BuckeyeLine

E-mail Marketing Best Practices

Marketing via e-mail is an effective way of communicating what your business has to offer, but how do you know if you’re putting your best effort forward when utilizing this strategy? Following are several best practices to keep in mind when using e-mail marketing.

1. “From” Line: The “From” line is most likely the first thing your recipient sees in your communications effort, Brand it! Not only is this a great branding opportunity, but also the place where you identify your company or organization. E-mails from unknown people and/or company departments likely end up in the deleted items folder.

2. Subject Line: This information is likely the only other information to appear in the inbox and the key to getting your e-mail read. Assuming you made it past the “From” line filter, the subject line will get fewer than a second’s worth of attention, so make it count. The subject line is key to getting your e-mail opened and having your recipient actually read it. 

3. When to Send: The best days for open rates seem to be the middle of the week (Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays), however, you should always test your e-mails. Last-minute specials for a weekend getaway may prove to sell better if sent on a Thursday or Friday.

4. Providing a “Forward to a Friend” Link: Your subscribers have indicated an interest in what you have to offer. It’s likely they have friends who also may be interested. Providing a FTAF link is a good way to build your subscriber list, but it also offers more. Using this option from your e-mail service provider allows you to see who is forwarding, how often and the resulting actions. If you’re sending HTML formatted e-mail, it also will render better than just forwarding from the e-mail client.

5. Request an add to Safe Senders’ List: Want to make sure your recipients receive your e-mail? Ask them to “white list” your address. A simple way to do this is to include a message, such as the following, to your e-mail: “To ensure you receive your e-mail from (your company name) add (your e-mail address) to your list of trusted senders.” This simple, yet effective, practice is a great way to improve your e-mail deliverability.

Best Practices: How to Analyze Brand Exposure in Social Media, ragan.com

Analyzing your brand exposure in social media can be complicated. Blogs, Twitter and forums are just a few of the seemingly endless places online where a brand can be measured. Which ones matter? Which can be pushed off to the side? The key to success is to determine what you need to measure. You can't measure everything, so you've got to pick the best metrics (user comments, page views, etc.) for your goals. It can be a lot of work to decide which metrics to gather, but once you do, collecting the data becomes the easy part. Below are four steps and a few tips that will simplify the process and help you focus on what matters most:

List your goals. Make a list of general and specific goals that you have for your company or department. Start with general goals and work your way to specific ones. Try to be as precise as possible; it will be easier to pick metrics for more specific goals. For instance:
• Gain more exposure
• Get more Web site engagement
• Understand your consumer better

List your media and choose which to measure. Make a list of all the possible media (blogs, podcasts, forums, etc.) that could mention your attraction, destination, event, etc. It helps to make as big and wide a list as possible because it forces you to think of possibilities you might otherwise have overlooked. Search all the media on your list for mentions. Do this manually by going to YouTube, Google Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and others and using their advanced search page. To save time, you can do brand/name searches on sites such as www.socialmention.com, which will search your name in almost every media type. The risk is that sometimes these sites don't have accurate search functions, causing them to miss mentions that you might only find by doing manual searches through the sites themselves.

Now that you have a list of media and mentions, you can decide where to invest your measurement resources. In general, you want to measure the media with the most mentions. So, if you only have one YouTube video mentioning your brand in the past two years, you can safely decide not to track YouTube.

List metrics and choose the ones that best measure your goals. Once you've decided which media to track, make a list of the metrics for each medium. Cross-reference that list against your list of goals and decide the right metrics to use to measure each of them. The key to tracking your brand is aligning your goals with your metrics and making sure that what you are tracking is measurable.

Record results. Start tracking your metrics. Make sure that you are recording the results weekly or monthly. Put them into simple Excel charts that are easy to understand and report. Once you start making a few charts over a number of weeks or months, then you can start picking out trends and reporting on why things are the way they are. Don't be intimidated by the thought of all this work. Once the primary setup is finished, maintaining the research is easier. Being able to show with confidence how your brand is perceived makes the task of analyzing your brand’s social media exposure worth the trouble.

Tech Corner: Turning Social Media into a Business

So far, social media has been a big success with businesses around the world. No matter the industry or the target audience, business owners are seeing the value of developing an online presence and cultivating “relationships” with the countless number of potential visitors rattling around cyberspace. Two companies you should be aware of are working hard to turn those virtual “fans” into paying customers who show up at the cash register.

Foursquare (http://www.foursquare.com) defines itself as “50 percent friend-finder, 30 percent social cityguide, 20 percent nightlife game.” Basically, it’s a social networking site with a downloadable application for iPhones and Android phones and is accessible via a mobile Web site. Once registered, users can “check-in” at local businesses to earn points. The GPS-enabled system lets them alert friends to their whereabouts, share tips on things to see and do in the area, etc.

Probably of most interest to business owners is Foursquare’s ability to alert its iPhone and mobile app users of nearby special offers. Because Foursquare is able to provide details on how many times a customer has been to a venue, how often and so on, businesses can work with Foursquare to set up specials rewarding those loyal customers.

