Travel is social, we travel not only to visit new places but often to reconnect with our friends and family. Social Media is a natural for travel marketers as long as it’s done in a way that is respectful of the community you’re trying to engage.

Social Media Optimization can drive a huge number of people to a website through new channels because the search engines aren’t the only place that can drive large amounts of traffic. SMO hasn’t overtaken SEO yet, but it could someday.

Travel review sites, online travel planning and collaboration sites have blossomed. Here is a rundown on 14 social travel sites that may be a good place for you to monitor or participate if the audience would be one you would also target in the offline world.

TripAdvisor (www.tripadvisor.com) attracts nearly 30 million monthly visitors (source: comScore Media Metrix, Digital Calculator Report, July 2007) across eight popular travel brands, TripAdvisor® sites, bookingbuddy.com™, cruisecritic.com™, independenttraveler.com™, seatguru.com®, smartertravel.com™, travel-library.com™ and travelpod.com™. TripAdvisor-branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, with more than 25 million monthly visitors, five million registered members and 10 million reviews and opinions. The reviews are primarily real reviews from real travelers but some are clearly from a marketing department. TripAdvisor does allow travel suppliers to respond to criitcism which is wise to do, it often isn’t the complaint but how it’s handled that can determine if a negative review grows “legs.”.

IGOUGO (www.igougo.com) - The smallest of the big three travel review/advice sites, it currently has about 350,000 members. Like the other two sites there are advertising opportunities.

VirtualTourist (www.virtualtourist.com) Similar to TripAdvisor, it differs in that each review or tip is linked back to the member who posted the information so there is more accountability/transparency and a smaller chance that the reviews are from the marketing department. VirtualTourist, like TripAdvisor offers a number of advertising opportunities.

TripHub (www.triphub.com) allows users to create a single “hub” for all trip information and discussions, invite people and track who is coming, research and discuss travel plans and activities, collaborate on decisions and keep people informed, create a shared trip map and schedule of events, and share travel itineraries from any source or supplier. TripHub offers advertising opportunities to reach customers early in the planning cycle, and during the shopping process. Ads can also be targeted based on destination and group type.

Tripit (www.tripit.com) allows users to organize trip details into one master online itinerary — even if arrangements are booked at multiple travel sites. It automatically include maps, directions and weather, and gives the option to book restaurants, theater tickets, activities and more right from within the online itinerary. Users can safely access travel plans online, share them, check-in for flights, or print an itinerary.

WAYN (www.wayn.com) is the fastest growing travel and lifestyle social networking community website in the UK. WAYN helps you to keep track of all your contacts from around the world and make new friends based on where you are now, where you have been and where you are going!

TripWiser (www.tripwiser.com) is an intuitive way to capture trip experiences by various profiles and social factors. Users can create, customize and print multiple itineraries, upload photos, write and share with close friends and the broader community.

TripTie (www.triptie.com) is an online community of travelers, all devoted to planning and sharing their trips. Members plan and store their itineraries, then you take the best pieces of them and create your own. Share your favorite places, travel tips, to-brings, photos, stories, and more.

YOWtrip (www.yowtrip.com) allows single travelers to find others going on similar trips.

I’m In! (www.imin.com) is a social media site for organizing travel with friends. It has unique trip ideas, private planning pages, and a place to share memories and trip details.

TripConnect (www.tripconnect.com) is an online service that allows people to get travel advice from people they know, others who share similar interests, and also from established and relevant information sources. The company’s mission is to help people with the process of choosing travel destinations and hotels by presenting them with the most useful sources of information: those that they trust and those that are most relevant to their tastes and interests.

Groople (www.groople.com) is a online group travel agency dedicated to simplifying the otherwise difficult task of planning travel for your group.

UpTake (www.uptake.com) is a travel information search engine - your first step to deciding where to go, where to stay or what to do. We’re here to help you make informed decisions about what best fits your travel preferences.

My Life of Travel (www.mylifeoftravel.com)is a free web-based travel journal and travel research tool that lets travellers record their journeys, map travel histories, share tips with fellow tourists and keep in touch with friends and family, without the need for mass email communication and photo sharing sites.

