Welcome to our series of interviews with local (and sometimes national) leaders in the social media and technology industry that will be featured on Social Mediarology. Today’s interview is with Troy Thompson of Travel 2.0, a Denver-based blog and digital consulting company focused on the travel and tourism industry

Troy Thompson – Travel 2.0

Troy has been involved in interactive marketing for the past 13 years. After starting his career at NASCAR in Florida, he was integral in launching their interactive department in the late ’90s. After nearly a decade with NASCAR, Troy moved to Arizona to become the Advertising Manager for the Arizona Office of Tourism. During his time at AOT, Troy headed up the social media division and recently moved to Denver to manage Visit Denver‘s interactive marketing department, including social media, mobile, SEO and more. Earlier this year he decided to break out on his own and dive into tourism technology consulting.

The Travel 2.0 blog started while Troy worked for Arizona Tourism as regular email updates about interactive marketing to the AOT staff and quickly evolved into a blog that could reach people far beyond the Arizona Office of Tourism. Now, thousands of people throughout the world read the Travel 2.0 blog each week and Troy is considered a thought leader in the interactive travel and tourism community.

The consulting arm of Travel 2.0 launched in June, 2010 and focuses on social media strategy/social media audits, mobile strategy including iPhone applications, statistical analysis, training and tourism marketing plan development.

What are some current and upcoming trends in the travel industry as it relates to technology?

The two trends we’re in right now that are still progressing are mobile and location based services (LBS). They certainly go hand in hand, but mobile feels a lot like it did in the late ’90s and early 2000s, when everyone realized the web wasn’t going away so they started to shift more budget and create functional websites. I see this a lot within the mobile space. It’s following a very similar pattern where people are saying "I think this mobile thing is going to stick around, I think the iPhone is going to be a solid platform to build on" and they’re shifting some dollars over to address that need. The challenge is that you don’t want to fall into the same trap we all did when we built our first websites – looking for the cheaper option, just doing the basics and not thinking long term. I think a lot of us built a website in 10 years ago and have had to rebuild the site every couple of years, and I think we’re now getting to the point where people are thinking more long term and more strategically about what the site is and what it needs to be. I’m hopeful that we’ll start to take that same approach with mobile – thinking long term rather than short term. While I think there will be a lot of transition within the mobile space in the next decade or so, building a good base at the beginning will help set you up for success in the long run.

As far as location-based services go, Foursquare seems to be the media darling of LBS.

If 2009 was Twitter’s year, it’s fair to say that 2010 is shaping up to be the year of Foursquare. I think with the recent launch of Facebook Places, LBS’s will just become more important, particularly for the travel industry.

The fact that you’ll be able to have geographic information about your visitor while they’re in your area becomes very powerful. Right now, while the tools aren’t there to completely take advantage of that, those tools will surely come about soon. Taking advantage of a one-on-one communication with someone visiting your local Art Museum will be just as easy as setting up an email campaign or a Google Adwords campaign.

The final trend I’m seeing is tracking. It’s been the big demand of everyone, not just within the travel industry, but everyone who’s been involved in the mobile or social media field. How do we track all of these these things and connect the dots between websites, SEO, mobile marketing, social media marketing, and how do we get the accurate tracking to be able to quantify the ROI that we’re putting into these new spaces. I feel like that’s coming along. It depends on how much information the consumer wants to give out about themselves, but I think that’s an area where we’ll see some more big strides over the next two or three years.

Several years ago, the largest line item in most DMO’s budget was a printed travel guide. Do you see printed publications going away in the near future?

I don’t think printed guides will ever go away entirely. I know there are some agencies out there who have totally dropped it in favor of a all digital guide, which I think is a workable solution, but at this point a printed guide is still important for the people who want them. What we’re seeing now, is a case where 5, 10 or 15 years ago, there was just the printed guide, which was the primary way for people to get information from us, and now there are so many different communication channels out there. With technology itself, particularly social as well as the iPad and the iPhone, people have a lot more freedom of choice about how they want to receive information. From the DMO (Destination Marketing Organization) side, we need to look at it more as a project around information and the content we have, rather than it being just a printed guide project.

If we were to have a meeting about our guide, I’d start with all the information first, then, on the side, we;d discuss where all the different places are that people could get this information. There’s your printed guide, your website, potentially email, social, then you have the mobile side of things maybe with an iPhone or iPad application. It’s just trying to figure out the best way to get all the information to the appropriate channels so people can find it. The challenge with that since the technology is still so young, is that it takes a lot of time and resources to try and break out of a printed publication cycle and into more of an information dissemination cycle.

The iPad is pretty exciting in terms of its potential for digital visitors guides and the interaction we can have with the visitor through it. I think it’s the best example so far that non-technical people within the industry have seen that opens their eyes to the possibilities.

