Archive for the ‘Video’ Category
Friday, March 1st, 2013
Are you ready to add even more pizzaz to your LinkedIn profile?
Adding video to your LinkedIn Profile
In a recent webinar I hosted for travel pros the biggest question your colleagues had was how to add video and showcase their specialties and niche market. The process is quite simple and gives you the chance to stand apart while providing a unique component to your professional profile. Talk about a great branding opportunity.
Adding video to your LinkedIn profile
(Slide show below. Please note the first slide will change automatically in 4 seconds, the rest of the slides can be changed manually by clicking the forward arrow beneath the slide. This will give you a chance to complete the information on the slide before manually moving to the next slide. I wanted to be certain you have the right amount of time to capture this valuable information.)
Marketing your LinkedIn profile
** Include your LinkedIn address on all printed materials; business card, invoices, itineraries, promotional materials and social sites
** More tips on the slides below.
Where to find video for your LinkedIn profile
** Supplier videos. Tap into the resources of your top travel industry suppliers.
** For more tips please refer to the slide show below.
What tactics have you found helpful to stand out from the crowd on LinkedIn?
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By Catherine Heeg
Tags: branding, LinkedIn, marketing, marketingplan, sales, salestips, Social Media, tourism industry, tourismbusiness, tourismsalestips, touroperator, travelindustry, video
Posted in Branding, Facebook Marketing, Google +, LinkedIn, marketing, promotion, Social Media Marketing, strategy, tourism industry, Tourism Sales Tips, Travel Consultant, travel industry, Video | No Comments »
Monday, December 31st, 2012
Is anyone reading this?
Here are 3 creative ways to gain more exposure and make your blog work harder for YOU!
After you’ve spent your time writing, editing and publishing now you get to market your blog. These 3 key promotional tips will immerse you in other channels to bring a wider audience to your blog posts.
Audio podcasts are perfect for commuters and travelers to have a new way to connect with you and learn from your expertise. Using audio podcasts to promote your blog will give listeners a chance to sample your style and compel them to subscribe to your written blog.
Travel pros can easily create a short audio podcast of tips you’ve gained from you last fam trip or destination presentation. Tempt, tease and titillate listeners to subscribe to your blog.
Destinations can create a story about their city for people to listen to on their commute. At the end of the audio podcast remember to direct people to your written blog for related posts.
To record an audio podcast check out Garage Band for MAC users and Audacity for PC users. You’ll record your blog and tips as an .mp3 and then upload it to your social sites and e-newsletter.
Tip: make sure to have a call to action in the audio recording inviting people to your blog site and provide them the link.
For more information on creating audio podcasts, please see my blog post filled with how-to information and listen to my podcasts here
#2 – Video Podcasts
Video is quickly becoming the way of the world. You-Tube is now the 2nd largest search engine garnering over 800 million unique users each month. Leverage this success and market your blog in a video giving people a preview of your latest or most popular blog posts. Then make sure to turn your next blog post into a video podcast.
Travel Consultants & Tour Operators; how about taking video of yourself in your top destination? This gives you the perfect venue to showcase your expertise and show (not just tell) people why they want to travel and why they want to book with you!
To spice up your blog marketing video you can interview others while in a destination. How about interviewing the ship’s captain, your favorite waiter, your contact at the CVB or other supplier.
Have you considered doing a brief interview with your DSM after a destination presentation or training session?
This interview can be embedded into your next blog post or stand alone as a video on your You-Tube channel. When recording the video don’t forget to provide the link to your blog site so that people can engage with you on one more channel.
Tip: When recording with your phone or digital recorder you may want to consider placing your camera on a tri-pod or stable surface and editing where necessary.
#3 – E-book
Get more bang for your blog by turning a series of blog posts into an e-book. This e-book will then become a give-away at trade and consumer shows as well as an on-line giveaway to your fans and potential clients. Some people have added e-books to their selection of items for sale in their on-line travel store.
Imagine an e-book featuring each destination, ship or city you’ve visited. Think of the marketing possibilities. What better way to capture more subscribers for your written blog.
