Do we need any more social networks in our daily lives? We are stretched so thin trying to stay connected 24/7 on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs that adding one more social network to our lives seems like a crazy idea. But I really like this one. And I think it has a big potential for travel destinations and companies. Meet Pinterest.

What is Pinterest?

It’s an online pinboard where you can pin things of interest to you. You can have different boards based on your interests. For example, I have a board called Places I want to visit where I have pinned various destinations, cities and natural landmarks I want to visit one day. It’s a visual board with beautiful images. Do you see how travel destinations can benefit from this?

Who’s using Pinterest? 

Pinterest has been around for 2 years but only recently it gained a lot of traction to where it’s now ranking in the top 10 social networks. “Time magazine called Pinterest — a website where users post collections of images of their favorite food, clothes, places and everything else — one of the five best social media sites of 2011, along with Google-Plus and Klout. The company has raised $27 million in venture capital led by the firm Andreessen Horowitz, which several tech news outlets have reported as valuing Pinterest at $200 million” states this story in the USA Today on Pinterest standing out in a crowded social media space.

At this time, you still need to receive an invite to join Pinterest but if you submit a request, you will receive your invite within a day or so.

Retailers, like Real Simple, Land’s End, Nordstrom and Etsy are using Pinterest and for some of them Pinterest is driving more traffic than Facebook.

Demographics

80% of Pinterest’s users are women making it a very appealing place to showcase your destination, ski resort, city, hotel accommodation.  Below are the detailed demographics from HotelMarketing.com.

- Largely women (a 80% to 20% ratio). So there’s some truth to Matt Buchanan’s post on Gizmodo yesterday that proclaims Pinterest as “a Tumblr for ladies”.
- Aged mainly between 25 and 44 (accounting for 55% of the group, 30% are 25-34, 25% are 35 – 44)
- Just 25% of users have a bachelors degree or higher
- The majority live off a household income of $25-75k

An attractive demographics group if you are in the travel&tourism industry.

To take advantage of Pinterest start compiling good photography that shows your spa, your destination, your ski resort, your town. People can pin photos from your website as well so having good photography on your website as always helps travelers make a decision faster.

Do you use Pinterest personally or for business? Let me know in the comments below. If you need a beginner guide to start using Pinterest, Mashable put one together. It’s very easy to use. Go on and try it.

If this happens to you, most likely your account has been hacked. It happened to me yesterday and it’s not pleasant. I ended up spending hours apologizing and fixing the issue. It looks like this hack is spreading as I’m seeing more and more direct messages from people that are being hacked.

The following steps will help you take care of the hack.

1. Go to Twitter.com, click on your profile page, go over to settings and change your password immediately.

2. Disconnect any suspicious third party applications that are using your Twitter account. For this, you need to click on the Applications tab showing below and click on Revoke. This is a tricky one as you never know which application was hacked. To be sure, I disconnected all of them. You will need to reconnect the ones you want and still use.

3. Delete any tweets that contain the malicious link. To do so, go over to Twitter.com and hover your mouse over your tweet. Once you see the delete button, click on it.

4. Send out an apology to people and advise them not to open any suspicious links that came from you.

5. To read more about how to protect your account in the future or deal with other safety related issues, you can visit the Twitter Safety Center. To prevent your account from future hacking, ensure safe tweeting.

I hope this article helps you with cleaning your Twitter account or preventing it from being hacked in the future.

And finally, if you google twitter hack, you will find plenty of tutorials on how to do it. Please, don’t go there.

Ashton Kucher‘s, the Huffington Post‘s and other Twitter accounts with large followings were also hacked lately. Be cautious as to what links you click on and make sure you are only giving your password to trusted sources. In the meantime, Twitter is working on making their environment safer.

]]> http://www.outandaboutmarketing.com/2012/01/has-your-twitter-account-being-hacked-heres-how-to-stop-the-spam/feed/ 2 http://www.outandaboutmarketing.com/2011/05/history-of-social-media/ http://www.outandaboutmarketing.com/2011/05/history-of-social-media/#comments Mon, 09 May 2011 21:57:48 +0000 Milena Regos http://www.outandaboutmarketing.com/?p=1329 Each day, we Facebook, use Twitter, instant message, read blogs, email, share photos on Flickr and Instagram, watch videos on YouTube and Vimeo. I use technology for just about everything, from exercising and mapping to cooking and reading the news . But do you ever wonder: “How did we get here?”

What does the future hold? Quora, the people questions and answers forum may replace Google as we count on our friends recommendations a lot more than on robot suggestions. There probably won’t be any more PCs and laptops, just smartphones and iPads/tablets.

