement, in particular with airlines, hotels and online travel agencies;
3. The most important element is to have a mobile site, in order to influence at all levels of the travel purchase funnel: aspiration, inspiration, decision-making, purchasing and living the experience;
4. Despite of all the talk, a majority of travel industry brands have not yet embraced the mobile revolution. Those who move fast will gain a competitive edge, as long as it’s part of an over-arching marketing strategy.

This post was written for the World Summit Awards – Mobile Content, and originally published on their site. For details and info, click here.

2012 is coming to an end, which usually means a great time to reflect and look back at how things have unfolded in our personal and professional lives during the past year. One thing is for sure: with smartphones, tablets and laptops penetrating our everyday lifestyles, this continuous connectedness is not without its fair share of secondary effects. We spend insane amounts of time sharing and commenting on various social networks, but how does this affect our real-life interactions? The folks at OnlineCollegeCourses.com created this infographic that features a couple of neat factoids, such as:

• The average Facebook user spends 405 minutes per month on the network, which equates to 81 hours per year!
• Why are we so ‘addicted’ to social media? While typically people spend 30-40% of their conversations talking about themselves, this proportion reaches 80% on social media. I have no problem believing this stat whatsoever! (I am just a little surprised we typically spend only 30-40% doing so in real life. I know folks who tend to be closer to 90%, but that’s a different matter)
• 56% of Millenials and Gen Ys said they wouldn’t take a job that didn’t allow access to social media, regardless of salary!

Do you agree that resisting the urge to check your Facebook, Twitter or other social media accounts is harder than urges such as smoking, drinking alcohol, spending money or… having sex? Check out the infographic below and let me know your comments in the section below. Not that I’m addicted to comments, or anything…

HOW COMMUNITIES WORK ON GOOGLE+

Communities are basically groups of people sharing common interests for a topic or brand. If you go to your Google+ account, you will find it easy to search through existing communities, if you haven’t been invited yet to join one!

In fact, it’s easy to create a new community following these three simple steps:

1. Go to https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities and click on “create a community”
2. Choose between making it “public” or “private”. NOTE: Choose wisely, since there are no ways yet to change settings once the choice is made.
3. Name your community and choose if you want to accept anybody in it or have a moderator approve each new member.

Before creating a new community, one word of advice: search to see if one with the same name already exists. Just putting “travel” and “photography” in the search bar gave me five different communities, with few members each. This is certainly a flaw Google will need to eventually work out, just like the privacy settings that can’t be changed.

Click here to view the embedded video.

WHY COMMUNITIES MAY VERY WELL BE A GAME-CHANGER

Ever since Google+ was launched in 2011, many experts could see its potential but the network seemed to lack the most important thing: a reason to spend time there! In fact, it’s a known fact G+ attracts far less users than Facebook or Pinterest, for example. And this usually boils down to one key factor in social media: stickiness. Or lack thereof, in G+’s case. Until now.

Stickiness is defined as the amount of time spent on a site over a given period of time, and it usually has to do with relevancy, shareability and a string of factors that keep customers, potential customers, advocates or detractors coming back for more. People spend time on Facebook to share personal photos or videos, discuss current events or share travel plans, or perhaps play a game or two. Others will spend inordinate amounts of time on Pinterest to share awesome recipes, fashion pictures or wedding planning ideas, for example. But why would you spend any time on Google+, save to search for a topic in a specific niche?

Communities have the potential to bring people to spend more time on Google+ and, more importantly, to have them discover what many experts have been lauding about its platform every since its inception. Just like Facebook Groups or Linkedin Groups, communities will be able to discuss, comment, share pictures, photos or links to relevant articles. Yet, the G+ editing platform is much more user-friendly, with the ease to edit posts after publication, to give just one example. A functionality like Hangouts will become that much more interesting, allowing for much more dynamic group discussions. And, let’s not forget: with the +1 button among other features, discussions held here will contribute to the dynamics of a vibrant online presence for organizations already engaged in social media and interested to hear more about what customers are saying about their brand.