Tip: When creating your e-book make sure readers know how to find your blog so they can engage with you on a regular basis.
Below are 30 more ways to promote your blog. Check out the cool infographic!
What else are you doing to gain more eyeballs for your hard work and research?
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Source: http://marketingland.com/infographic-how-to-promote-your-blog-posts-24579
Tags: audio podcasting, blog, blogging, Facebook, Facebookmarketing, facebookpromotion, marketing, marketingplan, Mobile marketing, Podcasting, Podcasts, sales, salestips, Selling, social engagement, tourism industry, tourismbusiness, tourismsalestips, touroperator, tourwholesaler, travelagent, travelindustry
Posted in blogging, Branding, hotel industry, marketing, National Tour Association, NTA, OASIS, promotion, Social Media Marketing, strategy, tourism industry, Tourism Sales Tips, Travel Consultant, travel industry, Video | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 27th, 2012
Highlight on your Timeline
Have you ever noticed a large, expansive billboard that can’t help but grab your attention? Highlights are that billboard on Facebook Timeline.
Wouldn’t you love to have your latest photos spread across the entire width of your Facebook page? Highlights lets you showcase posts, photos and articles. When you ‘Highlight’ a post by clicking on the star it enlarges the post so it spreads across the entire 2-column width of your page. Talk about attention-grabbing!
How about Highlighting a series of photos that showcase an upcoming tour or your niche market.
Here’s how it looks:
Showcase your niche market or new menu items
Get more ‘likes’ when you highlight a video
Consider highlighting a preferred supplier or a new product. This is a great way to shine the light on a group departure.
Highlight a supplier or market an upcoming group.
Showcase an event – from NTA’s Facebook page
Here are some examples you’ll want to put to work for you today:
- •Hotels: Are you renovating, updating your pool, or rolling out a new lobby look? Post the photos to a new photo album then write a post about it and highlight it. Notice the photos look like a film strip?
- •Tour Operators: Do you have some great new photos related to your next group tour?
- •Attractions: How about giving people a visual tour focusing on a new experience each week.
- •Restaurants: Here’s a great way to feature new menu items, updated facilities or new décor.
- •DMO’s: Explore ways to highlight different facets of your destination while showing people enjoying unique experiences.
- •Travel Agents: Showcase a recent fam trip to maximize your credibility. Shine the light on an upcoming group departure or niche market tour you’re arranging.
- •Association: How about using Highlights to showcase a recent conference, meeting or educational tour. What an amazing way to build membership by showing potential new members the reasons to join.
What will you Highlight on your Facebook page?
Highlights generate inspired, attractive Timeline Facebook pages. Be creative as possible and have fun choosing what you want to Highlight on your Timeline.
For more information on Timeline, click here. And here! More here!
Connect with me online
Join me socially: Facebook, Twitter , LinkedIn and Pinterest
When you ‘like’ my Facebook page you’ll have access to Free Resources just for travel pros!
Tags: CITC, Facebook, facebookfans, Facebookmarketing, facebookpromotion, Focus, hotelsales, marketing, marketingplan, nichemarket, NTA, sales, salestips, smallbusiness, Social Media, Timeline, tourismsalestips, touroperator, tourwholesaler, travelagent, travelindustry
Posted in Branding, Facebook Marketing, hospitality, hotel industry, marketing, NACTA, National Tour Association, Networking, Niche Marketing, NTA, Pinterest, sales, Social Media Marketing, strategy, tourism industry, Tourism Sales Tips, Travel Consultant, travel industry, Video | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 26th, 2012
Changes on Facebook seem to happen more often than airline schedule changes. Timeline gives us some remarkable new ways to enthrall and engage our tourism audiences.
Pins are no longer just for Pinterest and tack boards. Facebook now boosts it’s marketing options by giving businesses a chance to keep something top of mind and top of page for 7 days. Here are some valuable ways to maximize this new feature:
- •Travel Agents: Consider showcasing the destinations that are selling well and include a link to a package offering.
