Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Twitter and Travel Industry

Note: Content borrowed from and references made to Project Wander as well as Dead Mouse Sandwich

Many operators are asking me about Twitter, what is it? Should I be tweeting?

And the answer is not straight forward.

Twitter is the ability to talk to all your followers with one "text message". Messages in twitter can only be 124 characters. Frankly there's not much you can do on the twitter page itself, twitter requires you install Tweet Deck or some other third party "tweet organizer".

In a nutshell:

It will take some creativity to come up with new and useful 124 character tweets

You have to gain followers (and keep their trust)

And you need to install Tweet Deck

Twitter is not a place where you can just tweet out your specials one right after the other. All your followers will drop you. Applying the dead mouse sandwich principle, you need to wrap tweets about your business with tweets that are interesting and meaningful or retweets.

Twitter is working best in a customer service capacity to some degree for companies like Comcast, or Dell. Celebrities are having fun with Twitter.

It's definitely a time consuming venture.

For our market in Atlantic Canada, your best online bet is still your website, and perhaps a facebook fan page. But definitely your website. It's still your best online impression and close to 50% of Atlantic Canadian travel operations are making a terrible online impression.


Twitter, I wouldn't get my feather ruffled over it.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Women and Information Forwarding

Recently came across these interesting graphs on another blog. The graphs are from PopSugar Media and Radian research and show some relevent information on how Women share information they find on the internet.


Sorted by Gen X and Gen Y, but I want to focus in on what method came in first, second and third.













As I tell all my clients, it's the women in the family who are reseraching holiday travel.
And so what are the top three methods used to discover new products (products would include travel destinations and attractions):
  1. referral from an article or newspaper online
  2. search engines
  3. online ads, whether directly clicked or not

And how do they share this new product or vacation spot with friends:

  1. they call them
  2. they email them
  3. and fairly close together are writing a review and posting on facebook

How can this help us create a better website for Women researching new products and destinations?


  1. never underestimate the value of the press, having your establishment reviewed in any online forum will result in natural search engine ranking and hits
  2. never stop updating or refreshing your website content and working on maintaining that natural search engine ranking
  3. direct clicks are not always the best measure of your online ad campaigns, impressions count
  4. nothing will ever replace girl chat
  5. email is not dead, and having the "email to a friend feature" on your packages page will come in handy - as well as share this on facebook feature
  6. always provide a way for your clients to write a review or provide feedback directly on your website. Women will read other's comments and value that information.


When you're ready to make your site the best it can be, ask your developer about these features and how to incorporate them into your new website.

For more information, just drop me a line beth@@tianb.com

Monday, November 9, 2009

What's your story?

Been in the biz a while - what better way to let folks know than by sharing that history on your website

Operating your own Bed and Breakfast? Well tell me why and for how long? You're going to tell me when I get there anyways? Why not give me just a little taste on your website?


Did your jam win 1st place at the local agricultural fair?

Got pets? I want to know their names and quirks.



Anything special you do or have MUST be showcased on your website.

  • Who lived in the house before you
  • Knitted mittens for sale
  • Home made soap
  • Antique furniture collections
  • Dessert of the week, collection of mouth watering photos
  • Heated mineral pool and it's benefits
  • Ghosts
  • Bicycles
  • Tire swing

Same philosophy applies if your business is motel, inn, attraction or restaurant.
Call me for the tourism technology one on one mentoring session, I can find your website's hidden potential.

506 451 0173
Beth