So is MessageMe going to overtake WhatsApp and Viber...? Keep an eye out for this new social media tool. - Wilna 


MessageMe App Providing An Emotionally Engaging Communication Experience
by Raphaelle Guran in Tech

MessageMe is one of the most interesting chat apps we’ve seen lately. Yes, just like WhatsApp or Viber, it allows you to send messages for free, only it comes with an add-on too. It provides a richer messaging experience. The app allows you to juggle with different types of content, such as: doodles, photos, videos and audio recordings, making the entire messaging experience fun, enjoyable and truly engaging. If you feel like sharing a photo with someone you can even access Google images, fast and without actually closing your messaging app and then opening the Google app. Inviting friends is also easy : you can do it via SMS, email or Facebook.

What’s really interesting is that in only 75 days since the official launch, MessageMe states that there are already 5 million users chatting via MessageMe (and that’s quite a performance). Not to mention that the boom created was so big, that only after a week, more than 1 million people were already enjoying rich media through mobile messaging. Last, but not least, the company received $10 million round of funding led by John Lilly from Greylock Partners.

This was definitely one of the best ever social media campaigns! I just wish it was ME that thought of it! - Wilna 

How Travel Destinations Are Embracing Social
By Frederic Gonzalo

Back in 2009, the folks at Tourism Australia came up with was is still today considered one of the best contest ever held on the web, social media or anywhere else, for that matter: by submitting a video for why you should be chosen, this gave you automatic entry in a contest where the winner could work a complete year, all expenses paid, as caretaker for a remote, paradise-like island off the coast of Queensland, on the Grand Barrier Reef. The outcome? More than 14,000 video applications across key international markets, including the UK, USA, Europe, Japan and China, among others. Moreover, while the campaign is said to have cost US$1.2M, it garnered an estimated US$100M in international press coverage, with stories published in Time magazine, BBC documentaries, CNN stories and a lot of buzz in various travel blogs, forums and social networks. 


TOURISM AUSTRALIA GETS SOCIAL
Fast-forward four years later, and one can quickly see how fast things have evolved in the social media sphere, in particular within the tourism & hospitality vertical. There are close to 200 airlines active on Twitter, almost 100% of hotel brands have a Facebook page while an increasing proportion of destinations are investing time and efforts on Pinterest and Instagram, two tools that did not even exist back in 2009. So when Tourism Australia recently announced the comeback of their famous contest, some wondered: why bring this back?

For one thing, this time around there isn't just one job for grabs, but six. And more importantly, this contest is the fuel and content for a dynamic and complex online brand structure that Tourism Australia has been weaving. In essence, the folks at Tourism Australia understand that, as great and savvy as their marketing staff can be with social media, the real power to propel the destination's brand resides with travelers, whether domestic or foreign, and citizens sharing experiences about everyday life in the land of Oz. Their vision is captured in this presentation, where they explain how Australia will become the most talked about travel destination in the world. Lofty ambition? Sure, and they may just pull it off, having already the biggest fan base on Facebook (8 million), Google+ and Instagram.

LETTING GO OF THE BRAND
In order for a travel destination to successfully achieve this vision, it must first come to accept that it no longer controls the brand - did it ever, in fact? (Profound and so important to realize - Wilna). Thus, it's not so much "letting go" of the brand but rather acting as an MC, or the conductor of a symphonic orchestra, where the destination plays the guide, steering travelers towards online resources and discussion forums where information is readily accessible and credible, partly because of social proof and peer recognition.

This is also the direction taken by the folks at Tourism Montreal, in Canada. Back in 2009, they realized how important online marketing and communications had become, so they shifted almost all of their marketing dollars towards online initiatives, including a critically acclaimed experiential website, a content-rich blog and a dynamic approach on various social networks. Yet, in early 2012 they came to a similar realization as Tourism Australia: they needed the help of others to cut through the ever-increasing noise and really propel the Montreal brand to levels beyond the reach of media buy alone. They are presently in the midst of a series of fundamental, organizational changes that will be deployed to three key groups.