MODERATION WILL BE KEY

While many experts and industry pundits are seeing this recent feature as yet another chapter in the Google vs. Facebook battle, I will be curious to see how this affect mostly Linkedin, known for its 1.2 million discussion groups where people spend a fair amount of their time on the network. If Google+ plays it cards well, communities have the potential to eat away at Linkedin’s lunch with its superior platform, much more conducive for sharing, commenting and real-time group discussions. The biggest flaw with Linkedin groups, however, remains its inability to properly manage self-promoting spam and irrelevant content that seem to plague too many groups. Groups who stay on focus are few and far in-between, and it usually boils down to having a pro-active moderator or group of moderators. How will Google+ address this phenomenon will determine to what extent communities will truly become a game-changer in the evolution of this nascent social platform.

What do you think? Have you joined a community yet? Can you see the potential for a brand or businesses moving forward in 2013?

PEOPLE FROM AROUND THE WORLD DON’T TRAVEL THE SAME WAY

Since the survey sampled different leisure travelers across the US, Europe (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC), there were a bunch of other interesting findings that did not get as much coverage since the study was published. One general trend that was analyzed was the growth of staycations, or domestic vacations within the country. This remains a strong trend in the US, where 88% of travelers stay within the country, compared to 73% in Europe or 74% in Asia. A bigger difference was actually found in how many respondents chose to travel outside of their country: only 23% of Americans said so, compared to 48% of Asians and 52% of Europeans.

Weekend breaks are a lot more popular in the US at 26%, which is higher than the global average of 15% of travel. In both Asia and Europe, more than a third of travelers preferred to take one week vacations. It’s also a known factor that Americans take less vacations in general, or rather fail to take up all of their vacation time… (see the complete infographic here)

MAIN REASONS FOR CHOOSING LOCATIONS

Value for money is an international common thread for what most travelers are seeking when choosing their next destination. But once we start looking into what other reasons are important in the destination choice, we see clear distinctions according to the three geographic markets surveyed. US travelers, for example, see relaxation as a more important choice (57%) than the other regions when choosing their destination vacation. Is it because we are so stressed out in North America?

Travelers from the Asia Pacific area put greater weight on recommendations from friends and family, and put a bigger emphasis on the convenience factor. European travelers seem to focus more on knowledge enrichment and escapism, and overall seem less concerned with convenience than the other two regions.

POINTS OF INFLUENCE

Recommendations from family and friends remains the key influence across the globe on the choice of a vacation destination (63%), ahead of internet searches (55%), individual providers websites (49%), communications by airlines and hotels (48%) and online travel sites (46%). When asked what source of information helped with the initial decision of vacations destinations, 44% of respondents went with internet reviews by travel bloggers, followed by online travel forums (37%), Facebook (27%), Youtube & Vimeo (24%) and Pinterest (22%). Thus social media plays an important role at this stage, yet again it varies per continent. APAC travelers stand out in terms of their use of social media platforms to inform leisure travel decisions. In China, India and Malaysia, for example, internet and travel reviews have a greater impact on initial decision of vacation destination. See graphic below

PURCHASING PREFERENCES

Another eye-opener from this study comes from the answers seeking to better understand purchasing preferences when booking online. Travelers in the Asia Pacific area were more likely to click on online links and ads to purchase accommodation or transportation tickets while European travelers registered under average on pretty much every platform: online travel websites, airlines websites or individual providers websites. This held even more true when looking at purchases for attractions and activities, where APAC travelers are quite avid to transact via online travel websites while Europeans are at lot less likely do so.

In many ways, these findings echo those of a global survey conducted by Nielsen in August 2012, looking into online shopping behaviors around the world. As we can see, a big mistake marketers can do is to assume we all behave the same way online, no matter in which geographic market business is conducted.

Click here to download TEXT100 Digital Index: Travel & Tourism Study

What kind of websites do you purchase from most frequently when shopping online?
Source: Nielsen Global Survey of Online Shopping, Q3 2011 and Q1 2010. August 2012

HOW MOBILE IS USED DURING TRAVEL

The last findings I wish to highlight are those regarding how, or rather why, travelers use mobile while away on vacation. It should be said that 88% of respondents take a mobile device with them on vacation, confirming the ever-increasing importance for all travel industry stakeholders to take action and become mobile-friendly. But why? For the most part, to stay connected with friends, family and colleagues, which is particularly important for Asia Pacific travelers who also wish to do some work-related emails while on vacation.

Interestingly enough, people use their mobile devices more for social media, sharing pictures, videos or reviews rather than to stay abreast of world and local news. It tends to confirm our dependency to social networks and how we wish to maintain that level of connectedness, even while on vacation. No matter where we’re from!