The biggest drawback to Foursquare currently is location. The only Ohio cities included are Cleveland and Columbus, but they insist they are working hard and growing quickly. Check out http://www.foursquare.com/businesses for more details on their business opportunities, and keep an eye out for them in your area.

Another company with a similar offering is Gowalla (http://gowalla.com). This “location-aware” social network also includes apps for the iPhone and Android and a mobile Web site. The major difference between the two is that Gowalla is completely GPS-based, meaning that it “works” anywhere your GPS-enabled phone works. The downside is that Gowalla doesn’t yet offer any sort of “specials” program like that offered by Foursquare.

Gowalla is really more about encouraging the user to get out and see/do/experience things than about collecting points. While users do earn “stamps” for visiting certain locations, for now the reward is just the thrill of having been there, which isn’t such a bad thing.

In our research, the experts seem to agree that one of the two applications will likely be the next evolution of social media for businesses. Both pose some exciting potential for getting folks off the computer and into your establishment. We suggest you familiarize yourself with these applications and begin thinking of ways you might be able to capitalize on this emerging technology.

Best Practices: Online First Stop for Thrifty Travelers

Traveling close to home continues to be a strong trend as most U.S. Internet users opt not to travel for the holidays this year. While 52 percent told About.com that, like in 2008, they would not travel this holiday season, another 24 percent said they were even less likely to travel this year than last.

The biggest theme for those trips still on for 2009 was spending less money and researching online more—two factors that are probably connected, because respondents thought Web research was the single-best way to save on travel.

Money-saving attitudes, unsurprisingly, have an effect on what kinds of ads are most likely to reach consumers. Asked which online travel advertisements they were most interested in, large majorities of respondents wanted coupons on big-ticket travel items, such as airfare and hotels.

Package deals and discounts on activities and food appealed to nearly one-half of respondents.

In September 2009, PhoCusWright and Compete reported that traffic and conversion was up year over year in most travel categories. Though travelers are spending less, they are neither giving up their right to travel nor ignoring Web sites that offer them the value they want. If you want to reach this growing number of thrifty consumers, it’s imperative you advertise your deals on your Web site and social media pages.

To see this article on emarketer.com, click here.

Tech Corner: Check out ShareThis

Have you made the leap to embrace social media? You’re out there listening for mention on Twitter, checking your Facebook fan page, Digging yourself and promoting your destination on Trip Advisor. Now, a Cincinnati company can make the next step in your social media adventure a real cinch. 

ShareThis.com has created the easiest way possible for those who visit your site to “share” what they have discovered with their own social networks. By placing a small, free snippet of java script code on your site, you'll give visitors the ability to easily and freely add the link to your Web site on all the popular social networks. For more information on Sharethis.com, check out the feature article on HiVelocityMedia.com.

Best Practices: When Social Media Content Runs Dry, from Ragan.com

Ever felt a “need” to be active on Twitter? Do you feel guilty for not publishing to your blog for a few days? Sometimes there can almost be a compulsion to keep feeding your social media accounts. Go away for a week, and you’re likely to see your blog readership reduced. Stop tweeting and watch the online discussion around your brand drop.

So, if you’re the “voice” of a business or tourism destination, how do you deal with that time when you just don’t have any content to post? Below are several suggestions on what you can do when your content well appears dry.

Reassess. Take advantage of the extra time you have right now to take a cold, hard look at what you’re doing online. Is it working? How do you know? Take a look at the kind of content you’re posting. Is one kind working better than another? Is one medium reaching more of your audience than another? Could you experiment with something new? Perhaps there’s a potential source of content that you haven’t yet tapped.

Listen. Social media doesn’t have to be all about broadcasting your content, and quite frankly, it shouldn’t. While you’re in this lull, consider placing additional focus on listening. What are people saying about you? Are they discussing your product or company? Are they complaining? Complimenting you? Inquiring? Who is saying these things?

Ask. When was the last time you asked the people who care about your company what they want from you? You may be making assumptions. Remember – building strong relationships with customers (and not just in an online forum) means making it about them, not just you. Ask for input, and you will receive it.

Experiment. One of the great aspects to social media and online communication in general is that you can experiment at little cost. Maybe it’s a new promotion, a new contest or a new feature on one of your social networking properties. That means you can test out ideas, stick with what works and discard what doesn’t. Instead of searching for that big idea to kick-start things, consider trying out a whole bunch of small ideas to see what works.

Plan. Do you have a content plan? How are you using each of the channels on which you have a presence? If you don’t have a plan for them, consider creating one now.

Mine. Just because you work in communications, marketing or any other function doesn’t mean you can’t look elsewhere for help. Whether you’re communicating online or off, you probably have a wealth of resources right under your nose. Ask around within your organization. Some of your biggest resources may be sitting there just waiting for you to find them.

Wait. You want to be heard. You want to build your community to get results. Remember though that people may not want to hear you as much as you want to be heard. Although results are absolutely critical, spamming people when you have nothing to say won’t help you to get those results.