- •Tour Operators: Imagine being able to welcome page visitors with your upcoming group offering or an article about a new destination.
- •Hotels: How about showing off your newest press release or package offerings.
- •DMO’s are featuring people engaging in activities and enjoying member facilities
- •Attractions: Create a splash for your fans by Pinning information on the most popular feature, the newest show or a note-worthy article to get your fans excited.
- •Restaurants: How about posting photos of your newest menu item or a link to a video of the mixing of the hottest new cocktail.
Here’s how you do this:
- Hover over the upper right corner of a post,
- Click the pencil icon and you’ll notice a drop down box. (see below)
- Click Pin to Top
- You’ll notice a gold ribbon will appear at the top of the post.
- After 7 days this post will fall into your timeline in chronological order.
- You can re-pin it again for another 7 days.
- You can un-pin a post at any time.
Figure 1 - Pin to the Top of your Facebook Timeline
Here are some examples for you:
Notice the gold ribbon at the top of the post.
Highlight a new destination
Have fun with this new Pinning feature of Timeline! Pinning is a great tool that encourages connection and interaction with your audience and, promotes key features of the travel and tourism industry.
What do you plan to Pin to the top of your page?
Connect with me online
Join me socially: Facebook, Twitter , LinkedIn and Pinterest
When you ‘like’ my Facebook page you’ll have access to Free Resources just for travel pros!
Tags: Facebook, facebookfans, Facebookmarketing, facebookpromotion, hospitality, marketing, marketingplan, NACTA, NTA, Pinterest, sales, salestips, Selling, smallbusiness, Social Media, tourism industry, tourismbusiness, tourismsalestips, tourwholesaler, travelagent, travelindustry. Timeline
Posted in Branding, Facebook Marketing, hospitality, hotel industry, marketing, NACTA, National Tour Association, Networking, Niche Marketing, NTA, Pinterest, promotion, sales, Social Media Marketing, strategy, tourism industry, Tourism Sales Tips, Travel Consultant, travel industry, Uncategorized, Video | 1 Comment »
Friday, March 23rd, 2012
Did you know that video generates 60% of internet traffic?eyejot logo
Now you can easily harness the power of video and combine it with e-mail in one simple tool.
Imagine being able to send an e-mail with your video (not just as a link), but with the player right in your e-mail. That’s right! Your clients open your e-mail and see your smiling face in the message box. WOW! I’ll bet they’ll see you in a whole different light! (yes, the pun is intended)
Marketing Tactics
1. Introduce yourself to new clients
2. Market your upcoming group departures
3. Showcase a particular feature of your hotel or attraction
4. Send a thank you, birthday or welcome home message to your clients.
5. Bonus! Welcome a group leader or potential client to your hotel, restaurant or attraction.
Check out Eyejot! It’s the most fun I’ve had with video e-mailing in a long time. Once you sign-up you can choose the free or paid version and begin creating your own video. All you need is your computer with a web-cam. Now there’s also an app for the I-Phone.
Here’s what the create screen looks like:
With the free version you can send an unlimited number of 5 minute messages to any e-mail address. Spread the word socially using the embed code or URL link to paste into your blog, website, Facebook or Twitter. With an upgrade you can even send documents. Vimeo offers a similar service.
Once your client receives your video e-mail they can easily reply for free!
How cool would it be to send an Eyejot to a potential cruise client direct from your next ship inspection?
Impress your potential clients with an Eyejot after a crucial meeting.
Hoteliers are using Eyejot to follow up with group leaders prior to arrival.
Attractions use Eyejot to introduce themselves to new Tour Operators. Think about using your mobile device and filming your Eyejot in front of a signature part of your attraction.
Recording Tips
1. Make a test recording and check the background of your video.
- a. Is it a clutter-free area?
- b. Does it reflect a scene that would entice your clients to book with you?
- c. Can the viewer see part of your hotel lobby, attraction or restaurant that’s crucial to their decision making process?