1. First, ongoing training is provided to all 80 employees, partly to enable them to manage a dynamic presence on various social networks, thus having more brand ambassadors active on various platforms. But also to integrate social media as part of the organizational culture, generating leads, answering customer queries or participating in community discussions.
   
   
2. Second, a strategy is being put in place to ensure Tourism Montreal's 800 members (hotels, restaurants, attractions, etc.) have the tools in place to better understand and manage their presence on key social media. Training will be given and tools provided, such as a practical guide with do's and dont's, along with strategic considerations.
   
   
3. Last but not least, the vision by 2014 is to have local citizens partake in the social discussions, including domestic and foreign travelers alike.
   
   

IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT DOING SOCIAL. IT'S ABOUT BEING SOCIAL.
As Jay Baer famously said it, "companies that get it are those who are social, not those who do social" and this is the level where travel destinations and tourism suppliers will need to take it next. So when Tourism Australia executes its social vision, it goes so far as asking telecoms, hotel chains and other travel suppliers to work hand-in-hand in order to provide free wifi across the country. Why? To save travellers money while at destination? Perhaps, but the true reason is to enable travellers to use their mobile devices and access their favorite social media in order to share their experiences! As Tourism Australia's general manager, Nick Baker, told the Sydney Morning Herald"Holidays are all about living in the moment".

Other destinations have begun offering content-rich initiatives, while some even handed over their twitter account to local folks, such as @Sweden and@ThisIsVT. Who will be next to follow and truly embrace social, putting the brand's discussion and perception in the hands and voices of the traveller and customer?

About Frederic Gonzalo
Frederic Gonzalo is a marketing & communications expert and speaker with 18 years expertise in the travel and hospitality industry. Consulting since early 2012, he provides strategic planning, social media & mobile development counseling to destinations, small and medium businesses alike. Visit his blog atwww.fredericgonzalo.com, reach him atfrederic@gonzomarketing.biz or say hello next time you are in Quebec City, Canada, where he lives!

These are the little travel-trend facts that really intrigue me - Wilna 

Buried several hundred pages into a new World Economic Forum report on global tourism, the WEF has compiled survey data from 140 countries estimating the attitude of each countries' population toward foreign visitors.

The results, mapped out above, seem significant beyond just tourism. Red countries are less welcoming to foreign visitors, according to the data; blue countries are more welcoming. Click the map (or here) to enlarge the image.

The WEF gathered the data from late 2011 through late 2012 by asking respondents, "How welcome are foreign visitors in your country?" The WEF explains that the survey results are meant to help "measure the extent to which a country and society are open to tourism and foreign visitors."

According to the data, the top three most welcoming countries for foreigners are, in order: Iceland, New Zealand and Morocco. Other high-ranking countries include the rich and peaceful of the Western world (Ireland, Canada, Austria), a few tourist havens (Thailand, United Arab Emirates), and, for some reason, big parts of West Africa.

The three countries least welcoming to foreigners are, in order: Bolivia, Venezuela and Russia. Other poorly ranked countries include the more troubled states of the greater Middle East (Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia), Eastern Europe and two East Asian states I was very surprised to see so near the bottom: China and South Korea.

Part of what makes these data so interesting is that there is no easy "grand unifying theory" that I can see, no single variable that explains the outcomes. It's not wealth or GDP per capita: that would not explain why South Korea ranks so low, or the variance among rich Western states. It's certainly not the number of foreign visitors: the mid-ranking United States and low-ranked China have some of the world's highest rates of foreign tourism.

If anything, maybe what's interesting about this map is the degree to which it seems to cut against common American perceptions of the world. Although there are definitely some Middle Eastern states in the red here, the region actually scores pretty well. Tourism-friendly Morocco is no surprise, but you might not have expected to see Yemen ranked above Sweden and Belgium.

