Cruise Geek

Are you networking online to build your business? If you're not then now is the time to re-evaluate.

"Social Networking" is the hottest growing trend on the Internet, and it's addictive. It's easy to do and it's a powerful and non-intrusive way to keep in touch with your business and personal contacts. Various social networking sites differ in their design, but generally share in the following characteristics -

• You can create a profile, and link your profile to other people's profiles.
• You can share comments, photos, videos and news articles with others in your network. You can post a link to a slide show of your latest vacation, which will inform your network of your posting and allow others comment on it.
• You will have a dashboard showing you updates and will be able to get a report sent to you via email on a weekly basis informing you of the actions (profile changes) of people in your network. So if your cousin in Indiana, joins the Michael Bolton Fan Club on Facebook you'll know. You can also be notified if a friend posts a recommendation of a particular restaurant, movie or posts a written recommendation of a person's services.

To some it may seem like a waste of time, but what social networking really does is it shapes your own personal social landscape. It gives you deeper insight into the lives of those you know. Most important - it's viral and communicates in real time. The average user of LinkedIn visits their profile more than twice a week. Many Facebook users use the service 2-3 times a day. In short it's these type of social networking services have become part of the lives of the users and it is changing the way these people interact and BUY.

How do you take advantage of these trends? Join several of these networks - it's free. Create a profile and keep it up to date. Search for people you know by name and if you find their profile, click to add them as a connection. Network and become part of the conversation with both other business people and clients. Keep your profile and activities professional. When meeting people in person, ask clients if they have a Facebook or Linked in account and link to (or "Friend") these contacts.

How do you know which social network to join? There are literally hundreds of social networking sites, but I suggest you focus on these three. You probably should join more than one, here's where to start :

1. LinkedIn - this is a professional social networking community, and it's growing by leaps and bounds. Chances are that half your chamber of commerce members have profiles. This is the first network I'd join. Don't forget to join the CruiseOne or Cruises Inc Group.
2. FaceBook - this social networking community that perfectly mixes business and pleasure. It's a great place to share slide shows, videos and even polls. Clients can tag themselves as fans of products and it's easy to start up discussion groups. The audience isn't quite as young as MySpace and tends to be a bit more wholesome than MySpace. It's generally described as "the social network you can tell your mom about."
3. MySpace - MySpace has the largest user base, but many of those users are teens and young adults. MySpace has gotten some fairly negative press, and it's somewhat undeserved. If you're choosing an additional social network to add to the mix this one's good, but it wouldn't be my only social network.

Once you join, connect to me and you'll have your first connection! You can even request to join the CruiseOne or Cruises Inc LinkedIn groups. Search for (and add) other people you know to your network and before you know it you'll have a following of loyal clients and friends reccomending your services to their friends. And in today's market these referrals are priceless!

Good news fellow Americans - the Euro and Great British Pound is weakening in comparison to the US Dollar. This means that going ashore on a European cruise has just gotten much more affordable. To be exact, the US dollar has improved 14% versus the Euro, and the Dollar has seen a 12% improvement versus the British Pound in the last 90 days. $1 US is now worth .78 Euros, while just 90 days ago it was worth .62 Euros. And one US Dollar now buys .62 British Pounds when 90 days ago it was worth just .50 British Pounds. These exchange rates are amongst the best in the last 2 years.

Google has introduced a great new tool called Google Insights for Search. Using this tool you can find out exactly how popular a given search is as compared with other search terms. Insights assigns an index value to each term searched and graphically depicts the relative number of searches over a period of time. Google Insights for Search also maps out how popular a term is regionally, showing where the greatest number of searches for a given term are coming from. This is a great new marketing research tool from Google.

For example I did a search comparing the following terms : Cruises, Chocolate, Britney Spears and Toast. Interestingly, cruises get three times more searches than toast, so you can say that cruises are literally three times more popular than the warm sliced bread. And surprisingly Cruises and Britney Spears had a relatively equal number of searches over the last 12 months (both index at a value of 24). Cruising is pretty popular considering that "cruises" don't have any nude pictures on the Internet, didn't make the cover of any tabloid, and "cruises" didn't shave their head and enter rehab. But cruises can keep their ego in check - Chocolate is indexing at 52 making it a more frequently searched term than than Britney Spears (24 index) and Cruises (24 index) combined. Now I know why NCL has the Chocoholic Buffet.

It's everywhere. You can't escape it. Information is flowing freely nearly everywhere go today, thanks in large part to WiFi Laptops and the new generation of Smart Phones. Blackberry, iPhone and other smart phones are about to get a run for their money from Google. The much awaited Google Phone is said to be coming this October (retailed by T-Mobile?). The Google Phone runs on Google's own "Android" operating system, which is an open-source, Linux based operating system for phones. Why is that important? Google, is the first to go open-source in the mobile world, and has unleashed the ability for almost any programmer to create gadgets for a cell phone operating system. This has resulted in over 1700 gadgets built for the operating system before it's even gotten out of testing. This means that this phone will likely be more powerful than any other from day 1, and it's going to change the way people use the web.

