Gain an Advantage in the Tourism Marketplace

Attention, all travel and tourism PR practitioners!I don’t know about you, but I’m always interested in hearing tips and tricks from industry insiders. Thursday morning, September 17, is the day I will be hearing from three of the region’s premier travel and tourism marketers and PR practioners!

For this Travel and Tourism PR session, PRSA-MD is gathering Margot Amelia, Executive Director of the Maryland Office of Tourism, David Warschawski, CEO of Warschawski, Inc., and Tom Rowe from Visit Baltimore to discuss the best practices and innovative approaches they are utilizing in today’s hypercompetitive domestic and international travel market.

With today’s economy affecting both corporate and leisure travel, an opportunity to hear tips firsthand from three of the region’s premier travel and tourism PR experts is a true advantage.  I’m looking forward to taking advantage of this extremely rare opportunity for an intimate “secret sharing” conversation with three of the area’s top travel and tourism public relations experts.

Want to join me (it’s only $20!)? Visit the PRSA-MD Web site for more information, and to register.

Web 3.0

I recently read an article in The Public Relations Strategist, a publication of PRSA, titled “Envisioning Web 3.0″ by Jeffrey Barrett. I didn’t realize there was a Web 1.0, let alone a 2.0 and, finally, an upcoming 3.0.

A History Lesson

Contrary to popular lore, the acknowledged creator of the World Wide Web is Tim Berners-Lee and not Al Gore. Web 1.0 spanned 1990 through 2000, and included the launch of the URL and basic search capabilities. We are currently in Web 2.0 (2001 to present), and it is marked by social media and more extensive, and user-friendly, search capabilities.

What is Web 3.0?

Web 3.0 is coming next. Otherwise known as the Semantic Web, this will make what is a difficult search today a one-click search in the new Web. How, you ask? Obviously, just as with Web 1.0, Web 3. 0 will require massive R&D. In the words of Barrett, Web 3.0 will provide us with “access to a technology that incrporates the best of the existing Internet into an advanced system featuring computer-friendly language thta connects infinite sources.” Basically, “with Web 3.0, you would simply  need one search agent to assemble all of the relvant in formation that you need,” rather than a multidude of searches and examination of numerous links to find the information you’re looking for, as we do today.

Changing How We Live and Work

The implications of Web 3.0 are tremendous. Its impact on marketing and public relations, however, would be particularly extraordinary. We would be able to target audiences with laser-like focus, save us tons of time with our Internet searches, search for media coverage results for accurate media measurement, and create ’side-by-side’ one-to-one relationships with our customers.

Even if I may never have heard of Web 3.0 before Barrett’s article, I’m certainly looking forward to it.

Rant on Professionalism

I hate to do it, but I have to. I simply have to. I need to rant and vent. My biggest pet peeve is lack of communication. Lack of response to e-mails and voicemails, and even if responded to, taking too long to do so. For an industry and profession that is all about COMMUNICATIONS, there are too many PR and marketing professionals I have come across who are not professionals in one-to-one communication.

Sure, they can craft and execute an award-winning campaign, put together an awesome crisis communications plan, or institute an awe-inspiring social media/viral marketing initiative, but when it comes time to respond to simple e-mail questions or requests, these people drop the ball.

Respond to e-mails and voicemails within 24 hours (frankly, I’m even stretching it here, in today’s era of instant gratification). If you promise to do something, do it, and take the lead and initiative on following up on it. You’re a professional, act like one. Get organized. Hire an assistant, if you have to.

Not responding to e-mails or voicemails in a timely manner, or at all, only harms your image - and in this business, we’re all about branding an image, are we not?

YouTwitFace - Thanks, Conan!

“YouTwitFace.” I love it! Conan certainly got it right. Everywhere you go, someone is talking about who they’re friends with on FaceBook, while someone else is twittering away on their BlackBerry, and someone else is recording something on their iPhone to then post to YouTube.

All great PR and Marketing tactics, to be sure, but too often companies are forgetting that’s exactly what they are - tactics. They’re not an answer in themselves, they’re not a strategy on their own. They’re pieces of the bigger puzzle, and each can’t stand on its own. Twitter by itself is not an effective strategy; for some companies, it may not even be a good tactic. I know - I may be the lone voice in the wind out here with that one, but it’s true. Each company must evaluate its strategy and the goals of their campaign to determine what tactics work best for them - old school strategy creation.

Some companies utilize a social media plan, while others incorporate social media tactics into their overarching plan. Again, depending on your goals, each system would work if done properly. However, I’m seeing a troubling triend with clients (and even some colleagues) where the opinion is that Twitter/FaceBook/YouTube, you name it, is the be all and end all for them. They come to me with that answer in mind, without first considering what their goals are and if, in fact, Twitter would really be the best way to achieve them.

So, a word of caution - social media tools are amazing, and I certainly put them into use when needed, but proceed with proper planning. YouTwitFace, to be sure!

PR, Marketing, Communications - Oh My

I just spent a jam-packed weekend at the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) Leadership Rally in New York City, and left not only with tons of ideas for our Chapter but also with the suspicion that public relations as it has been known for the past 100+ years no longer exists.

Now, I’m more of a mind to think that public relations, marketing, and communications are blending into one field. The standard distinction has been that marketing is about sales and pr is about reputation management, but, honestly, isn’t it all the same now? We all employ the same tactics to achieve the same result - brand management to build/foster a company’s/person’s reputation to, ultimately, increase sales.