I created this short video on social media history, trying to fit the last 40 years in less than 4 minutes to put into perspective where we came from. Let me know what you think.

1. If you are a consumer make sure to read the reviews on TripAdvisor prior to booking your trip. You may find insightful information about a place you would like to visit. I usually glance at the reviews before pulling out my credit card and committing to a reservation. You may not always see positive reviews about a place, but sometimes people just like to complain. Personally, if most reviews are good and there are a few bad reviews I would take them into account but put more emphasis on the positive. I like to think the glass is half full. Big points go to the property that has responded to a negative review. Seeing a response usually makes me smile as this means the property is actually monitoring their reviews and responding to complaints. When I see negative reviews and no response, this usually is enough for me to look elsewhere.
2. If you represent a travel brand (think hotels, restaurants, cruises, vacation properties and even airlines) you can use TripAdvisor to gather feedback and correspond with your customers who are reviewing your place while you are reading this. Here are a few tips for travel companies on how to use TripAdvisor to their advantage:

• Get your business listed on TripAdvisor and make sure you give as much information as possible about your property. Photos are KEY!
• Sign up to receive reviews by email and every time someone posts a new review you will be notified.
• Read the reviews and respond if necessary with a thank you or a comment. If the review is negative, proceed with caution. Sometimes an acknowledgment and stating the facts may be sufficient but be careful not to make an already angry person even angrier. It’s a very fine line what you say and how you say it.
• Encourage your guests to spread the word for you with signs at your property, links on your website and in your email newsletters.
• Track your performance and see how you rank against your competitors (this service is offered to accommodations only)

TripAdvisor offers excellent and free business owners resources online to help with getting more reviews, best practices including how to respond to reviews, links and badges for your website/email newsletter, and content ideas.

They recently added user generated lists and tours to their mobile application which will continue to increase TripAdvisor’s popularity with travelers.

Don’t ignore online reviews as part of your social media strategy. With a huge audience, TripAdvisor is a popular place for people to turn to when researching their trip. I know I do.

Do you use TripAdvisor as a consumer? Have you implemented it in your social media efforts for your company?

It’s 2010 – Is your business social?

Do you need help figuring out how to best use social media marketing for your business? Do you want to understand how to use word-of-mouth online to compliment your traditional and online marketing efforts. Are you new to social media? Do you need justification for yourself or to your boss that social media is not just playing on Facebook? Do you think social media is some type of black magic and only young people really get it? Do you know how to deal with a social media crisis or prevent one? Do you have a social media policy for your employees? A social media strategy? Proof of return-on-investment?

I’ll try to answer all of these questions and more at the interactive 3 hour workshop at Parasol Tahoe Community Foundation, Incline Village, Lake Tahoe on Oct 7th. Book your calendar, save $10 from not buying a coffee at Starbucks for 3 days, and come hear real life case stories, learn from successful small Lake Tahoe businesses, and best of all learn from each other on how to use social media to your advantage.

Word of mouth is the best marketing tool in your tool box. Social media just helps spreading word of mouth by making it viral. Are you taking advantage of it? Can you afford not to?

It’s hard to speak in public.  It takes time to prepare a presentation. I promise you I will do my best to not bore you for one minute. We are going to have a lot of fun! Get ready for this high energy, 3 hour session. Bring your questions. Bring your friends. Bring your Starbucks coffee. But be there!!! I know I can count on you! All proceeds go to Parasol. I make nothing from this event except for the pure enjoyment of spending time with you and sharing information and knowledge.

Click on the link below to see the flyer with more information about the event. Post it on your wall. Mark your calendar. Please, RSVP to Parasol directly, the gracious organizer of this event.