If you are interested in a social media campign for your travel site please feel free to contact us at 518-370-8092 or fill out a contact form.

Air France and KLM are to jointly launch bluenity.com, described as the first social network website for all air travellers to get answers to questions such as:

Who am I flying with on my next flight? Where can I get the best addresses for business and leisure anywhere in the world?

Claiming ot be the first social network website for all air travellers, you can Sign up with bluenity.com and share your top tips for hotels, restaurants and shopping anywhere in the world. Bluenity.com is unique in that it allows customers of both the airlines to make their flight schedule public and to get an update from other travellers about their flight arrangements. This means that travellers can meet online before they travel to arrange to share a taxi, for example, or to meet up in a lounge.

Bluenity is available in three languages (French, English and Dutch), and was designed in partnership with Tripnity.

According to compete.com, general search traffic year over year is up, lead by search giant Google.

And traffic to hotel aggregator sites has increased as well.

If you haven’t seen your online traffic or sales increase year over year it may be time for a site review along with a fresh look at the terms you are targeting.

While the head terms will provide a lot of traffic, often the longer tail terms provide the best conversion rate.

The Traditional concept of leading the customer through the front door, or home page of a website and having them search for specific terms to find the lodging of their choice is not the experience a growing number of travel customers are searching for.  According to compete, over the past 20 months there has been a steep upward trend in travelers searching for specific properties and coming into websites via property pages rather than the homepage.

Large aggregator websites should optimize their property pages for both search engines and human visitor as they are increasingly the first introduction to a website a visitor may have.

One of the most vital parts to effective social media marketing and optimization is getting maximum visibility on social news sites.  There are countless social news sites available on the web, but my favorites include Digg, Reddit, Newsvine, and Mixx.  Now each site is different and unique with regard to demographics, rules, and algorithms for reaching the front page (which is your ultimate goal).  With many social news sites, the demographics you will be targeting will become undeniably apparent just seeing what has already made it to the front page.  For example, with Digg you will be more likely to catch someone’s attention with a post regarding technology laced with an element of humor.  On a site like Newsvine you may find more success posting a story that is more of straight news as this tends to “climb the vine” more readily.  There are many steps you can take to ensure that your postings receive the best visibility possible.

Build out your profile!  This is the most basic step but many people register on social news sites and just get straight to the action.  What you must remember is that many members of social news sites will look at your profile to see if you are here to just post a story and run or if you have a vested interest in their community.  Most sites will ask you to fill in a short bio, add a few links to sites you use, upload a picture, and some location information.  Be sure to make your profile as personal as possible so that other users are able to make a connection. 

The next step, which may be the most important, is your interaction with the community.  Go comment on posts, submit a few small ones of your own, do anything you can to show that you are not just here to make the front page.  Interacting with the community not only shows them that you are human, but it allows members to connect to you on a higher level as they are able to gain additional insight.  You must put yourself in the shoes of another community member to understand this…if someone were to add you to their network…and you went to view their profile only to find that they have no interaction with the community….what would you think?  This brings us to the next phase…

It is now time to focus on building your network.  Anyone can create a profile on a social news site and just begin posting articles…but how are you going to promote them??  The whole point of social news sites is to spread them socially!  Now some people may be lucky and post an article that naturally floats to the top based on the content, but the vast majority of the time you will need to rely on a network of people to help you promote your article.  A good place to begin this is by adding friends, colleagues, or anyone else you may already know.  The next step will differ from person to person, but follows the same basic concept.  Read articles that have made the home page, find the ones that stand out to you and figure out who the poster was.  I would recommend adding the poster as a contact and maybe some their top contacts as well.  This will help you in not just building the size of your network, but ensures that you are adding like-minded individuals who will be more likely to help you promote your posts.  It is highly advisable to not just run around adding as many random contacts as possible.  For one you will likely add members who are not of the same accord and you will no doubt be considered a spammer to them when you try and share with them.  This should absolutely follow the philosophy of quality over quantity. 