Best Practices: Crisis Management Planning

With media reports on the worldwide concern of the H1N1 virus becoming more and more prevalent, being prepared to tackle such an issue with a crisis management plan is more important than ever before. As local economies, businesses and attractions depend on tourism, having a crisis management plan in place will help you and your company prepare to tackle internal and external issues and communications.

The Division is currently developing a crisis management plan in preparation for the H1N1 virus or any similar issue. Upon completion, we will share this plan with Ohio’s Tourism Industry on the Division’s Industry Web site. Until then, preparation is key to tackling any problem head-on, and we encourage you to take a look at your crisis management plan and make necessary updates. If you don’t have a crisis management plan, below are several suggestions from the Public Relations Society of America on how to appropriately manage crisis situations:

Connect and coordinate with others. Get to know your counterparts at area hospitals, local government offices, public health departments, police, fire departments and the media. Create a list of e-mail addresses and phone numbers—during a crisis is not the time to start trying to build relationships.

Act quickly. The media reports information as it is released, and if it needs to be corrected or updated, they do it at a later time. You must quickly operate at “Twitter speed,” manage the information flow and ensure accuracy. The CDC, FEMA and local agencies are effectively using Twitter to provide updates.

Communicate constantly. You need to be ready to use both traditional and social channels to reach employees and the public. News releases are no longer the most effective means of communication during a crisis; audiences expect frequent Twitter-length updates. It is vital to keep your Web site current and functioning because when other communications technology fails, the Web is the most accessible.

Monitor news and information. Given how quickly rumors and misinformation spread with traditional and social media, continuous monitoring is essential. Early on during the H1N1 outbreak, people stopped eating pork because they thought eating “swine” might spread the virus. You need to be seen as a credible source of information.

Be prepared to manage interactivity. In today’s environment, audiences expect answers to questions, and they expect them quickly. Make these answers public to avoid having to respond to the same question multiple times. Use your Web site as the primary organizational response mechanism. This approach can help reduce the strain on communications staffs in times of crises.

Communicate clearly and openly. Transparency and honesty are the best methods, even if the news is grim. Telling people what you do and do not know is reassuring. Use existing expert sources, such as the CDC or Ohio Department of Health, which provide links and content that you can customize for specific audiences.

Provide and maintain perspective. You need to strike a balance between unwarranted panic and a lack of concern. It is in your best interest, your organization’s best interest and the best interest of the public to provide perspective.

Support your team. In times of crisis, communicators are on the front lines. Make sure that you’ve trained your team and given them skills that they need to cope with stress.

It’s necessary to reiterate the importance of being prepared, not panicked. With a crisis management plan on hand, you can more effectively communicate with your staff and the public during a crisis and become a trustworthy source of information on what to do.

Tech Corner: Writing For the Web

Staring at a blinking cursor and trying to come up with the perfect online description for your attraction or event can be difficult. Rest assured, writing for the Web is a challenge faced by the best of writers. This new medium requires a whole new skill.

Hundreds of studies all share some common results that can help you in writing any copy intended for use online, including your DiscoverOhio.com description. We’ll share some of those with you here.

Identify your audience. Most importantly, know who is reading your information online – in your case, travelers. Make certain your topic is relevant. While you have a product to sell, is this the right market?

Clearly identify your topic. Your attraction/event name should state exactly what your listing is so prospective visitors can decide whether to continue reading. There are dozens of 4th of July and Christmas celebrations throughout Ohio. Just naming your event “Christmas Parade” or “Fireworks Display” doesn’t work. Be specific.

Keep it brief. One thing every study agrees on – Web users are looking for information, and they want it fast. While 100 words may not sound like a lot, when a Web user encounters a large block of text it signals, “This requires effort.” More times than not, the users skip the text and move on, looking for something more manageable.

If you find yourself pushing that 100-word limit, break your description up into manageable bits of information. Never have a paragraph more than 5 lines long. Use the “Listing Preview” function in your “Manage Listings” to see how much space your description takes up.

Always check spelling and grammar. It’s important to present yourself as a professional. You’re asking prospective visitors to spend their hard-earned money at your place of business. If your description includes misspelled words, no spaces between words, all capital letters, etc., they most likely are going to close your listing and keep looking for something better.

Be straight-forward. Don’t try to dazzle readers with flowery words and phrases or information they don’t need. While you do want to “sell” readers on visiting your attraction or attending your event, don’t waste their time with information they don’t need.

Don’t repeat yourself; Don’t repeat yourself. Remember, information such as hours and contact information are already provided elsewhere on your submission form, so don’t beat the reader over the head by repeating it in your description.

Link for more information. You can include links to your Web site from your listing, however, it’s extremely important that the link be relevant to what the user is reading. If visitors are reading a description of a fall festival, don’t label a link “Additional Information” and send them to your local CVB home page. You may end up with an unhappy prospective customer who doesn’t trust you.

