1. Life is a Journey The role of blogs in a tourist marketing strategy Natalie Guse Business in Motion, Social Media Marketing http://www.businessinmotion.weebly.com IABE Las Vegas Conference, 20th of October 2009

2. Life is a Journey

3. Content Introduction 1 Tourism as an economical factor 2 Internet as a marketing tool 3 4 Blog Marketing How travel organizations can use blogs 5 Summary 6

4. Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind - Seneca

5. Discover the World! The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page!

6. Tourism Discover the world Econcomical factor The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page!

7. Downward Spiral

9. Tourism keeps a region alive

11. California is currently the # 1 Travel destination in the country

13. Internet Marketing Since 1996, the Internet has captured significant public attention. Exponential growth in Internet hosts and personal computer adoption has led to dramatic increases in online activity. Information and communication technologies provide a powerful tool that can bring great advantages in promoting and strengthening the tourism industry’s strategy and operations. The Internet, and the World Wide Web in particular, has revolutionized the promotion and communication functions of tourism. Especially social media marketing is a great tool for tourism organizations in order to make their destination famous.

14. Two-thirds of the world’s Internet population visit a social network or blogging site and the sector now accounts for almost 10% of all internet time. Social Media Marketing At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. Technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowdsourcing, and voice over IP, to name a few.

15. Blog Interact with costumers! YOU Communicate! Share! Socialize! Blog

17. Stay in contact

18. E-Conferences

19. E-Interviews

20. Build own networks

21. Invite your contacts

22. Interact with costumers

23. Example: NING, MEETUP

24. Create public profiles

25. Stay in contact

26. Example: LINKEDIN, XING, FACEBOOK

27. Promote Infomercial

28. Promote Business

29. Publish press releases

30. Example: YOUTUBE C I S S

31. As of April 2007, Technorati, a major blog monitoring service, claimed to be tracking more than 75 million blogs. Blogs A new form of communication on the Internet are Blogs, short for Weblogs. This new form of communication allows consumers to express their own opinions in yet another way. Blogs are a new and original cultural phenomenon, reflecting more the changes and needs in society than simple realization of technological possibility. Blogs are simply online journals consisting of a mix of text, links and maybe graphics. Bloggers are usually people who are strong believers in something and listening to what they are saying in.

32. As of April 2007, Technorati, a major blog monitoring service, claimed to be tracking more than 75 million blogs. Blogs A blog is a personal homepage with more enhanced connectivity than an HTML-based Web site. In the blog system, individuals communication activities automatically form networks through which they can move from one blog to another without manually adding hyperlinks to each page. Once a communication network is formed, information may flow easily through it. The blog-ad is an attempt to expose the information of products and services to consumers interconnected by networks.

33. How can Travel Organizations can use Blogs?

35. Destination organizations shall use blogs to see what people have to say about the location they are trying to market.

39. Blog Marketing Launching an own travel blog This blog can contain information about the travel destination, restaurants, tips and a lot more. This blog can also be used as an information source for travelers coming to the destination. The advantage of an own blog is, that the travel organization has the chance to control, what is in the Blog. They can scan the written blogs, can track them and also use it as a research tool. The organization can also create a lively network and try to create a good position in search engines, by using affiliate marketing and other tools in order to market this particular Blog site. The Blog site can also be given to travelers coming to the visitors bureau. The travel organization can motivate them to write down their blogs by giving them a present or a discount on a tour or anything.

41. Blog Marketing Creating an ambassador program This is a new trend in the tourism industry. Hamburg in Germany for example has created an “Ambassador program”. These destinations are looking for Ambassadors to market their place all over the world. These ambassadors have the duty, to write blogs, to write comments on any given internet platform, to mingle with people all over the world telling them about the beauty of the destination, they live in etc. Ambassadors are citizens of that particular region or town. They volunteer and they have an interest in promoting their place. A good way to increase the positive blogs is, to launch an own ambassador program.

42. Blog Marketing Surveys Annual surveys can also be used in order to increase the number of positive blogs. If a destination knows about the weaknesses, they can develop strategies in order to make the destination more service-oriented and more beautiful. That – in an ideal world – creates a higher satisfaction rate.

43. Blog Marketing Quality of Service This point is related to the “Surveys”. Annual Service Training for hotel employees, tourist information stuff and all people, occupied in the tourism sector, can increase the Quality of Service in a particular destination, which leads to a higher satisfaction rate. There are also many actions that can increase traveler’s satisfaction with a place, such as local events, infrastructure, orientation systems, friendliness, safety and cleanliness in a destination.

44. Summary Communities are engaged in fierce competition for tourist dollars. As a result of this fierce competition communities are often on the cutting edge of new marketing techniques. This is why many communities were early adopters of the Internet as a communication tool. Blog marketing is the latest Internet marketing tool to be used to create competitive advantage in the market place.

45. Any Questions?

46. …. And there is a lot more we can do! E-Mail us for your individual Marketing Plan and your individual Social Media Strategy businessinmotion@att.net or call 760 427 1625.

47. Start today and empower your business with Social Media Marketing! Call us 760 427 1625 or email businessinmotion@att.net