Comments on:

When every cell tower in a nation is down, channels soon become overloaded and communicators must depend on disaster communications systems.

Social media travel marketing has become more important to the hospitality industry, and the public relations firms serving it, since the economic downturn hit the travel industry in 2008.

Social media PR in particular is also becoming more vital with consumers demanding incentives, requiring more online touch points to make decisions and deals in real time via social networking, says Karen Gee McAuley (@gemtweet), executive vice president of Blaze PR and a 25-veteran of the travel and tourism industry.

Online travel agents like Priceline, Orbitz and Travelocity have grown dramatically through the recession, forcing consultants to promote discounts offered by these services on their client’s properties with Twitter-like speed.

Karen sat down with “On the Record…Online,” the official podcast of the PRSA 2010 International Conference to discuss social media marketing for the travel and hospitality in hard economic times. This episode is guest hosted by Joanne Killeen-Furtney of Killeen Furtney Group.

Show Notes:

1:11 Travel marketing has been shaped in recent by the recession that hit in 2008 and by the mistakes of insurance giant AIG, which achieved notoriety by holding a luxury event at a hotel just after it had received federal bailout funds. Hospitality public relations pros were left grapple with the “AIG effect,” with companies becoming wary of travel spending, just as leisure travelers were scared into staying home by the residential real estate crash.

5:10 Hotel marketing strategies to emerge during the recession included “keeping the guest dollar on property” with stronger promotion of in-house spas, restaurants and golf courses.

5:37 Recession marketing plans began to reflect a change of focus in the hospitality industry with marketers switching to a regional “drive-in” strategy to attract the “staycation” customers in their backyard who were now less willing to fly.

6:34 Recession marketing PR programs shifted as “the deal” became all important to consumers. Customers wanted a reduced rate, and at the luxury level, demanded extras be thrown in with the price of the room (a spa treatment or a round of golf).

8:02 Social media travel PR, more than ever, had to advance client priority metrics, whether it be message delivery, preserving the rate charged, driving click throughs to a website or capturing data to guide distribution of an e-newsletter.

9:06 Online travel marketing gained added credibility when a survey by the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International found travel consumers need seven online touch points to influence their travel decisions. If travel companies are not working online, they are failing to influence half of a given consumer’s buying decision.

9:45 Online travel marketing has grown dramatically on the backs of the online travel agents like Priceline, Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity, but travel agents still play a key role for people who want more than just a room (packages, advice, personal service).

10:33 Social media travel marketing in the last three years has come to play a central role in outreach by public relations firms to media that customers consume, along with an upswing in direct communication to customers.

10:47 Social media travel PR includes the pushing out of promotions via Facebook and Twitter pages that the travel customer communities have learned to pay attention to, including online venues of major traditional media outlets. Every major daily newspaper now has an online operation that often offers content not available in that newspaper’s Sunday travel section. The Los Angeles Times, for instance, has the Daily Dish and the Daily Deal blog. Perishable product does well online, and this impacts media targeting.

13:09 Travel industry prospects should begin to recover shortly, but marketers need to focus on population segments that have continued to spend money on travel despite the recession, including baby boomers with intact nest eggs.

13:58 Travel PR has changed in recent years, but some basic elements remain central, including the need to craft messaging, and to choose the best strategic outlets for spreading the message. Also, PR firms need to continue to identify and influence key influencers as well as take mass approaches, depending on client priorities (less can be more).

18:01 Social media metrics can be captured by aps like Omniture and Google Analytics. The results of client social media campaigns can be measured daily or weekly, and should focus tightly on which sources drive most people to the website. Click throughs are to the key, and it may not be a mention in the Wall Street Journal that drives the most traffic. A niche online article may deliver more click throughs, and may keep delivering over time.

20:24 Social media travel PR jobs are available, and working at a hotel is often a good preparation when combined with a journalism or PR degree. An internship at niche travel PR firm is another good move because it provides exposure to the specific writing style used in the industry. Goal: learn the “experiential” writing captures and creates memories.

21:12 End podcast

Recommended Episodes

The Coca-Cola Company Tweets Smiles

Social Media Advocacy Shapes AARP Healthcare Reform Outreach

B2B Social Media Podcast – Episode 5

About the Guest Host

Joann is an award-winning public relations executive with over 30 years of industry experience. Whether it is a strategic plan or a financial communications program, Joann is as comfortable with the language of numbers as she is with words. Her strategic mind is well-known throughout the industry. She has created award-winning strategic marketing communications and public relations programs for Union Pacific Railroad, California State Parks, Lifetime Corporation, DAKA International, Wal-Mart, Microsoft Corporation, Litton Industries, Blockbuster and OATH. Her industry experience includes assignments in technology, healthcare, recreation, food industry, education, investor relations, government, transportation and non-profit.