For more information how to best manage your DiscoverOhio.com/BUCKEYE Database listing, contact Roger Barker (Roger.Barker@development.ohio.gov or (614) 466-5158) or Eric Herzog (Eric.Herzog@develoopment.ohio.gov or (614) 466-0338). For more information, check out http://www.macloo.com/webwriting/index.htm.

Best Practices: When, Why to be Antisocial on Social Media: Ragan.com

Everyone wants you to be social. If you're a marketer, you have heard about a million times in recent weeks, months and years about the power and necessity of social media. Get a blog, get on Twitter, create a fan page, etc. Every piece of advice seems to point toward being more social, open and transparent.

Engaging with social media is important for the tourism industry, though the way you do it can and should vary depending on your business and goals. Marketers want to avoid the landmines—the situations or instances in social media that may be likely to blow up in their faces. Those are often the situations where being antisocial is the best strategy.

Here are a few situations on how to be antisocial online and help your brand succeed at the same time:

Never allow YouTube comments. Allowing people to comment on your YouTube videos without moderating can be a big mistake because the vast majority of YouTube comments lack substance, include uninformed or somehow offensive remarks and offer little context or real discussion. If you want to foster dialogue on your videos, create a video blog and embed the video into the blog, then allow people to comment on the video in the blog. This will generally result in higher-quality comments.

Don’t friend/follow everyone. As a brand, the temptation is to friend and follow everyone who contacts you or requests to be your friend. Resist that temptation, and make it the job of someone on your team to actively monitor these requests and approve them based on criteria that you set. These criteria can range from lax to more specific to your area of concentration. The effort will pay off, though, when it comes to using a particular social network as a marketing platform and tool for collaboration, because you will be talking only to people who really matter.

Moderate your profiles actively. What is written online is not written in stone, and as a brand you have the right to set the ground rules for your own profiles and sites online. What this requires is clearly posting your policy about what is not okay for people to post and share in your environments. This doesn't mean you should delete anything negative or critical, but off-topic or offensive comments or posts can and should be moderated. When people post incorrect or flawed information, you have a right and obligation to correct them (but allow their comment to be posted if it meets your criteria).

Separate private content. There are legitimate reasons why you might want to share brand content among a small subset of users or internal users online. Just because content is online doesn't mean that everything needs to be open and public. If you feel you have a legitimate reason for sharing password-protected private content, you should do so. If it is extremely sensitive, make sure you take the right steps to protect it and prevent it from getting into the wrong hands.

Promote yourself and your brand. Part of the benefit of using social media is that it allows you an authentic place to share branded offers or promote your products and services. Unfortunately, some brands are advised that just because they are on social media they should never consider using it for marketing reasons. If you are using social media in an authentic and not overly promotional way on a daily basis, you can earn the right to share marketing information at various points and not lose your audience. The real trick is to strike the right balance.

Best Practices: Four Social Media Tips for Newbies, from Ragan.com

Just like the progression of the Internet caused many industries to re-think their marketing and business strategies, social media outlets are forcing businesses to re-tool the way they get their message out. One of the benefits of using social media outlets like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter is that these sites offer free services and reach millions of people. Though they are—if utilized  properly—time consuming, they are the new wave of business marketing. Check out these pointers on how to be in the know if you’re just getting your feet wet in the ocean of social media.

Have a social media policy. Develop rules of engagement for clients and communicators who represent your brand. These are no longer the days of the Internet Wild West; Twitter and Facebook use is necessary. Doing so will give your fellow communicators a framework for developing the type of online persona that consumers can recognize.

Measure. Our role as communicators is to gauge the sentiments about the brands we represent and improve perceptions. Opening a forum for consumers to complain can be scary, but it can also become a way to improve (and more importantly, measure) public sentiment of your brands. Through engaging with customers, influencers and media, the brand is able to build relationships and measure improvement.

Rethink what you already know. Consumers are changing their behaviors — accessing more information online before making purchases, reading online versions of their daily papers and looking for the best deal possible. Social media has become a powerful tool to get in front of these consumers and provide them with direct communication and updates.

Have a strategy. Don’t confuse social media tools with strategy. Twitter, Facebook, online video and MySpace are not strategies. Rather, they are tools and tactics. A strategy with goals and metrics is the best way to ensure a brand’s integration into the social media world and to track success.

Tech Corner: Make Your Database Listing a Winner

Your free DiscoverOhio.com/BUCKEYE Database listing is a very important part of your marketing strategy. The information you provide appears on www.DiscoverOhio.com and is available for inclusion in our printed travel publications, the Ohio Travel Planner and the Ohio Calendar of Events. The information will be seen by hundreds of thousands of people. With your listing playing such as important role in your marketing efforts, it’s extremely important to make sure the listing is the absolute best it can be. Following are some tips to help you achieve that goal.

