In africa
So here's the view outside our tent/cabin this morning. Absolutely amazing. Unfortunately tourism is still impacted from the election trouble last year so we're virtually alone in a fairly large camp. I'm not complaining.
Wilhelmus
William Bakker is director of eBusiness at Tourism British Columbia. These are my personal thoughts.
Wilhelmus on twitter:
Link Roll:
March 29, 2009
March 14, 2009
Why businesses should use Twitter - by Japadog
Japadog is taking Vancouver by storm. The Japanese style hot dogs are weird but delicious. Japadog is also active on Twitter and here's why:
Awesome. Couldn't have said it better in less than 140 characters myself.
February 10, 2009
Thoughts about Montreal's 'army of bloggers to promote the city'
Great to see all the attention Montreal gets from their initiative to hire an 'army of bloggers' to promote the city.
Roberto Rocha writes on Canada.com
You also have to wonder just how honest these bloggers will be. Will they relate bad experiences as well as the good? Will they just omit the bad stuff? Being a government agency, Tourisme Montréal will be under a lot more scrutiny than any private body. Since so many restaurants, stores and hotels are stakeholders, it will be interesting to see how they balance authenticity with marketing.
I think Roberto has a point. Of course the bloggers won't be critical. But that doesn't mean it can't be authentic. We've been doing something similar for a few months now with our Field Reporters. I've explained our strategy to create authenticity in a previous post. Our Field Reporters don't do anything staged. It's an experience any tourist could have. That's why we've made it clear we're behind them and we've build a random element into the execution (a recommendation). We have 37 videos to date and they're wildly successful. Maybe I'll give them a cellphone next ;)
I think the problem is with the word blogger and the solution is simple. Montreal should call these people something different because the word blogger creates a false expectation. My suggestion is to call them "Montreal Ambassadors" or something, like we did with 'Field Reporters'. Then you can define the job any way you like.
The idea is great and I hope Montreal is smart enough to allow some room to let the program shape itself. Who knows what will happen when people start phoning; it can go to unexpected (yet wildly successful) places. Like Todd said "it's all about the stories".
Update:
Field Reporter Chris says in the comments: The more I do these Field Reporting videos the more I realize the value of being completely spontaneous during a shoot in order to make it authentic. No preparation of what to say... just a start location, talk with people (residents, tourists, event organizers, or even Raccoons!) and see what happens, have fun and cover the moment.
January 10, 2009
Twitter for Travel and Tourism: Wrapping my head around it
I've been trying to wrap my head around what the opportunity is exactly for a Destination Marketing Organization like Tourism BC. Here's where I'm at. I welcome your input.
Twitter is social, so it's up to an individual to choose to follow somebody. To a bit of understanding about what would motivate somebody to follow a DMO, I posted a short survey on Twitter. I didn't get near enough responses to give it statistically valid results (n<100) but its something (feel free to fill it out and re-tweet).
My hypothesis that there's a difference between what people expect from a local or a far away tourism board seems to be true. Locals are interested in current information while long haul visitors look for ideas, deals and help in trip planning. Makes sense, people's needs depend on the level of knowledge about a destination.
My open question "Anything else you want to share about what a Tourist Board can do for you via Twitter?" resulted in some interesting insight (appended in the rest of by entry in italics below). They're in line with some ideas I have:
Twitter as a customer service centre
how about a "virtual" Visitor Information Centre/counsellor where visitors could ask questions about what to do, etc.
Comcast's Frank Eliason is universally hailed for his ComcastCares account where Comcast customers can ask questions or get help with service problems. Many DMO's already sun visitor centres and/or call centres. Twitter is another channel for communication.
I wonder how this would scale though as Twitter grows. Creating a network of Twitterers in a destination, each as an expert for a particular area or sector is one option. It doesn't have to be a DMO representative answering the question, there are plenty of local experts out there. Building the network and distributing questions is the role of the DMO.
Pro-actively sharing information
insider info about the place like favourite bar for a martini, celebrities visiting, bits of history
Sends you on a "5 second holiday" each day with breathtaking photos.
This falls more into the broadcasting category and that means you need to be careful because it's easy for people to perceive your message as spam and unfollow you as a result. But as the survey above show, there's appetite for this information. So how to go about it?
Twitter is about information sharing. But quality, quantity, frequency and communication style are important. I've been active on Twitter for almost two year and here are my observations.
Add links. Pointing to quality information is key to Twitter. Don't just link to your own website. Be diverse. By using a URL shorterner with reporting features like budURL or Cl.igs, you can measure the quality of your tweets by the number of clicks it receives.
Frequency. Don't post one tweet after another but space your informational tweets. You can use a tool like Tweetlater to schedule tweets. I use it for my 'Good Morning' tweets to cool BC photos. People are creatures of habit and people will look remember similar pieces of information at a regular time of the day.
Communication style. Just like all social media, the communication style needs to be conversational and authentic. No marketing talk; this message is from a person on behalf of a company. Companies can't talk.
The quality of information needs to be good. This is very subjective of course, and learning through trail and error is probably your best bet. Measuring re-tweets (what's retweet) is another good way of measuring the quality of your information.
Find a personal connection
Ask me questions and engage me.
An important realizations came to me last week when Meg from Finger Lake sent me the following message:
@wilhelmus we have a winery named after you in the Finger Lakes! http://w ww.wilhelmusestate.... :)
Twitter is about personal communication. Broadcasting general information is hit an miss for people. But if you make a personal connection, either through a gimmick (like my name) or an interest, the communication becomes a lot more meaningful. Again, scaling is tough. We receive millions of visitors to our website. There's no way we can develop a personal relationship with every person on Twitter. But our network of tourism partners certainly can. The operator ultimately delivers the experience after all.
