Still struggling to find the time to commit to creating your social media platform!  It may seem daunting with all the options, but here is a great article for those who have too much on their plate but know deep in their heart they must take action.

Social Media in 10 Minutes per Day!

Enjoy

A tweet and you may miss it, a Facebook post and you may forget to see it, send an email and you by by-pass it!  So what is a busy executive to do when he/she was raised and educated in an era when social media did not exist, you remember carrying a ‘box of punched cards’ to the computer room down the hall and then returning the next day to get your results!  Indeed the access to, and speed of information is on a racetrack to destinies unknown and you may be feeling a little ‘out of shape’ or not even sure where to start in a meaningful way — after all you are the boss, the owner, the General Manager.

Take a quick read at this great blogpost that came out  titled “Top 5 Social Media Tips for C-Suite Execs”.  If you don’t know what a C-suite exec is, that’s okay, they may not know how to tweet!  In summary they provide 5 tips, but I have a few more to frame your thinking.

1. First, accept social media is here to stay, will continue to evolve faster than you can catch on unless you are committed to perpetual learning.

2.  Second, appreciate like old fashion communications (TV, radio, print) you only need to invest-in and commit to those that are relevant to your target market.

3. Thirdly, social media represents a new opportunity to connect, listen and learn about your customer. If you are a manager who believe this is a priority – then you need to carve time out to engage. If you are an executive who ‘has people to do this’ then ensure your policies and practices support it, and ensure you high the right skills onto the team  – communicators and relationship builders — and allow them hassle free time on the job to do just that!

So what are the 5 tips – and note the common thread — PEOPLE!!!!

1. Go where the people are;    2. Invest in people;   3.  Be a subject matter expert;  4. Make it personal ;  5. Dont’ forget ‘internal social media’

Enjoy transforming your people and communictions!

In case you missed it, founder Michael A. Stelzner of the Social Media Examiner just published a report titled “2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report” and it is free and worth a look!

We know social media is here to stay – the question is what are you doing about it?  This report reveals:

1.  The top 10 social media questions marketers want answered.

2. The time commitment — and it is real.

3.  The benefits of social media marketing — and they are real!

4.  Commonly used social media tools — like anything, understand the potential and select those appropriate to your ideal guests/customers.

5.  Social media tools people want to learn more about

6. Other cool stuff.

Enjoy and prosper.

We promised you at the Cafe we would link you to free or nearly free resources as we find them and develop them. Thanks to www.SocialMediaExaminer.com   for this one.

Tourism operators and organizations that attend training by Todd, Celes and I will here us talk often about value pricing with experiences. Know ideal guest, what is important, meaningful and relevant to them, then set your prices accordingly. This is not a one-shoe fits all approach, but like customized to each ‘audience cluster’.

Dr. Rafi Mohammed, author of the 1% windfall: How Successful Companies Use Price to Profit and Grow, gives a few things to think about — and if they resonate with you – hop on line and buy the book! In a nutshell, a study of 1200 companies “Found that if companies increased prices by just 1% and demand remained constant, on average operating profits would increase by 11%”.   Now this book is not written for the tourism industry, but I do like the cross fertilization of ideas and thinking and in his blog “10 tips for better pricing” he talks about a few that we also teach at the Gros Morne Institute for Sustainable Tourism in our Experiential Travel Training Course

1. Stop marketing up costs and set prices that capture value.

2. Create a value statement — and I would go a step further and make sure it is aligned with the customer experience statement.

3.  Let people know that is is okay to earn profits, or high profits.  Remember, often we are not our customer, so avoid thinking “I wouldn’t pay that price”  … most people wouldn’t for a tourism experience in their home town, but on that exciting vacation, or once-in-a-lifetime trip, the purse strings do tend to open up!

4. Be careful with discounting – but understand different customers have different pricing needs — again it comes down to knowing your ideal guest.

5.  Offer different ‘product versions’  and differentiated pricing … also known at the “Edge” as tweaking for different audiences, different guests. The experience you sell to the cruise line for an shore excursion may not the be the same as the local VFR (visiting friends and relatives) traveller, but inevitably you will be using some core assets and attributes of your company/community.

That being said – why calculate costs – because knowing your margins is an important measure of success. The message here is not to be formula driven, but customer driven.

Happy pricing.

For years there has been a market opportunity for getaways of 2 to 4 days for busy people who can’t commit the time to a major vacation. According to a recent review in the Sydney Herald, it appears this trend is continuing and is supported by major travel trade players and smaller companies, all taking advantage of this new market!

What are you doing to strategically capture this growing market?  Do you have a solution – an invitation for people who want an enticing experience to get away? If not, think about how you can collaborate to compete and start crafting an exciting memorable weekend.  Here’s a few ideas reported that caught my attention.

