Maintaining Your Reputation Online Jim Brody June 23, 2010

2 Destination Marketing is Complicated 1.“Sense of Place” 2.Political pressures 3.Stakeholder pressures 4.Unaided brand awareness 5.Crisis curveball

3 The Big Marketing Idea Is Everything Your message defines your brand.

4 One Word: Think How do you define your brand?

5 Online Brand Messaging 1.Your controlled brand message 2.People talking about you 3.When something goes wrong 4.People talking about you when something goes wrong

6 Don’t Panic It’s just another marketing tool! KNOW YOUR ENVIRONMENT

7 Profoundly Altered Marketing Landscape The largest audience in history!

8 Fully Active Medium Focused On a mission

9 The Online User Experience is Self- Customized Over 1,000 decisions in an average online session

Way Communications Tool Instant and unlimited feedback What to you really want visitors to your website to do?

11 No Backlash In anonymous environment there is both comfort and safety.

12 Equal-Opportunity Communication No distance No time Level playing field

13 Super Technology Everything can be analyzed Easily updated Crashes/downtime rare

14 Media Play-Dough Unlimited creative potential Follows a moving target Messaging can be successfully complex

15 The Mind of the User is All Important What people are thinking is just as important as where they are sitting while they are doing it.

16 Useful Stuff 12 Tips on Handling MarCom in the Web 2.0 Environment

17 Tip #1: Marketing Trumps Technology Don’t get sucked into the vortex of technology hell!

18 Tip #2: Pay Attention to the Little Things What is this product or service for? Who is using it? Why are they there? How can it help me?

19 Tip #3: Online is a Broad Application Advertising PR Direct Response

20 Tip #4: Remember the Big Idea Make your online plans fit your marketing plan, not the other way around.

21 Tip #5: Good PR is EVERYWHERE Contribute, edit and upload your text, links, photos and videos wherever possible.

22 Tip #6: Don’t Be Anti Social Try the social networking stuff

23 Tip #7: Stay In the Loop Monitor the Internet to see whose talking about you

24 Tip #8: Win Friends Offline Who Will Influence Online Ask visitors to your business or destination to post their thoughts and reviews on their favorite travel site.

25 Tip #9: Shout Back One bad blog or posting can move mountains. If you see something you don’t like online, respond.

26 Tip #10: Blog This! 1.Find the bloggers 2.Add them to the your press list 3.Invite them to events 4.Stay in touch with them

27 Tip #11: Go Mobile Don’t just create a mobile-friendly webpage, create a mobile marketing strategy.

28 Tip #12: The Truth Will Set You Free Be authentic and you’ll get more from the Internet than you ever dreamed of getting.

29 Our Mission To Help Travelers Around the World Plan and Have the Perfect Trip

30 Lame Corporate Slide The world’s largest travel community and comprehensive travel guide Over 34 million unique monthly visitors worldwide Over 15 million members Visitors from over 100 countries 30 million + unbiased reviews, opinions, photos, videos, and recommendations from real travelers 13 postings are submitted every minute of every day There are TripAdvisor websites in English (including special ones for the Canada, Australia, UK and India), Spanish (one for Spain and one for Mexico), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Turkish, Danish, Polish and Norwegian.

31 OK, maybe not so lame but how did we get this big? User Generated content/Web 2.0 Social networking Travelers contribute content on: Every destination in the world Almost every hotel Basically every attraction Practically every restaurant They can tell you and show you

32 The slide that puts things into categories User Generated Content Categories or… Everything before the booking: Destination content Hotel, Attraction and Restaurant Reviews Hotel, Attraction and Restaurant Rankings Forums Traveler Network

33 First Question: Where am I Going? TA Destination content: User videos User photos “Wiki-style” traveler information Traveler Go Lists Forums Broader and less opinionated than reviews, loaded with experiences and suggestions

34 DMO-A-Go-Go It’s free for DMO’s to participate Register like any user Identify your organization with your user name Participate in your own destination area only Be informative

35 What to do about this: “Even the cockroaches ringing my bathroom sink seemed disgusted by the state of the room and the general lack of service…”

36 I’d See it Again and Again… Reviews are nothing new Online is the realm of authenticity Mostly positive Available for your website Removal requires a really strong reason We have ways to find and deal with fraud

Tips to Deal with Bad Reviews 1.Trust the collective wisdom of the audience. 2.Register to use the owners’ center. 3.If you think it’s fraud, say something. 4.Respond, respond, respond! 5.Learn from it and instruct your staff. 6.Fix the problem.

38 Travel Business Owners’ Center Your own place on TripAdvisor Easy to get to from your own content Registration is free Get notified of new reviews Track your ranking and performance Respond to reviews Review request cards Download content and links for your website

39 Like a lemonade stand at a funeral… Tips on spotting a fraudulent review Over-the-top language 100% went wrong 100% of the time Knows too much Supports a competing establishment

40 Name, rank and no serial number All lodgings, attractions and restaurants are ranked Overall & by category 100% based on user generated content Point of impact: Tell people to review you

41 And as the sun sets slowly in the west… Marketing trumps technology Don’t fear a role in the conversation Experiment with TripAdvisor. Use the website. Put up content. Register. Embrace the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Talk to other people in your business about it and find out how they use it Ask questions… Starting right now!

42 Contact Information Jim Brody International Sales Manager, Destination Marketing Direct Line: Cell Phone: