Whether you’re a travel blogger, journalist, hotelier, airline representative, or head of a travel start-up, social media is changing the landscape of your online marketing efforts. Since it’s still new, it takes baby steps and an open mind to fully grasp the potential for success by being an active player in social networking.

We attended the New York Social Media Roundtable last night, which focused on the travel industry and were pleased to learn that our methods are right on target to our goals in the social media world. But to others, this is a whole other ballgame. Lucky for you, we’re Travel Geeks so we took notes! Below are some rules, tips, and guidelines from the New York Social Media Roundtable on how to effectively use social networking communities such as Twitter and Facebook to communicate and engage your audiences. Consider this a free lesson from Sosauce, the New York Social Media Roundtable group, and Flightpath on social media. Your welcome.



The basics

• Social media is a way to communicate and engage directly with audiences
• Social media is a continual conversation – it’s a 24/7 job that shouldn’t be assigned to just one person and be given a time limit
• Pick a platform that works for YOU! Don’t spread yourself too thin by setting up profiles on a million different sites

Be a good sport

• Remember, it’s about community! Show you’re interested, in a broader sense – reach out to more people – and you’ll notice positive results
• Don’t be a hater. It’s best to be honest about a bad experience, but remember to be polite and address feedback quickly and respectfully
• You can’t control what’s being said about you on social media, you can only respond it; and how you respond makes all the difference
• Keep in mind the long-term effects of social media revolve around creating positive relationships – translating audiences into loyal users, clients, partners, and friends

Rules of the game

• Always state a clear disclaimer about sponsored blog posts, tweets, articles, and trips
• Your social media policy should reflect consistency in your brand, be sure to have all of your staff on board
• Though you don’t want to babysit your employees about crossing the line between professional and personal social posts, set guidelines in place. But always encourage them to get out there and be social

Measuring & Analytics

• Track and monitor conversations with ease by using search columns, Google Alerts, and hash tags with aggregated applications (i.e. Tweetdeck)
• Try tracking link backs through analytic tools such as Google and Twitter retweets to give you an insight on where your audience is coming from, how they’re finding you, and what they’re interested in
• Turning links and users into sales is the goal of ROI but it can be difficult
• Stop worrying about measurements, metrics, and ROI – it’s too early to grasp concrete analytics on such a growing trend. There’s also no real way to “measure” whether social media is worth investing or not; it’s not about money, it’s about people

Experiment a little!

• Rising tools and sites such as Foursquare are simply filters to existing social networks, not replacements. Explore these new tools, then choose which are best applicable for you
• When it comes to public relations, get creative. The days of formal and corporate methods are on their way out, so embrace new tactics
• Facebook Fan pages should be more focused on user-generated content and experiences, so encourage it

Though we enjoyed hearing the panel of “social media experts”, we did leave with unanswered questions. Fill us in on your input, feedback, and answers to our questions in the comments below. We’ll also be posting these questions on our Travel Geeks discussion group on LinkedIn.

Twitter and Facebook are clearly at the forefront of social media. But what about the popular blogging site Tumblr? Or social media for professionals on LinkedIn? And is MySpace at all relevant?

Facebook Ads are hit or miss. Though it’s great to pinpoint your specific target audience, click-throughs are few and far between. How do you maximize marketing on Facebook?

Sosauce had a blast meeting new travel friends and reuniting with the regulars at NYSMRT. If we missed you at the panel, be sure to say Hi to us on Twitter, leave a message on our Facebook page, or shoot us an email. We promise to see you soon!

Read more posts by Alisha

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 5:05 PM and is filed under Events, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.