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How Can Travel Destinations Use Social Media and Blogging?

September 30, 2009 By

For one thing, update your website. Get a new site that makes lets you easily make your own changes, rather than relying on a code warrior to make $100/hour changes for you.

Second, add a blog and write new content at least twice a week. Talk about what’s going on at your place, announce special events, review those events after they happen, do special “Meet the Staff” profiles, talk about the history of your place, and anything else you can think of.

The reason you want to do this is because of search. Ninety percent of all web interactions begin with search, which means they’re searching for you. If they can’t find you, they won’t visit you. So blogging helps you win searches when travelers are looking for you.

Third, join Facebook. Create your own profile, but then create a page for your destination. Upload your email list of all your past visitors (you have been collecting emails, haven’t you?), and invite all of them to become fans of your page. Then you can update them about special events, new blog posts, and other news. Build a fan base of people who love your place.

Fourth, join Twitter. Upload your email list again and start following those visitors. They’ll follow you back, and you can use Twitter to broadcast new blog posts, chat with followers (like a chatroom), and keep in touch with your regulars and fan base.

By jumping in on social media and blogging, you can create a base of rabid fans who love your destination. They’ll not only come back year after year, but tell their friends about it too.

Filed Under: All Posts, Blog ROI, Business Blogging Content, Lead Generation, Social Media, Social Networks, Writing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Is Cold Calling Dead? Can Social Media Fill the Void?

September 30, 2009 By

Yes and No.

I know this is a hot topic right now.

Traditional cold calling seems to be a thing in the past. How many of us like an interruption in our day of someone trying to sell us something? I particularly like the ones that do not even ask, “Is this a good time to talk?” Or, I had one recently where the guy made it sound like he was representing the firm that put on a trade show I participated in. After I realized I was being sold, it kind of pissed me off. I decided not to do business with him anyway, because he had been deceitful.

I hired an expert in cold calling several years ago. She had built a successful IT Staffing business before cold calling had become so widespread. She got frustrated because it had become much harder to get people to even want to talk. Cold calling in her mind was dead.

Those are my anecdotes.

What are the statistics?

Proponents of cold calls will tell you, it depends on the industry. But the fact of the matter is it is about numbers. On one site I found, the sales manager did the math to figure out how his people could make the $100k the owner says they could. He found his folks would need to make 510 calls a day. He already knew that he needed to “speak” to 100 people in order to get three buying customers (a .0058 percent close rate from calls to closes). He presented the numbers to the owner and suggested the following:

  1. Purchase a bigger list to support the increased numbers needed.
  2. Or, increase commissions so reps can earn the 100k
  3. Or, find new ways to work smarter.

The owner’s response: “The reps might do better than those statistics.”

I am not suggesting that the phone is dead. It just needs to be used differently. Prospects need to be warmed up before calls are made. And at a .0058% close rate, there has got to be a better way.

How can social media help?

In B2B, social media can play an important role. It is a list building exercise, only it’s a list you build. The ROI in social media is building the list of possible customers, and industry contacts. An organic list is more valuable to you than a rented or purchased list. If you are generating conversation through social with your marketplace, they are more likely to do business with you.

With social media, it won’t take 100 conversations to get three clients. You can start getting one client in about eight phone conversations — which happens after you’ve laid the groundwork through a social network. Your sales pipeline becomes more predictable.

Cold calling in the traditional sense is dead. But, warm calling is alive and well. Social Media can help warm those folks up.

Filed Under: Social Media, Social Networks Tagged With:

Content is STILL King

September 24, 2009 By

Jeff Bullas has written a post on a study he found called the “Internet Activity Index” released by  the Online Publishers Association.  The study shows how content sites are still King of the Internet for both eyeballs and time.

Here are the highlights of the study:

The 5 Categories and the the types of sites that were measured were:

  • Content (Sites like NYTimes.com, ESPN.com and Edmunds.com (Content sites)
  • Communications (websites offering email, and Instant messaging)
  • Community (Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn)
  • Commerce (such as Ebay, Amazon)
  • Search (Google, Yahoo, Bing etc)

Here is Jeff’s interpretation:

The study on online activity titled the “Internet Activity Index” released by  the Online Publishers Association shows the  trends of the types of activity that have occurred on the Internet over the past 6 years. The study’s findings has important implications for online marketers and how they should be focusing their time, resources and strategies in 2009 and beyond.

