Category Archives: Social Media

Using Pinterest for Tourism Marketing

Posted by on 1 March 2012 No comments

There’s a new kid on the block of Social Media which lets you connect with your audiences in the most visual way yet.  

When marketing a tourism business, when it comes to piquing the interest of a potential guest or customer, the visual will always work better than the verbal.  This is why the new Social Media site, Pinterest, should be of interest to you.

With Pinterest, you can organise images on your own online inspiration board, or pinboard – then engage with your social networks, link back to your website and let people share your images with the world.

Pinterest offers many creative marketing opportunities for your Tourism Business. You can showcase the various details or experiences your accommodation or activity offers in a visually arresting way. Using photos  share the details of your business –  like the freshly harvested veggies from your garden for your signature dish or create an album highlighting the anticipate of your guests prior to your adventure activity.

For users, Pinterest is like the travel scrapbook of decades past – letting users organise travel boards of inspiration and share them with their networks.

Pinterest just hit 11.7 million unique monthly U.S. visitors, crossing the 10 million mark faster than any other standalone site in history. (Source TechCrunch).  At that rate, it’s going to get huge – so go for it and start sharing and grow your tourism business through this great marketing opportunity!

Read more about Social Media Marketing for Your Tourism Business here

Little Techno Tricks…

Posted by on 4 November 2011 No comments


…that make a big difference to your marketing

 

Trip Advisor – For around USD600.00, a B&B can get a business account with Trip Advisor that not only lets you list contact details and your website, but lets you add a special offer to the front page for the region when searched.  Even better –  travellers can receive your specials by email for each region they will be visiting
www.tripadvisor.com

Newsletters - When you pay peanuts, you get monkeys – but not with MailChimp! It’s free if you have less than 2000 contacts, and offers a slew of templates, or lets you design your own email newsletters. You can share them on social networks, integrate with services you already use, and track your results.
See some of our tourism marketing newsletter designas or head to www.mailchimp.com and get started!

Google Places – Fast track yourself to the top of Google by signing up to Google places, and make sure you verify your listing.  You can even add a description, photos, and video and add keywords for your tourism product and really increase your exposure on Google.
Find ways to increase your exposure on search engines here

Dropbox – Sick of wasting time sending large files one by one, or worse the dreaded post? Drop Box is a program that creates a Drop Box on your own computer, where you can add files and simply invite the person you would like to share with to access them.  With all that saved time, think of all the extra marketing you can do!
www.dropbox.com

Facebook – Once you get 25 or more Likes on your Facebook business page, quickly register your page’s name with FaceBook so someone else can’t start a page with the same business’s name.  Ask your friends and family to like you and secure your name before someone else does!
Read more about social media for Tourism here

A/V Clip – Having an audio visual clip on your home page and next to your book now button increases clicks through to your booking now button by 30% … and at fraction the cost of video.   Then, when you get it on Youtube or Vimeo you can add keyword tags to help promote yourself, and let the power of social media do the rest.
Read more about AV Clips to help market your tourism busines.

Rebuilding Christchurch through Social Media

Posted by on 14 March 2011 No comments

As the recent 6.3 earthquake struck Christchurch, it was Social Media that we turned to, getting messages and information out to family and friends across the globe within a matter of seconds.  The online sentiment felt worldwide was one of tremendous pain; and messages of sympathy and hope for those affected blanketed our twitter feeds, our facebooks and youtube accounts.

An earthquake of this magnitude touches all facets of a community’s economy and lives, and as Christchurch is one of New Zealand’s key tourism destinations this will be a significant blow to “Christchuch” as a brand.  Our strategic partner Dr. Mathew McDougall, CEO for the China based firm SinoTech Group, is a South Islander himself, and one of the global experts on Social Media Strategy and Analytics.

The following presentation from Matt talks about ways to use Social Media to rebuild the brand and sentiment towards the city of Christchurch, and continue forward from here as one of New Zealand’s significant tourism centres.

 

Rebuilding christchurch