About the Podcaster

Eric Schwartzman @EricSchwartzman provides online social media training, social media strategy and social media policy governance to public relations, public affairs, corporate communications and marketing specialists. He has extensive experience integrating emerging information technologies into organizational communications programs through public speaking, hands-on training seminars, consulting and the development of corporate policies on social media usage.

His clients have included Boeing, BYU, City National Bank, Environmental Defense Fund, Government of Singapore, Johnson & Johnson, NORAD Northcomm, Southern California Edison, Toyota, UCLA, US Dept. of State, United States Army, US Embassy of Athens, US Embassy to Rome, United States Marine Corps and many other small to medium-sized companies and agencies.

Eric is the instructor behind the top-rated social media training seminars, the Social Media Boot Camp and the Social Media Master Class, which are offered monthly in the US.

His book "Social Marketing to the Business Customer" with Paul Gillin about B2B social media marketing is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Borders.

These show notes were search engine optimized by Greg Williams (@gregscience).

###

Social media travel marketing has become more important to the hospitality industry, and the public relations firms serving it, since the economic downturn hit the travel industry in 2008.  

Social media PR in particular is also becoming more vital with consumers demanding incentives, requiring more online touch points to make decisions and deals in real time via social networking, says Karen Gee McAuley (@gemtweet), executive vice president of Blaze PR and a 25-veteran of the travel and tourism industry.  

Online travel agents like Priceline, Orbitz and Travelocity have grown dramatically through the recession, forcing consultants to promote discounts offered by these services on their client’s properties with Twitter-like speed.  

Karen sat down with “On the Record…Online,” the official podcast of the PRSA International Conference to discuss social media marketing for the travel and hospitality in hard economic times.  

This episode is guest hosted by Joann Killeen-Furtney of Killeen Furtney Group.

Show Notes:  

1:11 Travel marketing has been shaped in recent by the recession that hit in 2008 and by the mistakes of insurance giant AIG, which achieved notoriety by holding a luxury event at a hotel just after it had received federal bailout funds. Hospitality public relations pros were left grapple with the “AIG effect,” with companies becoming wary of travel spending, just as leisure travelers were scared into staying home by the residential real estate crash.  

5:10 Hotel marketing strategies to emerge during the recession included “keeping the guest dollar on property” with stronger promotion of in-house spas, restaurants and golf courses.    

5:37 Recession marketing plans began to reflect a change of focus in the hospitality industry with marketers switching to a regional “drive-in” strategy to attract the “staycation” customers in their backyard who were now less willing to fly.   

6:34 Recession marketing PR programs shifted as “the deal” became all important to consumers. Customers wanted a reduced rate, and at the luxury level, demanded extras be thrown in with the price of the room (a spa treatment or a round of golf).  

8:02 Social media travel PR, more than ever, had to advance client priority metrics, whether it be message delivery, preserving the rate charged, driving click throughs to a website or capturing data to guide distribution of an e-newsletter.    

9:06 Online travel marketing gained added credibility when a survey by the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International found travel consumers need seven online touch points to influence their travel decisions. If travel companies are not working online, they are failing to influence half of a given consumer’s buying decision.  

9:45 Online travel marketing has grown dramatically on the backs of the online travel agents like Priceline, Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity, but travel agents still play a key role for people who want more than just a room (packages, advice, personal service).  

10:33 Social media travel marketing in the last three years has come to play a central role in outreach by public relations firms to media that customers consume, along with an upswing in direct communication to customers. 

10:47 Social media travel PR includes the pushing out of promotions via Facebook and Twitter pages that the travel customer communities have learned to pay attention to, including online venues of major traditional media outlets. Every major daily newspaper now has an online operation that often offers content not available in that newspaper’s Sunday tra...

In this Episode:

Twitter encourages the developer community to find new, useful ways to use their platform to do more than just share tweets; Twitter platform lead Evan Sanger says 90 percent of active Twitter users now use official Twitter apps on a monthly basis to access the service, but Marketwire’s Sysmos says 58 percent is a more accurate number; Spiceworks launches Vendor Pages; Ajilitee tries B2B marketing on Groupon, Paul is looking for B2B case studies to feature in BtoB Magazine and Eric’s controversial SXSW panel on outsourcing social media without selling your soul.

