I won't mention it

I'm not going to mention how remiss I've been in my blogging, and I don't expect you to either.

Nuff said.




I just wanted to bring to your attention that in November 2009, facebook did some changes to its contesting policy - check the lastest version out at:


http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php


I'm not sure that you're allowed to run contests on facebook anymore ... and I wouldn't want them to freeze your page because that's a night mare you'll never get out of - Facebook doesn't seem to care about the individual business or person for that matter - ironically enough



I believe that you can have a retweet contest on twitter but not a member contest on facebook. So I'm not sure how to get out of that public relations mess if you happen to be mid contest, other then to maybe drop references to it and hope no one notices


Or you'll have to turn it around and have them send you an email as well.


Also make sure that you have more then one admin on your facebook fan page, if for some reason your account gets frozen no one will have admin access to your fan page.


Facebook is putting in new security every day and I've heard about people trying to log on from another country and / or from their mobile and their account gets locked because Facebook may deem it as hacking. Once your account is locked, again it's a night mare you might not get out of


Facebook doesn't seem to have any sense of customer service or a procedure for things like that.

So best practice is to have at least two admins, even if one is an account you create for your fictional grandmother and only log into once a month !


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On another note, I bought my parents (age 65+) a new computer for back to school ... well it was on sale because it's back to school.

It's an upgrade from their Win XP to Windows 7 - essentially skipping over Vista for them, not on purpose, Vista was/is a great operating system, it just worked out that way.

And I just left them to it. It's my own social/blogging experiment. No instructions, no introductory session while they hovered over my shoulder.

So we'll see how they make out.

Already they asked where one of their favorite websites was and while I did copy their favorites to a CD and could potentially put them back on the new computer, I responded with Google it.

Thus getting them in the mindset of googling things, and hopefully reshowing them how to create new favorites.

We'll see how it goes.


Later
Beth

The Mind Set

Why should I invest in a better website?

Why should I invest in online booking?

Why should I spend time on social media?


It's all about the mind set of a certain segment of consumer. I happen to be in that segment so let me share with you a story about my mind set.

It's hot, we're having a heat wave. My mom isn't feeling well, and the elderly don't fair well in the heat anyways --> Mindset: low tolerance

I ask my parents to buy an Air Conditioner ages ago, and they didn't --> Mindset: little patience

Now I'm at work, barely time for lunch and must source and purchase an air conditioner -- > Mindset: Frustration


So putting together my mind sets of low tolerance, little patience and frustration, I started with Google

Firstly I learn what an air conditioner is all about, and what specs I should be looking for based on how I expect to use it

Secondly I start visiting the websites of local retailers.

Futureshop --> low prices, no instore stock, only ground shipping

WalMart --> great prices, no online inventory checking system

Canadian Tire --> Ok prices, online inventory checking, unit in stock - SOLD


things we can learn from my experience:
1. I only visited three stores online and ONE store in person, I'm not in the mood to mess around
2. I spent more money just to save myself some hassle


While some vacations are thought out and planned in the greatest detail, some are last minute and born from frustration. The easier you make it for that consumer to stay with you, the more likely you are to complete the sale.



Here's another episode from the saga that is my life :)

Today while browsing facebook, I see that one of my friends status says that she's expecting a food basket from a local organic farm to be delivered today....sounds intriguing, and she's included the link to the farm's like page (fan page).

Fredericton is still having a heat wave. And although cooler in the house, I'm still low on patience and tolerance. So I check it out, this could save me time at the grocery store... if I stock up on dry goods, I may not have to even set foot there again til FALL ! Sounds like utter bliss to me.

Because this organic farm takes a few minutes a day to engage in social media, and because my friend likes them and engages with them, I may have found the route to a grocery store free summer!

Thus illustrating the power of social media.

And ending today's rant.

I hope it was educational :)


Stay cool,
Beth

Friday things to think about...

I'm sure you've all seen some form of this video over the past couple of years, but like all things technology, there's always the latest and greatest version

So for your viewing pleasure, the latest from May 2010





So you don't have to keep rewinding and reviewing, cause the music can be a bit annoying:


Over 50% of the world's popluation is under 30 years old.
96% of these people have already joined a social network

In 2010 Facebook topped Google in the rankings of weekly traffic in the US

One out of eight couples married in the US met on social media

Facebook added over 200 million users in less then a year

80% of companies use social media for recruitment

Generation Y and Z consider email something from the past, and many Universities have stopped distributing email addresses

The number TWO search engine in the world is You Tube ( I told you this one )

25% of search results for the world's top 20 largest brands are links to user generated content!

34% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands

78% of consumers trust peer recommendations

Social Ostrich!