• Intrepid Traveller is investing in a new product line for 2 to 5 day getaway experiences “Urban adventure tours”
• Luxury operator Abercrombie and Kent are targeting mini trips with two elements ‘luxury experience and relaxation’
• “Paddle and Pamper”  what a great title!  An Aussie kayak adventure that comes complete with a ‘ripple massage’

These are great ideas that we can use to kick start some niche thinking and product innovation!

For years, Justin Bieber sat outside the Avon Theatre of Stratford with his guitar and busked for change from Stratford Festival attendees.  Today, Bieber is well known around the world as a teen pop star.

Stratford Tourism has been quick to provide the inside scoop on Bieber for families visiting Stratford.  Now visitors to Stratford can see all the places Justin Bieber hung out at on a new tourism map produced by the Stratford Tourism Alliance – Bieberiffic map of Stratford.

The map, a free, downloadable guide to the history and hangouts of the 16-year-old pop sensation, features the schools he attended, his family’s favourite restaurant, hockey arenas and more. The Bieberiffic Map is sure to be a must-have item for families traveling to Stratford with giggly school girls charmed to death by Justin Bieber.

Eugene Zakreski told the Toronto Star, “We wanted to create something that’s kind of funky and cool, that’s fitting for somebody between 10 and 25 and has a different look and feel than what we normally would have on our site. He’s a phenomenon.”

Indeed, at  the Tourism Café we think anytime you create something unique focused on the interests of your ideal guest you are heading in the right direction.

Last week I was invited to return to my former place of employment at Royal Roads University to speak to a dynamic group of undergraduate students in the BA in International Hotel Management program about the Customer Experience. They are just about to embark on their 12-week internship program to practice in industry what they have learned in the classroom.

I took them through a series of activities that first began to ‘think like a traveller’, then a careful listening exercise to understand the value of ‘hearing’ what customers are saying. We then reflected on our best and worst travel experiences, analyzing the powerful words and emotions that emerge, and concluded with an interactive session of creativity, engagement and teamwork to respond to a ‘consumer challenge’.

Too often as operators we are so busy ‘running the business’ we forget to stop and think like a traveler, think like our customer, remember what makes travel meaningful, and allowing time to create and innovate.

One of the key messages was the importance of active listening to your guests. In a busy world, sometimes we listen, but do not hear.  Listening with purpose is a valuable tool for operators that can provide a wealth of information about your guests that you will never get from a ’satisfaction’ survey which typically rates only a few elements of your business and doesn’t even touch on ‘their travel experience’. Satisfaction surveys represent supply side thinking and the results do little to inform product or market development.  In contrast, meaningful conversations and listening to your guests provides rich insight that can validate current activities, staff contributions, operations. Careful listening can also help you understand ‘where travellers have been and where they are going’ which can provide valuable insight into travel patterns and the additional types of activities and places your visitors go. This in turn may create new opportunities for collaboration, partnerships, or cluster marketing to niche markets.

OpenForum just posted a blog titled “Listen to your customers” and the key message is the same as the one I was emphasizing with our future tourism colleagues.

When I developed the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management programs at Royal Roads University, during an earlier chapter of my career, the same principle applied — before developing anything, we did the traditional market research, but then engaged in months of active questioning and listening with key audiences of our future programs — people who would enrol in them (students!) and industry folks that would hire them (employers!) to ensure we truly understand the needs of those choosing a career in tourism and hospitality, as well as those that would be hiring graduates.  What was learned through careful listening and being able to respond to the market place was a large range of program ’shifts’ – packaging we call in it tourism, to an educational product.  We adjusted the start times of programs to accommodate for seasonality in the industry, internships for undergraduates were set to the end of the program to allow work experience, then an immediate transfer into the workforce in the fall, when other staff my be departing. At the graduate level we planned courses and residencies (short face-to-face periods of study that complement the online learning) to work around major industry events that would compete with the time of working professionals. Professors were able to accommodate assignment dates around major industry events … and the list goes one.  These evolutions not only created the USP – unique selling proposition — it responded to what industry needed. Listening was the key to learning– then with the traditional market research, we were able to confirm the details of the content, test seasonality interests and ensure we introduced an innovative model for graduate education – the Network Model.

All businesses can benefit from listening. You don’t need a PhD or a professional market research firm to do so, rather you just need  a system to record what you learn and ensure the questions are relevant. Most importantly, you have to be willing to ‘do something’ with what you learn. Product and market innovation requires the desire and ability to things differently and to take measured risks. Organizations must be willing to support the full development and implementation cycle, allowing time to tweak and refine in the early years. If results are different, or slower than anticipated, it is far less expensive to adjust than to toss away your investment and look for a new golden egg.

Active listening to your customers is a valuable market research tool  to gain insight and knowledge.  The ability, time and corporate climate to allow the use of this information to evolve what you are doing is vital.