Five key findings of the study?

  1. Internet users continue to spend a majority of their “time” with Content sites, up from 34 percent of total time spent in 2003 to 42 percent in 2009.
  2. Emergence of Community (it wasn’t measured in 2003 as it wasn’t statistically significant enough and not on the radar)
  3. Content is still king; the content rich sites continue to be a place where consumers spend the majority of their online time and provide an environment for brand marketers to reach and engage with consumers despite the emergence of  community sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace.
  4. Community sites are reducing the share of online time by communications sites due to community sites ability to offer the same activities such as email and instant messaging more efficiently.
  5. Time spent with Search doubled.

Here is the report as it is reported on the Online-Publishers Site:
Share of Time Spent Online (%)
Jul08 Aug08 Sep08 Oct08 Nov08 Dec08 Jan09 Feb09 Mar09 Apr09 May09 Jun09 Jul09
Commerce 14.1 13.5 13.1 12.8 14.3 16.0 14.1 13.4 13.2 13.3 12.8 11.0 10.9
Communications 28.2 29.0 28.7 28.0 26.5 25.9 26.5 27.4 27.0 26.4 26.3 25.2 24.4
Community 9.0 8.9 8.3 8.7 9.7 9.7 11.3 12.6 12.8 13.7 14.5 18.5 20.6
Content 43.4 43.2 44.6 45.3 44.5 43.2 42.8 41.1 41.5 41.3 41.1 40.6 39.6
Search 5.3 5.3 5.3 5.2 5.0 5.3 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.3 5.3 4.7 4.5
% Change in Share of Time, Month-Over-Month
Jul08 Aug08 Sep08 Oct08 Nov08 Dec08 Jan09 Feb09 Mar09 Apr09 May09 Jun09 Jul09
Commerce 3.4 4.3 3.0 2.3 11.7 11.9 11.9 5.0 1.5 0.8 3.8 - 0.9
Communications 2.4 2.8 1.0 2.4 5.4 2.3 2.3 3.4 1.5 2.2 0.4 - 3.2
Community 2.3 1.1 6.7 4.8 11.5 0.0 16.5 11.5 1.6 7.0 5.8 - 11.4
Content 2.6 0.5 3.2 1.6 1.8 2.9 0.9 4.0 1.0 0.5 0.5 - 2.5
Search 1.9 0.0 0.0 1.9 3.8 6.0 0.0 1.9 1.9 3.6 0.0 - 4.3


*Notes: Excludes .gov and .edu Web sites, as well as pornographic domains. Percentage change indicates the percentage increase or decrease from the previous month’s value (June 2009 % change not shown due to introduction of Nielsen’s NetView RDD//Online data). Share of Time data based on Total Time values.

Source: OPA and Nielsen Online

For years now, the principals here have been preaching that content is king.  Not only for search engine optimization (SEO), but also for it being the hub of a social media campaign.  A colleague of mine, who is the Chief Marketing Officer of a large travel company has validated these findings with their strategy.  Quote:  “Blogging is the hub of a social media campaign.  Social Media alone is not a strategy for corporations wishing to participate.”

The numbers Jeff shared this morning kind of validates this approach.  From a hub, there are spokes to other platforms through sharing.  The valuable asset is the content generated.

Filed Under: Blog ROI, Blogging, Business Blogging Content, Research Desk, Social Media, Writing Tagged With: , , ,

The Importance of Networking for Corporate Types

September 23, 2009 By

I have a good friend who I worked with when I was at the Indiana State Department of Health a few years ago.

“I have never had to apply for a job since my first one,” he told me. “I’ve been asked to come work for my new employer every time.”

Michael was in his late 40s at the time. I was staggered by what that actually meant: he had networked his way into every single job he had held since he was 26. No job search, no cattle calls at Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com, no mailing out résumés. He got his job based on who he knew, not based on killing hundreds of trees to put his résumé into the hands of people he didn’t know.

