E-Marketing Associates

Plan Your Travel Itinerary with Trippy and TravelMuse

Golda Criddle by
on February 22nd, 2012

Yesterday’s travelers were limited to travel agencies, books, brochures and traditional word of mouth for travel advice. Now the entire world is available at your fingertips through websites, online travel agencies and social networks. New social travel sites are popping up every day with different approaches to help travelers plan their trips.

The latest entry in social trip planning is Trippy, a site that revolves around planning a trip based on recommendations from your friends. The site differs from Gogobot and Gtrot in that it aims to build your entire itinerary from your Facebook friends.

When you create a trip on Trippy, you are told right away which of your Facebook friends “know” your destination, having lived, studied or visited there in the past. You can also specify whether your trip is strictly business, budget, romance or even adventure, and tell your friends what you want to experience during your trip. You can then add places, restaurants and hotels you are considering visiting, eating in and staying at. At the end of the process, Trippy provides you with a customized trip URL that you can share on Facebook or Twitter to get your input from your social circle. When your friends click on this link, they will be able to view your proposed itinerary and make comments. You can plan your trip by the day, and when you’re ready, check rates and book your hotel within Trippy’s platform.

Another great site for planning your trip is TravelMuse. The site acts like a scrapbook for your trip, as you can save any web page into a folder so that all of your ideas are in one central place. TravelMuse offers its own Bookmarker to make this process as easy as accessing your bookmarks through a browser. You can also view your saved items on a map, on a calendar, and look for other things to do when you have a few extra hours.

A unique feature of TravelMuse is the “Get Inspired” tab, which allows you to build a customized trip based on your interests and preferences. You can select when you wish to travel, what airport you are flying out of, your favorite activities, maximum flight time and budget per person. From these parameters, TravelMuse will build an entire trip for you within seconds. Talk about making travel easy!

What social travel sites will you use to plan your next trip?

Categories: B2B & B2C,Blog,Clients,Facebook,Hotel Internet Marketing,Hotels & Resorts,Hotels & Resorts,Internet Marketing,Social Media,Social Media Marketing,Travel,Twitter — Tags: , , , , , , ;

Current Events Boost Facebook Engagement

Renee Radia by
on February 8th, 2012

Looking to increase fan engagement on your Facebook page? Who isn’t? A recent study by Buddy Media shows how incorporating current events into your posts can drive fan engagement to new levels. The study focused on 1,400 brands and used last weekend’s big game as a case study. It looked at brands’ Facebook engagement rates, which include interactions through Likes, comments, and shares. The result was that in the six weeks leading up to the Super Bowl and on Super Bowl Sunday itself, brands that posted content using the keywords “Super Bowl” saw a 60% increase in engagement!

EdgeRank, Facebook’s news feed algorithm, takes many characteristics into consideration when it decides where content shows up in users’ news feeds. If a post has a high level of engagement or the user that shared the post has a close relationship with another user, the post is displayed more prominently on someone’s news feed. This is another factor accounting for the high engagement rate – because these posts were getting many Likes, comments, and shares, they were getting placed higher in users’ news feeds, which only encouraged more Likes, comments, and shares. There is something to be said about using the keywords “Super Bowl” though, since this event is inherently one of the biggest events in the US all year– such a giant increase in engagement might not be realistic for every post about a current event.

A great way to find current, up-to-date news that you can post about is to see what is trending on Twitter. Twitter constantly refreshes its left-hand “Trends” tab with real-time topics that are garnering the most buzz at that moment. An important caveat to remember when considering posting about a current event is that you don’t want to force your brand into irrelevant conversations. It might reflect poorly if you seem to be posting just for the sake of getting more engagement. Try to find a unique way of joining the conversation by making the post relevant to your brand and its message. Be weary too that you might get lumped in with other people or brands who have posted about a similar event, as Facebook frequently aggregates posts about the same topic and it is easy to get lost in the shuffle.

Categories: Facebook,Hotel Internet Marketing,Internet Marketing,Social Media,Social Media Marketing,Twitter — Tags: , , , , ;

Introducing TripAdvisor, Gogobot and Foodspotting for Facebook Timeline

Golda Criddle by
on January 27th, 2012

Very soon Facebook users (which, let’s face it, is just about everyone) will no longer be able to ignore Facebook Timeline. The new format will be rolling out by February 1 to all users. And with it, comes around 60 new lifestyle applications, with three familiar names in the travel world: TripAdvisor, Gogobot and Foodspotting. It has never been easier to share your travels plans—past, present or future—with friends and share the foods you love.


