Social Media and
Tourism 2.0
Katie Lips
Social Media Strategist
Kisky Netmedia
www.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

Getting
Started! Blogging
• Write
• Find & befriend other
writers
• Link & Comment
• Post regularly and
generously

Getting
Started! Events
• List events
• Tell people
• Make friends
• Link events to blogs to ...

Getting
Started! Sharing
• Share photos flickr.com
• And videos
youtube.com
• Tag them
• Link them..... wikipedia.com

Getting
Started! Google Maps

Getting
Started! Diverse Presence

Getting
Started! More tips
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