So now we are ready to post an article with the hopes of making the front page.  Make sure that you are posting in the community or communities that are best suited for your topic.  For most sites you will not be reposting the article in its entirety, just a headline and a preview.  Make your headline and preview as conversational and teasing as possible (humor usually helps).  This may seem obvious, but make sure that you post in the proper section as there are many to choose from in each community.  Once you have successfully posted it is time to spread the love.  Communities such as Digg will allow you to “shout” your post to those in your network.  Attach a friendly message and if everything works out you will be on the front page in no time.  There is no secret code to making this process work, it will all depend on your level of commitment and enthusiasm towards the communities (and having good content is always a plus!). 

Give it a shot and let us know your experience.  We would love to hear other methods or what you would do differently.  As always…more to come… 

A recently released report from Hitwise shows budget brands and cruises in the UK are thriving online in the economic downturn, according to the latest figures from Hitwise.

UK internet traffic to travel websites overall fell by 4.6% between September 2007 and September 2008, but traffic to budget travel brands increased by 5.3%.

The top 10 budget travel companies in the UK accounted for 7.1% of traffic to travel websites in September 2008, up from 6.4% the previous year.

EasyJet had the most popular budget travel website in the UK during September, accounting for 1.7% of UK internet visits to travel websites.

Travelodge, which recently announced plans to open 22 new hotels before Christmas, was the fastest growing with a 34% jump in visits.

“Each of the top three budget travel websites in the UK - EasyJet, Ryanair and Travelodge - has experienced at least a 20% increase in UK internet traffic over the last 12 months,” said Robin Goad, director of research for Hitwise UK.

“This online growth is also reflected offline; in addition to Travelodge’s expansion, both EasyJet and Ryanair announced significant increases in passenger numbers in their latest results. However, the big challenge for travel providers is to monetize these traffic increases in the face of falling prices and rising costs.”

Meanwhile the websites of cruise companies experienced an 8.2% increase.

Hitwise said this was due to a surge in traffic from older people and increased demand for all-inclusive deals.

The proportion of visitors to travel websites aged 45 and over increased from 39.8% in September 2007 to 45.2% in September 2008.

Internet users aged 55 plus now account for 27.3% of UK visitors to travel websites, making them the largest group of visitors to the industry.

The over 45s are the fastest growing demographic for travel websites, and their tastes are different from younger internet users.

Hitwise said they are more likely to book through agencies than go directly to airline or hotel websites.

However, the section of the online travel industry that most over-indexes with older internet users is cruises, with almost 60% of visitors to cruise websites aged 55 or over and a further 16% coming from the 45-54 age group.

“Demographics are playing a role in the growth of the cruise sector online, but the economic downturn is also having an impact,” said Goad.

“Our search data reveals that people are looking for all-inclusive deals as a way of saving money, and cruises provide UK travellers with one way of achieving this.”

During the 12 weeks ending October 25, the Caribbean was the most searched for cruise destination amongst UK internet users.

The next most popular destination was Norway, followed by the Nile, the Mediterranean and Alaska.

During September, P&O Cruises was the most visited cruise website in the UK, receiving one in every 10 visits to cruise websites. 

Traffic to cruise websites usually peak in December.

When creating a new web site the main goal of most people will be to develop an attractive site that has the ability to deliver your message and will assist guests in completing your calls to action.  Unless you are equipped with the knowledge of a web design, web development, and marketing firm, building a new professional web site can become quite costly with all of the new available technologies and techniques.  This makes it essential to ensure that the site you are building is search friendly so that your pretty new site can be found by everyone.  Now while this may seem like a daunting task, but there are several things that you should keep in mind that can make the process much easier. 

Flash design and development has become a very popular element to include in sites, but it is essential to remember that search engines cannot read the text contained within images or flash design.  Now don’t get me wrong, if you have the means I would absolutely include flash design in your site because done right it gives your site a more modern feel.  That being said, your site should be a hybrid, meaning it needs to contain both text and flash elements.  To see how search engines view your site you can use one of the many search spider simulators.

Another element that is essential is following proper optimization guidelines for formatting the text on your pages.  Copywriters should ensure that they include headers which include optimized keywords and that keywords are used sporadically throughout the text.  While you want to pepper in keywords throughout your content, you should be sure not to overuse terms so to not make your copy sound awkward and repetitive. It is important to remember that the copy should be written first for the reader and second for the search engines. In addition to properly formatting the content, you should be sure to include meta data into the code of each page of your site (this includes meta tags, titles, descriptions, and alt tags).  For more information on meta elements read here. 

