Social Media and Tourism 2.0

Katie LipsSocial Media Strategist

Kisky Netmediawww.kisky.co.uk

Overview

• What is Social Media?

• Networks, Communities, Tools

• Tourism 2.0 Projects

• Tips for Getting Started

What is Social Media

• A trendy buzzword?

• Content & Media created by a community?

• Read/ Write Web: read and written by the masses and uncontrolled by organisations?

• A conversation?

Services and tools

• Blogs - Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad

• Content Sharing - YouTube, Flickr, Photobucket

• Social Networks - MySpace, Facebook

• Professional Networks - LinkedIn, ecademy, xing

• Microblogging & Presence - Plazes, Twitter, Jaiku

• “Democratic Content” - Digg

• Preference Sharing - Last FM, Wakoopa

Community...

• Customers?

• Audience?

• Citizen journalists?

• Fans?

• “Griefers”?

Social Networks

• Members only

• Your Social Network

• Get to know your customers personally

• Advertise (to very specific groups)

Blogs

• Timely, up to date

• Find your niche audience

• Anyone can publish anything

• Personal

Video Sharing

Photo Sharing

Trip Planning and Sharing

Events & Activities

Location and Presence

Google Maps

Key Activities

• Talking about what you are going to do

• Researching from others who’ve done the same thing

• Sharing advice

• Creating a mesh of diverse content across the web in multiple spaces

It’s not just about ‘Online’

For many, the “online bit” is now an integral part of the activity as a

whole.

Social Media Strategies

A great website...

is not the answer!

The New Web Presence

• Identify your community

• Talk

• Take part

• Use many spaces online

• One to one relationships

• Create a “Social Media Cocktail”

People will...

• Find your brand or product without having to search (very hard)

• Interact with you in their social networks (without having to leave)

• Offer feedback and advice & help to improve a product, a venue, a destination even

• Feel like they know the ‘provider’ better (and trust you more)

• Promote you (without you paying them)

Business Benefits to simple Social Media

• Short term “buzz”

• Long term reputation & trust

• Reduce costs

Tourism 2.0 Projects

MySpace: NEW ZEALAND

Facebook: Burning Man

Blog: uwishunu

Social Network: Cool Austria

Flickr.com

Trips...

User Generated Reviews

• Holiday Watchdog: http://www.holidaywatchdog.com/

• Review Centre: http://www.reviewcentre.com/

• Holiday Check: http://www.holidaycheck.com/

Trip Planning and sharing

• TripHub: http://www.triphub.com/

• TripUp: http://www.tripup.com/

• TripTie: http://triptie.com/

• Tripadvisor: http://tripadvisor.com/

Trip Planning and sharing

• IGoUGo: http://www.igougo.com/

• MyTripz: http://www.mytripz.com/

• MyTripBook: http://www.mytripbook.com/

• Gusto: http://www.gusto.com/

• Dopplr: http://www.dopplr.com

Activity specific communities

• Walk Jog Run: http://www.walkjogrun.net/

• Bikely: http://www.bikely.com/

What’s Hot in Tourism 2.0 Projects?

• Trust, User Referrals and Reviews

• Individualism and Personalisation

• Activity not Place

• Personal Broadcasting and Travel Blogging

• Finding and working with Evangelists

• Being in the hottest new Web2.0 app

• Google Maps

What’s NOT Hot in Tourism 2.0 Projects?

• Astroturfing and unnatural “Pay per Post”

• A belief that ‘users’ will do the hard work (and make “UGC” for free for you)

• Building more empty ‘social’ ‘networks’

• ‘Risk based’ fear of all Social Media activities

Getting Started

Blogging

• Write

• Find & befriend other writers

• Link & Comment

• Post regularly and generously

GettingStarted!

Events

• List events

• Tell people

• Make friends

• Link events to blogs to ...

GettingStarted!

Sharing

• Share photos

• And videos

• Tag them

• Link them.....

GettingStarted!

flickr.com

youtube.com

wikipedia.com

Google MapsGettingStarted!

Diverse PresenceGettingStarted!

More tipsGettingStarted!

feedburner.com

technorati.com

del.icio.us

digg.com

What next?

• You can start small

• Build up the right toolkit for your project and for your community

• Use new tools in conjunction with what you already do

• Remember it's all about people

Where next?

• Presentation: www.slideshare.net/katielips

• My blog: www.katielips.com

• My website: www.kisky.co.uk