Every person has their favorite time of the week...we also have our least favorite times (Monday mornings !).
Friday is a great time for website updates, or just plain internet surfing. Strategic internet surfing.
For example, starting with the Travel Mole newsletter has lead me to
getsatisfaction.com
technorati.com
geckogo.com
What I'll do with the information gleened from those sites, I haven't decided. But I've made some notes, and organized them in my favorites.
Perhaps they will have their own blog post, perhaps they will go out in a Tourism Technology participants update...perhaps I will just sit on them for a while.
The point is today was a great day for doing that kind of stuff.
Pick a time of the week that is great for you and do your own internet browsing.
*Google your industry
*Wikipedia is another great starting point
*Haul out all those e-newsletters and start clicking
And take a journey of bits and bytes!
Beth
Friday, October 31, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Good coming from tragedy...
Thursday, October 23 there was a tragic fire at a famous NB attraction. The restaurant and theatre at Pays de la Sagouine burned to the ground.
To set the scene - the fire took place at night, just a couple of hours before midnight if that long.
Before midnight Thursday - someone had posted a video of the fire on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCs6diJN_YY
You can tell by the posted date, it was the SAME DAY as the fire. Most likely if you knew about the posting, you could have watched this video of the fire while the firemen were still fighting the fire.
What's the good that can come of this?
Harsh realization that the internet is quick and fast and sometimes dirty.
Someone is out there right now - blogging about your operation, chatting about your operation, posting a review of your operation, facebooking about your operation.
Right now.
And again.
And again.
You need to have a strong online presence. You need to google, you tube, twitter and flickr your operation periodically to see what's being written about you out there.
You need to have a comment section on your website so people will use your site to air their views. Manage your comments and I don't mean screen them. Post the negative comments, and then right after post what you are going to do about it ! Show new clients that you take comments seriously.
NOW is the time to get a professional looking website, and online reservation or ticketing service.
Don't wait any longer.
Beth
Thursday, October 23 there was a tragic fire at a famous NB attraction. The restaurant and theatre at Pays de la Sagouine burned to the ground.
To set the scene - the fire took place at night, just a couple of hours before midnight if that long.
Before midnight Thursday - someone had posted a video of the fire on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCs6diJN_YY
You can tell by the posted date, it was the SAME DAY as the fire. Most likely if you knew about the posting, you could have watched this video of the fire while the firemen were still fighting the fire.
What's the good that can come of this?
Harsh realization that the internet is quick and fast and sometimes dirty.
Someone is out there right now - blogging about your operation, chatting about your operation, posting a review of your operation, facebooking about your operation.
Right now.
And again.
And again.
You need to have a strong online presence. You need to google, you tube, twitter and flickr your operation periodically to see what's being written about you out there.
You need to have a comment section on your website so people will use your site to air their views. Manage your comments and I don't mean screen them. Post the negative comments, and then right after post what you are going to do about it ! Show new clients that you take comments seriously.
NOW is the time to get a professional looking website, and online reservation or ticketing service.
Don't wait any longer.
Beth
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Shift your spending to your website
Check out this great article from ISL in Halifax.
http://www.isl.ca/en/home/company/enewsletter/insitesept08/marketingbudgetunderpressure-shiftspendonline.aspx?utm_source=September%2Binsite&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=September%2BNewsletter
Next week, October 6-9, I'll be at Atlantic Canada Showcase in Moncton. If you're there stop in and meet the whole Tourism Technology crew at the Connection Centre.
http://www.atlanticanadashowcase.com/
And if I don't see you there,
Happy Thanksgiving
Beth
Monday, September 22, 2008
Selling yourself on the Web !
In order to “sell” someone on coming to your B&B or cottage, tours, or even just a location, you have to make them think about what the experience could be if they were there. There are a few simple ways of doing this with your website and the internet.