Know Your Audience. First and foremost, keep in mind that visitors to DiscoverOhio.com and readers of our publications are travelers. They may not be familiar with your area, so you want to be sure your description reflects that. Consider using phrases such as “When making your travel plans…” or “When visiting the [your city] area, be sure to stop by…”

Interesting, but Brief. Web visitor studies show that users tend to skip over large blocks of text. So, even though you can include up to 2,000 characters in your description, that doesn’t mean you should. Let visitors know what your destination has to offer, but keep in mind that your listing includes a link to your own website for more information. Also, information such as hours of operation and admission cost appears elsewhere on the submission form and shouldn’t appear in your description.

Include a Photo. We’ve all heard the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words.” That is especially true with tourism marketing websites. While your description may paint a wonderful picture of what your destination offers, a photo can often help seal the deal. And while traditional print ads charge for including photos, including them in your DiscoverOhio.com/BUCKEYE Database listing is FREE!

Hours of Operation. Remember that visitors are looking for things to do while on a trip. They probably are looking at/considering several different options. Be helpful and make sure you clearly list your hours of operations so they can make sure a stop at your place of business fits in their plans. We’ve included a simple drop-down feature for each day of the week for entering your hours that makes it very simple for users to find the information.

Pricing. Many travelers are looking for ways to travel on a tighter budget. With that in mind, cost is a big issue in all travel plans. Letting visitors know how much it costs to visit your destination or take advantage of your services is really important. Note that on your submission form you can add as many different Pricing Categories as you’d like. This means you can include a separate category for adults, one for children, one for seniors and so on, rather than listing them all in one category. You can also use the categories for things such as “All Day Fishing Charter” or “Hot Air Balloon Rides”.

If you have any questions about how to make your DiscoverOhio.com/BUCKEYE Database listing the best it can be, or recommendations on how to make listings better, please contact Roger Barker at Roger.Barker@development.ohio.gov or (614) 466-5158 or Eric Herzog at Eric.Herzog@development.ohio.gov or (614) 466-0338.

Best Practices: Boomer Marketing—from American City Business Journals

Did you know that every 8.5 seconds, a baby boomer turns 50 years old? With 78 million members strong, the boomer market represents nearly a third of all adults in the county and is a market that cannot be missed.

Studies show the boomer market controls half of the nation’s wealth and spends nearly $2 trillion on consumer products and services every year. According to a McKinsey Quarterly report in 2007, boomers will account for about 40 percent of all spending by 2015.

The age group — 44 to 63 — is quite diverse and ranges from the affluent to the financially disadvantaged, but what they look for in products and services is very similar. Make sure you’re adhering to the following guidelines when getting your message out to this group:
• Calling this generation “seniors” can be construed as an insult.
• Boomers refuse to grow up. According to The Boomer Project, a marketing research and consulting firm in Virginia, boomers think old age starts between 75 and 80.
• Boomers see themselves as vibrant and active. They like trying new services and products (this counters the myth that they’re brand-loyal).
• This generation is very curious and like print advertising because they want a wealth of information; however, they also pay attention to new media (like social media) and will click on eye-catching Internet ads.
• Many boomers respond extremely well to experiential. They are attracted to products, services and experiences that make them feel special and pampered. This is especially so because many of them are likely to work an extra three to five years due to their hard-hit investments and pensions.

As a tourism entity, it’s important to keep up with this ever-growing generation. Boomers are redefining age and expectations in the travel industry, and it’s up to us to listen to them.

Tech Corner: Twitter’s Hashtag Marketing

The hashtag #ohiotravel can be a valuable tool in marketing your destination on Twitter.

If you are a regular Twitter user, you may already be familiar with hashtags. If you are new to Twitter, you’ve probably seen them but may have no idea what they are. Put simply, a hashtag is a word preceded by “#” used in your Tweets as a means of categorizing your messages.

The marketing aspect comes into play in that Twitter users can, and often do, search Tweets by commonly used hashtags. A user may search for #travel when looking for information on great travel deals – sometimes exclusively for Twitter users – or interesting destinations. Think of it sort of like search engine marketing, but with a twist.

As a community working together to promote a cause or event, such as Ohio tourism, common hashtags can be used very effectively. By including the tag in all relevant Tweets, you increase exposure to a wider audience for all participants. By everyone including #ohiotravel in their Tweets, we are able to create a common hashtag. Together, we harness the collective power of our industry to promote Ohio as a travel destination.

And finally, a word of caution: As always with social media, be careful not to become more of a blatant marketer than a participant. Including a few useful hashtags will get you noticed; making every word in your message a hashtag will get you labeled a spammer. Nobody likes a spammer, and the reputation can spread like wildfire.

For more information on hashtags, check out the Web 2.0 blog here.

Best Practices: Does your Web site Pass the Skim Test?

Online, readers don’t read; they scan. In fact, in one study, Jakob Nielsen (named the “guru of Web page usability” by the New York Times) found that the scannable version of a Web page was 47 percent more usable than an unscannable version. That’s a pretty huge ROI for some bullets and subheads.