I’m surprised at the number of people, especially those in corporations, who look down on networking as “the thing the sales guys do” or “that’s just for marketing.” They think it’s unimportant, that everything they need for their job and personal development are found under one roof.

Then the bottom falls out, and they’re suddenly unemployed.

“Not a problem,” they think. “I’ll just reach out to my vast network and something will come up for me.”

Problem is, their vast network turns out to be all their Mafia Wars friends on Facebook, and their former colleagues at their last job.

Uh-oh.

“What about Bill?” they think. “He got a new job not too long ago. I’ll call him.”

Problem is, “not too long ago” turned out to be three years ago, and you can’t even find his phone number.

“Oh crap, I need to start networking,” they think. They start hitting LinkedIn and Smaller Indiana in a panic, trying to reach out to people they met at a conference last year and never kept in touch with, hoping to find that important, high-paying job they need.

That’s when they realize, the time to start networking was a year or two ago, not the day after they lose your job.

Most small business owners and entrepreneurs get this. They’re handling the sales, marketing, HR, finance, bookkeeping, and R&D function of their company, and networking is one of those things that are automatically understood. They attend the networking events and organizations, like Rainmakers, that will make a difference in their business.

But it seems that most of corporate America hasn’t gotten the message that you’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with. And if the only people you’re surrounding yourself with are from work, you’re never going to rise above that level of performance.

If you want to grow personally and professionally, you need to meet other people from other companies, in other industries, and even in other careers. Step outside your comfort zone, leave your cubicle or your office, just once a month, and see who else is out there. See if there are other people in your profession or your area who can make a valuable contribution to your growth and development.

Find a networking organization, like Confluence, you can be a part of, even if it’s only once a month for a couple hours at a time. (Full disclosure: I’m the president of Confluence.) Join the board of a nonprofit organization, and rub elbows with other high-powered corporate professionals. Volunteer with a community group. Join a trade association for your profession. Or join one for the profession you’d like to have.

Otherwise, you’re going to find yourself in need of a vast network of friends and professional colleagues, and you’ll realize that you’re going to spend the next several months building that network, instead of actually using it.

And by then, it will be too late.

Author :  •  Content Location : Indianapolis, IN  •  Headline : The Importance of Networking for Corporate Types  •  Keywords : BNI, Confluence, networking, Rainmakers  • 
Filed Under: Social Networks Tagged With: , , ,

Blogging is More Than Just Search Engine Optimization

September 17, 2009 By

“We’re just not seeing any results,” said the voice on the other end of the phone. “No one is coming to our office because of our blog.”

It was a phone message from a small business client who said they were going to stop their blogging, because they weren’t getting any clients. Despite the fact that they had been blogging for close to six months, and they were in the downtown area of a large city, no one was coming to their office because of their blog.

Their expectation? If we blog about what we do, we’ll “win search,” and they’ll come to us!

At the risk of beating the “‘if you build it, they will come’ does not work” cliché to death, I have to point out — yet again — ‘if you build it, they will come’ does not work.

As bloggers, we hear all the pros and cons for blogging:

  • You’ll win searches for your keywords.
  • You’ll establish yourself as an authority on your subject.
  • You’ll show you’re smarter than your competitiors.
  • It’s an easy way to update your website.
  • Bloggers are the new rock stars. (Okay, I made that one up.)

Here’s the problem: you could win every single search in the world for a chosen topic, but it doesn’t mean a damn thing if no one is searching for the topic to begin with.

Last year, I wrote a humor column about how New Zealand had just found a possible solution to the world’s animal methane problem. (Step 1 of an SEO strategy is to backlink to your blog post, like I just did there.) They basically did it by isolating the gene

I pulled out all the SEO stops. I did the backlinking thing on other sites, I used all the proper keywords in the headline, in the anchor text, and in the sub-heads. It was great. Within three days, I owned the number one ranking for animal methane problem, out of 625,000 Google results.

Big deal.

Do you know how many people search for the term “animal methane problem?” According to Google’s Keyword Tools, there is “not enough data” to know.