Add this new wave to the already huge number of iPhones and Blackberrys and you get a tsunami of information flowing through the mobile web.

My advice, get ready for the next new wave of mobile users! After the Christmas buying season, there will be a huge number of smart phones in circulation and a rapidly growing number of Mobile Local ("MoLo") Searches happening. To benefit from these, businesses need to evaluate where they are showing up in local search and make sure they've done the basic submissions to Local Seach engines. 2009 will be the year of Local Search.

Although many website leads start online - most are closed offline. Probably the most overlooked element of getting the highest ROI (Return on Investment) from an e-commerce campaign is a cruise specialist's inbound an outbound phone technique.

Inbound Technique

If you're answering the phone with a simple "Hello", you're missing the boat. When it comes to inbound phone calls - something more like "Thanks for calling XYZ Corp, this is Mike - how can I help you" is much more appropriate. A simple "Hello" doesn't make people confident that you're the right person to do business with, while the longer greeting I suggested does. Take the extra time and convey an image of a company that is focused on quality.

My wife knows, nothing makes me more ticked off than a waiter taking my order and not writing things down. In fact I've even been known to offer a waiter a paper and pen with the suggestion that this may save their tip and make me happier if they write this down. Most cruise clients feel the same way - they just never come out and say so. They just don't do business with people who don't give them the feeling that you're getting all of the data needed to save them the most money.

So when the client is telling you what they are looking for, collect data in a structured way & ask the important questions others don't ask. When you're done always recap the data you collected. A good way to collect data is to use a "Lead Sheet" similar to what we provide in our Sales Manuals. This will insure you ask those important questions - like Cruise Lines previously sailed, if the clients will be meeting friends onboard (in another cabin) and if anyone 55 or older is sailing. Not only does asking these questions insure that you'll have the data to provide the best quote, it also insures you'll find additional selling opportunities if they exist. Not only will you win business, you'll get the rewards many pen less waiters never get - happy clients, repeat business and referrals.

Outbound Technique

Let's start with the cardinal rule of outbound calls- don't ever leave a phone message with a price without first speaking with someone. It's a waste of your time and effort - and gives the client the opportunity to play "can you beat this" by giving your quote to every other agent that speaks with them live during the shopping process. You need to build a relationship to win business - and this isn't possible through a single phone message. If you're talking to an answering machine, your call objective isn't to sell a cruise- it is to sound friendly and to entice them into returning your call.

When actually speaking to someone whom you haven't spoken with in the past, make sure that you state the purpose of your call - and reference their online request. Second, take the time to introduce yourself and your business. This simple step can make the difference between someone wanting to do business with you over your competition. Quite simply if they like you - they will tell you why they are about to do business with a competitor - giving you the opportunity to overcome the objection.

Next, REQUALIFY the client, and review your lead info with them. You would be amazed how often a client may request one thing online and want something different when you talk to them. Third - get pricing online and quote live whenever possible. If you need to call right back - ask if they would like you to call back the same number or if they would like you to call them on their cell phone. This gives them permission to leave their home phone (and computer) and to get on with the other things they'd rather be doing. It shows you respect their time - and it will often stop them from continuing the shopping process (at their computer or home phone).

In Conclusion

It's simple, but a big part of selling is gaining some one's confidence. Nothing ensures confidence more than good communication skills - hone these skills and you'll reap the benefits for years to come.

Another few great promotional resouces to consider:

• BlogUpper - Free Directory for Travel Blogs http://www.blogupper.com/dir/travel.html
• BlogShowoff - Free Directory http://www.blogshowoff.com/category.aspx?cat=18
• Technorati - Let This directory know you're alive : http://technorati.com/ping
• Feedburner - Check them out at : http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/advertising
• Buzzfuse - http://www.buzzfuse.com/intro/choose#
• Zimbio - http://www.zimbio.com/company/bloggers

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If you own a domain name, your number one job is to be sure you stay the owner of that name. Sound simplistic? Maybe not. Further complicating life is the fact that Domain Renewal notices often end up in your Email Spam folder. Unfortunately, far too many business people don't buy domain names for multiple years, and domain squatters are frequently circling like hungry piranas, grabbing these newly promoted domains within moments of expiration.

The net result is that you as the business person who promoted the new domain name lose the name to a someone else. This is a huge loss of time, money and marketing effort ! Worse yet, you'll need to find a new name.

Here are some tips to make sure you don't lose a domain name.

• Renew heavily promoted domains 5-10 years at a time. At under $10 a year the cost is very reasonable.
• Always renew Domains Manually at least 1 year in advance (Put it on your calendar - perhaps Jan 2 every year).
• Enter a Credit Card and Set Up Auto-Renewal Features in you Domain Control Pannel.
• Set up a calendar reminder (set the month your Credit Card Expires) to remind you to change your credit card on file with your Domain Service when the card expires !

An additional saftey key is to "lock" your domain name to prevent others from changing your contact info without your authorization (NameCheap, GoDaddy and most others do this by default). Together, these steps should insure that your business's lifeblood isn't lost because of a change of domain name.