2. Test your voice and adjust your distance from the screen or mobile device
3. Have some fun and let your personality shine!
What successes have you had with video email?
Check out my Facebook page for more social media, marketing and business development tips, tricks and tactics.
Tags: Customer Service, Eyejog, Facebook, Facebookmarketing, hotelsales, marketing, Networking, salestips, Social Media, tourism industry, tourismbusiness, tourwholesaler, travelagent, video email
Posted in E-mail, Facebook Marketing, hotel industry, marketing, Mobile marketing, sales, Social Media Marketing, Travel Consultant, travel industry, Video | No Comments »
Sunday, January 15th, 2012
Custom Landing Pages
Psst…Want more fans?
Social media is changing constantly and unlocking secrets to fan engagement. While we’re all looking for the magic elixir to engage, enlighten and eek more revenues from clients here are some techniques that are working exceptionally well in our industry.
These free tools provide the resources to know more about your fans and potential clients. We’ll start with landing pages here today and future posts will focus on contests and polls.
Landing Pages
AKA Welcome pages and Splash pages.
Did you know that people are 67% more likely to ‘like’ your Facebook page if you have a custom landing page?
While adding these pages is an advanced project, it will bring you results. See examples of industry leaders; Shebby Lee Tours, Sports Travel and Tours, Princess Cruises. A technically savvy client used the Wildfire I-Frames application to build his landing page in about 2 ½ hours. I’ve chosen to have my web designer build a customized page for my site.
Applications:
Best Practices
Many travel pros are keen to try these powerful fan engagement tools so let’s look at a couple of best practices to make the most of your time and effort.
- Set goals of what you’d like this new Landing page to accomplish.
- Do you want to promote a new package, get more likes, promote new photos, promote a consumer night or group departure?
- Would you like people to visit your You-Tube channel to see your latest destination videos?
- Would you like to invite fans to your blog or newly revamped website?
- Take the time to get the graphics right. You know the saying about a photo and 1000 words.
- Once people arrive at your page, provide relevant, fresh content that offer a unique value!
- Most importantly, have a call to action! Make it very clear what you’d like visitors to do once they see your new landing page. Then make it easy for them to help you achieve your goals.
As you’re considering your options keep in mind the design time and effort you’ll invest in this project and compare it to hiring a professional designer. Lastly, have some fun with this exciting medium.
Let’s keep the conversation relevant. Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Tags: blog, blogging, Facebook, Facebookmarketing, facebookpromotion, I-Frames, marketing, Networking, Pagemodo, ShortStack, Social Media, Tabsite, tourism industry, tourismsalestips, You Tube
Posted in blogging, Facebook Marketing, marketing, Mobile marketing, National Tour Association, Networking, Social Media Marketing, tourism industry, Tourism Sales Tips, Travel Consultant, travel industry, Twitter, Video | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011
Time Management
Are you finding it hard to fit social media, audio and video podcasting and blogging into your work day? So many people I meet when I speak at conventions are challenged by how to prioritize their time and talent.
Every day
In my experience I’ve found success by setting aside a specific amount of time each day for social marketing. This enables me to batch different tasks; research and write, record a couple of audio podcasts at one time, write a series of blog posts and turn articles into pre-scheduled Facebook posts and tweets.
Additionally it’s helpful to:
- Check Facebook pages for comments and respond quickly
- Scan Tweets and look at specific hashtags (#)
- Read industry highlights and comment
Every Week
Each week I try to run thru the groups that I belong to on LinkedIn and answer questions, read material that’s newly posted and connect with those I’ve met during a recent conference.
In addition, I look at my Page Insights on Facebook and assess what’s been successful. What posts have gotten the most attention, what links have the most click thrus and where my new fans are coming from. These answers provide me the tools to tweak my upcoming posts.
When you commit to staying involved with your marketing efforts you’ll find that clients seek out your expertise and pass it along to their friends. Imagine filling your next group tour, selling your hotels’ group allotment or finding new sources of visitors to your attraction all thru the power of social connections.