Use the Twitter community
Take suggestions - ask us what the best cafe is in Revelstoke or great family camping etc.
Twitter is a community. People build their their network by following and being followed by other people. As a DMO, you need to work just as hard at your network as other people. When you create a thriving network, the network is the marketer, not the DMO. As a DMO, you can activate this by engaging the network as suggested above. Your network needs to include a diversity of 'local experts' that you can use to assist and connect with people.
This is where Twitter excels. It's how David Armano raised thousands of dollars for a friend in need. It's how Twitter is rapidly becoming a channel for live witness news.
Conclusion
Twitter can be a valuable tool for DMO's by providing information and support for travelers and potential travelers. It's important to understand Twitter is a social channel and not a broadcast channel. The personal and one-on-one communication style of Twitter is hard to scale. That's why it's important to build a network of people from your industry and past travelers and passionate residents you can activate.
Build your network and start engaging people. Use re-tweets to find the right person to assist and inform potential travelers. You can also use search and alerts to find people with questions that relate to your destination or related tourism experiences.
December 21, 2008
Does your tourism business or destination have a schizobrand?
I know two companies named "Taco Bell."
One is on television. It is clean, cheerful, and makes nice looking food.
One is in my neighborhood. It is dirty, disgusting, and I would never consider visiting it.
That was from Bob Hoffman's brilliant "the ad contrarian" blog.
Does your tourism business or destination reflect your brand message Or do you have a schizobrand as well?
December 13, 2008
Why phone when you don't have to?
I realized the other day that I don't check my voicemail that often. After a Twitter post a few people commented they do the same. Made me think.
There are new tools for communications. I use email, instant messenging, Twitter, Skype, Facebook and other social networks for specific types of communication and depending on the situation; both for personal and professional use. Basecamp and Google Docs are other great ways of communicating through collaboration.
Mind you, these tools can be used just as ineffectively as the phone, but that's what I'd like to focus on for this post.
An unscheduled phone call is an interruption. I'm working on something, and somebody decides that whatever I'm doing is less important than talking to that person. I also don't know what the topic of conversation is going to be about, I don't know what we're trying to achieve and I'm unprepared.
And don't even get me started on cold-calls.
For me, in a business environment, a phonecall or conference call is like a meeting. There needs to be an objective and purpose. Why do we need to talk and what problem are we trying to solve? That's why it needs to be scheduled. Everybody is prepared, and we can spent our time efficiently.
An unannounced call should be something like an emergency. Otherwise, drop me an email. It's 100 times for effective. I will probably send you back an email anyways.
November 27, 2008
Featuritis at the Phocuswright Innovation Summit
One thing I observed with some (most) of the Phocuswright innovators is that a lot of the products demo-ed are (still) conceived and created by engineers. Engineers are brilliantly smart. But most suffer from the “because we can” syndrome. FAIL.
Good products are simple and useful. If you don’t meet these criteria, you will fail guaranteed. Meet them, and you have a shot. They are your minimum requirements.
Take Twitter. Turns out Twitter us useful to millions of people. Twitter is also extremely simple. Post and follow. That’s pretty much it.
Twitter could add categories, replies, forwards, tags, google maps and much, much more. Twitter could allow its users to add pictures, voice messages, video. But they have resisted. Because it would stop being simple. And that’s a big reason why Twitter is successful.
Take Kayak. Kayak is also useful. Kayak is also extremely simple in it’s essence. From->to->dates->search and you’re done. The result page focuses on the core task; find the best flight. Features are optional after the core task is completed. These features are useful in itself, but don’t stop the core task from being simple.
I suggest to all the innovators to hire a product manager who understands this, focuses on the core task that’s being satisfied, and strips everything else.
Online Revealed Survey
The chicks from the Online Revealed conference would like your opinion about the topics for their next conference. Tourism businesses, please take some time and fill out the survey:
November 26, 2008
The times to charge for Wifi are ending
Daniel pointed me to a blog post by a online consultant in Germany who is outraged his hotel is charging him 5 euros PER HOUR for Wifi internet. He's wondering how much water or flushing the toilet costs.
The thing that makes it really funny is that he's giving a web 2.0 talk at the same hotel. He's posted complaints about all kinds of social networks and is creating a viral buzz about it. He will incorporate it in his talk. Now there's a way to make a point!
I have 3 criteria when looking for a hotel 1) clean 2) free internet 3) safe location. I don't care about anything else. So bad research on your part Bodenseepeter! [update: turns out he didn't have a choice in the matter, see comment below]
Daniel is wondering about what the hotel can do to respond to the blogosphere. He's offering a crate of beer for the best idea. I'm in!
Here's mine. It depends on the exact situation. The hotel probably doesn't generate any revenue but has a contract with a provider in return for installation and support. It also appears to be the norm in Europe to charge outrageous amounts for hotel internet access according to the comments below.
The hotel should respond by joining the conversation and promoting their rate as cheap compared to the competition! Further, they should create a "free wifi" viral campaign. Free Wifi for people who sign-up for our newsletter. The referrals they'll generate will pay for itself. And they can keep a relationship going with the people who sign-up.
[UPDATE: The hotel will offer free Wifi starting in 2009; this was already in their plans]
November 20, 2008
Sheri graduated!
Yesterday Sheri graduated as a Master Social Worker. Congratulations hunny!
