Cimtig presentation at Travel Technology Europe 2010 by on The Adventure Company's award winning social media campaign and Twitter strategy.

1. Making social networks work for your brand a CIMTIG presentation with: Geoff Saltmarsh Surf Public Relations Online PR for the travel industry www.surfpr.co.uk Gary Grieve Capela Travel Training Marketing courses for travel professionals www.capela.co.uk

3. The Facebookphenomenon a year ago

5. Sept 2009 = 300 million

6. Dec 2009 = 350 million

11. June 2009 UK had 2.6 million Users on Twitter…

12. Increase of 1,679%

14. Why Twitter is So Powerful

15. The Viral Effect… C C B A B A My Blog C C A B A A C B B C

16. Twitter Stats…..

17. Twitter Stats…..

19. Respond to questions

20. Drip feed new product information

21. Engage with customers & stakeholders

23. Always Listening

24. Using Twitter To Build Advocates “I had a recent interaction with Southwest airlines on Twitter. They had found a comment I made about how much I enjoyed using one of their kiosks and responded to it. The last time I flew Southwest, I shot out a "tweet" right before takeoff saying "thanks for being on time". Of course, by the time I landed, they had responded.

27. Building Clients With Twitter

29. Building Clients With Twitter

30. Building Clients With Twitter

32. Design your tweets for retweeting (rather than retweeting other peoples tweets)

33. Establish more than one Twitter account depending on your objectives…

34. Keep a steady feed and use your Twitter as a news wire

42. Our brief To create an online community for one of the UK’s leading adventure holiday operators Targets: Active and adventurous travellers, solos and couples, as well as families

43. We set out to … Create and manage dynamic social media Interactive blog spots and forums to: Establish and unite a large online customer community …..which would in turn: Raise the client’s profile Increase web traffic Inspire people to book online Bring the company closer to its customers Encourage clients to talk about their experiences Create noise and excitement about the range of holidays

44. The thinking behind it Given the right forum, adventure travellers would want to engage They’re probably already into social network sites - we want to get them together as one big happy family Not to bombard them with deals - but listen to what they are chatting about and asking

45. The overriding philosophy Create a three-way content and communication network to: Invite (and manage) postings from fans and encourage them to share experiences Respond to what they are chatting about - give them factual news and information Create forums where customers and The Adventure Company can talk to each other

46. So what did we do? Designed and developed social media channels to meet these objectives: Facebook page/wall/discussion board/daily status updates Blog MySpace Travelpod Flickr Twitter (also to maintain daily status updates with other users, including media) YouTube page - to host fan and staff video

47. Resulting in … A successful and compelling network of media forums and pages supporting the brand Harnessed the interest, loyalty - and power - of a growing community of existing and potential customers, all with a passion for adventure travel Creation of a platform from which to talk to customers, give them daily news and updates and drive online sales conversions Facebook fans went from 200 to 2,249 1,152 Twitter followers We received at least two new customer travel diaries, photos video reports and blogs every week

48. Some examples Blogs and social media forums Facebook page: The heart of our buzzing community, fans come here to post pictures and videos, discuss trips, ask staff questions, and meet friends before they go.

49. Some examples Flickr: Two groups - one for destination pictures and one for fans to submit their own pictures. Useful for amateur adventure photographers and professionals to upload and showcase their work. Led to a photo competition being launched on our own social media pages and on the official website.

50. Some examples YouTube page: Our own YouTube channel, which allows us to host our own videos and video content submitted by customers. This page is also linked via hosted videos on our other social media pages.

51. Some examples Active online community: Mount Everest Photo Diary posted by a Facebook fan Solo travellers’ postings inspire others to take similar trips Families’ personal reviews stimulate ideas for other families choosing a trip To bring the company closer to its customers, we also created a blog template for staff members, giving opportunity to ‘meet’ the guide who might be leading your trip Surf PR regularly seeds news snippets and posts stories that respond to current events i.e: the Bond movie A Quantum of Solace was filmed in South America

52. Some examples Promoting social media Links to all our blogs were then featured in the monthly TAC e-Newsletter, which further generated activity, submission of blogs and photo diaries and sign-up to Facebook fan group

53. It worked! Surf PR collects “Best Use of Social Media” award at The Travel Awards 2009

55. We were responsive

56. We didn’t spam customers or baffle them with sales speak

57. Content placement strategy was timely

58. Be well connected

59. All content fully optimised

62. Enhance the holiday experience

63. Enables clients and prospective clients to share information

64. Basis for making informed decisions

65. Especially useful for solos and families

66. Opportunity to ‘meet’ other members of their tour group before departure

67. Maintain contact/friendship post-travel

70. Blogs and reviews

71. Live chat - real time interaction

72. Post pictures - with a £500 discount prize competition

73. Expert tour guides and staff answer questions, too

75. Typical content I just wanted to let you know about the great trip we had on the Delta to Victoria Falls tour……”

77. 2050 customers now signed up

80. passenger platform so booked pax can meet each other

81. customers thinking of booking can see what’s being said

82. promoted on pre-and post-trip communications

83. link in other features to give ideas for next trip

84. Encouraging repeat bookings by helping clients manage their holidays

85. Making social networks work for your brand a CIMTIG presentation with: Geoff Saltmarsh Surf Public Relations Online PR for the travel industry www.surfpr.co.uk Gary Grieve Capela Travel Training Marketing courses for travel professionals www.capela.co.uk

86. Forthcoming CIMTIG events - all welcome 15 Mar –Travel Marketing Awards Recognising marketing excellence in the travel industry 26 Apr – Digital Marketing Seminar Networking seminar moderated by Kevin May of Tnooz CIMTIG exists to support the CIM vision by promoting, enhancing and facilitating the knowledge and practice of marketing within the UK travel industry.

87. Any questions? Gary Grieve Capela Travel Training Geoff Saltmarsh Surf Public Relations Rebecca Genin Surf Public Relations