STRATEGIES TO NAVIGATE CHANGE

This book is an easy read, filled with anecdotes and famous quotes that help bringing the message home on key theoretical aspects. For example, Dr. Duncan shares four simple yet insightful strategies to navigate change, which he coins as the four Ts:

• Think-Friendly behaviors include exercising curiosity, asking smart questions, and challenging your own conclusions.
• Being Talk-Friendly involves dialogue skills, listening to learn and understand rather than to rebut or overpower.
• A leader is Trust-Friendly by consistently earning trust and extending trust. This involves carefully avoiding common trust-busting behaviors that undermine credibility and influence.
• Being Team-Friendly means working with people in ways that foster genuine collaboration. It’s much more than superficial “teamwork”, rather it’s like synergy on steroids, requiring a special openness to other people’s contributions.

Along the way, the author mentions the importance of conducting an open dialogue, in particular in Chapter 5 when he emphasizes the importance of “taming the elephants”. When asked what he meant, here was his reply:

“Most of us have been in situations where there’s a relevant issue that nobody seems willing to talk about. We might even say to ourselves: ‘there’s an elephant in the room, and I sure wish someone else would tame the animal’. The elephant, of course, is something that’s undiscussable.”

“At NASA, insulation foam falling off fuel tanks and hitting space shuttles became an undiscussable. For Detroit automakers, the marketplace surge of Japanese cars was undiscussable. At IBM, Apple was an undiscussable. At Kodak, digital photography was an undiscussable.” These are all pretty powerful examples in the book, to which I would add how the music industry would not discuss Napster or iTunes, or how traditional print media would not discuss online advertising until recently.

THE SEVEN CHANGE-FRIENDLY STEPS

Taken together, the four Ts ultimately inform seven key steps of the change-friendly protocol, which can be described as follows:

1. Validate the journey: In addition to making a solid business case for change, you must make a compelling psychological case for change. Everyone listens to the same station: WIIFM – What’s in it for me? You’ll get little traction by merely telling people what to do. That feels like force. But you can make significant headway when you understand and appeal to their agenda. That fels like influence, and it requires authentic leadership.
2. Scan for speed bumps: New ideas often fail, not on their relative merits but on how well resistance is handled. A change-friendly leader knows how to neutralize or convert resistance. This requires trust and authenticity.
3. Chart the course: A change-friendly leader appreciates the value of compliance and understands the advantages of commitment. Earning commitment requires the systematic creation and reinforcement of behavioral norms based on trust and transparency, integrity, empathy and healthful relationships.
4. Build a coalition: Critical to any successful change effort is the way you deal with champions, agents, sponsors and targets (CAST) characters. Synergy is not created by merely adding things together, but rather from bonding things together differently.
5. Ford the streams: This is about ensuring that the change and transition fit comfortably with your organization’s pertinent cultural elements. The authentic leader acts as an emotional guide in helping people navigate the white water of resistance.
6. Stay on message: Honest communication is the lubricant of all good relationships. The authentic leader is adept at using symbols and metaphors to reinforce desired behaviors. As Gandhi counseled, “become the change you seek in others”.
7. Mind the gap: There is often a need to make course corrections, so change-friendly leaders have to calibrate for result to ensure that the gap between the current state and the desired state is constantly shrinking.

CONCLUSION

“You can rent a man’s back and hands. But you must earn his head and heart.” – Dr. Duncan

I know there are a plethora of good books out there on leadership and change management, so I really can’t judge how this one rates compared to others. Simply put, it details a process to get things done and explains the pitfalls and behaviors to watch in order to adjust along the way. It’s certainly an interesting read if you have to deal with change management, as most of you probably do simply by trying to keep up with social media marketing techniques and their impact on your overall online strategy!

• 65 hours of footage
• 8,206 entries
• 82 winners
• 1 inspiring video (see below)

TRENDS AREN’T LOOKING SO GOOD

At the same time, Deloitte issued the winter edition of its semi-annual Navigate report (Click here to download), looking at tourism, hospitality & leisure stats and trends in the Canadian industry. Unfortunately, the outlook is not as upbeat as the above video! At first glance, one could believe things aren’t so bad. Consider that:

• January to June 2012: global arrivals were 5% higher than over the same period in 2011
• There were fewer arrivals to Canada from Europe but more from emerging markets such as China, Brazil, India and Mexico.
• A growing interest in winter-destination travel will increase the number Japanese visitors to Canada
• 68% of Canadian travelers will take a vacation in the coming 12 months, compared to only 60% a year ago

