You can buy attention (advertising)
You can beg for attention from the media (PR)
You can bug people one at a time to get attention (sales)
Or you can earn attention by creating something interesting and valuable and then publishing it online for free: a YouTube video, a blog, a research report, photos, a Twitter stream, an ebook, a Facebook page.
Credit to the great David Meerman Scott: http://www.webinknow.com/2009/12/social-media-marketing-explained-in-61-words.html
“Anti-Voluntourism campaign?”, “Taking Aim at Voluntourism?” If you are still offering projects/tours that include orphanages you need to read this because your clients are. If you have a guaranteed responsible way to work in orphanages then please share it in the comments so we can all learn, if you aren’t 100% sure and have a nagging feeling then PLEASE STOP – you’re killing our industry (and hurting kids).
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Read the full story here – credit to Phnom Penh Post.
Campaigners are hoping a new social-media campaign launched yesterday will shock tourists into rethinking what are ultimately harmful engagements with orphanages in Cambodia.
The brainchild of Friends International and Childsafe, the anti -“voluntourism”campaign, supported by Unicef, features the tagline “children are not tourist destinations”.
“There has been a 65 percent increase in orphanages in Cambodia since 1995,” said Friends International communications director James Sutherland. “This is the 21st Century; the situation should be getting better, not worse. Tourists are perpetuating that system.”
The campaign uses the image of two children trapped in a glass exhibit box, peering out at Western tourists who are aiming digital cameras at them, an attempt to highlight the number of children who are forced to perform, advertise, beg and work to bring in funding for their orphanage directors.
“Orphanages are not zoos, and tourists should not be allowed to move through their home” the Friends International promotional material states.
“We know this is going to be contentious, and we invite debate,” Sutherland said.
About 97 percent of children in orphanages in Cambodia are not orphans, according to Friends, which said it was eight times more expensive to house a child in an orphanage than it is to house them with their families at home.
“As almost all residential care centres are funded by individuals from overseas, many centres turn to tourism to attract more donors, fuelling a system that exposes children to risk,” Unicef representative Richard Bridle said.
“Orphanages fundraise by offering tours to foreigners, in which children are required to perform dancing or to solicit donations. There is no legal requirement for orphanages to account for funds raised in this way.”
Friends’ executive director, Sebastien Marot, said the campaign is being launched on social media to combat the online recruit of volunteers and to get the message more efficiently to young people.
“The campaign aims to bring about a behavioural change in young people visiting Cambodia,” Marot said.
“You aren’t allowed to go anywhere and hug a child in your own country, why should you be able to do it here?”
The campaign is being done in cooperation with the Royal government, which in 2008 passed minimum standards of care for children in orphanages, and in 2010, a draft prakas on child care.
“Orphanages are not required to be registered; there are not standards of practices across the orphanages,” Marot said, adding that some orphanages are not registered with the government.
8:30 Welcome Coffee & Mingle
9:00 Featured Overseas Guest: Daniela Papi from PEPYride.org will discuss Learning Service
9:30 Economic Impacts of Voluntourism on a Destination presented by Kristin Lamoureux of George Washington University
10:00 International Voluntourism Guidelines Project presented by Ayako Ezaki of The International Ecotourism Society (TIES)
– 10 min break –
10:30 Creating a Compelling Brand Story that truly differentiates – we all sell volunteering how to differentiate by Mark Campbell of Storytellings
11:00 State of the Adventure Travel Industry (yes we’re a part of that) presented by Adventure Travel Trade Association
11:30 From Little Things Big Things Grow, a repeat of the TEDx talk – WorldNomads.com Christina Tunnah
12:00 International Volunteer Programs Association Update – Genevieve Brown
12:30 Lunch
1:00 Meet the Press Panel (ask questions, they’ll talk about how voluntourism has changed from their perspective)
2:00 Roundtable Discussions on Industry Hot Topics (we’ll just go through each of these and see how much time we need to finish the discussion)
5:00 Closing and Summary of Conference
6:30 Meet for Drinks and Dinner
–Remember: Denver, June 28 at the Hilton Garden Inn Airport (www.denverairport.hgi.com) refer to Voluntourism group when booking, free airport transfers. $100 registration fee required to enter the conference, payable at the door made out to Lasso Communications – this will just help me cover the cost of lunch and room rentals. Formerly we had the conference scheduled at Cambria Suites – they had room issues so we moved to the Hilton across the street – no big deal if you already have reservations at Cambria.