The challenge for a lot of us in the DMO space is that the printed guide is a huge KPI (key performance indicator) for us, and a huge indicator of our success throughout the year, so it’s difficult for us to make that transition and all of a sudden, you’re sending a report to your board that while you printed 1,000,000 guides last year, you’ve only printed 200,000 this year, but here are the reasons why. Without really accurate tracking/education about website visits, social hits and mobile/iPad applications it’s difficult to show people that the number went down so significantly and not have them raise questions.

For a lot of us, it’s still an issue of reporting back to our board and to make sure it still looks like we’re doing a good job. I think it will be interesting in the next few years. I think the iPad is a fantastic device and if you walk by any apple store in the mall, it’s absolutely packed – it doesn’t matter what time of day you go. The interaction that all age groups and demographics have, it ‘s just fascinating. Apple has done a great job with their interface design and have made it easy for anyone to use, not just someone who’s technically inclined. That’s why so many people are talking about iPhone apps and iPad apps all the time because it’s such a successful platform for communicating with people. I’m really interested to see which DMO comes out with their travel guide as a fully-designed iPad app first.

What are your recommendations on first steps in social media?

My first recommendation for a DMO in social, is to get started with either Twitter or a blog. Twitter is a very easy interface and program to learn and understand once you get started. It also gives you a good look into the social world and how people communicate and how people engage in that world. Whether or not Twitter works for every destination is still to be determined. Some destinations tend ot be more successful with Twitter than others, but I think a lot of that has to do with content.

I still really like the idea of a blog. It’s probably not as sexy as Twtter, Facebook and others now, but I like the communication channel of blogs. I think it works really well for the destination model. There are a lot of things going on in a destination – a lot of things we don’t typically get to talk about on the homepage of the website. The rodeo may not be large enough to go on to the official state tourism website, but that’s a great topic for a blog post.

My third suggestion would have to be YouTube because of the engagement you can get on YouTube. I wouldn’t recommend it first, only because it can be a challenge for DMOs to come up with the video content. That’s always the challenge – you have to have good video content to put up on youtube.

You didn’t mention Facebook at all, does Facebook have a place in DMO marketing?

I’ve been a slow adopter to Facebook. I wrote several posts a few years ago that outlined why I didn’t think Facebook was right for the destination industry and I’m still not 100% convinced that it’s right for us in the industry.

There are obviously a lot of people on Facebook – 500 million people are sure to garner some attention – but I have yet to see anyone feel that their Facebook campaign has been really successful.

I don’t know if it’s simply because ther isn’t enough research around it, but I feel that a lot of DMOs are on Facebook because they’ve seen other DMOs on there.

I also think a lot of the fans of the individual organizations (like fans of Visit Indiana, or Florida, or Atlanta) are just “bumper-sticker fans”; of the state. it’s like when you see a car full of bumper stickers. They’re aligning themselves with a particular brand or organization, but that doesn’t make they’re going out and giving money to or financially supporting that organization. I think its similar on Facebook – people want to say I’m from Florida, I’m a fan of Florida, I’m just not necessarily going to do anything with the state. I get the feeling there’s a little bit of that. I struggle with whether or not its a good place for marketers to be.

There’s been a lot of conversation about how some marketing teams are pushing a lot of things to Facebook. Facebook has almost replaced the call to action in TV commercials. Like when people’s commercials would say “find us at AOL keyword: travel” or 4-5 years ago when organizations would say “visit our website at myspace.com/OrganizationName“. I still have a issue with putting a majority of my marketing influence on someone else’s website

I’m a huge proponent of protecting your brand on Facebook. I think there should be a Visit whatever page, a Visit Indiana Page on Facebook. I think you should own it and use some service that lets you update Twitter and Facebook at the same time. There are a lot of good things you can do with Facebook, but I’d definitately diversify my campaigns so not everything‘s focused on Facebook. I’d even spend some time on TripAdvisor or WikiTravel, the sites that tend to get left out of the Big Three conversations (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube). I think the forums on Trip Advisor alone, you could build an entire social campaign around those.

How does blogging fit in to a digital strategy?

I think blogging is a great opportunity to give your destination a personality and to give an actual voice to the people who make up your community. A lot of us have made it a bit difficult for consumers to find the people behind the DMOs and attractions – primarily because of spam and email concerns, more than anything else. Blogs allow consumers to see that there are real people behind the organization, people who are passionate about the destination and they’re they local experts.

I think that in the next 5-10 years, that’s how DMOs will remain relevant. by highlighting and focusing in on that local knowledge. By saying, “here’s Jeremy. He lives in Indianapolis, he goes to these restaurants and attractions, he knows all about them.” Who better to ask when you’re looking to travel than someone who actually lives in the area and talks about these things for a living? The blog is an excellent way to show personality and to show off some of the charm of the destination. a website homepage tends to do very few things – promoting a big event coming up or specific hotels – but if you have space on your homepage carved out for a blog, it helps bring out the smaller things, more of the niche things that are going on. More of the local info and local knowledge that people really want to find out about. It can be a real differentiator between your destination and another destination.