To ensure you’re passing the skim test, follow these pointers:

• Understand and implement microcontent. The key to scannability is to make sure your Web visitors can understand the gist of the page by reading nothing but the microcontent. Microcontent is all those short bits of text that guide the user and provide an at-a-glance overview of what the page is about and includes headlines, decks, subheads, links, lists, bold-faced lead-ins and highlighted key words. To make sure your page is scannable, run the skim test on your copy. That is, make sure your Web visitors can get the gist of your page — without reading the paragraphs.

• Embed Your Messages in Microcontent. To pass the skim test, make sure your main points come through in your microcontent. Place your main idea in the headline and deck, or one-sentence summary under the headline. Major points should be placed in the subheads. Place any minor points in the links, bold-faced lead-ins and highlighted keywords.

• Test Your Copy. Now, have a colleague read just the microcontent: the headline, deck, subheads, links, lists, bold-faced lead-ins and highlighted keys words. Your co-worker should be able to understand your key points — without reading the paragraphs. If he/she does, your page is ready to post; if not, keep working to craft microcontent that lifts your key points off the screen.

Tech Corner: Utilizing Flickr

You've heard the old saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words," many times. That phrase is especially true in tourism marketing. While we can tell people about the great places to visit in Ohio, showing them what you have to offer makes all the difference.

Flickr is a free photo and video sharing Web site that has great social media marketing potential. After setting up a free Flickr account at www.flickr.com, you're able to upload photos and video clips of your destination to share with visitors literally around the world.

Even more importantly, you can use your social media marketing skills to connect with other Flickr members. Remember, the key to social media—whether it be on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter or any other channel—is to be a part of the conversation. Setting up an account and posting your photos and videos is just the start. Following are a few tips for using your Flickr account:

• Consider using your organization name as your username for your account.

• Be sure your profile page is complete and includes links to all your Web sites.

• Optimize your photos/videos with titles, tags, geotags (mapping info) and, when appropriate, a description.

• Upload quality photos (and videos) on a regular basis. Don't just upload photos when you first create your account and forget about it. Like all social media channels, you have to stay involved.

• Organize your content into sets. Visitors will appreciate being able to easily locate new photos and videos they’re interested in.

• Begin building your Flickr contacts by inviting your co-workers, friends, etc. to join you on Flickr. Comment on others' photos/videos to build relationships on Flickr.

• Include a link to your Flickr account on all your other Web sites.

• Join a Flickr group, or a few. Remember, don't just add photos—become a part of the conversation. Just use the "Search" box to find groups you want to be a part of (by the way, if you haven't joined our Discover Ohio Travel group yet, be sure to do so).

• Start your own group. If there's an area in which you're an expert, and there's not already a group, here's your chance. But be aware of the time and responsibility involved in administering a group.

• Last but not least, do not try to sell products or services using Flickr. Your account will be deleted!

If you have any questions or comments, contact Roger Barker at Roger.Barker@development.ohio.gov or (614) 466-5158.

Best Practices: How to Land on the First Page of a Google Search (From Ragan.com)

An expert on search engine optimization details how you can boost your site’s prominence to have your company appear on the first page of a Google search.

“If so, you’ll get a majority of the traffic,” President of the New Media Institute John Spagnuolo said. “If you appear in the second page or third page, good luck—only the people with patience will get to you.”

The interplay between two factors—content and credibility—is both simple and complex. It helps determine where your Web site lands on a Google search. Content is fairly easy to understand; it’s what’s on your Web site. Credibility is the labyrinth of other sites linking to yours—and the credibility of the sites linking, in turn, to those sites. Part of what induces other sites to link to yours is, of course, the quality of your content.

How do you determine your site’s credibility? Type “link:yourdomain.com” into Google. For instance, to check the links to the Ohio Tourism Division, type “link:discoverohio.com” into a Google search engine. This search reveals the sites linking to the Division. Yahoo offers a similar search. Spagnuolo suggests downloading the Google tool bar. The Google page rank of each site you visit is on the tool bar. The higher the page rank, the greater a site’s credibility. Remember, the credibility of sites linking to you also matters to search engines. One link from The New York Times Web site, which has countless sites linking to it, is more valuable than 100 links from different MySpace pages.

Content is king. So your page rank is high, but your site still appears low on search engines. What’s the deal? Something is amiss with your content. Search engines send Web robots, called bots, to crawl over sites and catalogue key words. When someone plugs a word into a search engine, the Web sites that appear contain the words the bots found and catalogued. If the bot can’t recognize a site’s text, then it can’t collect keywords from it and the site’s search-engine position suffers. Here’s what you can do to attract the bots: Start by determining your keywords. What will your customers search? Find out and begin incorporating them into the text of your Web site.
 
Choose a domain name with care. Include a keyword or words in the domain name. Keep the domain name as short as possible, avoiding hyphens. Create a site map. Search engines check site maps to learn where to look for content. Make sure the site map is available from the homepage. It should be text-based and kept up to date. Learn how to add content to your site. The ability to add content to your site gives you an opportunity to make tweaks, including adding keywords.

