Thanks for a Great 2007, See you in 2008
December 22, 2007 | 2 Comments
If you're new here, and interested in the latest news and insights on social media marketing, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting Ignite Social Media.
We won’t be actively posting anymore in 2007, as Lisa and I are off re-charging batteries. Gene is keeping our site and the client sites up (and quietly improving them as our holiday gifts to you). Comments are, of course, always always welcome.
A lot of companies say that 2007 was their best year ever. It’s true for Ignite. Of course, it’s our only year ever, so that really helps.
But launching a social media agency and defining what a social media agency is and does has been great. Thanks for our clients, thanks to our readers, thanks to you.
Looking forward to a great 2008 with all of you.
~Jim
5 Ways to Apply Social Media in the Travel Industry
December 21, 2007 | 4 Comments
In my previous post this week, I talked a little about my honeymoon planning frustrations, which led me to delve into the social media applications and the specific tactics that the travel industry as a whole should adopt.
As I started reading a little bit into it - I stumbled upon an article by Neil Salerno over at Hospitality Net, who wrote an article entitled ” More Social Media Chatter… a Hotel Marketing Tool”. Basically Neil’s post began with the following statement:
“I agree that the benefits (of social media) could be enormous; maybe in the not-so-distant future for hotel franchises but, less likely for individual hotels”
Of course - I’d like to play devil’s advocate and argue that the benefits of social media are now. And they are for the individual hotel AND the franchise. Why? Because the businesses who want to gain competitive advantage (like those in the travel industry) will go the extra mile to build relationships with customers - and social media provides a new way to do it. After all, the customer experience is why families go back to the same cottage year after year. It’s why high-end hotels train doormen to remember guest names. Regardless of small or large, using social media marketing in the travel industry can be a way to manage and foster this customer experience.
However, later on in his post, Salerno stated the following, which I think is a cry of many industries, and a lot of what a social media agency like Ignite works to figure out:
“So far, I hear a lot of dialogue, see many articles, and read about many conferences discussing the potential of social media sites, but no practical answers or workable tactics yet.”
So in light of this “cry” for tactics, I will suggest the following ways that the travel industry could use social media to better meet the needs of their customers. They are as follows:
1) Flickr - Hotels, condos, cabins, and resorts could have a Flickr account where they publish photos regularly (perhaps even seasonally) , and encourage guests to upload and tag their personal pictures as well. Since guests want to know how things are “really like”, these user generated photos will ensure that 1) picture of the hotel wasn’t taken in the 70’s, and 2) the place really exists. Geotagging is also a nifty feature as well.
2) Blogs (Area blogs, cabin blogs, etc) - Blogs are a great way that individual and large hotels can start communicating with their audience year-round. For instance, when I was looking at places in Idaho, I found a blog written by an area local. Not only did it show me what life was like day to day in Tetonia, but the archive showed me a wealth of information about the area in different seasons, activities in the nearby areas, and just random local facts. This can be an excellent way for hotels and local area tourism to leverage their resources such as the area’s “best kept secrets”, and the “hole in the wall” restaurants.
3) Video Tours - Many franchise hotels have paid to have a “virtual tour” created for their hotel. While these can be effective, low-cost video tours could easily be created and published to a YouTube channel for a fraction of the cost. This would also give an opportunity for additional, frequent coverage that a virtual tour wouldn’t provide.
4) Custom Google Maps - Creating a custom Google map for a specific location could be a way to promote an entire region or city. This “visual itinerary” could provide guests with a visual map of lodging, nearby restaurants, museums and parks, shopping, and other areas of interest. It would also provide guests with easy directions.
5) Twitter Updates (Deals, Specials, etc) - Twitter could be a way to update travelers of current specials and promotions, especially during the off-season. On the local level, it also could be a way to promote local events to area or in-state residents. (If this tactic were implemented, a good bit of caution would have to be made regarding the frequency and quality of this content.)
These are just a few that immediately come to mind. Can you think of other applications that would work? Please share - as I hope this industry will learn and embrace social media in its marketing efforts…. and preferably before June 14, 2008 
Facebook in 30 years…
December 20, 2007 | 1 Comment
Gene found this site, which was a hilarious view of Facebook in 30 years. Since it made its way around the office, I thought it was worth sharing.