Reference Link

* Twitter Drops The Ecosystem Hammer: Don’t Try To Compete With Us On Clients, Focus On Data And Verticals by MG Siegler (@parislemon)

* Non-Official Twitter Clients Still Widely Used by Marketwire

* Spiceworks Launches Vendor Pages by Marie Griffin

* Six Pixels of Separation with Seth Godin by Mitch Joel (@mitchjoel)

* Ajilitee Tries B2B Advertising on Groupon by Kris Ashton

* Chrysler Fires Social Media Agency by Chris Woodyard (@chriswoodyard)

Previous B2B Social Media Podcast Episodes:

* B2B Social Media Podcast #4

* B2B Social Media Podcast #3

* B2B Social Media Podcast #2

About the Podcast

You’ve been listening to the B2B Social Media Podcast by Eric Schwartzman and Paul Gillin, co-authors of Social Marketing to the Business Customer -- the first book devoted entirely to B2B social media marketing -- discuss developments in and best practices for marketing to business customers online.

Join our community at www.b2bsocialmediabook.com and send comments to [email protected].

About the Podcasters

Paul Gillin and Eric Schwartzman are coauthors of the book "Social Marketing to the Business Customer" about B2B social media marketing is available atAmazon, Barnes & Noble or Borders.

Eric Schwartzman @EricSchwartzman provides online social media training, social media strategy and social media policy governance to public relations, public affairs, corporate communications and marketing specialists. He has extensive experience integrating emerging information technologies into organizational communications programs through public speaking, hands-on training seminars, consulting and the development of corporate policies on social media usage.

His clients have included Boeing, BYU, City National Bank, Environmental Defense Fund, Government of Singapore, Johnson & Johnson, NORAD Northcomm, Southern California Edison, UCLA, US Dept. of State, United States Army, US Embassy of Athens, the United States Marine Corps and many small to medium-sized companies and agencies.

Eric is the instructor behind PRSA’s top-rated social media and emerging treads training seminars, the Social Media Boot Camp and the Social Media Master Class, which are offered monthly in the US.

Paul Gillin (@pgillin) of Paul Gillin Communications. Paul was founding editor-in-chief of TechTarget, one of the most successful technology media entities to emerge on the Internet. Before that, he was editor-in-chief and executive editor of the technology weekly Computerworld for 15 years.

He wrote The New Influencers, Secrets of Social Media Marketing and the Joy of Geocaching.

Paul writes a regular column for BtoB magazine and contributes to various blogs and online publications. He’s also a Research Fellow and a member of the advisory board of the Society for New Communications Research.

In this Episode:

Twitter encourages the developer community to find new, useful ways to use their platform to do more than just share tweetsTwitter platform lead Evan Sanger says 90 percent of active Twitter users now use official Twitter apps on a monthly basis to access the service, but Marketwire’s Sysmos says 58 percent is a more accurate numberSpiceworks launches Vendor PagesAjilitee tries B2B marketing on GrouponPaul is looking for B2B case studies to feature in BtoB Magazine and Eric’s controversial SXSW panel on outsourcing social media without selling your soul.

B2B Social Media Podcast #4 - Eric Schwartzman and Paul Gillin, co-authors of Social Marketing to the Business Customer -- the first book devoted entirely to B2B social media marketing -- discuss developments in and best practices for marketing to business customers online. Please send comments, criticism and feedback to [email protected]

In this Episode: A surge in LinkedIn integration by B2B membership sites indicates that its star is rising as the business social network of choice. A relatively new report says content marketing is growing in importance, but marketers are still struggling with creative issues. Traditional media like webcasts and even print advertising are called more effective than new social channels. Also, check out our FIR Live discussion with Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson from Feb. 16, 2011 and Eric’s discussion with Donna Papacosta on Trafcom News.

Eric heads to SXSW for a panel Monday, March 14 at 9:30am with Nicole Simon, Kate Buck and Elizabeth Bellanti on Outsourcing Socail Media without Selling Your Soul. And on Monday in the SXSW Bookstore, Eric will be signing books at 11:30am. Hope to see you there!

Related Links:

The rise of self-publishing, and the quest for content

Email secrets & lies: Creating fresh content)

B2B Facebook pages... what drives and keeps fans?