TripAdvisor’s app is called Cities I’ve Visited. The app allows you to pin cities you’ve traveled to on your travel map, display it on your timeline and many other personal travel stats on Facebook Timeline. You can share with your family your trip to Morroco, and what monuments you visited and restaurants you dined at. It’s a great way to take advantage of the new storytelling aspect of Facebook Timeline through travel.

Gogobot’s app is similar, but turns users into travel experts rather than just telling stories. When you use the Gogobot app with Facebook Timeline, your records of where you’ve been, what restaurants you’ve ate at and what attractions you saw are compiled into a “Destination Guide.” You can not only share this guide with your friends and family, but also act as a travel guide to show them the best places to eat and play.  You can share upcoming trips and ask questions from friends, and display customized postcards made from Gogobot’s iPhone application. You can also express your dreams by listing the places you want to visit. The more interaction you post to Facebook Timeline, the more Gogobot Travel Expertise points you receive to make you a trustworthy source on travel.

Foodspotting’s app also focuses on sharing. What’s better than a tasty dish? Sharing your pleasure with all your friends, of course? Now it is very easy to share your Foodspotting activity on your Facebook Timeline. You can control who sees your Foodspotting activity, fortunately, and it is all contained in one little box so it won’t clutter your Timeline. Your friends can also view your Foodspotting page to see which dishes you’ve become an expert in.

The new Facebook Timeline is all about encourage users to share more, through check-ins, posts, and other activity. There’s not much word yet on how Facebook Timeline will affect business brand pages but Facebook is known for its cohesiveness, so they will likely experience similar changes in the future. Do you have ideas on how to use Facebook Timeline to promote your business? Please share your ideas in the comments below!

Categories: B2B & B2C,Blog,Facebook,Internet Marketing,Lifestyle,Social Media,Social Media Marketing,Travel — Tags: , , , , , , ;

Hotels Find Success with Social Media Contests

Renee Radia by
on January 25th, 2012

Now, more than ever before, hotels are taking things to the next level thanks to social media. Hotels are realizing that they can make their guest interactions fun and mix things up with unique contests that make their fans more passionate about their properties. The following are some examples of creative contests hotels have done using social media that will hopefully stir up some ideas of your own!

  • Hotel Palomar in San Diego recently completed a unique contest that took participants out into the city to explore. Instead of a simple “’Like’ us to win…” contest that we’ve all seen overdone, the Kimpton brand hotel utilized the mobile app “Scavenger Hunt with Friends” where participants submitted photos online as a way of checking off their scavenger hunt finds. Items on the list were designed to get users out and about in San Diego, taking creative photos and performing fun and local activities in order to do so.
  • W Hotels encouraged the use of location-based mobile apps by running a campaign that gave users incentive for checking-in to their hotels on Foursquare during the Summer DJ Series. The first person to check into a given event received a free 2-night weekend stay as well as free bottle service. Foursquare Mayors drank free on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The East coast properties also ran a timely video contest where participants had to commemorate the legendary Times Square kiss by reenacting and filming it.
  • Casa del Mar in Santa Monica ran a contest called “What’s Under the Sheets?” late 2009 where it posted a photo of 2 giant wrapped items in the hotel’s lobby. Throughout the contest, the hotel released clues about the identity of the items. People submitted their guesses through Twitter and the winner received a fun spa package stay at the property.
  • Jet Luxury ran a Twitter contest last year that was designed to encourage conversation on the microblogging site. Participants were entered into a drawing to win a package if they tweeted about their favorite of the brand’s hotels and why they liked it. Instead of a massive retweet or spam message, organic conversations about the hotels took place.
  • Le Parc Suites in West Hollywood has recently reached out to the dog-lovers to have them vote on the next “Director of Pet Relations.” Various pooches are on display on a Facebook landing page each with a short bio and cute photo. The winning pooch will be featured throughout the hotel and will receive many perks!