Your internal link structure is another element that needs to be considered when designing your new site.  Most people tend to think that the only links that they need to worry about are those that come from other web sites, but you should always make sure that you take care of the links you have control over first and foremost.  Your internal link structure helps by ensuring that search engines properly spider your site and can find all pages of the site.  In addition it will assist in boosting your page rank of the individual pages.  Some of the ways that you may improve your internal link structure is by having a text link navigation structure, using a secondary navigation, using keywords in your footer, and internal text links (which is simply placing links to other pages throughout your content).  Including a complete sitemap (which is a page that includes every link of your site organized by the structure) is an additional way to improve your internal link structure.  Sitemaps are extremely beneficial because it makes it very easy for search engines to quickly scan and index all of the pages of your site.

Developing an effective site is a very lengthy involved process.  It would be a waste of both time and money to create a new site based solely on a flashy look and feel.  Including a proper SEO strategy in your web project is essential and done right will show a great return on your investment.  More to come…

The last post I wrote was pertaining to local search and the benefit that it can bring to your business.  I would like to keep with that topic and take it one step further to discuss some ways to assist you in raising your rankings within local search.  Because the competition you will be facing on the local level may be more important to you, it is vital to ensure that you get your listing as close to the top as possible.  As Google accounts for over 71% of all searches made on the web we will focus on improving local rankings via Google Maps; however, much of this information can be echoed on other local listings sites.

The first step, which is the most obvious, is to get listed.  Visit the Google Local Business Center and fill out a profile your business with as much detail as possible.  Google Maps gives you the ability to add photos and videos to your profile which you should absolutely take advantage of.  As discussed in the previous post, local search engines allow you to fill out these business profiles in order to give searchers a preview as to what they will find on your actual web site (assuming that you have one).  Once you have completed your profile do not forget to verify your account.  I recommend doing this via the phone option, as the mail option states that it may take 4-6 weeks which will dramatically slow down the process of boosting your results. 

Make sure that you keep the information in your local listing profile as current as possible as Google gives more weight to those sites who accurately display information across all local search engines  To be more specific, standardize all of the information that you have control over for these online business profiles.  If Google is able to connect all of the dots between your online profiles it “trusts” you more and thus gives you more visibility.  Ensure that you do not have multiple locations, phone numbers, prices, services, etc., listed on other sites.

In addition to making your business profiles uniform, ensure that you include the same information on your website.  Best practices state that you should include the name of your company, the full address, and your tagline on the home page of your site (all in text so that search engines can read it).  This is simply reiterating the point of conforming all of the information that you can control about your business on the web in order to build trust with search engines. 

This may seem obvious, but make sure that you choose the right categories to list your site in when creating profile.  Many local search engines will give you very hefty lists of industries to choose from which can take some time to dig through before you find the proper placement.  Generally, you will begin at a broad level and work your way down to the specific niche that you work in.  A good way to check and see if you are choosing the correct category is to run a test search and see what comes up in the results.  If you see people who you would perceive to be your competition than you have done well, if not, refine your selection.

Follow these simple guidelines and you will be well on your way to better rankings within local search.  If you have any additional suggestions that you would like to offer feel free to share them.  More to come…

Many of you may only be familiar with local search to the extent that it is that little collection of search results in Google that show up before the rest of the natural listings.  What you may not be aware of is that nearly 40% of all searches are made with local intent.  Essentially this means that people are looking for products or services online with the intent to go offline to complete the purchase.  Research has shown that people who are completing local searches are not just browsing for options, but in fact are deep into decision making close to making their purchase.  Whether your business relies on locals or out-of-towners searching for you, it is becoming increasingly important to list your site in local search.  As you might expect, because local search has a different intent than typical search, it is presented in a different manner that is more helpful to the user (most engines will supply a phone number and address on the most basic level). 

