A presentation I delivered for Bua Marketing's Social Media course for SligoTourism.ie in Nov '11. This workshop covers key platforms (with the exception of facebook) for tourism providers including Twitter, Tripadvisor, Foursquare and Google Places.

1. Social Media for Tourism:
AoifeExcite and Measure
How to Engage,
Porter
Sligo Tourism Training
Workshop 2
November 2011
www.sligotourism.ie

2. Session Overview
 What are we going to cover today?
– Twitter for business
– LinkedIn for promoting and networking
– Geo-location platforms: Foursquare/Yelp &
Facebook Places
– Trip Advisor
– Google Maps
www.sligotourism.ie

3. Twitter for Business
Why Twitter
 As we covered last week, approx 11% of the irish adult
population(or 385,000 people) have twitter accounts, and this
number is growing steadily.
 We also spoke about how deceptive these figures are, as
many more people “see” tweets than have twitter
accounts, for e.g. through embedding twitter content into
home pages or on to facebook
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4. Twitter/web integration
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5. Top 7 Business Uses
of Twitter
1. Updating content on your own website, or other social
platforms like facebook/linkedin/foursquare
2. Gather/cluster your customers & fans/advocates around you
via #hashtags
3. Conduct free, ongoing, market research, through search
terms and follower questions/surveys
4. Hear what people are saying about you via search and then
join the conversation
5. Organically communicate and solidify your brand values or
your organisations “voice”
6. Take control of your message
7. As a customer service tool
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6. 1. Updating Content
 You can embed twitter into your own main
site in a number of ways
– Through the twitter widget
– With a good web designer
 You can send tweets to facebook using
“selective tweets” #fb
 You can send tweets to linkedin using #in
 Or use a twitter client like TweetDeck
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7. TweetDeck
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8. 2. Cluster your fans/customers
Because Twitter has such a volume of information you can use
elements of it to better gather the info that is relevant to you, the
main ways of doing this are:
1. Twitter Search
2. Lists
3. #hashtags
 A desktop client like Tweet Deck can save these
searches/hashtags and alert you when new tweets are posted
 It also allows you to cluster around similar people, you can follow
hastags around a tv show or a conference/event
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9. #hashtags
 Provide a better filter for search
 Allow for easier monitoring
 Are very promotable, on and offline
 Can be analysed
 Perfect fit for short term events, but can
continue to cluster fans post event
 Allow customers to tag you in a tweet
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10. #hashtags
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11. #hashtags
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12. #hashtags
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13. 3. Market Research
 Once you have a good base of followers
twitter, or any social network, is a great way to
push out surveys like polldaddy
 Use search to eavesdrop on what people are
saying about you
 Throw out questions
 Use specific shortlinks to gather info with bit.ly
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14. www.sligotourism.ie

15. 4. Search
Hear what people are saying about you via
search and then join the conversation
 Some search examples:
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16. 5. Find your voice
Organically communicate and solidify your
brand values or your organisations “voice”
So what do I mean by that?
 Let people get to know your organisation as if it were a
person, give it it‟s own personality, don‟t be too
cautious. This can work even if you have a group of
people using one account if you are clear on what the
organisation is about
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17. 6. Take Control
Take Control of your message
 As a right to reply from another source – media
article for e.g.
 As a quick way to remedy a incorrect
communication
 As an immediate way to communicate change
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18. 7. Customer Service
Twitter can work as a great customer service
tool
 Allows customers to contact you directly
 Allows you to respond to complaints and queries
 An additional method of contact that is more
immediate than email/facebook/website if you
set up text alets
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19. 7. Customer Service
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20. Top 7 Business Uses
1. Updating content on your own website, or other social
platforms like facebook/linkedin/foursquare
2. Gather/cluster your customers & fans/advocates around you
via #hashtags
3. Conduct free, ongoing, market research, through search
terms and follower questions/surveys
4. Hear what people are saying about you via search and then
join the conversation
5. Organically communicate and solidify your brand values or
your organisations “voice”
6. Take control of your message
7. As a customer service tool
www.sligotourism.ie