Photos. Take photos of your operation every chance you get. Even if you aren’t a great photographer – and most people aren’t – hopefully you will be able to get a few nice photos every so often. With digital cameras, you can take as many photos as you please and then select the best ones for your website. You can crop them to get the sections of the photos that you want, and the best part is that photos only need to be 25% of the size that a newer digital camera produces. If you have a digital camcorder, you can select frames right out of the video. Remember to make sure someone is in that picture of the beach. If all we saw were photos of a property with no one there, we would wonder if anyone even visits that place! Take photos of people and families enjoying themselves and involved in the activities that you have to offer. These will sell them on you and your operation! If you feel that you still cannot acquire any quality photos, ask a friend or a professional to come and take some photos during the season. Either way, get some great photos and post them on your website.
Inviting Text. Write the text for your website so that it invites or describes what your cottage is like when they are there. Use the text to spur on their imagination. You want them to picture themselves sitting there on the deck of that cottage, overlooking the view of the beach and their children playing horseshoes in the yard in front of them. If you have a B&B, talk to them about the evenings that you and your guests sat down to a dinner, shared a bottle of local wine, and talked about your past experiences as if they were the neighbor that lives down the road. If you run a tour or experiential tourism product, sell them on the must see or must experience details of the tour or experience.
Talk about your property. Start a Blog, or a Facebook page. Send out emails or e-newsletters to past guests describing the new improvements to the property or if you have a local event or special that you think they might be interested in. Send out Christmas e-cards thanking them for their business that past year and that you hope to see them next year. Stay in contact with them (within reason and respect their privacy, of course) and they might consider you when they travel again, or better yet, refer you to their friends or families.
Get others to talk about you. Blogs, Facebook, Tripadvisor, Travbuddy, and other social media avenues create great exposure for you and your business. Encourage people to share their experiences of their stay with you. Word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family are one of the most influential factors in someone determining where to visit or stay when planning a vacation. Be remarkable! That not only goes back to you and your operation, but it also has to carry through to your website because even if your operation is remarkable, and your website isn’t, then you will never get the chance to show them.
Your website needs to be remarkable, and it has to sell that fact to the consumer the first time that they see your website. If not, the opposite is, well, forgettable, and that is not what you want to be!
If you would like to read the article I was referring to, please visit http://www.tipsfromthetlist.com/2008/03/marketing-your-small-tourism-business-in-the-21th-century-1-be-remarkable.html
In order to “sell” someone on coming to your B&B or cottage, tours, or even just a location, you have to make them think about what the experience could be if they were there. There are a few simple ways of doing this with your website and the internet.
Photos. Take photos of your operation every chance you get. Even if you aren’t a great photographer – and most people aren’t – hopefully you will be able to get a few nice photos every so often. With digital cameras, you can take as many photos as you please and then select the best ones for your website. You can crop them to get the sections of the photos that you want, and the best part is that photos only need to be 25% of the size that a newer digital camera produces. If you have a digital camcorder, you can select frames right out of the video. Remember to make sure someone is in that picture of the beach. If all we saw were photos of a property with no one there, we would wonder if anyone even visits that place! Take photos of people and families enjoying themselves and involved in the activities that you have to offer. These will sell them on you and your operation! If you feel that you still cannot acquire any quality photos, ask a friend or a professional to come and take some photos during the season. Either way, get some great photos and post them on your website.
Inviting Text. Write the text for your website so that it invites or describes what your cottage is like when they are there. Use the text to spur on their imagination. You want them to picture themselves sitting there on the deck of that cottage, overlooking the view of the beach and their children playing horseshoes in the yard in front of them. If you have a B&B, talk to them about the evenings that you and your guests sat down to a dinner, shared a bottle of local wine, and talked about your past experiences as if they were the neighbor that lives down the road. If you run a tour or experiential tourism product, sell them on the must see or must experience details of the tour or experience.
Talk about your property. Start a Blog, or a Facebook page. Send out emails or e-newsletters to past guests describing the new improvements to the property or if you have a local event or special that you think they might be interested in. Send out Christmas e-cards thanking them for their business that past year and that you hope to see them next year. Stay in contact with them (within reason and respect their privacy, of course) and they might consider you when they travel again, or better yet, refer you to their friends or families.
Get others to talk about you. Blogs, Facebook, Tripadvisor, Travbuddy, and other social media avenues create great exposure for you and your business. Encourage people to share their experiences of their stay with you. Word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family are one of the most influential factors in someone determining where to visit or stay when planning a vacation. Be remarkable! That not only goes back to you and your operation, but it also has to carry through to your website because even if your operation is remarkable, and your website isn’t, then you will never get the chance to show them.