Here is one thing you may want to consider when thinking about the notion of local search….currently… it is much less competitive than traditional online search.  Local search is growing fast as more and more local businesses are seeing the benefit, but there is still time to get in on the action and give your marketing efforts a boost.  Also note that with local search you do not need to have a website to participate.  While it will always be helpful to have a website to refer searchers to for additional information, profiles provided within local search can give visitors a substantial amount of information including location, contact information, and reviews.  In fact, some business profiles (Google Maps in particular) will allow you to add a video to your profile which is a perfect marketing opportunity.  Think of these business profiles as introductions that can be great supplements to a website.

As time has gone on, we as a people have learned how to use search engines more efficiently to get the most relevant results as quickly as possible.  Specifically, searchers have begun to use geographic qualifiers such as cities and zip codes to refine their results.  As local search has begun to grow so has the number of sites that provide this service; to name a few great local search mediums….Google Maps, Yahoo Local, MSN Live Local, Yahoo YellowPages, Superpages, and AskCity.  To answer the all important question…the majority of them are all FREE.

There are several ways searchers can go about local search that you should be aware of. 

Searchers can use typical search engines such as Google and Yahoo with the addition to geographic qualifiers such as using a city or zip code. 

Searches can be made within the local search section of popular engines such as Google Maps, Windows Live Local, and Ask!City.

Searches can be made using an online YellowPages sites such as Superpages.

Searchers can use websites that provide information on local businesses such as a local newspaper site or a chamber of commerce.

Searchers can also use vertical directories or search engines which are sites that focus on a particular good or service.  Hotels.com is a great example of a vertical search engine.

It is essential to formulate some sort of strategy before just jumping in and registering on every single site as it can be very time consuming.  It will be a much better use of your time to do some quick searching on some of the sites you consider to be more important and see what competition ranks within the existing local search results.  Ensure that you create detailed business profiles for each site and then monitor the progress you make with whichever analytics tools you use.  I hope you find this useful and there will be more to come…

The # 1 Online Travel Myth: The number of online travel buyers in the U.S. is declining.

In fact, that number is on the rise, as documented in The PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Tenth Edition recently published by the travel industry research firm PhoCusWright Inc. PhoCusWright debunked five online travel myths at its first-ever Analyst Forum, held September 10 in New York City.

In 2007, approximately 70% of online travelers (that is, adults who have taken a commercial air trip and stayed at a hotel for leisure in the past year, and used the Internet in the past 30 days) bought travel online, compared to 63% in 2006.

In addition to the misconception that online travel buyers are declining, The PhoCusWright Analyst Forum corrected these five other online travel myths:

Online Travel Industry Myth #2. More and more online travel shoppers use supplier sites than online travel agencies. While this belief is widespread in the travel industry, it is simply untrue. In terms of popularity, online travel agencies are making a comeback.

Online Travel Industry Myth #3. Travel agencies are experiencing a resurgence as travelers return to traditional purchasing channels. Not so. In reality, even many formerly exclusive offline buyers are migrating online for travel shopping and buying, according to CTTS10.

Online Travel Industry Myth #4. The next generation of travelers prefers to do everything online. The truth is, less than half of what 18-28 year olds spend on travel is spent online, according to The NEXTgen Traveler™ report, jointly published by PhoCusWright and Y partnership.

Online Travel Industry Myth #5. Social networks and travel reviews have the greatest influence on travel decision-making. The NEXTgen Traveler™ report reveals that while social media is widespread, destination Web sites and online travel agencies are favored by nearly half of next generation travelers during the travel shopping process.

Online Travel Industry Myth #6. Online travel markets need high credit card and Internet penetration to succeed. The structure and ambitions of the travel marketplace are even more important drivers than infrastructure. Case in point is India, one of the most dynamic online travel marketplaces today, where roughly 98% of the India population do not use credit cards or have access to the Internet.

“Nobody wants to make strategic errors based on bad information,” said Lorraine Sileo, vice president, research for PhoCusWright. “Through this Analyst Forum, we were able to educate attendees about online travel myths and the realities in consumer behavior and to paint a picture of the new distribution landscape so that they can better assess their channel.

