JEBstream

Yes! It's about time that grammar is given its due, people.

Google Offers Selling Zagat Guides Three Months after Acquisition launch.is/blog/google-of… via @Launch

— Jason Calacanis (@Jason) December9, 2011

This is a test of the Tweet posting function in Posterous.

This infographic contains some very useful data on social web engagement including cost estimates that seem reasonable based on the assumptions made. Each case will likely differ based on already existing resources and components. What is clear, is that social media campaigns are not free if planned and prepared well and sustained over an expanded period of time, which is essential for success.

For years, it looked as though the travel agent had gone the way of the milkman. As online booking sites soared in popularity, travel agents became the butt of jokes. But the travel agent has been given a reprieve, as travelers are starting to need vacations from planning their vacations.

“Not only are customers confused and frustrated by new airline fees and events, but they are bombarded by social media,” said John Clifford, president of the luxury travel consultancy InternationalTravelManagement.com. “Everyone is trying to tell you where you should stay, where you should eat, what you should do.”

A study by Forrester Research found that the number of leisure travelers who enjoyed using the Web to plan and book their vacations dropped from 53 percent in 2007 to 47 percent in 2010. And in an American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) survey, 44 percent of agents said that they had more clients in 2010 than they’d had the previous year, with the strongest rebound in rail and hotel reservations.

Travelers “don’t have hours to spend on research to compare multiple flights, multiple cruises, multiple packages,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Forrester Research. “It’s not unlike doing your taxes. Depending on who you are, what your priorities are, there are some people who will choose to do it themselves or to use a professional.”

Get the full story at The Washington Post

This has been an ongoing theme and somewhat bogus debate now for years. The original argument that travel agents will all disappear was made in the early days of the web, mostly by people not familiar with the travel industry.

While the vast number of order takers for airline tickets have indeed gone the way of the milkman, the remaining number are the ones who actually deserve the name travel agent or counselor.

What has helped spur this return is the evolution of online travel from being almost exclusively about air bookings to more involved transactions and ultimately trip planning. Those are much more complex functions that traditional OTA have not solved particularly well.

Now, that we are in the reality of web 2.0 travel intermediaries, be they traditional travel agents using web based tools or new online entrants offering trip planning tools integrated with social media will have a role to play in the marketplace.

Will there be a wholesale return to traditional travel agents by millions of web savvy travelers, I highly doubt it. Will those who master social web tools combined with specific knowledge of destinations and products thrive, sure they will.

How to Humanize Your Company and Get People to Share Your Story

By Michael Stelzner
Published April 25, 2011

In this video I interview Rohit Bhargava, senior vice president of digital strategy and marketing at Ogilvy and the author of the book Personality Not Included.

Rohit talks about how to put personality back into your company to tell a better story about what you do, get people to believe in your company and tell everyone about it.

Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.

sme_bw2010_rohit_bhargava_v3 from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.

Personality matters because people matter. Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this video about how to humanize your company:

• What you can do get personality back
• Where to focus your attention to humanize your company
• How to identify the employees who are your “accidental spokespeople”
• How to cultivate these people to become a voice for your company
• Why Innocent Drinks has a great personality
• How to find the right backstory model for your company
• How to humanize your brand

Find out more about Ogilvy on their 360° Digital Influence blog. Connect with Rohit on his Influential Marketing blog and download a chapter of Rohit’s book at Personality Not Included.

How do you humanize your company? What tips do you have to share? Please share them in the comment section below.

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Tags: accidental spokesperson, company story, humanize, michael stelzner, ogilvy, personality, personality not included, rohit bhargava, save the cat, social media strategy

This ties in very well with my earlier post today about storytelling. Excellent comments about the issue of talking in an authentic voice and not bland marketing speak.

In the context of destination marketing, I suggest to widen the definition of the internal audience to include local travel services suppliers with a passion about the destination as well as local residents who often are in a position to tell a convincing story about the place they live very effectively if only they are invited to do so.

Especially for destinations the use of storytelling is a convincing way to communicate with your audience about your brand. The more compelling the story, the higher the chance of it going viral through active sharing. This infographic is an excellent primer on the topic.

Great infographic. Hat tip to Travel 2.0

Informative visual presentation of the many internal and external benefits social web awareness brings to organizations. This transformation will ultimately result in an overall improved performance as well as ROI.