2010 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends

Recommended Episodes

* B2B Social Media Podcast #3

* B2B Social Media Podcast #2

* B2B Social Media Podcast #1

About the Podcasters

Eric Schwartzman @EricSchwartzman provides online social media training, social media strategy and social media policy governance to public relations, public affairs, corporate communications and marketing specialists. He has extensive experience integrating emerging information technologies into organizational communications programs through public speaking, hands-on training seminars, consulting and the development of corporate policies on social media usage.

His clients have included Boeing, BYU, City National Bank, Environmental Defense Fund, Government of Singapore, Johnson & Johnson, NORAD Northcomm, Southern California Edison, UCLA, US Dept. of State, United States Army, US Embassy of Athens, the United States Marine Corps and many small to medium-sized companies and agencies.

Eric is the instructor behind PRSA’s top-rated social media and emerging treads training seminars, the Social Media Boot Camp and the Social Media Master Class, which are offered monthly in the US.

His book "Social Marketing to the Business Customer" with Paul Gillin about B2B social media marketing is available atAmazon, Barnes & Noble or Borders.

Paul Gillin (@pgillin) of Paul Gillin Communications. Paul was founding editor-in-chief of TechTarget, one of the most successful technology media entities to emerge on the Internet. Before that, he was editor-in-chief and executive editor of the technology weekly Computerworld for 15 years.

He wrote The New Influencers, Secrets of Social Media Marketing, the Joy of Geocaching and Social Marketing to the Business Customer with Eric Schwartzman about business-to-business applications of social media.

Paul writes a regular column for BtoB magazine and contributes to various blogs and online publications. He’s also a Research Fellow and a member of the advisory board of the Society for New Communications Research.

B2B Social Media Podcast #4 - Eric Schwartzman and Paul Gillin, co-authors of Social Marketing to the Business Customer -- the first book devoted entirely to B2B social media marketing -- discuss developments in and best practices for marketing to business customers online.  

In this Episode:

A surge in LinkedIn integration by B2B membership sites indicates that its star is rising as the business social network of choice.

A relatively new report says content marketing is growing in importance, but content marketers are still struggling with creative issues. Traditional media like webcasts and even print advertising are called more effective than new social channels.

Also, check out our FIR Live discussion with Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson from Feb. 16, 2011 and Eric’s discussion with Donna Papacosta on Trafcom News.

Eric heads to SXSW for a panel Monday, March 14 at 9:30am with Nicole Simon, Kate Buck and Elizabeth Bellanti on Outsourcing Socail Media without Selling Your Soul.  And on Monday in the SXSW Bookstore, Eric will be signing books at 11:30am.

Social media advocacy and social media activism are having tremendous impact on the national debate surrounding healthcare reform, with AARP serving as a case study for efforts to shape public policy in the age of web 2.0 advocacy.

Paul Anderson, vice president for Communications Strategy and Public Outreach at AARP reports on fast-growing social media action and adoption by the AARP membership, and on the power of new media advocacy to drive engagement as part of a call to action.   P

Paul sat down with “On the Record…Online,” the official podcast of the PRSA 2010 International Conference to discuss managing social media advocacy programs at AARP.  

At the conference, Anderson participated in a public affairs panel focused on public policy issues stemming from the health care overhaul.   Anderson joined AARP after three decades in journalism and public service. He has worked for The Miami Herald, and in 2001, became deputy chief of staff and communications director for former Florida Sen. Bob Graham.

Following Graham’s retirement, Anderson became managing director of public affairs for the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Show Notes:

2:10 Social media advocacy case study: senior citizens represent the fastest growing segment on Facebook.  In response to growing adoption, AARP has moved aggressively into social media advocacy, social media activism, social media networking applications and blogs.

2:37 Social media advocacy drives community engagement more efficiently than ever before. AARP research determines which members will take suggested actions on the organization’s behalf and will follow relevant AARP social media campaigns.  

3:02 Healthcare reform served as the perfect example of how AARP uses social media for geographical and demographic targeting.

3:56 Social media activism requires that advocacy groups find people that agree with an institutional position and ensure their members take the right form of action.

4:12 Multiple social media communications channels represent a strategic challenge for the AARP.  Its leadership employs matrix management to integrate AARP channels and communities, and to ensure that its content can be repurposed regardless of medium.

5:54 Mobile social media communications enables organizations to create value for members through accessibility and ease of use.  AARP just launched several IPhone applications that leverage its publications and services, including scan-able bar code ap that enables members to get AARP discounts at participating stores using their iPhones.