I've got a new term of the week - Social Ostrich - referring to those who still have their head in the sand regarding the uses and benefits of social media in driving brand recognition and sales.

Ha, awesome isn't it?

No I didn't think of it myself, I found it somewhere on the internet.

Whew,
What a great annual conference last week ! You should have been there.

TIANB launched their new website - it's also awesome - check it out here.

And A Couple of Chicks did a great social media boot camp ... yeah there were other speakers but I'm only interested in the technology related ones :)

I brought back a terrible nasty cold and so this week has been almost a complete write off but before it ended I did want to share one great tip - Google Local Business or Google Places or whatever name they give it this week ;-) Point is, create your account now and get a free detailed listing in Google search results that is mobile friendly !

www.google.ca/lbc

Excellent for those who can't afford a mobile website, excellent for helping customers find your phone number, physical address, quick photo, and other details without having to load up your website.

It's like as amazing as the Yellow pages were when they first came out. Remember??? Does anyone remember life before the Yellow pages? Well I'm sure folks were amazed to have all that information at their fingertips and in one location.

Remember party lines ... my mom had a party line growing up, she used to say that the lady across the street would listen in on her and her boyfriend. And now all kids have their own phone, and a cellular phone at that !

When I was a kid - I WAS the TV remote !

I'm starting to ramble now, must be the cold medicine.

Anyways your homework til next post is to create a Google Place for your business.

Welcome June,
Beth

For my followers

Greetings,

Well I've been remiss in my blogging yet again! Don't worry I'm rapping my own knuckles about it. Truth is I've been run off my feet.

I completed 10 mentoring sessions in April alone. I have people calling me wanting to know when I can come to their area. I attended the Atlantic Internet Marketing conference, where TT.com was a sponsor. I am right now in the midst of preparing for the TIANB annual conference (if the other staff knew I had time to blog, they'd be sending more tasks my way!).

I know my last post said I was going to talk about Google Analytics, but I've given that more thought and really it's too broad a topic for this little blog. There are whole blogs devoted to that one subject. Basically it's the best free website statistical package out there, and you should definitely sign up for it. If only for the automatic emails that you can set up. Our account sends me the dashboard view once a week via email so I never even log into the application.


The AIM conference in Halifax was great. Two jam packed days of speakers and networking. I have lots of information to share about that, and will start that after we get back from TIANB conference.

The TIANB conference is next week in Edmundston. Roger Brooks is back to talk about product development. And A Couple of Chicks, social media gurus for tourism, are coming as well. I'm excited about bringing the Chicks to the conference and I know everyone is going to go home with lots of social media tips and tricks.

One thing I will share with you ... or anyone who's reading ...

A speaker at the AIM conference said that the Saskatchewan Hospital Home Lottery sent out a text message to all previous home lottery ticket buyers at the start of their annual campaign. The result....

They sold 35,000 of 40,000 tickets!

Imagine selling 90% of your tickets by just letting previous buyers know they are available. The lottery sold out early, everyone got their prizes earlier, they could cancel some TV and radio buys so they made more money. It's a win win.

Technology, it's time to give it serious consideration.

Getting Noticed on Google

As promised, I'm going to start to share new tips. Credit for the content ideas goes to the book "Getting Noticed on Google - in easy steps" by Ben Norman. Probably not the latest and greatest but it's the book that is sitting in front of me and was my inspiration.


And we're going to start with basics.


Why is Google so important? Because it is. Practically no one refers to "search engines" anymore they just "Google It". Because Google presents unbiased and trustworthy results, Joe Public has come to rely on them.


Google uses an algorithm to rank websites. This algorithm is constantly improving, changing, evolving and most importantly SECRET. Which is why there is always going to be conflicting advice on how best to googlize your website.


And I think by now we all know what we mean when we use the term spiders or crawlers. If not, then you need to give me a call.


Google will penalize you for breaking it's rules and using what we in the biz call "black hat SEO". So always stick to white hat SEO. You can find the official Google rules on their home page under About Us (where else would it be).


We'll only talk about white hat stuff anyways.


And the first item up is the Google Toolbar. So take a minute and install it, if you don't have it yet. And you'd have to be diligent like me not to have it yet, because the darn thing comes bundled with every free Adobe product.

Did you know that you can do a quick one button check to find out who is linking back to you. For example, if you know a certain restaurant or members of your local RTA are supposed to be linking to you, a quick click of the Google toolbar button will let you know who actually followed through with that.

Under Page ranking, click Backwards links.

And it doesn't have to be your website either, you can do your competitors websites and find out which local businesses are linking to them. Then you can approach them for links to your own business.

