I love that we practice what we preach in the tourism industry.
We are not shy to share ideas, thank a colleague,embrace change, tackle the unknown and keep the smiles, laughter and hospitality at the fore.
Yesterday I received a lovely note from a colleague, Barbara Smith with BCIT (British Columbia Institute for Technology) who teaches tourism marketing in their business department. She wrote me to let me know that has been using some of our podcasts in her marketing class! How wonderful – the Power of the Pod means we can reach more people, in more meaningful ways than ever before. This is just great.
When I think about the Power of the Pod I had to smile, for as Barb was writing me and thanking us for having launched the ‘tourism cafe’ I was in the classroom that same day with our undergraduate students sharing a ‘hot off the press’ article about Podcasting going mainstream and encouraging them to think about the next generation of marketing managers that will lead tourism to new heights.
As they looked at the stats in this article, I challenged them to think about ‘who can actually do this type of work’ for an organization? (we need more e-marketers). Who is making budget decisions in organizations (think demographics – check out the 40 – 60 categories) and how comfortable are they with new technologies? What does this mean when you are for vying for a shift in resource allocation? If you get the money — do you know how to use social media and all the cool things available like podcasting to quickly and efficiently drive your business forward day by day, minute by minute?
The Power of the Pod in my opinion is simple, it brings the people of like minded communities together. It gives voice where we used to ‘print’, it takes stories and testimonials to market. We all know word of mouth is the one of the most powerful marketing mediums — podcasting gives this a distribution channel a tool for ‘amateurs and professionals alike who are very craftily using it this method to quite ‘literally speak’ to their customer and share their stories!
So what are you doing about the power of the pod?
By the way, BCIT has a wonderful range of college programs, I know because we have had the pleasure of their graduates coming into our BA in International Hotel Management or their MA in Tourism Management programs. Check them out!
Nancy Arsenault, Royal Roads University