Social Marketing Workshop Flyer

1. Photo: Upload a professional looking personal photo. I know this is a no brainer but I still see some people with no avatar on their profile. I wouldn’t want to connect with faceless person, would you?
2. Profile: Fill out your profile completely. Try to avoid copying and pasting from your resume. If you want to show up on search engines, make sure to use keywords that describe what you do and what you want to appear for on Google. List all companies you have worked for and all schools you have attended. You will grow your network faster if you do. Search Engine Optimization works on LinkedIn if you fill our your profile with selected keywords.
3. Grow your Network. This one is the most important step. After your profile is complete, start growing your network. Connect with all contacts that you would like to from your existing contact list in Outlook or wherever you are keeping your contacts. Keep in mind that LinkedIn can act up sometimes during the upload. I hope they fix that issue soon. As you meet more people, check to see if they are on LinkedIn or periodically upload your contacts and see who you are missing. Networks take time to grow so be patient but at the end it’s worth it. It’s all about who you know, right? Just make sure you are connecting to people you actually know and want to be connected with.
4. Groups: A great way to meet more people from your industry is to join groups on LinkedIn. There are thousands of groups in each industry. Find some that look interesting and ask to join. I have never been denied participation in any group, but I’ve mainly joined marketing and internet groups, which fits my profile. Be careful with how many groups you join as you may get bombarded with emails if you opt-in for the daily digest. You can choose weekly or turn off all emails. Groups are great way to meet more people, keep an eye on trends, post articles you’ve written, ask questions and respond to questions that you have expertise in. Please, make sure you provide some value to the group.
5. Keep your status update fresh. If you are on Twitter, you can update your status from there. I use HootSuite to update all of my social networks.
6. Recommendations: Recommend some people you have worked with and ask for some recommendations from people who know you well. Please, make sure you don’t always have the same recommendations written for you as the recommendations you have received. It looks way too cheesy.
7. Applications:  LinkedIn comes with some great third party applications that will help keep your network informed about your interests and activities and keep your profile fresh. For example, I use their SlideShare application to display my PowerPoint presentations that I have made available online, WordPress plug in to show my latest blog posts, Reading List on Amazon to display what I’m reading and my recommendations of that book, TripIt to show my trips to my network and see who’s close to me if I want to connect in person while on the trip.

What’s the value of LinkedIn? Personally, I have found it to be a great network to stay in touch with people I have worked with in the past and present who I may not necessary want to friend on Facebook. It keeps contacts up to date and it’s a valuable tool for putting people in touch with each other and letting your network know your latest activities. I have found people I need from my network.  I have received recommendations on potential vendors and stayed in touch with people. The latest LinkedIn development is that now you can subscribe to company’s updates, making following a company look a lot more like your experience on Facebook.

LinkedIn is useful only if you use it right. What experience have you had with LinkedIn?  Are you still using an old style paper resume or have you completely moved to using LinkedIn for it? Any other tips you’d like to add? What mistakes to avoid? See this post from Neal Schaffer. And finally, let me know if you want to connect with me on LinkedIn.

An agency can help guide you in the process and bring you up to speed on the technology. Yet, every organization needs to make a commitment to their social media presence. Unless you create your relationships, craft your relevant message and respond timely to critical questions online, people are not going to trust you. I wrote a post on the Sm@rt blog about relevance of message and the value of relationships. You can check it out the Sm@rt social media for business website. An agency can help you establish your plan, explain the tools and how to use them, set up your platform correctly and guide you through the process. An agency cannot and should not act on your behalf as the voice of your company. You will lose the trust of your customers very fast. Today, trust between customers and your brand is worth more than gold.

You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink it. Dedicate the resources and commit to spending the time online in-house. Otherwise, you won’t have a dialogue with your customers but a monologue, you won’t have a social media presence but a marketing campaign.  The choice is yours.

I’m sure there are great agencies out there right now crafting super creative, viral and trustworthy campaigns. I think that’s great. But you also need to dedicate the time to build real relationships, talk to your customers and respond to their inquires. Let’s stop talking campaigns and start talking relationships. It’s the future of real honest marketing.

Your turn? Have you seen a well executed social media strategy by an agency? Which one?

1. I enjoyed David LaPlante’s presentation.His passion for technology, social sharing, video, content and skiing is addictive and make a big impact on everyone who’s ever seen him speak. On the forefront of technology, geek by heart and skier for life, David talked about the past, present and future of technology. A lot of change is coming to us and it’s happening fast. Stay with the trends or be left out in the cold when it comes to how you do business online.
2. Jim Scripps gave a great overview of blogging – what it is, how to do it and best practices. It’s quick to set it up and businesses can use to engage online, deal with a PR crisis, help improve their search engine rankings, provide timely updates, use it as a hub for all of their social media efforts and engagement with bloggers.
3. Michael Kelly from ClickMail Marketing gave an extensive overview on how to best utilize email marketing for organizations with a ton of statistics and best practices. Knowing that the average value of an email address is $120 puts a different light to the email database list of any size.
4. Jake Fields, from Treeline Interactive spoke passionately about mobile marketing: iPhone apps, mobile advertising, text messages and various applications. Mobile holds a lot of opportunities for the future. As companies enter this new field with many unknowns it’s good to partner with someone that understands it and does it on a daily basis. Treeline Interactive seem to be completely at ease when it comes to speaking mobile advertising.
5. Finally, here’s the presentation I gave on Facebook and Twitter for business. Someone asked about social media ROI. Here’s a good video touching on the ROI question.