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Is the Travelocity contest on Facebook good or bad?

Posted by Milena Regos on February 1, 2010

Travelocity announced a new contest on Facebook: The roaming Gnome asked you to vote for the next ski trip destination: Lake Tahoe or Utah.

The Good

This is a brilliant idea to get everyone associated with the travel & hospitality industries involved and engaged. It’s working. It’s a friendly competition and visitors bureaus, hotels, ski resorts and local businesses are showing their support and posting the contest on their own websites and Facebook pages.

At the writing of this post, the Travelocity Gnome fan page had 36,277 fans. Not bad at all. In addition to generating fans and buzz on social media, Travelocity is promoting their iPhone app on the page.

The Bad

1. You can vote as many times as you want. I can just imagine people sitting in their offices and clicking away on that button.

2. Travelocity is giving away a ski trip for two as an incentive for people to participate. Excellent idea! The bad – the contest is between Lake Tahoe and Utah and the ski trip is to Colorado??? I feel like they are sending me the message: Don’t go to either Utah nor Lake Tahoe. Head to Colorado – that’s where the best snow is. Very confusing to say the least.

3. My friends in Utah couldn’t access the Facebook page for a while – the application had some bugs that shut it down for some time. Technical difficulties or simply traffic overload.

4. My biggest problem with the contest – Lake Tahoe is only a small part of California and Nevada. Lake Tahoe VS Utah? It doesn’t seem fair to compare a ski destination against a state? Does it?

Overall, the contest is a very good idea for creating buzz on social media. It’s lacking however a little bit in the overall strategy and execution. I’m looking forward to see who’s going to come ahead. Currently, it’s 50% / 50%. Go vote today. I’m also looking forward to seeing the results of how successful the contest is for Travelocity.

Your turn. Did you vote? Do you like it? What do you think?

Categories: Blog Facebook Lake Tahoe Marketing Ski industry Social Media Social Media Marketing Travel & Recreation | 1 Comment »

Lake Tahoe Snow and Social Media

Posted by Milena Regos on December 13, 2009

Cross country skiing Lake Tahoe

Winter is definitely here and it looks like it will be a nice White Christmas for everyone in Lake Tahoe.  Let’s see what Lake Tahoe ski resorts are reporting for snow accumulations on their websites:

On the North Shore:

1. Alpine Meadows reports 54″ of new snow.

2. Squaw Valley reports 42″ of snow storm total.

3. Sugar Bowl which usually tends to get the most snow as it gets hit first with fronts from the West is reporting 29″-44″ of snow storm total.

4. Northstar at Tahoe website reports 43″ of storm total as of the writing of this post.

5. Mt Rose is reporting a snow storm total of 32-42″.

6. Diamond Peak received 30″ – 40″ of snow. As we are not open yet, we haven’t started to report conditions on a daily basis. I  know I have been shoveling and blowing the driveway for the past few days and my arms are so sore that I can barely type on the computer. I received 32″+ at my house which is is at 7,800 feet.

On the South Shore of Lake Tahoe:

1.  Sierra at Tahoe seems to have picked up the most, a total of 71″ of snow so far.

2. Heavenly appears to have received a little bit less than Sierra at Tahoe, 35-60″ of snow storm total.

3. Kirkwood is reporting 36″-48″ of snow storm total.

Now, let’s take a look at how lake Tahoe ski resorts are getting the message out with using social media.

On the North Shore:

1. Squaw Valley’s latest update was from Thursday. They must be too busy skiing or shoveling.

2. Alpine Meadows, Sugar Bowl, Mt Rose and Diamond Peak are on top if it with recent updates.

3. Northstar at Tahoe is definitely behind. Last update from last Tuesday. Come on people, this is your chance to get the message out to your fans.

On the South Shore:

1. Heavenly has a nice video with the snow report on their fan page. Good job!

2. Kirkwood has recent updates but they are about the Tahoe film festival and not snow conditions.

3. Sierra at Tahoe is on top of it with recent updates and actual photos. Nice!

Now let’s take a look at

On the North Shore:

1. All ski resorts are updating their Twitter accounts. It would be nice to see more pics and videos attached with the updates and more emphasis on conditions and less emphasis on the greatest and latest marketing program they have going on.

On the South Shore:

1. Kirkwood, Heavenly and Sierra at Tahoe are updating their Twitter accounts. I’ d like to see the same change on social media messages: more updates with pics and videos and less talk about the latest marketing ploy.

5 quick lessons based on today’s research:

1. Social media is instantaneous and people expect constant updates.
2. Social media is transparent. If you are reporting 7 feet of snow and you only received 5, people will find out that you are being dishonest and will do the reporting for you with photos and videos. Don’t lose their trust.
3. Make updating of social networks a daily task.
4. Being honest and transparent is the best approach on social media.
5. Keep your social networks fresh with up to date pics and videos. People want to see for themselves the conditions. Especially important when Lake Tahoe is on the national news!

Deep snow means happy holiday season for the ski resorts. This storm couldn’t have come in a better time, right before the holidays. Enjoy the powder and have a great holiday season. Hopefully, the ski resorts will beat the recession and the economy concerns this holiday season with  help from Mother Nature.Keep it real, stay honest and bring people back this season by providing a great experience.

Your turn. Where do you go get updates about a ski resort?

Happy Holidays from Out&About Marketing, An Inside view on the Outside world!

Categories: Blog eMarketing Facebook Lake Tahoe Life Marketing Ski Ski industry Social Media Twitter Web 2.0 | 5 Comments »

How to measure your marketing and social media marketing efforts

Posted by Milena Regos on May 31, 2009

Milena Regos Mountain Biking

What do business, marketing and social media marketing have in common with mountain biking in Lake Tahoe?

A lot as I found out yesterday. I went for an amazing bike ride yesterday at Sawtooth Trail near Truckee, CA with my husband. He’s an excellent rider. We started off and within minutes I wasn’t able to see him anymore amongst the pine trees. When he stopped to wait for me, I asked him while trying to catch my breadth: “Why am I biking so slow?”. He responded: “You are not slow at all, you are doing really good. I’m just too fast. Remember to look ahead and prepare for what’s coming ahead of time”. It got me thinking about business in general and how some companies are doing so well yet others fail, how some businesses anticipate what’s coming ahead on the trail and prepare for it by shifting gears on time and how some companies fail to do so and end up in the back of the group.

Continue reading How to measure your marketing and social media marketing efforts

Categories: Analytics Blog Business Email marketing eMarketing Interactive marketing Lake Tahoe Life Marketing Measurements Media Outdoors SEM SEO Social Media Social Media Marketing Web 2.0 Web 2.0 tools | No Comments »

A practical resource guide on how to listen on the social web?

Posted by Milena Regos on May 2, 2009

People are talking about you, your company, your brand. Do you know what they are saying?

Here’s a practical resource guide on how to find out what people are saying about your brand. Listening to what   people are saying seems to be a hot topic right now but most people don’t know where to start. There are some very good software companies that will help you achieve your goals but they can get expensive or simply are not in your budget especially when there are so many free tools already. I will share with you great tools that will do the job and are free. It will take you some time to set them up and see what works for you but you can’t ignore the conversations on the web. Listening to what’s happening is important because it will help you understand better what your customers want. Continue reading A practical resource guide on how to listen on the social web?

Categories: Blog Business Customer Loyalty Customer service Interactive marketing Lake Tahoe Marketing Measurements Small Businesses Social Media Social Media Marketing Technology Web 2.0 Web 2.0 tools | 3 Comments »