My personal favorite is the “Meals on Wheels” application.
“I am the UAW” Campaign Site Launches
December 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment
On Monday, we at Ignite Social Media launched a new social media website for one of our clients, the United Auto Workers–the international labor union. The site supports (and extends) a larger advertising campaign that is running in Detroit, Indianapolis, Jackson (MS), Louisville, and Nashville.
The campaign’s gotten some really good coverage around the world (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3), but it’s also a good example of how advertising can support social media and social media can support advertising. That’s interesting to me with my advertising background and now building a social media agency.
The advertising is clearly driving traffic to the site (in fact, we had to increase the allocated bandwidth yesterday because we had too much traffic). The social media is supporting the advertising too, because now the campaign expands from five TV spots (you should watch them, they’re quite good) to hundreds of stories from members all over the place, added to the site over time.
The membership is responding well. Since the site launched, their stories have been pouring in. We’ll be busy putting them up over the next couple of weeks.
A lot of social media enthusiasts say that social media marketing will kill advertising. I don’t think so. I think social media marketing is a new and different skill set that offers all sorts of different benefits. As this campaign shows, the two can work together really well.
So, we’re pleased. And we’re using a few social media components, mostly consumer generated content, but certainly not every possible SM component. We want to hear from you, our readers who are deep into social media… Thoughts on the site? Ideas for how to make it better? Let us know.
~Jim
Ignite is Hiring!
December 19, 2007 | 5 Comments
We’re staying quite busy over here at Ignite as our client base is expanding rapidly. Because of this, we are keeping our eye out for qualified candidates that enjoy/understand social media and would be interested in joining us in our craziness.
While we have a lot of needs (ex. Jim’s need for more Facebook friends) - the following are our current highest areas of need:
1) Content Developers: In social media, frequent, valuable content is king. That’s why we are looking for strong writers in variety of styles and voices who could apply this talent to blogging, twittering - and many other social media applications that we may apply for our clients.
On the production side of content development, we also are looking for audio/visual producers who have talent in the filming, recording, and editing of videos and podcasts.
2) SEO/SMO Gurus - We need social media gurus who have a solid understanding of both SEO and SMO. Do you know how to leverage organic links and how to promote and optimize social media efforts to increase search results? If so, we’d like to speak.
Hey, we know job descriptions are vague - especially in the newly evolving space of social media, so if you are interested in the above possibilities please send an email cover letter and resume to jim *at* ignitesocialmedia.com and we’ll go from there. While a lack of formal education in social media isn’t a problem (because, really, who has it?), a lack of experience in the area either professionally or as a hobby/passion is.
25 Social Media Buzzwords.. Continued from Crain’s Detroit
December 18, 2007 | 6 Comments
(UPDATE (3/08): We’ve now defined all of these buzzwords in a new post. Read it here.)
In the 2008 Crain’s Book of Lists, Ignite contributed to an ad placed by its associated agency, Brogan and Partners. This particular ad included a list of “Social media buzzwords to make you sound really, really smart”, which was quite a fun list for us to compile.
While the ad covered the first ten, we’ve listed the complete list of 25 Social Media Buzzwords below (in no particular order).
Enjoy - and as always feel free to add some of your own
- “Social Graph”
- Semantic Web
- Wiki
- Widget
- KickApps
- Tumblr
- del.icio.us
- Enterprise 2.0
- Social Media Optimization
- Meme
- Mash-Up
- Social Media Monitoring
- User-Generated Content
- Web 2.0
- Social Networks
- “Blogosphere”
- Viral Marketing
- Ruby on Rails
- Social Media Press Release
- Vlogging
- Micro-Blogging
- Transparency and Authenticity
- “White Label”
How Flickr Helped Confirm my Honeymoon
December 18, 2007 | 2 Comments
For those of you who don’t know, I’m getting married this June on Flag Day (that’s June 14 for those who don’t keep up with random holidays).
So in the pursuit of getting all of my to-do’s crossed off, I’ve recently been on a hunt for a honeymoon location with the following criteria:
- Out West
- A cabin
- As close to mountains and lakes as possible
- Far away from human civilization but close enough to things to get a hamburger and some fries.