Western Europe is generally friendly toward foreigners but, perhaps because of the touchy politics around immigration there, ranks alongside much of sub-Saharan Africa. The United States, the land of the Statue of Liberty and "give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," ranks 102nd out of 140 countries, well below much of the Middle East.

One thing I'm struck by, in trying to puzzle out this map, is the apparent correlation between unfriendliness to foreigners and nationalism. That would maybe help to explain the low ratings for China and South Korea (although there are other possible factors here, including race) and for Russia. It might also help to explain why the United States, Germany and Japan - three countries with strongly nationalist histories - rank below other wealthy nations.

The nationalism theory makes a bit more sense when we look region-to-region. In Latin America, for example, a region generally friendly to foreigners, three countries stand out: Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela. All three have governments that could be fairly described as nationalistic. It also makes some sense in the Middle East, where Saudi Arabia and Iran rank poorly among countries that generally court foreign tourism.

But there are reasons to think my theory might be wrong: it doesn't explain why Denmark, a rich Western European country, is so much redder than its neighbors, for example; nor does it explain the variation in southern Africa.

What do you think explains the trends on this map? Weigh in somewhere in the comments or on Twitter/Facebook, and I'll try to pull in any interesting theories.

By Max Fisher
Source: Washington Post

 Here are some really great copy-writing tips for hotels. - Wilna 

How to create engaging copy for hotel websites
 by Erica Garza 

The look and feel of a hotel website may initially grab the user’s attention, while the copy contains the core information about the hotel that will convince that visitor to make a booking. Accurate, engaging, and relevant content - all written with the brand’s voice in mind - is what gives users that final push to click “Book Now.”

The property website continues to be the hotelier’s most important distribution and marketing channel. The main goal of any hotel website is to turn lookers into bookers. A number of factors help to achieve this goal, including eye-catching design and a user-friendly layout. The look and feel of a website may initially grab the user’s attention, while the copy contains the core information about the hotel that will convince that visitor to make a booking. Accurate, engaging, and relevant content – all written with the brand’s voice in mind – is what gives users that final push to click “Book Now.”

The copy of a hotel website serves two purposes. One is quite obvious: to provide the most accurate description of the hotel product and inform prospective guests about the hotel’s accommodations, amenities, business services, event space and location. The second is to provide content for search engine bots to crawl, index, and serve in their results pages. Thanks to the intricacies of search engine optimization (SEO), website copy can be manipulated to attract prospective guests based on their searches. The trick is to find the right balance in creating informative copy that is tailored to serve both guests and search engines.

Many web development shops or self-proclaimed hospitality digital marketing agencies downplay the importance of original copywriting for the hotel website, tailored specifically for each customer segment and each page of the site. However, the ongoing Google Panda updates have raised the bar as far as the quality and originality of the textual content on the hotel website is concerned. Many hotel websites with stale and bland content became obsolete and saw a decrease in their organic performance. As discussed in our recent article “Is Hotel SEO Dead? Not By A Long Shot – More Than Half of Your Website’s Revenue Depends on It,” 32.7% of website revenues for HeBS Digital’s client portfolio come from organic search (SEO) – too significant a portion to disregard. To get the best results, the content on the site must be carefully crafted, taking a number of factors into account.

Website Copy Don’ts

There are many pitfalls to creating quality content. Here are two of the most common mistakes hoteliers make:

1. Duplicate website content: The search engines hate duplicate content. Why? Search engines work very hard to index and display pages with distinct information. For them, duplicate information is not beneficial to search engine users and inhibits the user experience; duplicate content is “spam.” When two or more web pages are identified as “too similar,” one or more of those web pages usually disappears from the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Hoteliers cannot avoid sharing content descriptions about their hotel with other sites such as OTAs, GDSs, booking engine vendors, etc., but hoteliers must be smart about it and avoid providing duplicate content to any third-party sites. Unfortunately, this has been a serious problem in the industry for many years because it is much easier to copy and paste existing content than to write significantly different descriptions. The inevitable result is that many of these third-party sites rank higher than the hotels’ sites because they have larger domains and practice SEO techniques far better than the hotels do.