Gauge your traffic. Visit www.google.com/analytics to sign up for Google analytics. Then track how many people visit your site and which pages they frequent most. Expand the portion of your site that receives the most traffic – it will help attract even more attention to your site.

Tech Corner: Using Social Media

Wikipedia defines social media as "information content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content."

Last month, we discussed how you can use a social media channel such as Twitter to become a part of the public conversation about things to see and do here in Ohio. We looked at how Twitter allows you to move from being an anonymous corporate entity to being a "real" individual involved in the conversation.

This month, we'd like to take this same concept and put a slightly different spin on it. While Twitter, Facebook, etc., allows us to reach out to the general public, there are times when we need to have that same easy access to a defined group of people, such as fellow members of our Industry. For that, we turn to a "social network" that offers many of the same tools, but with more control over the distribution.

In an effort to leverage the power of social media, we've created a private online network called "Ohio Travel Partners" as a place for you to share ideas and improve communications!

This Ning community is a private network, assuring that only invited members have access to the information found here; however, members can communicate directly with each other and post messages for the entire network to see, as well as share photos and videos, respond to polls and much more.

Ohio Travel Partners, in essence, is the democratization of information for our Industry, transforming you from readers into contributors. To become a part of Ohio Travel Partners, watch for an e-mail arriving in your mailbox soon and follow the instructions you'll find there. If you know of someone who doesn't receive BuckeyeLine who you think should be a part of our community, let us know.

If you have any questions, please contact Roger Barker at Roger.Barker@development.ohio.gov or (614) 466-5158, or Eric Herzog at Eric.Herzog@development.ohio.gov or (614) 466-0338. Or, look for us on Ohio Travel Partners.

Feature Article: Why Consumer Reviews Matter the Most, from MediaPost.com

According to a new study from Bazaarvoice and richrelevance, 48 percent of all online shoppers plan to spend less this year, but 61 percent of those reluctant to make certain purchases can be positively influenced by online shopping resources. The study shows that consumers are finding significant value in online content tools that connect them to the opinions and behaviors of other shoppers. These tools are particularly relevant to shoppers who are cutting back, as those affected by economic conditions seek more validation for their purchase decisions. According to the report, online shoppers will be more reluctant to make purchases in the next 12 months primarily in the automotive sector, the travel industry and consumer electronics.

Planned Spending Reductions in Next 12 Months by Online Shoppers
Consumers looking to reduce their spend are shopping around; 42 percent visited three or more sites to research their last purchase, and nearly all consumers are spending more time online prior to purchase.

Shoppers who research their purchases online look to content sources that help inspire, discover and confirm their choices, including:
• User ratings and reviews
• Recommendations based on other consumers' purchasing behaviors
• Recommendations based on others' browsing behavior
• Multiple Sources Used by Online Shoppers To Find Products

In the 2008 Retail Consumer survey, Jupiter Research found that only 33 percent of online shoppers had made up their minds about the price they were willing to pay for their purchase in advance of going online to research. Even fewer began their research having made up their minds on:
• Which item or title to choose (31 percent)
• Which brand to buy (23 percent)
• Which store they would use (16 percent)
• When to make their purchase (13 percent)

This shift in behavior provides retailers with an opportunity to engage shoppers through content that connects them to products and builds their confidence in these carefully researched purchases.

For the full version of the article above, please visit http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=102158.

Best Practices: How to Market in a Downturn, from the Harvard Business Review

In every recession, marketers and businesses alike find themselves in poorly charted waters because no two downturns are exactly the same. However, in studying the marketing successes and failures of dozens of companies as they’ve navigated recessions from the 1970s onward, patterns in consumers’ behavior and firms’ strategies that either propel or undermine performance are identified. Companies need to understand the evolving consumption patterns and fine-tune their strategies accordingly.

During recessions, consumers set stricter priorities and reduce their spending. As sales start to drop, businesses typically cut costs, reduce prices and postpone new investments. Marketing expenditures in areas from communications to research are often slashed across the board—but such indiscriminate cost cutting is a mistake.

Although it’s wise to contain costs, failing to support brands or examine core customers’ changing needs can jeopardize performance over the long term. Companies that put customer needs under the microscope, take a scalpel rather than a cleaver to the marketing budget and nimbly adjust strategies, tactics and product offerings in response to shifting demand are more likely than others to flourish both during and after a recession.

Managing Marketing Investments
During recessions, it’s more important than ever to remember that loyal customers are the primary, enduring source of cash flow and organic growth. Marketing isn’t optional—it’s a “good cost,” essential to bringing in revenues from these key customers and others.

Still, company budget cuts often affect marketing disproportionately. Marketing communication costs can be trimmed more quickly than production costs—and without letting people go. In managing their marketing expenses, however, businesses must take care to distinguish between the necessary and the wasteful.

Surgically trimming the budget is easier to do during a downturn than in prosperous times. Tough times provide an imperative to cut loose poor performers and eliminate low-yield tactics. When survival is at stake, it is easier to get company-wide buy-in for revising marketing strategies and re-allocating investments. Managers can defy old mind-sets and creatively search for superior solutions to customer needs instead of relying on the next line extension. The challenge is to make well-defended, case-by-case recommendations about where to cut spending, where to hold it steady, and even where to increase it.