 

Categories: Blog,Facebook,Hotel Internet Marketing,Hotels & Resorts,Hotels & Resorts,Photo & Video,Social Media,Social Media Marketing,Twitter — Tags: , , , , ;

Stop SOPA: EMA “Goes Dark”

Renee Radia by
on January 18th, 2012

In case you haven’t noticed yet, big things are happening on the Internet today. Wikipedia, Reddit, Craigslist, Wired, and many other websites (both high and low traffic) have “gone dark” in protest of the House bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Even Google is protesting, albeit in a less infringing way. The bill is designed to crack down on Internet piracy, and if passed, would put a huge damper on Internet sharing. The Department of Justice would be able to order an Internet service provider to cut off access to a website if it thought the site was promoting copyright infringement (i.e. if any individual user on the website posted copyrighted material). The DOJ could also require search engines such as Google to remove all links and search results to an infringing website.

Here at EMA, we are coming out against the SOPA bill. Our main page has “gone dark” today to oppose the bill as well. We support open-source, innovation, and free speech, and this bill would censor all of these. If passed, this bill could potentially allow the government to shut down, for example, Twitter, simply because somebody posted content that was copyrighted. And that just isn’t right. Websites that we all use everyday such as Youtube, Tumblr, Facebook, and Wikipedia would be drastically affected and risk being shut down at any moment. Yes, online piracy may be a problem, but there has got to be a better way to deal with it than censoring the Internet.

Join us in stopping SOPA by contacting your Senators and Representatives. You can black out your website today to come out against the bill. Together, we can end piracy, not liberty.

Categories: Facebook,Google,Internet Marketing,Social Media,Twitter,Websites — Tags: , , , , , , , ;

Hotel for the Holidays: A Social Media Poem

Renee Radia by
on December 21st, 2011

‘Twas the last week of December, when all through the hotel,
The staff was busy, getting rooms ready to sell.
The lobby was decorated with garland galore,
Holiday music played overhead; who could want more?

Ice skating, tree lighting, caroling, and sledding,
Nearby activities where guests will be heading.
But how to get the word out about these fun events?
A Facebook post or Tweet makes quite a bit of sense.

Log in to Facebook and post to the Page,
Use a Bitly link to track clicks (they’re all the rage)!
Facebook’s new Insights tell you all that you need,
Reach, Virality, Engaged Users, indeed.

Visit your wall and respond to your fans,
People are more likely to include you in their plans.
“Thanks for choosing us,” “Glad you enjoyed your stay,”
These are just some of the potential responses you can say.
And for super fans who often promote your account,
Why not offer them a social media discount?

Don’t forget about Twitter, where news can spread quickly,
If you don’t respond fast, things can get prickly.
Schedule in advance with Tweetdeck or Hootsuite,
Use Twitpic or Twitvid to showcase your retreat.
Post regular content and tweet to your guests,
Also check your mentions and various requests.

But, alas, as you look, there’s a tweet that you see,
An unhappy guest in room three-o-three!
He wanted non-smoking, yet smoke is in the air,
So tweet to him that you soon will be there.

Note his surprise, as you knock on his door,
No one has ever responded like this before!
As you relocate him to a new smoke-free room,
It is clear that a lifelong guest is in bloom.
After you help him, what do you know,
He is on Tripadvisor, posting reviews aglow!

The holidays really are such a crucial time,
To make a good impression and act truly sublime.
Using social media can put your guests at ease,
The possibilities are endless and it can be a breeze!

Another busy day at your hotel has come and gone,
Your guests are snuggled in and the curtains are drawn.
And yet some televisions are still quite ablare,
With free movie specials they won on Foursquare.

Categories: Blog,Facebook,Hotel Internet Marketing,Hotels & Resorts,Social Media,Social Media Marketing,Twitter — Tags: , , , , , ;

The New Tube of YouTube

Renee Radia by
on December 7th, 2011

Late last week, YouTube unveiled a sleek new interface. Unlike many other social networks’ redesigns that roll out gradually, YouTube’s occurred in one instant with the click of a button. The popular video-sharing site’s changes aim to take content sharing to the next level as well as promote the updated Channels feature. As is expected when a social network makes big design changes, YouTube is already on the receiving end of backlash and negative comments about the updates. However, with YouTube’s recent announcement of its desire to become a real alternative to cable television, the site felt the clean redesign was necessary in order to draw in more people, make sharing across social networks easier, and give the Channels a chance to shine.

Content sharing
YouTube now offers deeper integration among Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Users can connect their Google+ and Facebook accounts directly to YouTube to share their favorite videos with their circles and friends and also see what videos their connections are sharing. Taking a page from Twitter, there is also now a Trending tab, where current popular videos and channels scroll in a news feed. Under the Trending tab are other categories of videos that allow users to explore and find content often tailored directly to them.