Your website needs to be remarkable, and it has to sell that fact to the consumer the first time that they see your website. If not, the opposite is, well, forgettable, and that is not what you want to be!
If you would like to read the article I was referring to, please visit http://www.tipsfromthetlist.com/2008/03/marketing-your-small-tourism-business-in-the-21th-century-1-be-remarkable.html
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Scheduling your website mentoring session
Greetings,
As September hits us and we reflect on the summer past, perhaps now is the time to think about refreshing your website.
Just a little note to let you know that I am still available to do sessions, in fact they will be ongoing until April 2009
Drop me an email or give me a call to see when I can make the trip to your area.
I will review your current site and give you some pointers. I try to point out items that can be done right away and items that will need a bigger budget or are part of a long term technology plan.
I will also go over current trends in the tourism online market, and leave you with a manual so that you can either show your developer or review it while you are talking to your developer.
All for $125
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Beth
506-451-0173
beth(@)tianb.com
As September hits us and we reflect on the summer past, perhaps now is the time to think about refreshing your website.
Just a little note to let you know that I am still available to do sessions, in fact they will be ongoing until April 2009
Drop me an email or give me a call to see when I can make the trip to your area.
I will review your current site and give you some pointers. I try to point out items that can be done right away and items that will need a bigger budget or are part of a long term technology plan.
I will also go over current trends in the tourism online market, and leave you with a manual so that you can either show your developer or review it while you are talking to your developer.
All for $125
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Beth
506-451-0173
beth(@)tianb.com
Monday, August 11, 2008
Choosing an SEO provider
I found this great article on tips for choosing an Search Engine Optimization provider.
Since I always recommend that SEO be done by a professional, here are the tips for choosing the best one for your needs.
Click here to read the article
Website Magazine is a great resource for articles and helpful tips, check out their other articles.
Regards,
Beth
Since I always recommend that SEO be done by a professional, here are the tips for choosing the best one for your needs.
Click here to read the article
Website Magazine is a great resource for articles and helpful tips, check out their other articles.
Regards,
Beth
Monday, July 28, 2008
Google Tools
You owe it to yourself and your business to check out the assortment of FREE Google Tools.
Trade up from your old NB Tel email with it's limitations and sign up for a free GMAIL email account. Lots of storage, ability to receive and send lots of attachments. Lots of valuable user names left.
Which do you imagine is easier for a consumer to remember "nb.nbnet.com" or "gmail.com", or even "hotmail.com"? Especially if they are coming from outside New Brunswick! And that goes double for "nb.aibn.com" - lots of opportunity for typos with that one.
Embed a GOOGLE CALENDAR into your site. If your operation depends on the tides or a certain departure time, enter that data into a Google Calendar - a benefit of your new Gmail email account - and then publish it to your website. Or have your developer help you embed the code into your website. Google provides the code!
Setup GOOGLE ANALYTICS on your website. The easiest and most informative website statistics package out there - and it's free! Google provides the code and you get your developer to insert it on your website. You can configure it to send you weekly reports to your email account - and since you're now using Gmail you can keep weeks worth of reports.
And that's not all.
There is plenty of freeware out there that can make you more efficient and put more information about your tourism operation into the hands of the online consumer.
Check it out at http://www.google.ca/intl/en/options/
Regards,
Beth
Trade up from your old NB Tel email with it's limitations and sign up for a free GMAIL email account. Lots of storage, ability to receive and send lots of attachments. Lots of valuable user names left.
Which do you imagine is easier for a consumer to remember "nb.nbnet.com" or "gmail.com", or even "hotmail.com"? Especially if they are coming from outside New Brunswick! And that goes double for "nb.aibn.com" - lots of opportunity for typos with that one.
Embed a GOOGLE CALENDAR into your site. If your operation depends on the tides or a certain departure time, enter that data into a Google Calendar - a benefit of your new Gmail email account - and then publish it to your website. Or have your developer help you embed the code into your website. Google provides the code!