21. How to Approach Twitter
Using Twitter requires the same approach as using any
social network:
1. Learn about it and its etiquette
2. Plan, Target and Track
3. Remember that effective Online/Social Marketing is a 2-
way Converstion
4. Real World Integration
5. Remember: Content is King
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22. 1. Learn about it
Use Twitter the way your audience uses it
 The average irish user has:
– 199 followers,
– 213 friends.
– & has sent 1178 tweets since joining Twitter
 Retweets (RT‟s) make up just 10% of tweets on the
average personal account, but often account for much
more traffic on business/campaign accounts
 Only 33% of users send tweets via twitter.com
Source –knexys.com June 2011
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23. Top 10 ways to send a tweet
1. Twitter.com (web) 33%
2. Twitter for iPhone 19.6%
3. Twitter for BlackBerry 7.6%
4. Twitter for Android 4.5%
5. Facebook 3.6%
6. TweetDeck 3.6%
7. Tweet Button 3.3%
8. Mobile Web 2.8%
9. Echofon 1.8%
10. Twitter for iPad 1.1%
11. (HootSuite 0.8%)
Source: knexsy.com (June „11)
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24. www.sligotourism.ie

25. 1. Learn about it
If you are not already using twitter, create an account and spend some time
learning how it works before launching yourself publically on twitter for your
organisation
 Ask other twitter users how it works
 Think about who in the organisation is the best candidate to tweet
– Consider who best embodies the spirit/brand values of your organisation
 Enable your twitter manager
– Make sure whoever is manning the feed has the authority to reply directly, and
quickly, without having to check with layers of management for every tweet
 Have an internal response policy
– Consider in advance how you‟ll deal with negative tweets or queries so that
there isn‟t a long response delay
www.sligotourism.ie

26. 1. Learn about it
 Do bother to learn the rules
– Include your website, and relevant info in your bio. Consider incl. who is tweeting
– Check your DM (Direct Messages) regularly
– Check your @replies regularly
– Respond in a timely fashion (within a day at most, more quickly at event time)
– ReTweet (RT) regularly but remember that the average RT’s from individual accounts
is only 8-10%, campaigns are often much higher
– Always acknowledge the source of information if you are passing it on (via)
– Engage – get involved in conversations OTHER than those about your
organisation/event
A twitter client like TweetDeck combined with text alerts for DM’s and
@replies is the best way to effectively monitor your conversations
www.sligotourism.ie

27. www.sligotourism.ie

28. 2. Plan Target and Track
 Have a plan even if it‟s not a full scale strategy
what do you want to get out of twitter?
 Set targets
– Target web referrals, increase in traffic, increase in followers, or new visitors
 Track your progress
– Measure your effectiveness at achieving what you set out to.
• Use stats from your own site – how many referrals are from twitter?
• How many followers do you have at the start, after a quarter, a year
• How many ReTweets? What‟s your TweetReach?
• Use bitly to track shortlinks
www.sligotourism.ie

29. 3. Twitter: Dialogue v‟s Monologue
Golden Rule of any online engagement? Conversations are two-
way, this is especially true of twitter
• Resist the broadcast only approach
• Time your tweets (use an auto scheduler like Tweet Deck for regular info tweets)
Think of twitter as a “virtual front desk” for your business
It should be;
• Welcoming
• Informal
• Social
• Informative
 Transmitting info about you and gathering info about your customers
• Interactive
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30. 4. Real World Integration
Effective Twitter use involves combining it with the real
world:
 Display hashtag/twitter handle in your business
 Display hashtag/twitter handle in your
brochures/business card
 Encourage twit pics – from your followers and of you –
remember the gregan‟s example, pictures appear on
your profile
 Encourage tweetable check-ins on foursquare to
increase the number of mentions of your business/event
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31. 5. Content is King
Last week we spoke about how content is king when it comes to
successful online marketing. This is especially true of twitter
 Is your content (your updates + tweeted media)
• Snackable
• Sharable
• Relevant
• More than just about sales
 Does your content‟s subject matter reach out beyond your
core business and engage people around the broader
themes, your location, or another soft aspect of your work
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32. End Section 1
 Any Q&A about first section?
 5 minute break
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33. Linked In
As we mentioned last week:
• LinkedIn is the 7th most popular website in
Ireland
• Almost ½ million irish people have accounts
• In % terms LinkedIn is growing at almost
3 times the rate of Facebook
Source – blog.neworld.com
www.sligotourism.ie