As for the US market, the outlook is pretty much at status quo, with some light of hope with the economic recovery under way meaning potentially more coming North of the border. Yet knowing that more than 85% of the Canadian travel industry receipts come from Canadians traveling within their own country only makes us realize that things are not necessarily looking that good, seeing that:

• In 2011, 30% of Canadians intended to travel domestically. In 2012, this number is down to 24%
• A year ago, 19% of Canadians intended to travel overseas. A year later, this number is up slightly at 20%

These two last statistics confirm a lasting trend that has been going on over the past decade, in great part due to the increasing strength of the Canadian dollar, as can be seen in the chart below. So having more Canadians intending to take a vacation in the coming 12 months is great, but less so if they are going to the US or abroad to spend their money – unless, of course, you work in the US travel industry!

HOW COMPETITIVE IS CANADA ON THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL?

Earlier this year, I asked the question: What future for Canada as a travel destination brand? It should be known that Canada once ranked as the 7th most visited countries, back in 2002. Ever since then, though, it’s been a slippery slide and we’ve now moved completely out of the top 20, despite of the visibility coming from a worldwide event like the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010. So why is the outlook so gloomy?

For one thing, budget cuts to the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) can’t possibly help promoting the nation’s brand abroad. With a budget that once hovered over the $100 million, it has since shriveled to a mere $58 million, forcing the CTC to cut back on operational expenses, shut down in-market offices and even pull out of US market advertising campaigns, leaving provinces and cities to go it alone. Good thing the CTC is social media savvy and keeps exploring in the digital world to get a bigger reach and audience with a bigger bang for the buck.

Accessibility is another aggravating factor. Flying to and within Canada is brutally expensive, as is the cost of other popular modes of transportation like trains or buses. Toronto Pearson international airport is famous for its prohibitive landing costs, with fees then passed on to customers by airlines. Just last week, Quebec City announced a major hike in its landing fee structure, which will make it even more expensive than Toronto! No wonder as many as 5 million Canadians, or 15% of its total population, now choose to drive across nearby borders in order to fly out of American airports!

TIME FOR A CHANGE

A year ago, Minister of State and Small Business, the Honorable Maxime Bernier, presented Canada’s Federal Tourism Strategy. Many applauded the initiative, and I also believed it was a positive step toward change. A year later, however, nothing seems to have moved, or very little. How can the Canadian tourism industry make a change to improve things and reverse the tide? I would love to have your opinion on the matter.

NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH

The direct impact of these changes with EdgeRank and less posts showing up in fans newsfeeds? Brands now have to pay “promoted posts” to spread content that used to reach its audience naturally, through savvy and dynamic community management. And the price tab can get quite hefty, in particular for brands that had built substantial communities, in many cases through buying Facebook Ads to begin with. The reaction has been harsh, to say the least. Here is a sample of posts on the topic:

• Marc Cuban: Facebook Is Driving Away Brands – Starting With Mine
• Is Facebook’s Monetization Killing Off Customers?
• Why Facebook Won’t Give You A Straight-Up Newsfeed

So while the use of Facebook for individuals is still free (and always will be?), this recent coup by Facebook has ruffled quite a few feathers for brands active on the network. Sure, Facebook has since introduced the new “pages” feed on the left hand-side navigation bar, but will it be enough? Following my most recent post, How to get Facebook engagement… without having to pay for it? some folks commented how this kind of change suddenly makes Google+ more appealing. I am not convinced about this tit-for-tat approach, since brands invest where people are and like to hangout (pun intended), and this ain’t happening on G+ but rather on Facebook. Nevertheless, the almighty shell of Facebook, which started showing cracks after its wobbly IPO earlier this year, is more than ever questioned by the business community. This is a good thing for brands, now reevaluating their strategies and social media tactics. Not sure it’s as good for Facebook, though.

EARNED (SHARED) MEDIA VS. OWNED MEDIA

For many, this series of changes marked the realization that Facebook remains a shared platform, where rules can and will change, and that brands should always prioritize owned media first and foremost, where they can exert a better control over content platforms. A content-rich transactional website, a quality blog, database marketing with segmented newsletters, webinars, case studies, photos and videos are just a few examples of owned media tactics. Besides the obvious benefits and drawbacks of investing in more traditional paid media, organizations now hold many more ways than ever to act as publishers on their owned media and engage with customers, loyal fans and potential clientele across the web, through social and interest graphs.

