Are you using the power of Twitter?

This week’s focus is on Twitter. Twitter is a pretty compelling way to deliver travel offers or cruise news stories. But the way to really get the word and grow your business via Twitter  is to get the word out beyond those who are already follow your posts by adding tags containing hash marked keywords. Using the hash mark symbol (called ad pound symbol by some), you can add tags to your post to have it found by others searching that keyword. There’s some real power in adding keywords – as an example I recently posted a news story to our CruiseOne corporate twitter account leading people to a news story on our CruiseOne corporate website – and just 1 minute following the post, I had 20 people visit the news article from my twitter post. So if you haven’t tried tweeting using #cruise or #travel, you haven’t really experienced the full power of Twitter.
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Great article on ways to increase your Facebook Fanbase

This is a must read for anyone who's looking to build the number of people who are fans of their Fan Page.   Although Facebook has now changed the "Become A Fan" button to the "Like" button, I think the same strategy applies.  Check out this article :

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/21-creative-ways-to-increase-your-facebook-fanbase/
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Social Media users are the perfect target for cruise sellers

A Search Engine Watch article talks about some current social media research:
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/100303-014140

The article states that a recent study by Neilson shows that the biggest users of social media on the go are Women age 35-54. Coincidentally this is the same age group that is the primary demographic target of those selling to first time cruisers. This means that social media is a great way to engage with cruise prospects and to keep in touch with them over time.

Are you marketing via social media? If not you should strongly consider it. Start by creating a Facebook Fan Page, and a Linked In profile and start searching for current clients to add as either Connections or Friends.

Keep in mind that soft sell works in social media, share news items and link to your site, share ship photos and link to your site, and occasionally share links to sale pages. Keeping the proper balance between entertaining content, informative content and sales content is the key to not being ignored in social media. Watch this balance and see your resulting sales increase.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
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Build Traffic To Your Website

If your website were a store, would it be located on a dead end street or in a major mall?  The way you promote your site has everything to do with how many people visit your site each month.  This week's topic is building traffic to your individual website. 
Each month we post traffic reports to the BC telling you how many unique visitors have come to your site and how many pages they have viewed. A separate report outlines the website traffic generated from CruiseClick. If you haven't seen these reports lately, it's time to revisit the stats and get a handle on how many people know you exist online. Find these BC reports by searching on the term Website Traffic on the BC.

Now when looking at these reports, think about how many people are visiting your site month and then divide by 4 to break that down by weekly or divide by 30 to get a daily number. When analyzing the number of visitors each day, you’re probably feeling like you should do more to drive more business to your site. Here are 4 simple things that will help you increase your traffic to your site :

1. Collect email addresses from everyone you speak to over the phone or in person. Even most seniors have email addresses – and collecting emails and asking to add them to your weekly esaver list is the top way to build a loyal base of clients who visit your website regularly.

2. Make sure you’re listed on Local search engines. Google Local, Yahoo Local and Bing Local all are leading sources of local business – insure you’re listed using your subdomained CruiseOne or Cruises Inc web address in order to be indexed by these search engines. Please note, this is one place an alternate domain name actually hurts you – so don’t list it here…use your subdomained address in local search submission forms. So for example http://Jdoe.cruiseone.dot com is the way your address should be listed and indexed in local search engines. Submission forms for local search engines and online yellow page sites are on the BC under Marketing > Ecommerce > Advertising > Free Listings.

3. Consumer Reviews of your business help your relevancy in local search – get positive reviews and your position will move up the page and your listing will be displayed in a wider area…have happy customers? Send them to Insider Pages to rate your business and you’ll benefit on multiple search engines…one word of advice – don’t rate your own site – your IP address is recorded and search sites penalize those who submit their own reviews.

4. Want another way to drive relevant traffic to your site? Consider a local search ad campaign on Google Adwords. We have more info on doing this under Marketing > Ecommerce > Advertising.
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Are You Promoting Your Travel Blog?

A quick search for the term travel blog on Google yields 185 million result pages.  That’s a sea of blogs.  The question is how do you get your blog to stand out?

Well there are few tricks that can separate you from the others… and this week we’ll talk about a few very important steps to take in promoting your blog.

Step one….search for your blog by typing your blog’s address into the google search box.  If you’re not seeing anything come up then it’s time to re-submit your blog to Google.  How do you do this?   There’s a link to the submission page on the BC under Marketing > Ecommerce > Blogging > Add Your Blog To Google (Once).

Step two…link to your blog from your social media posts.

Step three….add your blog address to your BC profile – this insures there’s a banner on your site pointing to your blog.

Step four…join a network like BlogBurst.  Blog burst is a network of blogs that publishes your blog’s posts to high traffic websites and leads people to your blog.  Network partners include Time Warner, Fox News, Houston Chronicle, Chicago Sun Times and many many more.  Joining is FREE but requires a real commitment to blog regularly.  For more info on joining blogburst go to BlogBurst.com

Follow these four steps you’ll find you’ll get more traffic to your blog and generate more business as a result.