34. Top 5 SME Uses of LinkedIn
1. Networking
• After every meeting add new contacts to your linkedin
• Use in-mails for occasional correspondence
2. Recommendations
• Regularly request recommendations from appropriate contacts
3. Groups & Discussions
• Display your area of expertise through answering questions
4. Events
• Post/recommend events to your network
5. Regular Updates
• Post useful links or business updates to your personal profile
and/or company profile.
• Consider linking to twitter or your blog
• Remember updates will filter through to weekly emails
www.sligotourism.ie

35. GeoLocation platforms
 Foursquare
 Yelp
 Facebook Places
 Instagram
What is Geolocation? Any platform that uses your
geographical location, via your phone‟s gps, to
locate you at a place/event
www.sligotourism.ie

36. TripAdvisor
Trip Advisor is a powerful web platform that
operates on several levels
1) A global listings site for your business
2) A sales channel for your tourism business
3) A review and recommendation service for
travellers
4) A socially linked guide book
www.sligotourism.ie

37. TripAdvisor
 50+ million unique monthly visitors*
• a 20% increase on the same period last year
 20 million members & over 50 million reviews
and opinions
• 1+ million businesses
• 93,000+ destinations
• 520,000+ hotels
• 155,000+ attractions
• 715,000+ restaurants
• 8,000,000+ candid traveler photos
Source: Sep 11 ComScore on TripAdvisor
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38. TripAdvisor for Business Intro video
http://tripadvisor4biz.wordpress.com/videos/
#WhatBL
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39. 8 ways to use TripAdvisor
http://tripadvisor4biz.wordpress.com/videos/
#Howtomarket
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40. Local case studies
 Rowanville B&B Grange
– Website>
– TripAdvisor>
Browse Sligo Top listings on Trip Advisor>
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41. Dealing with Negative Feedback
The Power of Management reviews – go to
http://tripadvisor4biz.wordpress.com/videos/
#ThePowerof
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42. Negative Feedback
58% of users want Managers to respond to
reviews, only 5% do not.
Consider this recent
research from a Melbourne
University on the perceived
trustworthiness of brands
via the ratio of negative to
positive feedback on their
pages on facebook
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43. Additional Learning
– In order to claim your listing, or to create one, go to
the Owner section http://www.tripadvisor.com/Owners
– Use Trip Advisor's Business blog for tips and
seminars: http://tripadvisor4biz.wordpress.com/how-to-guides
www.sligotourism.ie

44. Google Places
 Google is the leading search engine worldwide
USA Search Engine use Nov 2011
ask.com Aol
4% 2%
Bing
14%
Yahoo
15%
Google
65%
Source – hitwise.com
www.sligotourism.ie

45. Google Places
 In the US 97% of people search for local business online.
• Irish stats are not as readily available but you can be sure they are
headed in the same direction
 40% of Map searches are travel related
 50% of Irish Mobile users utilise maps on their phone
 With the proliferation of smartphones Google Maps is
increasingly being used as a Journey aid for
directions, route planning, in car journey assistance
and pre-visit searches via street view.
 Through Google places you can ensure your business
information is correct for the vast majority of people
www.sligotourism.ie

46. Google Places
Go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpZan96K
HOM
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47. Sample Owner Verified Listing
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48. Sample search
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49. Sample mobile search
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50. Foursquare
 Foursquare is a location based social network
 This means that it uses your exact location via your
phone‟s gps to suggest tips of nearby places you
might like, based on information from your social
networks
 Users “Check in” via a mobile app, to real world
places.
 Foursquare reached 1 billion check-in‟s in Sep of
this year
www.sligotourism.ie

51. Foursquare Intro Video
 Go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFXzyJ
8mUh4
www.sligotourism.ie

52. Foursquare for Business
http://youtu.be/cib1Mnl2Kfc
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53. Content Sharing Sites
 Flickr
 Pix.ie
 YouTube
 Vimeo
 Soundcloud
Video Increases Sales by 55% & Photos increase sales
by 69% for travel providers source Phocuswright via Tourism Ireland
www.sligotourism.ie

54. Next Steps
Next Week Aoife Porter will be delivering a Facebook
session
For next week can you;
• Prepare any questions you have re: facebook pages or
places
• Monitor your page for interactivity in the coming week
• Print a report from your facebook insights and bring it
with you
www.sligotourism.ie