Balance the communications budget
During recessions, cash-strapped marketing departments are under pressure to do more with less and demonstrate high returns on investment. Typically, the share of the advertising budget devoted to broadcast media shrinks, whereas the share that goes toward efforts with more-measurable results, such as direct marketing campaigns and online ads, grows.
 
Internet advertising in particular is targeted and relatively cheap, and its performance is easily measured. Despite a deepening recession, marketers spent 14 percent more on online ads over the first three quarters of 2008 than they did over the same time frame in the previous year. Another factor driving this growth in digital-ad spending is consumers’ migration to online social media such as MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn (see our article on Twitter below), which help people intensify networking efforts amid layoffs and a tough job market. The new-member sign-up rate at LinkedIn, a site that focuses on professional networking, has doubled in the past year.
That said, broadcast media still remain important for building mass-market consumer brands.

Check out how to manage marketing expenses for your tourism destination by reading the extended version of the article above. The complete version can be found by clicking here.

Tech Corner: Do You Twitter?

Twitter is a term popping up more and more in conversations lately. If you aren't already using it yourself, you've probably heard of others in our Industry who are doing so. We'll take a few minutes for a general overview of this rapidly growing social media tool and discuss how you can use it to market your Ohio tourism destination.

Basically, Twitter (www.twitter.com) allows you to create an account, connect with other Twitter users by "following" them, then post updates about what's going on in your life using short messages of 140 characters or less.

You may ask yourself, “How is this going to help my business?” The most important part of the answer is to remember the whole point of social media is to become a part of the conversation. Rather than just building a great Web site and expecting thousands of people to visit, you need to actively insert yourself in the areas where people are talking and make sure they're talking about you and saying the right things. This is where Twitter excels!

Following are some tips on getting started, and where to go from there.

1. Set up your Twitter account. Go to www.Twitter.com to create your account. There are a few different opinions regarding setting up a "personal" account or an "official" account for your business. This is where Twitter differs a little from other social media tools. The idea behind Twitter is to engage your followers in "personal conversations." So rather than just the name of your business, try personalizing it a bit. For example, my name on Twitter is Roger_OHTourism.

2. Create your Bio. When setting up your account, you'll be asked to add a Bio. This is a very short description of yourself that others will read to determine if they want to follow your updates. Certainly include your business, but add some other fun, interesting facts that will help people identify with you.

3. Post your first "tweet." You'll want something up here for people to read when they start following you. It can be as simple as "I'm setting up my first Twitter account" or you may want to be a little more creative than that.

4. Find people on Twitter. On your Twitter home page, you'll see a navigation bar in the top right of your screen. Click on "Find People" to get started. In the search field, you can enter a person's Twitter username, first or last name. Try it—you'll be amazed how many people out there are already Twittering!

5. Start building your network. Once you find a person you want to follow, you have two choices. You can simply click on the "Follow" icon to the right of their name and you'll automatically start receiving their updates. If you'd like more information about them first, just click on the username to see their personal page.

6. See who is talking about you. At http://search.twitter.com, you can enter the name of your business (or just about any other word/term) for a list of all "tweets" containing the term. This is a great way to join in that conversation you keep hearing about. You can reply to a recent tweet, click on a username to see if this is someone you should follow, etc.

7. Follow writers/bloggers. You'll be amazed how easy it is to follow someone, and how often they'll follow you in return. Look for members of the media who write about tourism—especially those who specialize in your niche—and follow them. It could lead to a very valuable relationship.

8. Announce specials/deals. While you don't want to use Twitter just to promote your specials—this is the equivalent of "spam" in the Twitter world—do feel free to announce great deals you're offering. Once you have a loyal following and they see you as a valuable resource, they'll often "re-tweet" your message, meaning they pass it on to others. It can truly spread like wildfire.

9. Live updates on special events/happenings. Twitter followers want to be a part of what's happening. When you are at a conference, attending a meeting or even if you've just read something really useful that you'd like to share, don't forget about your Twitter friends.

10. Link to other sites. With only 140 characters to work with, it may seem impossible to include a Web address in a tweet. Check out www.TinyURL.com. This is a tool used by many people on Twitter. Just enter any URL and the site will provide a smaller link you can use in its place.

Don't be afraid to start using Twitter. It's actually one of the simplest of the social media tools available. The most important thing to remember is to post at least a couple of messages every day, even if it's as simple as "Great day here in Ohio for winning hockey games!" With only 140 characters to work with, how hard could it be?

NOTE: Over the next few months, we'll provide information on the evolving use of social media in marketing with a special emphasis on its applicability to tourism. If you have questions or if there's a specific topic you'd like us to cover, please contact Roger Barker at roger.barker@development.ohio.gov or Eric Herzog at eric.herzog@development.ohio.gov.