With the economy in the dumps and everyone tightening up the grip on their wallet, everyone is looking for cheaper alternatives of everything from gas, to food, to day-to-day luxuries.  But what impact will the slumping economy have on the online marketing arena?  Your initial thought may be to cut your marketing costs and spend less online..  Ah…but what you may not realize is that with everyone scrambling to search for alternatives, consumers have been and will continue to dig deeper into search engines to find the best option.  So my first point, do not pull away from search (both organic and paid).  I firmly believe that you will see the number of searches continue to rise over the coming months as the economic situation becomes more of an issue. 

That being said you must also consider the fact that Google now employ an algorithm that will index blogs, videos, images, maps, books, and websites known as Universal Search.  Simply put this means that while natural search listing from SEO will continue to have high visibility within search engines (when executed properly of course) listing from social media have been and will continue to have short-lived bursts into the page 1 results.

Now then, I know not everyone has either the skill set or the budget to optimize their website…so what’s the alternative??  Well since you asked so nicely…why not consider the possibilities of social media?  I have only written a few posts so far and you may be catching on to the notion that I love social media!  There are several reasons for this, it’s an economically viable marketing tool, it allows businesses to connect to their end user in a meaningful way, it offers immediate and unfiltered feedback, and above all….it’s interesting!  You can learn more about your consumers from one successfully executed social media campaign, than from a full year of analytics and metrics based on just your site activity.  Let’s look more closely at some of the reasons to invest in social media in some more detail shall we.

1)    Economically Viable ( Less Cash! )

To answer the obvious question, NO, running a social media campaign will not be free.  Social media campaigns can cost less when compared to more traditional online marketing methods, but keep in mind social media takes an increased level of participation and maintenance (someone has to continue the conversation!).  The vast majority of social media sites (whether they are video syndication, communities, news, etc.) are free of charge to sign up and participate, but it is very important not to spread yourself too thin.  Fewer targeted social media avenues will show more benefit as opposed to trying to create a presence on every social media site on the web (unless of course you have a team that is large and dedicated enough…but again….this will increase cost).

2)    Connecting to Your End User

With most online marketing strategies, the idea is to create an effective message that will grab someone’s attention and hope that it keeps them coming back.  For example, when creating a PPC campaign, you rely on the effectiveness of selected keywords and the wording of your ads to draw in visitors and then your website must finish the job by delivering on what the user was looking for.  Now I am not saying that this system does not work because when done correctly, PPC is extremely effective….however it can become very costly.  With social media you have much more control of how your message is perceived because you are given a direct line of contact to your target market.  Whether you are using Twitter, participating in communities like Facebook or MySpace, or posting the latest updates to your company blog…YOU have complete control over the message and are able to participate in a conversation of sorts with those members who are active.  Again, from a cost perspective, it will take more hours of labor to participate properly with social media but if you have suitable system in place it will become extremely efficient.

3)    Immediate and Unfiltered Feedback

Because of the conversational aspect of social media you are able to receive immediate and unfiltered feedback.  This may be one of the most beneficial reasons to use social media.  With other forms of marketing and advertising you may spend weeks or months (or sometimes even longer!) gathering data to analyze so that you can figure out just what your users think about your company and your services/offerings.  Interpreting and responding to feedback can sometimes be one of the more difficult tasks for firms as it is not always positive.  Naturally a positive comment or post in one of your social media platforms will always be the most beneficial, but do not just ignore negative feedback as this is a perfect opportunity to dispel misconceptions and show them that you care about their opinion.  From a financial aspect, think about how much you would save if you were able to make strategic decisions based on actual conversations and feedback you received from your target market over the course of a month as opposed to gathering site metrics over the same time frame where you will then have to organize, analyze, and discuss the results before any decisions can be made.  As an internet marketer I will NEVER tell you to discard site metrics however they may be able to play more of a supplemental role with an effective social media campaign.

To summarize, do not abandon SEO as it should still be looked at as the building blocks of a fundamentally sound website.  Social media, while it can more time and effort to be done correctly can offer benefits above and beyond those of typical online marketing methods.  Financially, social media is an attractive option if you are able to strategize properly.  If you were to just jump in the social media ocean with no direction you could easily over spend without seeing results.  For more information on social media feel free to contact us here at info@propelmedia.com (shameless plug).  More to come!