Today, I’m ranked #7 out of 628,000 results for animal methane problem (although with the little backlink four paragraphs ago, I’m guessing I can bump it back up).

But despite my previous crowning achievement of a #1 Google ranking, the number of people who have ever found my page because they’re searching for animal methane problem? Four. The number of people who found my site for the phrase “hoosiers are a hardy, resilient bunch?” Seven. Plus, there are 42 results for that page, and they’re all mine, from one of the newspapers where my column is published.

In other words, I have had more people find me for a phrase that apparently no one has ever used, versus a phrase that 625,000 people put in writing.

What does that mean for the bloggers who are striving for SEO gold? You can get a few lessons from this story:

  • #1 rankings don’t mean a thing if no one is searching for that to begin with.
  • Blogging is not a be all, end all strategy.
  • Search is not the only tool in the toolbox.
  • [Insert your own clever-sounding platitude here.]
  • If you’re blogging but you’re ignoring social media, you do so at your own peril.

In short, if you’re blogging, you need to tell them you’re blogging. Don’t wait for them to find you on Google. We’ll discuss how you can do that at a future date.

Author :  •  Content Location : Indianapolis, IN  •  Headline : Blogging is More Than Just Search Engine Optimization  •  Keywords : aniaml methane problem, blogging, search engine optimization, Social Media  • 
Filed Under: Blogging, Business Blogging Content, Social Media, Social Networks Tagged With: , , , ,

Rich Harris is All About Social Media Experts, Ninjas, and Grasshoppers

September 16, 2009 By

Blogger Rich Harris over at 47 Project is the latest to proclaim ain’t no party like a Scranton party there’s no such thing as a social media experts, with his post “Social Media Expert? You Have Lots to Learn, Grasshopper.”

Now that title may at first glance appear somewhat pretentious but even being someone who manages social media for a large company like myself, I have a hard time proclaiming guru or expert status.

Here’s the thing. You can’t be an expert at something that first of all has really only started culminating the last couple years, and second, changes almost every week. You can call yourself a social media ninja, bad ass, maestro, whatever the hell you wanna call it….but there’s a 96.87% chance you are no guru or expert.

… said the guy who calls himself Musician, Artist, Photographer, Web Ninja, Sarcastic Jerk.

(Personally, I don’t think anyone should call themselves a ninja unless they can hide in the darkness and kill people with their thumb, but that’s just me.)

I don’t take issue with Harris’ idea that “just because you have a Twitter account and you know how to use it, doesn’t make you a social media marketer.”

We see that a lot in our business. We’re ghost bloggers. We write blogs, and that’s all we do. We’re professional writers and communicators who understand how to a) turn a phrase, b) do it so the search engines find us, and c) it’s still pleasing to readers.

But there are plenty of people who barely passed high school English schlepping themselves on GetAFreelancer.com (I won’t even link to that place), calling themselves blog writers, offering to write blog posts for $2 apiece. That’s not writing, that’s typing.

So I’m with Rich on this one: just because you can do it, doesn’t mean your good at it.

But as I said a few weeks ago, I’ve rejected this whole notion of “No Social Media Experts” as utter bullshit.

The NSME argument usually goes something like this:

  1. Malcolm Gladwell says you have to do something for 10,000 hours to be an expert.
  2. Social media tools like Twitter are not 10,000 hours old.
  3. You can’t have used Twitter for 10,000 hours.
  4. Therefore, there are no social media experts.

However, the tools don’t make the expert. Sure, your job is easier if you have a more-than-passing understanding of the tools (and no, playing Oregon Trail or Pirate Clan on Facebook doesn’t count), but it doesn’t mean you can’t be an expert just because you’re on a brand new social network.

Social media experts do things like get paid a lot of money to speak at conferences (Chris Brogan), write widgets, plug-ins and blogging software-as-a-service (Doug Karr), or write books like Twitter Marketing for Dummies (Kyle Lacy). Experts are basically doing this for a living, making money with it, and can make bigger claims that 20,000 artificial followers on Twitter.

