I know I have talked about this already – but thought it apt to start the year with one new plug for my favourite social media tool – LinkedIn. If you haven’t already established a profile please consider making this one of your New Year’s resolutions. Read more »

Dear Friends in Travel,

Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a joyous holiday and are now eager to take on 2012.

This year’s buzz word has just got to be “technology“.  Though my old-school preference is to interact face-to-face, the wizards of the micro-chip/cyber world are speaking a totally different language today with the mobile phone becoming the new Aladdin’s lamp.  Lightly brush its sleek, glass surface and presto…the Genie delivers whatever you wish!   Evolving from rotary to push-button to speed-dial to voice activated, smart-phones now delve into the world of natural speech-to-text communications.  I recently tried out Siri, Apple’s latest iPhone voice-activated, personal assistant.  It confirmed my daily appointments, advised me of weather conditions as I drove up north, and found me a restaurant after I advised it what my preferred cuisine was.   It even reminded me that I would run out of gas if I did not stop at the next exit for a fill-up!  These are marvellous attributes, but it does leave me wondering if we are moving towards a ‘no-brain required’ society.

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One of the things I find most interesting about exploring social media is the range of perceptions about various methods and the approach to them, depending sometimes on age. Don Tapscott characterized the term “Net Generation” and this group of people currently stands at about 43% of the population, roughly equal to 15 million Canadians. My children are part of this first wave of people to come of age online. For them the internet became the gathering place where ideas could be exchanged freely, where you didn’t have to be cool to be accepted and where you could express yourself in ways, we as parents never dreamed of. The internet with its chat rooms, blogs, Facebook, You Tubes etc., has become our traditional networking circle. However, whereas our in-person networking circle was limited by time and distance the internet allows us to speak to a potential audience of millions. But in doing so – we do give up certain rights to privacy. Read more »

So, I’m still struggling about Facebook.  Man I want to avoid that marketing method like the plague.  But my daughter says I should – question is do I listen to my kid.  It’s that whole generational thing again.  I’m telling her at dinner tonight about my BFO from last week, work life integration – social media integration and she said “yeah, it’s kind of like first thing I do when I get home is update my Facebook and see what’s going on”.  But that’s the thing, how many people are surfing Facebook for companies or are they just using it mainly to check up on friends and family – is it the right social media for a company to be involved with? Does my client base support this medium?  After all as a time challenged professional – mom – Jill of all trades, do I have time for something that isn’t going to get me where I need to go? Read more »

Tis the season to “Thank” those who have helped us throughout the year.   

However, more and more businesses are turning to e-blasting Christmas Cards.

For you – It is easy and affordable to do a mass e-blast with seasonal greetings to your clients, vendor’s,  friends and colleagues. 

For your clients – Your well wishes get caught in spam filters, are easy to ignore, easy to delete and easily forgotten. Read more »

When I spoke about blogging a couple of weeks ago I mentioned how important it was to have an idea of 100 posts that you could write about before starting a blog.  How true that is. Blogging takes time.  But I was so naïve! Read more »

Brace yourself – Virgin is back and agents are going to again have to deal with a price war and picking-up the pieces when they pull-out (as history has shown they will).

The new route between Vancouver and Heathrow is expected to see up to 40,000 customers and will start in May 2012 (just in time for the Olympics).  The schedule will operate four times a week throughout the summer period until the end of October.

Now, in case you want a refresher, here’s my blog article from February 2011 when Virgin America pulled out (the second pullout for the Virgin Brand).  Now, not even a year later here we go again. Read more »

Dear Friends in Travel,

‘Tis the Ho Ho Ho season when once more we hang up the stockings, make merry at all those Christmas bashes, and of course, shop till we drop even though the stark financial reality of our generosity will greet us in the New Year when those dreaded bank and credit card statements roll in.   But there’s more to December than just the Holidays because come December 21 the days will start getting longer! That alone is sufficient reason to celebrate, so bring on the eggnog! Read more »

Previously I talked about defining goals by target markets and how the various social media methods could support my goals. Then my next step was to analyze which social media tool will best support my goals and objectives as well as match my target audience.  I realized this will be hard to do at this point in my social media development since I don’t yet know what the impact is on my marketing.  However, I do have an idea of what I will need to think about measuring the effectiveness that I would like to share with you. Read more »

One of the quickest ways to build your following in Twitter or other social media is to write a blog.  This is a perfect segway for travel professionals where our job as advisors is to share memories, comments about destinations, advice on travel products, photos or videos of destination and just the overall experience of our individual travels. Read more »