6:51 Social media content must be a balance of what is most useful to audiences and moves forward institutional priorities. The AARP editorial team offers a wide variety of guidance, news and information on everything from recipes to vacations to medication, but also seeks to lead the community as it engages around policy positions.  

9:25 Social media listening supplies lobbying efforts with genuine conversations to buttress arguments. AARP seeks to start dialogues through its social networking sites, and listens closely to the comments on its blogs and articles.

10:09 Social media public affairs has come to depend heavily on social media as a lead vehicle for driving change.  The change, however, requires a true commitment to real-time conversation monitoring, and to placing trust in members and staff.  Set your social media policy, distribute your messaging priorities and be prepared to debate robustly.

11:15 Creating a social media organization requires the opening up of communications and t...

B2B Social Media Podcast #3 - Eric Schwartzman and Paul Gillin, co-authors of Social Marketing to the Business Customer -- the first book devoted entirely to B2B social media marketing -- discuss developments in and best practices for marketing to business customers online. Please send comments, criticism and feedback to [email protected]

In this Episode:

FIR Live with Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson is up. Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt’s meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama about stimulating the economy and Fareed Zakaria’s story on restoring the American dream. The Watson Jeopardy Challenge, quite possibly the greatest B2B marketing campaign in history, and eWeek's coverage. Pete Blackshaw goes to Nestle. What, if anything, can B2B marketers learn from the revolutionary fever sweeping North Africa and the Middle East. Chris Messina’s SXSW presentation on activity streams and data visualizations. Overcoming B2B social media adoption challenges, and increasing social media literacy inside organizations. New features for administrators of Facebook Pages. Happy 2nd Birthday Social Media B2B and congratulations Jeffrey L. Cohen and Kipp Bodnar.

Recommended Episodes

* B2B Social Media Podcast #2

* B2B Social Media Podcast #1

* Facebook Marketing Tips - Graph API

About the Podcasters

Eric Schwartzman @EricSchwartzman provides online social media training, social media strategy and social media policy governance to public relations, public affairs, corporate communications and marketing specialists. He has extensive experience integrating emerging information technologies into organizational communications programs through public speaking, hands-on training seminars, consulting and the development of corporate policies on social media usage.

His clients have included Boeing, BYU, City National Bank, Environmental Defense Fund, Government of Singapore, Johnson & Johnson, NORAD Northcomm, Southern California Edison, UCLA, US Dept. of State, United States Army, US Embassy of Athens, the United States Marine Corps and many small to medium-sized companies and agencies.

Eric is the instructor behind PRSA’s top-rated social media and emerging treads training seminars, the Social Media Boot Camp and the Social Media Master Class, which are offered monthly in the US.

His book "Social Marketing to the Business Customer" with Paul Gillin about B2B social media marketing is available atAmazon, Barnes & Noble or Borders.

Paul Gillin (@pgillin) of Paul Gillin Communications. Paul was founding editor-in-chief of TechTarget, one of the most successful technology media entities to emerge on the Internet. Before that, he was editor-in-chief and executive editor of the technology weekly Computerworld for 15 years.

He wrote The New Influencers, Secrets of Social Media Marketing, the Joy of Geocaching and Social Marketing to the Business Customer with Eric Schwartzman about business-to-business applications of social media.

Paul writes a regular column for BtoB magazine and contributes to various blogs and online publications. He’s also a Research Fellow and a member of the advisory board of the Society for New Communications Research.

B2B Social Media Podcast #3 - Eric Schwartzman and Paul Gillin, co-authors of Social Marketing to the Business Customer -- the first book devoted entirely to B2B social media marketing -- discuss developments in and best practices for marketing to business customers online.

In this Episode:

FIR Live with Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson is up. Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt’s meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama about stimulating the economy Fareed Zakaria’s story on restoring the American dream.

The Watson Jeopardy Challenge, quite possibly the greatest B2B marketing campaign in history, and eWeek's coverage. Pete Blackshaw goes to Nestle.

What, if anything, can B2B marketers learn from the revolutionary fever sweeping North Africa and the Middle East. Chris Messina’s SXSW presentation on activity streams and data visualizations.

Overcoming B2B social media adoption challenges, and increasing social media literacy inside organizations. New features for administrators of Facebook Pages.

Happy 2nd Birthday Social Media B2B and congratulations Jeffrey L. Cohen and Kipp Bodnar.