Channels
With over 160 million unique viewers a month, YouTube is trying to increase that number with an updated Channels feature that is designed to compete with broadcast and cable television. The site now encourages users to subscribe to channels, which are essentially just collections of videos. In order to contend with TV, it is only natural that the site has announced upcoming series from high-profile partners, such as Jay-Z and Ashton Kutcher, who will provide original content that will entice users to tune in online and subscribe to their channels. Channels are suggested on the left side of the screen and a bright blue “Add Channels” button is at the top of the screen as well, making it very simple for users to find content and subscribe to channels in which they are interested. With various video recommendations along the right side of the screen, the site hopes users will stay on the site longer, and instead of clicking around on a video or two, will check out all the content on their favorite channels.

While the redesign is definitely different and sometimes so many recommended videos can be a bit annoying, it was necessary for YouTube to perform these updates and as with redesigns to other social networks, the backlash will subside in time. Integration between social networks was inevitable for this site and is probably something that should have happened long ago. It will be interesting to see how users respond to the Channels and if YouTube can ever become a real competitor to television.

Categories: Blog,Facebook,Google,Internet Marketing,Social Media,Social Media Marketing,Uncategorized,Websites — Tags: , , , , ;

Improved Performance Tracking for Facebook Business Users

David Sotelo by
on November 29th, 2011

Facebook is hopefully by now an integral part of your business marketing plan and monitoring your results are just as important. Facebook pages can be a great tool for engaging with your customers and potential customers but you want to make sure your news feed is where you do the talking. A recent comScore report shows that your news feed is where the action is as fans are 40 to 150 times more likely to take in your company info and converse with you. Also friends of fans are more likely to visit a brands store and website and make a purchase. This brings up the next important aspect of your page which is your analytics or in the case of Facebook your insights tools.

Facebook Insights is your go to destination for checking to see what is working and what may need to improve with your Facebook business page. Facebook insights will provide you with all the data you need to make sure your page is being used to its full potential and to make sure you are getting the most out of Facebook pages. As with any analytics tool there is a lot of ways to sift through all the numbers and try to make sense of everything but I will go over some basics to get you started. First off there are two types of Facebook insights: User Insights and Interactions Insights. User Insights will give you info such as total page likes, daily active users, new likes and unlikes as well as pages views and demographics. Interaction insights gives you all the info you need for daily story feedback such as post likes, comments and impressions as well as daily page activity.

Some of the more important metrics to track are page views and unique page views because from those you can find out how many of your fans are returning fans. Mentions are a key metric because this will tell you the number of times someone tagged your post. Fan growth is always important to know especially if you are a new company since they give you a good idea of how well you’re growing and see what may cause spikes and what may impede growth. Unlike rate is good to keep an eye on since you want to try and get an idea of why people are unliking or leaving a site. Is there one particular page there are consistently leaving where they shouldn’t be? There are some new metrics added to insights called “People are talking about this” that counts stories that are eligible to appear in user’s newsfeed. Also the Virality metric is added which is pretty cool because it gives you a percentage of how “viral” a particular post is and can be used to gauge what is important to your customer. The new changes are a welcome addition and should help you to keep improving your Facebook Page.

Categories: Blog,Facebook,Social Media,Social Media Marketing — Tags: , , , , , ;

Facebook Ad Optimization for Beginners

David Sotelo by
on November 16th, 2011

Businesses are always trying to improve their bottom line and online advertising is a viable means to do just that. If you own a business you are probably familiar with Google Adwords and their pay per click model but Facebook also has paid advertising that can be a welcome addition to your current marketing plan. Facebook is accepted by many businesses as a marketing tool in the ever evolving social media space and optimizing your Facebook advertising is very important to getting the most bang for your buck.

Once you setup your Facebook account you will want to create your ad based on who your target market is so this will require you to create criteria based off demographics. You know your business best and who buys from you but doing a little research might help you discover some new buying behaviors. What age groups buy from you, do you sell to a specific geographic area or can you sell all over the world, do you sell something that mostly males buy or maybe just females buy, are your customers college educated, maybe you are a paralegal business and want to target people who like law sites or are connected to relevant law pages on Facebook. The more you know about who buys your product or service the better off you will be in maximizing your dollar.