Dan Kennedy, co-author of “Insiders Circle” a place for entrepreneurs seeking fast dramatic growth conducted a study and reported that  “68% is Yours to Keep” which highlights that 68% of clients leave a business because they feel unappreciated, unimportant, or taken for granted!  WOW … imagine if 68% returned how happy your business would be and how it would change your investment in marketing.  Take a read of the article, but if you don’t have time — here are the highlights:

1.  Keeping clients – create an environment where customers feel valued – there are lots of creative way to do it.  And while you are thinking of that — on a personal note — I would add that you think of your employees at the same time and ‘keeping employees’ — a critical factor in your success.

2.  Gaining clients — how can you build appreciation into your prospecting, working with existing customers for referrals and having meaningful communications!  Time to put on your thinking cap if you don’t have the answers.

3.  Have a planned customer relations program — not just a data base to track and tag people’s activities/profiles. Feeling valued implies contact, effective communications and being valued in the relationship!

4. Get back in touch with past/ lost customers and invite them back with benefits to them!

Good luck!

Should hotels charge for Internet in their rooms?  Should airlines charge to check your luggage – when travel by its very nature necessitates taking something to carry your stuff in!  Should you have to pay to redeem your frequent flyer points — you gave them your business, now you get charged for your loyalty to access the freebees!

In a recent article titled “Avoiding 10 worst travel rip-offs” they spoke about these three and seven more. The bottom line – if companies charge you for these services — do business elsewhere!  And you can. As an avid business and personal traveller who spends lots of time on the road every year, these fees impact my decision making and I do look elsewhere.

It is difficult for companies struggling to increase profitability in these challenging economic times, but I wonder if they have, or regularly, look at the cost-benefit-analysis on the customer experience/loyalty of these decisions. When you add that $14.95 internet charge per day, or the $25 per piece of luggage how many customers is it costing you?  If you don’t know, you may want to stop and think about this relative to the competition.

Customer loyalty programs are a dime a dozen, and more and more campaigns are now looking to the ‘immediacy’ and ‘no strings attached’ R.O.L. (return on loyalty) for redemption.  At the end of the day, the customer will make the decision – is your company ready for it.

If you are charging ancillary fees, you may be thinking with an expense mentality. “If I charge more, I cover my costs, make more money, I am more profitable ” … but what about the customer who is not happy with the fees and all those that you have lost.  Instead, what if you thought about the full customer lifecycle, your competitive positioning, and said “If I have to incur these costs, how can I make them an investment and get a positive return?”  This is a shift in thinking and one that could benefit your customers – hence your company today!  Time to look in the mirror.  The customer is changing – so must we.

Brand association has a long track record of being valued by corporations. By getting star athletes to wear their shoes Nike inspires countless billions of dollars in revenue. Some become so enamored with the brand that they become walking billboards for the company (note ankle tattoo at right).

Brand Association is why countries compete to win the right to host Olympic Games – to associate their country with champions and great performances and garner worldwide attention – if even for a short while.

This morning I received an invitation to participate in a marketing promotion with the largest junk food retailer in Canada.  The Canadian Tourism Commission has worked very hard at creating an award-winning campaign called Locals Know in 2009.  For 2010, they are partnering with the potato chip company for a promotion called Chip Trips?

Why does a potato chip company want to partner with the CTC?

• to enhance the reputation of their brand – note the healthy, active lifestyles being demonstrated in the video – all with a bag of chips in hand.
• to associate the junk food brand with Canadian Tourism experiences and great Canadian Tourism experience providers.
• Most importantly – to grow sales of potato chips!

Why does the CTC want to partner with a potato chip company?

• They don’t have any money to market tourism experiences in Canada and have to partner in order to gain exposure.

What is the danger of associating my brand with the largest potato chip company in Canada?

Northern Edge Algonquin (my company) and other businesses that build their reputation on wellness, healthy local food, and sustainability risk doing harm to their brand by promoting thier experiences within this campaign.  Associating our brand with unhealthy food will taint the perception of our brand, the type of food and experiences we provide our guests – despite the wholesome video commercials that the chip company my choose to run.

As a result, we will not benefit from the massive spend by the chip company, promoting Canada’s domestic travel experiences.

Underfunding of Tourism in Canada

I find it disappointing and disheartening that the National tourism promotion agency – the Canadian Tourism Commission is forced to partner with big business in order to generate interest in domestic tourism because they don’t have a budget that allows them to market tourism with a reasonable level of federal funding.

Especially at this time in global history, when a global climate change treaty is being negotiated in Copenhagen, and when Canada is set to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, this is the wrong time for the CTC to tie it’s brand to something less than glorious.

Sustainable and responsible tourism, local tourism experiences offer the most vital opportunities to grow regional tourism in Canada’s small towns and communities.  Give us an opportunity to promote the right kind of tourism experiences, those that enrich local communities and reward responsible practices.

Unfortunately, the only tourism businesses that stand to gain from such a marketing campaign as Chip Trips are those that cater to the mass market.  You’ll undoubtedly be seeing lots more two for one special offers to attend Canada’s Wonderland, Ontario Place and Niagara Falls this summer, but you’ll be eating a lot of chips along the way.