Harris actually agrees with me, which sort of makes me feel bad for the ninja crack, although he stops short of proclaiming himself a social media expert, even though he does social media for a large unnamed corporation.

To be a social media expert or guru, you need to understand all the tools, how they all work together and you need to have a passion for human beings and their behavior, good, bad and ugly. If you understand that stuff, have a vision, and are fascinated with human beings, you will be a social media jedi one day. I hope I get to be one too. :-)

Expertise in social media doesn’t rely on knowledge of the tools. Rather, it relies on two other things, communication and social psychology. In other words, the ability to create an effective message, and the understanding of how that message will affect/appeal to your chosen audience. If you can synthesize those two things, and use tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or the Nails For Males Yahoo discussion group to have your intended effect, you’re probably more of a social media expert than the guy who keeps sending DM after DM to tell you how to make money while you sleep.

Author :  •  Content Location : Indianapolis, IN  •  Headline : Rich Harris is All About Social Media Experts, Ninjas, and Grasshoppers  •  Keywords : ninjas, Social Media, social media experts  • 
Filed Under: Opinion, Social Media, Social Networks, Twitter Tagged With: , ,

Did Online Networking Kill Offline Networking?

September 11, 2009 By

Are people too plugged in to get out in the real world? Would you rather talk to people from your computer or face to face? Can you learn more about a person in 140 characters, or by playing Mafia Wars with them?

Beth Brody recently asked whether online networking was replacing offline networking in her “Lessons Learned” blog.

She wondered, did online networking kill an organization that boasted hundreds of members just 15 years ago? When Brody first started as a self-employed PR flak, she joined the New Jersey Communications, Advertising and Marketing Association, they had hundreds of members in the 1990s. They’re about to fold completely today.

While Brody said online networking may have drawn members away from real world meetings, NJ CAMA made the mistake of holding monthly lunch meetings, even though people didn’t have time to leave the office for a long lunch.

Bill Petzinger, president of NJ CAMA said,

“Online networking has impacted offline networking groups. For example, one reason attendance went down considerably at NJ CAMA’s monthly networking events was folks couldn’t commit to a three-hour event when you factor in travel. Most individuals prefer to network online because they can accomplish more in a few hours spread out over a week at their convenience versus what may take months. Offline groups can’t compete with the efficiency of online networking. That said, you still need face-to-face networking, which is vital. So offline networking still has its benefits. I think the most successful networking groups are those that have the right balance of online networking and off.”

Can we blame online networking for an offline networking’s group demise? Is there a direct cause-and-effect relationship between online surges and offline declines?

Sure, online networking is convenient, but I don’t believe it’s taking the place of people meeting face to face. I’ve organized tweetups, attend nearly every N-thousandth member party of Smaller Indiana (we’re celebrating the 7,000th member on Thursday, September 17th, 5:30 at the Rathskeller Restaurant in Indianapolis).

If anything, online is increasing offline relationships.

I can count to a large number of relationships that started online, and have developed into strong offline relationships.

  • I met both Kyle Lacy and Doug Karr because of Smaller Indiana. (I even helped Kyle write his book, Twitter Marketing for Dummies — an opportunity that came about because of our friendship).
  • I reconnected with Big Joe Clark, a certified financial planner and media darling for MSNBC and Fox Business, a kid I went to elementary school with.
  • I even became an owner of Pro Blog Service after first joining the company as an employee. I got the job because Mike Seidle saw my work on Smaller Indiana. (And it turns out we grew up in the same city and went to Ball State University at the same time, but never knew each other. We met online instead).

Would I have gotten these opportunities or connected with these people without an online network? Never.

These relationships, and many more, came about strictly because of an online contact first.

But what nurtured these relationships? A whoooole lot of offline relationship building.

And that’s where the NJ CAMA and other failing organizations are having problems. While NJ CAMA may have made a mistake with long lunches every month, the members are more to blame for not putting a priority on NJ CAMA. People get busy, so they don’t put the effort into their organizations or relationships that gave them the opportunities they have, and six months later, they wonder why they’re not getting the opportunities they used to have.