Your ads manager will be your go to destination for monitoring, tracking and making any changes to your ads. Paid advertising is a work in progress and will often require testing out multiple ads to see which ones are performing better for each campaign your running. Keywords are also important because certain keywords will appeal to certain buyers. If you have a law firm and specialize in certain industry you will want to make sure you include certain keywords that will appeal to people or other businesses looking for that. Your click through rates will be higher (ctr) and ideally should results in more conversions. You can track impressions, clicks, click through rates, reach etc so that you can see what performs better. As with most online advertising programs you select your budget and bid price so you don’t break your bank account.

One very important aspect that can often get overlooked in a somewhat analytical approach such as online advertising is write content that you would want to read! Using the right keywords and targeting is important but write engaging and creative ads that would interest someone and make them want to click on so they can learn more and call to action. There is much more you can do with paid search advertising on Facebook however this will hopefully get you started in the right direction and onto more profitable ground in the world of paid search advertising.

Categories: Blog,Facebook,Social Media Marketing — Tags: , , , , ;

Google+ Pages: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Renee Radia by
on November 9th, 2011

Four months after the initial launch of Google+, business pages are finally available to brands worldwide.  Businesses have been looking forward to this new platform as a way to connect and share information with fans and customers.  While this may sound similar to Facebook Pages, brands are hoping to capture customers because of the platform’s cleaner and more user-friendly interface.  Corporate accounts on social networks have become an essential staple in brands’ marketing campaigns, and now Google+ is yet another one to add to the mix.

Why Join Google+ Pages?
Google has added numerous incentives for creating a Google+ Page.  One is that Google+ Pages will be incorporated into Google search queries, making your brand or business more SEO-friendly.  This will help drive more people to your Google+ page, as well as encourage them to form meaningful connections and even add your brand to their circles.  While Google indexes some but not all Facebook content, public content on Google+ is already showing up in searches.  Another unique feature is called Direct Connect, which lets people seek out a brand easily by adding a “+” before the search.  For example, a Google search for “+Anderson Cooper 360” lands you directly onto the television show’s Google+ page, entirely skipping a results page!

Google+ Pages vs. Facebook Pages
At first glance, the most obvious difference between the two platforms is that Google+ Pages appear to be much less cluttered, more user-friendly, and not constantly recommending you click ads or add new people to your circles (yet).  Another feature that cleans up Google+ Pages is that while on Facebook Pages, users can post content themselves to the brand’s wall, on Google+ Pages, only the brand can post to the wall.  Users can only comment on the posts, as well as Share or give a +1, which has the possibility of keeping Google+ Pages looking crisp, or the flipside of limiting engagement with the brand and pushing people to Facebook Pages.  Facebook Pages come out on top in terms of being able to incorporate outside applications and services, but with the increasingly high demand of these enhancements, most likely it will not be long before Google+ Pages add similar features.  The Google+ Circles ensure that your posts are shared with all your connections, instead of Facebook’s Edgerank which arbitrarily decides if and where your content is displayed on fans’ feeds.  Analytics are not currently available on Google+ Pages but they are expected to be very powerful, given what Google can already do in this area.  The analytics will most likely be integrated with other analytics views, such as Google Analytics, that will give businesses a more immersed and practical understanding of the role social networks play in producing real ROI.

Google+ Pages Letdowns
While some brands were eagerly anticipating Google+ Pages, many are now wondering why Google waited so long to release this feature, as Pages are not much different from personal Google+ profiles.  There is also a problem when it comes to managing your brand’s page because currently Google+ Pages allow for only one administrator, which means in order for multiple people to update the brand’s wall, they would all have to use the same Google account.  According to the Google+ Pages Content Policy, brands are prohibited from running contests and promotions on their pages, which places more limitations on e-marketers.  Google+ also as of yet does not have the ability to offer vanity URLs.

Both Facebook and Google are sure to continually make updates to the platforms, some for the better and some for the worse.  And with the difference in the number of users on each social network, it will be interesting to see what happens from here.  When all is said and done, Google+ is still a compelling and efficient way to share content.  And one thing is for sure, despite some downsides to Google+ Pages, it is a product of Google, and therefore can reward you handsomely when it comes to SEO.  What business doesn’t want that?

 

Categories: Blog,Facebook,Google,SEO,Social Media,Social Media Marketing — Tags: , , , , ;
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