Perhaps you're a new restaurant in the area, and you want to find out which businesses are open to linking to local establishments. Let the Google toolbar do the researching for you.

Perhaps you're a local DMO consumer facing website and you want to know which local companies are promoting your site. the Google toolbar will tell you. Awesome.

What's next.... The Google cache page checker (also under Page Ranking).

This little feature shows you how your page looks on Google and therefore when was the last time the Spiders came around. And it tells you the date Google took the snapshot. And so you get a feel for how often and when the spiders do come around.

Another button that hides under page rank is similar pages. Find out similar pages to your business page, or just use it to improve your searching.

The next parts about Google Analytics and Google site maps require a Google Account -so go get one and we delve into more next week.

Fast facts

Every month I read an online version of Website Magazine, the subscription is free if you're interested. Here are a few tidbits from the March issue.

Cisco has disclosed that it will release new routing equipment within this calendar year that will be able to stream every motion picture ever made in four minutes! As well enable every person in China to simultaneously make a video call!

We'll have to wait and see if they deliver on that promise but the announcement or even the thought of such a goal is proof of the influence of video on the Internet.

Cyber crime costs Americans more then $560 million in 2009. The most susceptible cities were Seattle, Boston, Washington, and San Francisco

You Tube is adding a captions feature. Great news for those posting to You Tube and taking advantage of being able to then have it embedded into your product page on the TAP website.

Lots of content about the new Google Android phone, the Apple apps store, and Palm losing market share, if you're interested.

Page 28 (a mildly interesting article about SEO) gives a shout out to local company Radian6 for their social media monitoring software :)

Eeek - where does the time go

Greetings,

Just a short note to say, I'm still here.

I've been all around NB talking to operators about how to increase their presence online, and believe me even though the province seems small, with 2000 tourism products it takes a long while and a lot of driving to see even a quarter of the operators!

I've got a lot of tips on Google Toolbar tips and tricks to share over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

Also I'd like to announce that the Tourism Technology project is putting on day long Social Media workshops specifically geared towards tourism operators. I'm excited about this, and hope that you'll take advantage of this great opportunity. The other techies and I have worked closely with the presenter to customize the content and make sure it's relevant!

Moncton, April 30
Fredericton, May 3
Bathurst, May 4 (in french)

Check your email for more details or drop me a line at beth @ tianb . com

5 Hot Tips

As you can tell from the title, today's post is generously borrowed from Susan Rice Lincoln's e-newsletter, Social Media Matters. You can read all of Susan's posts at her blog, Mastering the New Net.

I would never use the word "hot" in my own titles ;-)

I really enjoyed tip number four, with the house/garden/social media metaphor. Readers of my blog will know I love metaphors.




Don’t try to do too much. The people/companies that have the best success in social media are using a maximum of three tools. You don’t need to use every single social media tool known to mankind. What you need to figure out is which tools match your strategy.


Create editorial calendars. Editorial calendars on a monthly basis are a great way of keeping your social media program on track. Otherwise, your social media engine is just run on disorganized spontaneity and you will eventually run out of steam. (Regrettably, I think this is happening to my blog)


Repurpose everything. If you are creating a photo stream on Flickr, you should make sure that will be seen in Facebook or on your website. When you post a blog, it should automatically be posted everywhere you are active on the social media space. Maximize your social media presence by making sure everything you do is repurposed in an automatic fashion. (And I don't do this)



Commit at least 1 hour a day to social media. A website is like a house. You construct it. You keep an eye on it to make sure the roof isn’t caving in. But you don’t have to be looking at it every single day. Your social media, however, is like the garden around the house. It needs to be tended to every single day. You need to water and weed all the time. So make social media an integral part of your daily schedule. Or you will fall way behind. And your garden will never bear any fruit.



Have a purpose. The number one most important thing you need to do to be on top of your social media game is to have a well-defined strategy. You need to know what you want to achieve. You need to know where you are going. Without that, it will just be a frustrating exercise of fragmented conversations and dead-end streets. Know what you want to do.

March Madness

Greetings All,

Not much new to post, just wanted to let you know that the "Achieve your best presence online" training sessions with Tourism and Parks are being very well received.

So I'm on the road a lot and not much time to ferret out good content for my blog :(

However I'm meeting a lot of operators and I'm encouraged because a lot of them are finally seeing the need for a GREAT online presence.

It took a while but I think they are coming around.

Online booking did not turn out to be a fad or flash in the pan, it's here to stay. And it's becoming the booking option of choice for more and more travellers.

If you haven't registered for the training session, there are still sessions available all across NB.

And if you're one of those operators whose finally turned the corner, there's loads of valuable and relevant information in my previous posts.

So browse around.

Beth