Here’s another post that’s related: How to Find the Time for Social Media
When you find yourself too busy to research and post, here’s the solution for you.
Let’s keep the conversation relevant. Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Tags: Facebook, Facebookmarketing, LinkedIn, marketing, sales, Social Media, tourism industry, travelagent, travelindustry, Twitter
Posted in Facebook Marketing, marketing, promotion, sales, Social Media Marketing, strategy, Time Management, tourism industry, Travel Consultant, travel industry, Twitter, Video | 1 Comment »
Friday, November 11th, 2011
Video Blog
If a photo is worth 1000 words, imagine what a video will do for your social content?
Research has shown that adults are downloading video from Facebook posts and Twitter feeds more often than written content!
Photos and Videos
Original photos, video and blogs rule the internet today! Let’s explore how to create and market quickly and easily. Best practices tell us to get creative and then use this new material in as many different ways as we can.
- Contests are a fresh new way to generate photos and videos. If you’re going to implement a contest or sweepstakes on Facebook you need to be certain to use an approved platform. Check out Wildfire or Offerpop. A client of mine recently rolled out a photo contest and in the first 5 days generated 39 fabulous photos to use in their next brochure or marketing piece. In addition, they generated new fans and virally spread the word to fans and their friends. By the end of the contest they had gained nearly 500 new fans.
- Audio or video podcasts are a unique way to give people another medium to get to know you and your services. Did you know that “Video on your home page increases Google ranking by 50%” Think of the power of a video made by one of your clients that showcases their time with you on a recent group tour. This video serves not only as a testimonial, but shows other potential clients the ‘real scoop’. For tips and resources to generate your own audio or video recordings please click here. Remember, audio and video posts to Facebook and Twitter yield higher click-thru’s and engagement than other posts.
The audio podcasts that I’ve produced have given me an introduction to new clients as well as a medium to invite clients to upcoming events. There are so many creative ways to use these powerful tools.
How are you using photos and videos in your social presence? Keep the conversation going! Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Tags: Audio podcasts, Facebook, facebookfans, Facebookmarketing, marketing, Podcasting, Podcasts, sales, salestips, Social Media, tourism industry, tourismsalestips, travelagent, travelindustry, Twitter, Video Podcast
Posted in Facebook Marketing, hospitality, hotel industry, marketing, NACTA, National Tour Association, NTA, promotion, Social Media Marketing, strategy, tourism industry, Tourism Sales Tips, travel industry, Twitter, Video | No Comments »
Friday, October 21st, 2011
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how valuable is video? Think about how popular You-Tube has become. Wouldn’t you love to have that impact on your clients?
Think how thrilled your clients will be to see you in the destination you’re blogging
about. Think CREDIBILITY! Think VIDEO! Have you considered these techniques:
Video Blog
- imbed it into your blog post and add text to supplement your recording
- create it as a stand-alone video and post it on your You-Tube channel
- embed your video into an e-mail using eyejot or vimeo
- provide a link to your video in your next e-mail blast
Tip: test out your smart phone for video quality. I would suggest making sure it’s HD. If you would like a top of the line (and affordable) HD video camera, check out the Mino Flip. I love how easy it is to use—1 button!
When creating your video keep in mind that 2-4 minutes is the preferred length. If you need more time, simply create a series of short, snappy videos.
When you begin to explore using these technologies you’ll find exciting ways to differentiate your business and appeal to a wider audience. Your expertise and enthusiasm will attract clients, news media and the attention of your preferred suppliers and partners.
What video success stories do you have to tell?
Let’s keep the conversation relevant! Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Tags: audioblogging, blog, blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Listening, marketing, Networking, nichemarket, Podcasting, Podcasts, sales, salestips, Social Media, tourism industry, tourismsalestips, tourwholesaler, travelagent, travelindustry, Twitter, videoblogging
Posted in blogging, Customer Service, Facebook Marketing, hospitality, hotel industry, marketing, Networking, Niche Marketing, promotion, sales, Social Media Marketing, tourism industry, Tourism Sales Tips, Twitter, Video | No Comments »