I can’t point fingers at anyone without having three fingers point back at me. I used to be a regular attender of Rainmakers meetings, a networking organization for small businesses and entrepreneurs here in Indiana. I used to go to 6 or 7 meetings a month (out of a possible 35 at the time). Now, I’m lucky if I make 2 or 3.

Online networking hasn’t kept me away. Rather it’s the priority I give to Rainmakers compared to my workload, and the need to keep clients happy. Obviously getting work done and making money is more important than going to a meeting. I figure I can always make another meeting — we’ve got 41 of them in Indiana now — or go next month. But next month rolls around, and I have the same problem.

I think this is what has happened to NJ CAMA and the other organizations. We’re not getting enough of a reason to continue to go. I don’t have a reason to make Rainmakers a top priority, and I would bet the members of NJ CAMA don’t have a reason to take the extra time for a 2 hour lunch (3 hours with travel time).

While online networking has many faults, killing offline relationships isn’t one of them. If anything online enhances offline, it doesn’t replace it. You can maintain contacts and open communication with people you would rarely, if ever, talk to otherwise.

Author :  •  Content Location : Indianapolis, IN  •  Headline : Did Online Networking Kill Offline Networking?  •  Keywords : Beth Brody, Rainmakers, Social Media, social networking  • 
Filed Under: Opinion, Social Media, Social Networks Tagged With: , , ,

New Report Reveals Surprising Findings About Hoosier Social Media Usage

September 2, 2009 By

LinkingIndiana.com recently conducted a survey of social media usage among Hoosiers, and found some rather surprising results.

For those of us who work in the social media realm, it sometimes seems like everyone is using social media. We’re often surprised to find people who aren’t on any kind of social network or don’t read blogs, and I’ve wondered if they have ever upgraded to an electric typewriter. But there are still a lot of people who aren’t on it, although thanks to programs like Facebook and Twitter, that number is shrinking greatly.

The number one finding? Social media is now mainstream with Hoosier businesspeople. It’s not a flash in the pan, or a passing fad (like some people called the Internet 15 years ago). Rather, it’s a real way to do business.

According to the survey of more than 300 respondents, we know the following about our social media habits in the Hoosier state.

  • 94% use social networks weekly.
  • 77.6% use social networks daily.
  • Facebook and LinkedIn are used most often by 86.1% respondents.
  • Facebook is clearly used for personal activity.
  • Despite growth in social media use, Hoosier businesses are lagging in adopting social media:
  • Over half (52%) don’t have a blog.
  • Less than half polled (42%) think their employer is effectively using social media.

With these numbers, we can draw a few conclusions, which we will explore in future blog posts.

    • Social media is no longer the next big thing. It is the thing.
    • B2B marketers should consider launching marketing programs on Facebook. Sure, it’s primarily being used by people to keep up with family and friends, or to play Pirate Clan and SuperPoke people. But it’s still being used by businesspeople, students, retirees, home makers. People are using Facebook like crazy, and you can’t ignore it anymore.
    • Take care that your campaigns are done correctly, and aren’t just bludgeon-over-the-head ads. Facebook users don’t use the site for business, and won’t respond well to typical B2B engagement strategies. You can still reach them with fan pages and similar strategies; this is where the “social” in social networking becomes important.
    • Only 48% of business people have a blog, yet it’s the one piece of social media that has not changed in nearly 10 years. Blogging is still a great business solution. Search engines love it, forward thinking companies have embraced it, and your customers are reading them, including your competition’s.
    • While we love Twitter and Smaller Indiana (I got this job and company because of Smaller Indiana), they aren’t necessarily the best place to spend marketing dollars when you’re trying to reach a large audience. Smaller Indiana is a great niche network, and if you wanted to reach some of the state’s influencers, it’s the place to be. But if you’re trying to reach a wide audience, there are better options.

There are a lot more points to the report, and some that deserve their own post, rather than giving them short shrift here. We’ll explore the important points and discuss the implications for Hoosier businesspeople and the marketers who want to reach them.

Download a copy of the 2009 Indiana Business Social Media Use Survey Survey here.

Filed Under: Blogging, Social Media, Social Networks, Twitter Tagged With: , , ,