Tourism Week – Technology Tip #4 – Social Media Must Dos
One of the major benefits that small tourism companies have over larger competitors is that they tend to me more nimble and quick to respond to opportunities with technology. The other clear benefit is that the owner/operator or someone very close to the company can add a human face and element to the organizations social media efforts. If you have not yet jumped on to the Social media bandwagon and are considering it, here are my top 5 recommendations:
- Know your goal with Social Media: This seems like a pretty basic point, but it is critical. You need to define what your expectations are with Social media or it can become a time and energy vortex. Is your goal to open up communications with your current and potential customers or do you want to write interesting stories that will bring more potential customers to your website? Both of these are perfectly good goals, but the social media approaches are different.
- Philosophy NOT technology: Okay, being a techno-junkie this seems counter intuitive, but my point is that your customer philosophy and your goals should drive the type of technology you choose and not the other way around. If your goal is to build content and engage with potential customers then using a blogging platform is probably the best way to go, but which blogging platform really depends on your comfort level and your technical abilities. For starters, I recommend using WordPress.com, a hosted blogging platform. There are many others out there to choose from. As you become more comfortable with the technology, you can find the one that best fits your needs. If you are looking to engage with customers in a more casual way then you might consider Twitter, FriendFeed, or even Facebook (now that it is more like Twitter). These applications present conversations in a “lifestream” format giving people updates on what you are doing as you post them. They are not good for writing long posts but are very good at notifying your followers of what is going on and for starting or continuing conversations.
- Walk before you Run: If you have not yet tried social media, I recommend you start slow and begin by joining one or two networks. Just like on-line bookings, you have to prepare yourself and your products for on-line bookings before you can actually start taking advantage of your tour operator software. A good way to engage with a social network and prepare yourself for further engagement is to join http://travelblogexchange.ning.com/. This travel blogging social network is built on the NING platform which hosts many niche social networks. The benefit with NING is that you don’t have to create multiple logins. Start by commenting on posts you like, photos that you find captivating, or videos that interest you. Once you get a feel for participating you can move to the next step of contributing your own content by writing your own blog post or posting your own photos.
- Be Yourself: Those of you who are Saturday Night Live fans will remember the immortal quote from Stuart Smalley “I’m Good Enough, I’m Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!“. Well, it’s true. If you are yourself, share your experience and expertise in an open and authentic manner then, generally speaking, people will want to engage with you. People are drawn to others who share and who do so without expectation of reciprocity. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of negative people on the Internet as well, but when it comes to social networks, the people that you attract to your posts, photos, videos, etc. will relate to the way in which you compose your content. Positive words feed positivity, negative words feed negativity. It’s really that simple.
- Pace Yourself: It is easy to burn yourself out with Social media. At one point I think I had about twenty different usernames and profiles to manage. Eventually you will find the balance that makes it easy for you to remain engaged with the networks that are important to you and the ones where you contribute the most. Just like real-life, how engaged you are with a particular network will depend on how much of an impact you feel you have on the community as a whole. There is no reason not to join a community if you feel that you might be able to contribute to it at some point, but if you find that you are not able to continue contributing becuase of time constraints, then focus on the communities where you have the greatest impact.
On-line social networks are very much like their off-line counterparts. Your local Chamber of Commerce, business association, or club are all examples of real-world social networks. From experience, I can tell you that being a member of these organizations requires commitment and time if you expect to see tangible results from your membership. The same is true for on-line social networks and social media. The more you participate, the more you contribute, the more impact you will have on the community and the more likely you will be to achieve your goals.
Photo: That’s me going for an ice swim in the Kemi River (I think that’s the name) in Rovaniemi Finland. Like technology, I believe in just jumping in and giving things a try.