As you can imagine, this isn’t your typical honeymoon criteria. It’s not to an all-inclusive resort, I’m not looking for a champagne glass hot-tub (although those are pretty sweet), and I don’t want to stay in a cheesy honeymoon suite in a hotel.
I guess I had always imagined that when the time came to look for a honeymoon location, I would simply type in “honeymoon out west” and there would appear every related search at my fingertips. Instead, I’ve experienced HOURS of painstaking searches on the internet in which I find myself hunched over my computer at 12:00 at night thinking, “why is this so hard?”.
However, by luck I eventually found this cabin in Tetonia Idaho, which from the website photos appears to be a dream. But before I was willing to confirm the first thing that I wanted to know was “What is this going to be like?”, and “What’s nearby”, and “What activities can we do?” and so forth.
That’s when I visited Flickr, which had pictures geotagged with “Tetonia Idaho”. While I was there, I actually could see pictures taken from other honeymooners and some of the activities they did while they were there. After seeing the beautiful mountains, the plane ride they took over the range, and some of the sunsets - I was immediately hooked. My fiancee and I sent the deposit the very next day.
While there are many lessons for the travel industry in this story, and many applications for social media (which I will cover this week), this for me, has revealed the true value of user-generated content. While a traditional website sparked my interest, it was the social media that closed the deal.
December Social Media Breakfast
December 17, 2007 | 3 Comments
Hi all you Triangle social media clubbers!
A couple weeks ago I reached out through email to all of you and have heard mixed responses regarding whether or not to have a December meeting. Sorry for the delay in announcement - lately things are “heating up” over here at Ignite 
So in light of the mixed reactions, I wanted to throw a date and time for some of us who can meet to have a little breakfast, and talk a little social media. After all, lets save our families by getting “social media talk” out of our systems before the holidays…
So here’s the details:
Date: This Thursday, December 20th (yes, that soon)
Time: 7:30 am (ouch that’s early!)
Where: Cafe Carolina in Cary (off Harrison Ave.)
If you can’t make it to this meeting, we WILL be having a social media club event in January, which will be a Podcasting discussion led by Kipp Bodnar. Should be a great discussion.
Why I’m Voting for Ed in 08…
December 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment
I’ve officially decided that I’m voting for Ed in 2008. And yes, I admit that this decision is primarily on the premises of the campaign’s marketing and social media efforts. But let me explain….
So with this being said, I encourage you to check it out and see a great example of a campaign that merged social media marketing tactics with traditional marketing tactics. And if you visit the site my teacher friend advises you to order a kit - if nothing else for the “sturdy and reliable” box.
A Little Ignite Milestone
December 12, 2007 | 4 Comments
When you do social media marketing, and when you’re building a social media agency using the tools that you preach about, you spend an awful lot of time checking the analytics, looking at the growth in subscribers, checking inbound links to you, etc. We regularly shout these things around the office at one another.
For a while, we’ve been watching our Technorati authority numbers to see how many people are linking to us and how we rank against other blogs. Today we broke into the top 100,000 blogs in the world when our authority hit 72.
Now, being ranked 99,658th in something is usually not much of a milestone, but we were just realizing that when there are over 112,800,000 blogs being tracked by Technorati, that means that the Ignite Social Media blog ranks ahead of 99.91% of all the blogs in the world.
I guess that’s something to be proud of, particularly for a site that went live only 5 months ago.
It also makes me want to bow down to higher ranked sites that link to us like TopRankBlog (authority 3,195. Lee, are you KIDDING me? You’re the man.), WebProNews (582), PRSquared (396), and many more. While we’re proud of the start we’ve got here, we learn a LOT from you guys (and the whole social media marketing community) every day. We recognize that there’s a long way to go for this little company.
So thanks for reading, thanks for honoring us with your links. The social media marketing community is such a great, open group of people sharing. We all have lots of work left to do as we re-invent corporate communications with these tools! Onward.
(P.S. If you’re wondering, Engadget is currently the blog with the highest authority–with 31,314 inbound links–because it’s a great source for tech info.)