2. Gap between official and unofficial content: Users today have more access than ever to both official and unofficial content. Official content is content created and sanctioned by the property – the hotel website, social media accounts, brand blog, etc. Unofficial content is user-generated content such as reviews on TripAdvisor or posts to a property’s Facebook page. The bigger the discrepancy between official content and unofficial content, the less credible the property website. Less credibility results in less bookings and revenue.

This content alignment could be as simple as removing “luxury” from the description of your rooms if users are openly questioning the luxury aspect of your accommodations, or removing “award-winning” from the description of your restaurant if it has generated a lot of negative reviews on Yelp.

Website Copy Do’s

What type of content does the hotel website need in order to drive direct bookings? Search engines and travel consumers alike require deep, relevant, and unique content. Any hotel website without engaging content intuitively structured across a user-friendly site will have a hard time communicating the hotel product to the travel consumer and achieve meaningful search engine rankings.

Read on for an in-depth look into our process of creating professional copy for the hotel website that is optimized for the search engines, provided by HeBS Digital’s in-house Copy + SEO Department.

1. Brand discovery: It all starts with finding the right voice. As soon as a client is brought on board, the assigned copy + SEO specialist has a discovery call with the client to discuss brand voice, tone, preferences, and approved language. This discussion sets the stage for perfectly-tailored website content as well as any copy-related initiatives in the future.

2. Hotel questionnaire: The client is asked to fill out a hotel questionnaire that covers their primary business needs and objectives, customer segments, occupancies, competitive set and more. The questionnaire asks the client to submit room types, hotel amenities, area businesses, attractions and any other unique details that differentiate the client from its competitors.

3. Keyword research: The marriage between editorial content and SEO begins with keyword research. How are prospective guests searching? Hotel searches are made based on geographical keywords. HeBS Digital conducts thorough research into a hotel’s specific location to find out what keywords users are plugging into their search engines to plan travel. These keywords are narrowed down to the ones with the highest search volume, determined by advanced technology in keyword research.

4. Review official & professional content: Consistency is key. The copy + SEO specialist will review the hotel’s official content to maintain a voice that is consistent online and offline. This includes brochures, pamphlets, videos and any other marketing materials the client has been using to promote their property. Our team will also review the client’s professional copy, which includes press releases and news coverage in print and online media.

5. Review unofficial content: Unofficial content is just as important as official and professional content. Whereas the latter portrays the property in the way in which its marketers intended, the unofficial content portrays the property the way it is experienced by real guests. The copy + SEO specialist will carefully comb through real reviews on TripAdvisor, Google Zagat reviews, blogs and other social media sources to understand the hotel from a guest perspective.

6. Write SEO-enhanced copy: When the research phase is complete, the copy + SEO specialist begins the writing process, producing copy that is simultaneously engaging and search engine optimized. This involves using the information gathered in the discovery call, the insight gained through unofficial content, and the facts from the questionnaire. On top of that, we then include the researched keywords in an unobtrusive manner. This process requires a high level of skill and attention to detail.

7. Client review of copy: Once the website copy is complete, a draft is sent over to the client for review. Although significant research is done in advance, there are sometimes fine points that the hotelier wants to include that were missed in the initial information gathering phase. These edits are incorporated by the copy + SEO specialist, ensuring that the edits did not affect any optimization efforts, and then a final draft is prepared for implementation.

8. Copy & SEO integration into the website: With the CMS Premium, copy implementation is a rather quick and simple process. A member of the Copy + SEO Department is responsible for entering the content into the website, giving it one final read-through while also ensuring the formatting stays intact and implementing all the internal links. Once the content is implemented, HeBS Digital monitors search engine performance, revenue, and a variety of other key performance indicators to judge the success of our work and make any strategic tweaks necessary to keep SEO up to par.

Erica Garza is Senior Copy + SEO Specialist at HeBS Digital