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My new favorite site.....

If you've ever wanted to actually download a video from You Tube, and couldn't find an easy way to do it, here's somewhat of handy site for you....www.kickyoutube.com

Just find the video you want to download on YouTube, then change the URL by adding the word Kick before you tube, and you'll get a new site with the same video.  The one key differences is a tool bar at the top of the screen that allows to select a download format.  Once a format is selected you click the green GO button and then right click on a button labeled DOWN to Save the file to your computer (or portable device).  A detailed instruction video is available here.

This really comes in handy if you're including a video in a powerpoint presentation - it's always better to have the video on a local drive than to count on downloading or streaming something during a presentation.
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Google's Gmail is going to get some FaceBook like Features

Google Buzz is a new feature that will allow you to share photos, videos, web links, status updates and conversations with friends similar to what Facebook via the status update box today.   This would be done from within the Gmail interface and should have little to no effect on performance of Gmail.  

Buzz is also coming to Google Android (Google's phone operating system) as well as to the Apple iPhone (via the Safari Browser - not as an app).

Want more info?  Check out this article.
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33 Billion Videos Watched online in December

Nearly 178 million U.S. Internet users watched 33.2 billion online videos during December 2009, according to the latest data from comScore Vedio Metrix.  The study also stated that 86.5% of the total US Internet audience watched videos online in December 2009.  The average American internet user watched an average of 187 videos in December. 

With those type of stats I think we're safe in stating that watching videos online is a mainstream activity, and one of the fastest growing uses of the internet.  The question is as a cruise seller what are you going to do with this data? 

Got vacation videos? If you haven't been taking video, it's time to start doing so - with high quality inexpensive cameras like flip video (starting at $149), cost is really no barrier.   It's time to create a You Tube channel  (this part is FREE) and inspire your clients using video....
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Changes are coming to Facebook

Facebook is making changes to it's navigation again.....and changes to the way that you upload photos (a plugin is now required).  Experts speculate that this plugin adds a layer of security that automatically checks for viruses and vunerabilities that are present in the current version of Facebook.

For more info on the changes, see this article :
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/100208-133907
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Facebook Spam and Viruses

With the rapid growth of Facebook, it's no wonder that hackers and scam artists have found ways to take advantage of the public using Facebook.  To counter this, agents using facebook to grow their business should read up and follow some simple tips offered by Facebook Security :


  • If a link or message seems weird, don't click on it. This is true of all spam—whether a chain letter, an ad, or a phishing scam. If it seems weird for an old friend to write on your Wall and post a link, that friend may have gotten phished. Let the person know, and don't click on links you don't trust.


  • Be aware of where you enter your password. Just because a page on the Internet looks like Facebook, it doesn't mean it is. Learn to tell the difference between a good link and a bad one.


  • Report any spam or abuse you see on discussion boards and Walls. Those report links are there for a reason. The sooner we find spam, the sooner we can remove it and eliminate spammers from the site.


  • Don't use the same password on Facebook that you use in other places on the web. If you do this, phishers or hackers who gain access to one of your accounts will easily be able to access your others as well. You might find yourself locked out of your email and even your bank account.

  • Never share your password with anyone. Don't do it. Facebook will never ask for your password through any form of communication. If someone pretending to be a Facebook employee asks you for it, don't give it out, and report the person immediately.

  • Don't click on links or open attachments in suspicious emails. Fake emails can be very convincing, and hackers can spoof the "From:" address so the email looks like it's from Facebook. If the email looks weird, don't trust it, and delete it from your inbox.

  • Add a security question. If your login information ever does get stolen, you might need this to prove your identity to Facebook. If you haven't already done so, you can add a security question from the "Account Settings" page.

  • Be wary of unusual stories. If a friend or someone else contacts you claiming to be stranded somewhere and in need of money, verify this through other means, such as by talking to the person over the phone.
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    Signs of Mobile and Local Search Growth...

    Evidently iPhone is feeling the heat.... After Google's recent release of the Droid operating system for mobile phones and it's recent announcement that it was getting into the mobile phone business with it's new Nexus One phone. These moves have Apple investigating a new search relationship with Microsoft in order to use Bing as the default search partner on the iPhone (Apple currently defaults to Google).

    Apple has stated that they feel somewhat uncomfortable with the type of competitive info Google has from iPhone users who are using Google search, and I can understand their concern, but I never imagined that concern would lead to Apple and Microsoft co-operating. Kind of makes you wonder if the Mac vs PC commercials will continue.

    Seeing two major giants like Apple and Google slug it out in the mobile search market should help any marketer realize the growing role of both mobile and local search marketing in the future of online marketing. Mobile is where it's at....and getting listed in local search has never been more important.

    Here are a few important links for those engaged is getting their business listed locally :

    Google Local Business Center
    Bing Local Search Center
    Yahoo Local Listings

    CruiseOne and Cruises Inc Franchisees can get a a complete list of important local links on the Business Center - just use the BC Search Term "Free Listings"
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