Setup GOOGLE ANALYTICS on your website. The easiest and most informative website statistics package out there - and it's free! Google provides the code and you get your developer to insert it on your website. You can configure it to send you weekly reports to your email account - and since you're now using Gmail you can keep weeks worth of reports.
And that's not all.
There is plenty of freeware out there that can make you more efficient and put more information about your tourism operation into the hands of the online consumer.
Check it out at http://www.google.ca/intl/en/options/
Regards,
Beth
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Paperless Hotel
Given that I work in the technology field I thought this article from a recent travle mole newsletter was very interesting...
Fontainebleau announces first (almost) paperless hotel
When it opens this fall, the famous Fontainebleau Resort’s $1 billion makeover will include what it is calling the first paperless hotel room -- with one exception.
With an Apple iFB system, guests at the famed Miami hotel that has deteriorated in recent years are given a personalized introduction screen with their names and the weather and other information. From there, they can access local information, dining and entertainment options, recreation and relaxation suggestions and, of course, the Internet.
This new in-room computer system allows for Fontainebleau to cut back on half a million newspapers every year, according to the company.
One paper product remains, however. That is what you usually find in the bathrooms.
The new technology will debut later this year at the grand re-opening of the Fontainebleau Miami Beach and in the forthcoming Fontainebleau Las Vegas, a $2.9 billion, 63-story destination resort and entertainment complex set for opening in 2009. Report by David Wilkening
Fontainebleau announces first (almost) paperless hotel
When it opens this fall, the famous Fontainebleau Resort’s $1 billion makeover will include what it is calling the first paperless hotel room -- with one exception.
With an Apple iFB system, guests at the famed Miami hotel that has deteriorated in recent years are given a personalized introduction screen with their names and the weather and other information. From there, they can access local information, dining and entertainment options, recreation and relaxation suggestions and, of course, the Internet.
This new in-room computer system allows for Fontainebleau to cut back on half a million newspapers every year, according to the company.
One paper product remains, however. That is what you usually find in the bathrooms.
The new technology will debut later this year at the grand re-opening of the Fontainebleau Miami Beach and in the forthcoming Fontainebleau Las Vegas, a $2.9 billion, 63-story destination resort and entertainment complex set for opening in 2009. Report by David Wilkening
Monday, June 2, 2008
Bay of Fundy Blog gets national attention
In case you haven't heard the Bay of Fundy blog is a hot one.
Manged by Terri McCulloch, it is written honestly and sincerely and brings national attention to the Bay of Fundy region.
Check out the latest news paper article at http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1059317.html
This proves that any business can establish a successful online presence for free !
Beth
Manged by Terri McCulloch, it is written honestly and sincerely and brings national attention to the Bay of Fundy region.
Check out the latest news paper article at http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1059317.html
This proves that any business can establish a successful online presence for free !
Beth
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Google Maps - get on there!
Greetings,
During the sessions that I conducted in 2007 there were several companies who remarked that when they searched Google Maps for their location, the results were not correct.
The source of Google maps is a company called NAVTEQ
http://www.navteq.com/
On the NAVTEQ website is a feature called Map Reporter, it lets you submit what may be errors in the map (either street names or postal codes etc).
I gather that if we all get together and start submitting errors that will result in review of the entire provincal map, which benefits us all.
On a separate note if you go to the start page for Google Maps, in the bottom left corner is a link to "Add or Edit your business". It only takes a minute to set up a google business account and that will definitely aid in getting better google map results.
I hope that you find this information useful, and please feel free to pass it along to others who may benefit.
Regards,
Beth
During the sessions that I conducted in 2007 there were several companies who remarked that when they searched Google Maps for their location, the results were not correct.
The source of Google maps is a company called NAVTEQ
http://www.navteq.com/
On the NAVTEQ website is a feature called Map Reporter, it lets you submit what may be errors in the map (either street names or postal codes etc).
I gather that if we all get together and start submitting errors that will result in review of the entire provincal map, which benefits us all.
On a separate note if you go to the start page for Google Maps, in the bottom left corner is a link to "Add or Edit your business". It only takes a minute to set up a google business account and that will definitely aid in getting better google map results.
I hope that you find this information useful, and please feel free to pass it along to others who may benefit.
Regards,
Beth
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