Sample of conference attendees:
Some new additions to the last update:
| The International Ecotourism Society | Ayako Ezaki |
| Widness & Wiggins PR | Dave Wiggins |
| International Student Volunteers | Randy Sykes |
| GVI | Paul Campbell |
| Planeterra | Kelly Galaski |
| International Mountain Biking Association | Wendy Kerr |
and of course…
| Volunteer Global | Sarah Palmer |
| Geovisions | Randy Legrant |
| Edge of Seven | Erin Guttenplan |
| Author/Blogger | Jane Stanfield |
| Adventures in Preservation | Judith Broeker |
| Adventures in Preservation | Mark Hafen |
| Reefs to Rockies | Sheridan |
| Professor/Researcher | Kristin Lam |
| Author/Writer | Sheryl Kayne |
| PEPY Ride | Daniela Papi |
| Globe Aware | Kimberly Haley Coleman |
| Destination Ventures | Jane Custer |
| Solaia Consulting/Storytelling | Mark Campbell |
| Dragon’s Path | Kathy Dragon |
| Consultant | Kim Osmer |
| International Volunteer Programs Association | Genevieve Brown |
| Lifetree Adventures | Dave Thornton |
| Volunteer Card | Katie Olson |
| Fly for Good | Ryan Skoog |
| World Nomads | Christina Tunnah |
| Bridge Volunteers | Claudia Giannetti |
| Bridge Volunteers | Matthew Clark |
| Over 50 and Overseas | John Dwyer |
| Travel with a Conscience | Stacey Laiderman |
| Travel with a Conscience | Katie Harwood |
| Cross Cultural Solutions | Steve Rosenthal |
| Go Overseas.com | Mitch Gordon |
| Go Voluntouring.com | Aaron Smith |
| Travel Marketing Worldwide | Sarah Fazendin |
| The International Ecotourism Society | Ayako Ezaki |
| Widness & Wiggins PR | Dave Wiggins |
| International Student Volunteers | Randy Sykes |
| SWAE Sports | Will Butler |
According to Marketing Guru Seth Godin, the world in which we live is changing. We have reached an era of radical transparency where the marketer in any business is no longer in control of the dis
cussion. The customer is. He is better informed that ever before. He has no time for being interrupted by marketing messages and is unimpressed by anything
short of remarkable. Furthermore, shortcomings and opinions can now be spread through various community driven channels at the speed of lightning.
Because of this radical paradigm shift, the time when average companies could sell average products to average customers is at an end. Todays’ business world is aware of this and is therefore rapidly embracing the social media revolution. With Internet World Stats confirming that Internet browsers spend 11% of their time online on social networking sites, and with Nielsen stating that the number of Facebook users could soon outrun that of Google users, marketing on social media sites definitely seems to be the way forward.
This also applies for 64% of Experiential Travel Operators who confirm using social media platforms to engage with customers. Of these, over 94% use Facebook, which is double the number of those using Twitter and three times the number of those registered on LinkedIn.
Social Media is being leveraged more and more and experiential suppliers confirm that in the near future they expect at least 28% of their revenue to be generated through social media platforms. Among Private Travel Designers who aren’t yet using social media platforms in their business, 83.9% intend to undertake this path in the near future and the same applies for 81.1% of experiential suppliers.
Last but not least, 12.5% of Experiential Suppliers have already integrated mobile applications in their offering and this trend is expected to grow as smartphone and mobile device sales continue to increase at a steady pace.
From PURE Insights: http://www.purelifeexperiences.com/pureinsights.pdf
A great article from our friend at Mashable
The new Facebook Pages are finally here, but what does it mean for brands that have struggled to make Pages a business tool on a personal network?
The first thing you’ll notice is that Facebook Pages are once again made to look like Facebook Profiles. You have little differentiation anymore between the publicly viewable, often more commercial page, and an individual’s private profile. This lack of distinction from an interface standpoint can be confusing to consumers.
Below is a breakdown of the changes in the order that Facebook presents them in their new Page tour.
When the photos across the top of Facebook profiles first appeared, people were in a panic. Now anyone could tag you in a photograph, and it would automatically show up at the top of your page. You can, however, “X” them out, if and when you notice them. You can also remove your name from photos when tagged by others. On Pages, fans cannot tag or post an image and have it show up at the top. They appear based on images you post to your own Page wall as well as images where you tag your Page.
Be strategic: If photographs are part of what you do, this is a nice showcase. If images aren’t as relevant to what you’re conveying, this can begin to look random and distracting. Upload several key images to your Page’s photo area and remember to keep it pruned in order to present a cohesive and clear visual message.
Not to sound the panic alarm, but tabs as we know them are gone. Facebook tries to assure us that this is fine because it is “Just like on people’s profiles,” but that brings us back to the question “Why does a business want their Page to look like a person’s profile?” The reduction in prominence of the tools that helped communicate your company’s calls to action is a blow to the effectiveness of Pages.
Be strategic: One thing that the new navigation forces you to do is to examine what superfluous tabs you used to hide next to your six visible tabs. Now all someone has to do is click the “More” link below the first six “tabs” and see the entire list of links including Discussions, which most Pages hide or remove to avoid diverting comments from the Wall to yet another area that requires community management.