How Forrester defines owned, paid and earned media

CONTENT MARKETING: WHAT’S NEXT?

Knowing the rules of the game are changing so fast, how can we and how should we revisit our strategic approach for brands building a strong presence online? There are two schools of thought on this one. On one hand, there are folks like Mark Schaefer who says the more brands invest in content marketing, the less it will become a key differentiator. In fact, the level playing field has turned to a content arms race, he claims.

“Social media is a mainstream marketing and communication channel that will increasingly be dominated by those with the fattest wallets” – Mark Schaefer

On the other hand, there are those who, like Gini Dietrich, claim that Facebook promoted post remove the level playing field. In essence, this approach views recent Facebook changes as more proof that we ought to pay closer attention to, and invest in, our owned media. Or, perhaps, to invest in paid media that achieves specific business objectives rather than simply increase likes and shares. Personally, I tend to agree with Gini’s view for the next 2-3 years, yet I do believe content marketing will eventually level off.

I agree that content marketing is the new advertising, and that, just like with advertising, mainstream channels will eventually be dominated by those with bigger budgets and resources. But in the meantime, there is still a vast majority of small and medium businesses (SMB) that have yet to get a proper content marketing strategy in place, including a decent and optimized website, quality newsletters and dynamic social media presence. A recent study (in French) by CEFRIO found only 15% of organizations actively using social media in the province of Quebec. In other words, we’re nowhere near the day when things level off. For many SMBs, simply harnessing the potential of owned and shared media is a feat onto itself, and many have yet to be convinced paid media is not the ultimate solution – even though it’s an easy, albeit ephemeral one.

Thus, the challenge is now to assess where to prioritize efforts, knowing platforms like Facebook are not (and never were) free and knowing that our competitors, too, are asking themselves the very same questions. Early adopters will continue to reap the rewards for a while, so it’s still time to address the situation and invest in content marketing accordingly. Just make sure you don’t put all your eggs in a single basket, as appealing as Facebook may be…

MUST A BRAND ABSOLUTELY PAY IN ORDER TO GET REACH & ENGAGEMENT?

Yes and no. Truth be told, there are still some tried and true tactics that allow brands to get better engagement on a consistent basis. The infographic below shows some of the ways community managers can engage and get fans to participate in the conversation, thus reactivating the relationship with the brand page, despite of EdgeRank’s inherent selectiveness.

ASKING FANS TO CHANGE THEIR SETTINGS TO FOLLOW YOUR BRAND

The other tactic that is perhaps even more effective in order to get fans to receive all posts from your fan page is to ask them to manually change their settings. Let’s not kid ourselves, though: this tactic, while certainly the best one around, will work with only a minority of people, most likely the ones who were already engaged with you to begin with. Nevertheless, it’s worthwhile asking your fan base, not just on Facebook but also via your newsletter, Twitter account, blog or other platforms where you connect regularly with your fans and customers.

Basically, you must ask fans to go to your page, click the down arrow at the top right of the page, and have them “add to Interest Lists” or “add to My Page’s Favorites”. This way, fans are telling Facebook your content is something they privilege and want to see shown in their newsfeed. The other little thing that may we worthy to remind fans of, is that it’s usually better to have their news sorted by “most recent” rather than the default setting of “most popular”, which again links back to what EdgeRank deems most popular, maybe not you.

Will all of this be enough in order to avoid having to pay to promote posts to reach your fans? Most likely not, but it will certainly help gaining initial traction and ensuring a secure base of loyal fans. Truth is, however, brands now don’t have much of a choice if they wish to succeed with their Facebook marketing. Facebook ads remain a great way to draw attention to your page as an acquisition tool or by driving them towards a contest. But for engagement and retention on this hugely popular platform, buying “promoted posts” will now become the new norm.

Many argue that this recent change with the Facebook business model may get more brands inclined to try Google+ or invest more time in Twitter, Pinterest or other platforms. It’s a false debate, since none of these networks have over a billion users, showcasing the level of daily activity seen on Facebook. But I certainly believe it will have more than a few rethink their online strategy in order to more appropriately invest in owned media, namely: corporate blogging, newsletters, case studies, photos and videos, FAQ, enriched web sites adapted for mobile devices, and so on. These tools remain under the control of the brand, and are sure bets for the next 3-5 years at least. Can the same be said about Facebook?