Working with PRs and Tourist Boards - Michael Collins with TravelMedia.ie

1. Working with PRs and
Tourist Boards
Michael Collins – TravelMedia.ie

2. What do WE want to achieve today?
I WANT YOU
– to have more knowledge than your competitors
– to understand from the inside where we all fit in the greater
scheme of things
– to be able to better communicate better with tourist boards
and PRs, speak their language – stats, evergreen etc
– to know what they want, to see the relationship from the
other side of the fence
– to get more trips, more invitations

3. ck to Add Title
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Traditional PR
Social Media – 50%
Press trips
Media Buying
Events
Representation
Strategy

4. Background

5. • 2001, 2003, 2009
• I got out
• Print was declining
• Print not dead
• Content delivery + distribution changing
• One thing has not changed
• GOOD CONTENT
• CONTENT IS STILL KING

6. Mark Twain
Cicero
Voltaire
Blaise Pascal
“If I Had More
Time, I Would
Have Written
You a Shorter
Letter”

7. Blaise Pascal
“If I Had More Time, I Would
Have Written You a Shorter
Letter”

8. Quality writing
• Biggest challenge, issue
• Advantage and disadvantage
• Take your time, write like you have been
commissioned for the New York Times, every time

9. You cannot be serious
“Hi Michael, I know you asked for 800
words, but the trip was so much fun and I
had so much to say I couldn’t decide which
parts to cut, it’s just over 1100 words, you
decide……..”

10. Then and Now
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You are the editor, publisher, designer, distributor....
You’ve got to be good at all the above
First and foremost the writing, content, images
Increased competition, anyone can do it
Relationships with editors no longer key
Relationships with PRs, tourist boards now more
important than ever

11. What do our clients understand about Bloggers?
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Some, a lot (younger)
Others, nothing (older, decision makers)
Some have worked with bloggers before
Others have no experience at all
With varying results
Why is this relevant?
You have to sell yourself, what you do

12. What they do understand is…….
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Print - clippings
Broadcast – video/audio clips
Press trips – real people – they were nice
MEASUREMENT
Where did the money go
The internet is great at MEASUREMENT
We love stats – I’ll come back to this

13. Tips and advice
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Follow, Like, Share, Engage with us
Sounds obvious, but a lot of bloggers don’t do it
It’s how we communicate, invite, ask, request……
Who should you be following
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Travel PRs
Tourist Boards
Airlines
Hotel chains

14. This week on Twitter

15. Tips and advice
• Don’t try and be everywhere
• Facebook is not the only platform
• Press/blogger trips we need a mix - FB, radio, print, YouTube,
Instagram
• e.g. Fionn Davenport, Twitter and Instagram only

16. Don’t Bluff
• It’s a small world, we all know each other – travel PRs and tourist
boards
• I spent 6 years as a travel editor, publisher, writer
• Member of global travel PR networks
• Ireland, UK, France, USA, South Africa, Australia, Italy, Spain, Germany,
India, China, Belgium, Netherlands, etc.

17. Disconnect
• Media = SHORT TERM
• Industry = LONG TERM
• 2 months notice for a bespoke trip, not 2 weeks or 2 days
• Planning for the year ahead takes place Sept-Nov
• Festival – City of Culture – 6 months out, not 2 weeks

18. Are you Monitoring Yourself
• Monitor yourself and share your activity with us
• Success with Google shows us your blog is set up properly
• Are you using Google Authorship?

19. Google Authorship
• Link your Google+ account with your blog
• Better search results for your blog posts
• Share these results with us

20. Be Professional
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Have a Facebook Business Page, not a Personal Page
We need to see stats
Not possible on a personal page
Likewise for apps and competitions etc

21. Keeping Facebook Work and Personal Separate
• Keep your personal life and party antics separate from your
professional life as a travel blogger
• We do this in our office. My staff have separate work and personal
pages
• You can merge your old personal page with a new business page and
not lose any Likes

22. Stats – Reporting - Feedback

23. Share your stats with us

24. More Stats
PeerIndex, Kred, Google+ Ripples, Facebook EdgeRank Checker, Twitalyzer
•We do this in our office. My staff have separate work and personal pages

25. Evergreen
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Show us you know what evergreen means
Don’t just distribute once
Distribute again and again
It’s easy
So many ways, reasons to distribute – festivals, national days, etc.
It helps you and us – grow your audience and ours
Stay in touch and you’ll stay on our radar
Report regularly, updates

26. Evergreen

27. Evergreen

28. Evergreen

29. Evergreen

30. Use Our #hashtags
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#hashtags are across all platforms, not just Twitter
Facebook being the most recent to adopt the #
Use our #hashtags
Monitoring our #hashtags
#Puglia

31. Not my job
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Yes, it’s not your job
Your job to be a brilliant writer/photographer
GREAT CONTENT – GREAT WRITING
But…………………
There’s a lot of competition out there, and you need
to be the best to beat the rest……….
• Therefore, it is your job

32. New V Old Media
• They do work together
• New is a back door into old media
• Fionn Davenport when on Newstalk uses his own personal Twitter
handle @fionndavenport when on air
• Why? Why do Newstalk allow this?
• He brings a new and larger audience to the show
• His new world Klout adds value to his position and influence in the old
world
• Think of yourself as a content creator, with an audience, not just as
new media – as a blogger, etc

33. Know Your Place
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Where do you fit, where do I fit, in the world of travel content
Content Marketing
Marketers need content, good content, and lots of it
Government – Tourist Board – PR – Travel Writer - Distribution

34. Remember this annoying guy?

35. Takeaways
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Stats, stats and more stats
Communicate. Talk to us. Stay in contact. Report back
Content is King, especially well written content
Travel industry needs lots and lots of content. Reciprocal
relationship
5. Know your medium. Share, RT, Like, Engage, #, Repeat
6. It costs nothing to be polite
7. We work with people we like

36. Thank you
Michael Collins
@TravelMedia_ie
facebook/TravelMedia.ie
michael@travelmedia.ie