Facebook is providing two Wall filters: Showing posts by your page and top posts from everyone. This ostensibly gives people a way to see the most “interesting” stories first. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean they see the stories that are most important or relevant to the messages you hope to communicate to the public. If you’re the only one posting updates, this becomes moot. But imagine what will happen to the view for Pages where the fans post very frequently.
Be strategic: For best engagement, you will want to show “Everyone” as the default setting. For more control — which isn’t always advisable if you are looking to provide people with compelling, interactive content — set the default view to just your Page posts.
You, as the Page or the brand, can now interact with other parts of Facebook. Before, you could only post to other parts of Facebook as yourself, the admin behind the Page. While you still cannot post to people’s personal Facebook profile Walls as a Page, you can post to other Pages as a Page. This can be useful, but also confusing and potentially disastrous.
You have to make sure that before you post to a Page that you are in the proper setting (human or brand). Also, for less scrupulous brands, this is a new opportunity for spam. You may need to be more diligent about checking for posts from your competitors displaying their brand to your fans. You can view most recent and hidden posts while in Admin view
Be strategic: A good use of Page-to-Page Wall postings is when you have multiple Pages for brands you own. Or when you want to do co-promotions with business partners who have Pages. If you manage Pages for multiple partners, you could also do some thoughtful cross-posting, with your clients’ permissions, of course.
One of best Page changes for brands is that you can now get e-mail notifications when someone posts to your Page or comments on your post. This has been a long time coming and an invaluable feature for helping you monitor your Page activity. You can change your e-mail notification settings for each Page.
In Settings, you can also set the default to how you post –- as yourself or your Page -– and specify which featured pages will appear down the left side of your Page. To choose the pages you want to show up under Favorite Pages, go to “Edit Page” and choose “Featured.” This is similar to choosing your featured friends. You can also feature Page owners or admins if you so choose. This is a big change from the previously hidden identities of admins.
Be strategic: While there will be much debate about whether or not you should post as a brand or as a person, the best practice is to post as yourself. One of the tenets of social media communications is transparency. Posting behind the banner of your brand is fine on your Page, but moving into other spaces as a brand can be invasive and unwelcome.
You can get to your e-mail and posting preferences by going to “Edit Page” and “Your Settings.” If you own multiple Facebook Pages, you can switch over individually or take the plunge and upgrade them all at once, but you’ll still have to go into each admin area to manipulate individual Page settings.
Great article on content marketing fr0m Junta42 – enjoy! Love, The Lasso Team
1. Make my website (systems and content) my largest marketing investment in 2011.
2. Treat my website like it was my storefront. First impressions count.
3. Use less of the stock imagery that every other site uses and invest in some original or altered imagery that differentiates your story from everyone else’s story (we just tried to do this on the new Junta42.com home page.
4. Remove all moving text, scrolling text or counters from my website (I know, hard to believe that this still is happening).
5. Develop consistent “how-to” information in the form of a blog or article series to both deliver to my customers and attract new customers through search engines.
6. Send out an opt-in enewsletter to my customers, and include those helpful blog or article posts, linking customers back to my site for more information (here’s some enewsletter stats that may help you).
7. Spiff my employees a couple dollars for every opt-in email address they get to sign up for the enewsletter. Make it a competition.
8. Follow all my customers on Facebook and Twitter. I will include those helpful articles on my Facebook and Twitter accounts so people continue to follow me and appreciate my expertise.
9. Develop an “INSERT YOUR INDUSTRY NICHE HERE Playbook” as a trusted guide for my customers. I would make it available for download on my site, but also make some printouts to take on home visits or to pass out at shows (for an example, see the Content Marketing Playbook).
10. Start experimenting with some “how-to” video and integrate those with my blog posts.
11. Take video of my customers communicating their biggest pain points and post to it to my blog/Facebook with their permission.
12. Have an analytics report sent to me every week. Notice where my traffic is coming from and figure out why it’s coming from there. Focus on conversion statistics, not just bulk traffic.
13. Keep a list of the top 20 keyword variations that drive people to my site and consistently know where I am on Google at all times.
14. Figure out how to use FourSquare for my business.
15. Make sure to ask my customers for positive reviews on Yelp (if I focus on local business).
16. Do a press release at least every month on something going on in my company or my involvement in the local community. In that release I would link to specific keywords, which would help my search engine optimization (SEO) rankings.
17. Make sure I have a solid Google Maps listing.
18. Create Google Alerts (or use my reputation management system) for my brand name, my competitors and anything related to my products or services in my area. Make sure I assign people to champion particular keywords and respond when necessary.
19. Start looking into Quora and how my content evangelist can assist with customer/influencer questions.
20. Take my advertising budget, cut it in half, and invest the rest in assets (content) that I can use to attract customers to my website for a long, long time.
If you liked this article, you might like 10 Reasons Your Content Stinks and How to Fix It.