I think going back to your last question about where to get started with social media, and for a lot of small marketing teams, with one or two people, that’s what makes Twitter such a good place to get started. Twitter is, after all, microblogging. I think that gives you a nice intro into what you’ll see and the impact you might have. That gives you the confidences to see that it’s actually worth your time to spend a couple hours a week writing a good blog post and then posting it on the blog. That’s a great way to intro from Twitter, to Blogs then to YouTube and Facebook.

What are some DMOs that come to mind who are doing a great job with social media and digital strategy?

There are a few of them out there. I love what Portland, Oregon is doing a great job communicating with their actual visitor. Not specifically the technical things they’re doing, but they do a great job actually listening and communicating with the visitor – forming the relationship that is the basis of social media.

I like what Columbus, Ohio does – their team does a great job on their blog and Twitter streams. From a state level, not to stroke your ego too much, but I think Indiana does a great job. You guys do a good job with your social presence and the way you go about it. I like what Oregon is doing as well. As much trouble as Florida has had, I really like the way they’ve tackled the oil spill via social media. They’ve really confronted it head-on an haven’t tried to say “don’t tell people there’s oil on this beach”. They’ve actually posted maps that show people where the oil is and I think that’s important to be open and transparent in the social space.

I think that how organizations respond in a time of crisis shows a lot more about their organizational strength than how they do when things are fine.

The oil spill is a great example of that. The volcano from Iceland earlier this year is another example. When we have natural disasters like that, it’s fascinating to look at the Air France Facebook page, which they weren’t really updating at the time – that gives consumers the message of: “Hey, we’re not updating this – go away!” That was their message to people. You can’t really start communicating with people when you want to, then shut things down when a disaster (natural or a PR disaster) occurs. I think a lot of people have overlooked crisis communications as part of their social media strategy. Hopefully, with the example of Florida and the volcano in Iceland people will start to incorporate crisis communications.

Another example is the recent incident with JetBlue where an employee yelled a plane full of passengers, pulled the emergency slide and ran away – JetBlue received a lot of criticism for their slow response to that.

JetBlue (along with Southwest Air) are the two stars of social media in the airline industry. They respond to everything and it was very strange to see something happen to them and they didn’t immediately acknowledge it. Two hours is the maximum amount of time you have to respond to something that has happened. You no longer have a couple days to craft your message. People expect you to respond immediately.

I think a lot of business are struggling with that. For so long you had a corporate communications department and everything went through there, and now you have different communication channels and the public is okay with the transparency. When something bad happens, most consumers realize that people are working at the company and they just want to know what’s going on. For the JetBlue incident, they could have said: “hey, we know there was an incident, our team in New York is investigating it”. That’s okay to say at this point because it’s part of open communication back and forth with consumers.

Any final thoughts?

It’s a very exciting time to be in the tourism industry in general. We’ve always been very passionate about the tourism industry, but it’s even more exciting now with the technology that’s coming into it an they ability for consumers to communicate with us while they’re actually in the destination. It’s really interesting to see how people are using social tools to connect with like minded travelers while they’re on vacation. They’ll take recommendations from a stranger or a local about what restaurant to eat at. The more adoption we see in social, mobile, geolocation and the like, it really becomes a benefit to our travel, and not a detriment.

Troy Thompson, a self-described technopologist, is a respected blogger, consultant and thought-leader in the Tourism / Travel industry. Owner and consultant at Travel 2.0 Consulting, Troy has been providing unique interactive and marketing solutions to a variety of clients for more than a decade. Be sure to check out Travel 2.0. You can even follow Troy on Twitter (@Travel2dot0).

1: Twitter’s Official Tweet Button Has Arrived | Mashable

Social Mediarology thinks: It’s been a long time coming, but Twitter has finally released their own Twitter Tweet button. They’re even working with TweetMeme (the most popular Retweet button out now) to support the button. One caveat – you can’t use your 0wn URL shortener (bit.ly or others), as all Tweets are wrapped in Twitters proprietary t.co shortener, but on the plus side, once a user retweets your content, they have the option of following you and up to one other associated account. Click on the tweet button at the top of this post and you’ll see that you have the option to follow @JeremyAWilliams and @SocMediarology after you’ve tweeted! Below is a video that walks through the Twitter Tweet Button features.

2: Facebook’s Foursquare Competitor is Imminent | CNET

Social Mediarology thinks: Facebook has been hinting at location-based integration for some time now and it looks like it may become a reality soon. The most interesting part of this? The potential that this will be baked in directly with a reworked Facebook Events.

3: Now You Can Follow Twitter Users Without an Account | Mashable

Social Mediarology thinks: In an effort to increase the reach of Twitter to consumers without a Twitter account (see the Twitter X-Factors section of our Subscribers, Fans and Followers post for more information about Twitter’s true reach) Twitter launches Fast Follow. Simply text “follow [username]” (without quotes) to 404040 and you’ll receive their tweets via SMS – even if you’re not a Twitter user. Try it out, text “follow SocMediarology” to 40404 to get our updates!

4: 3 Ways Facebook’s Pending Page Changes Affects Marketers | Hubspot

Social Mediarology thinks: Starting on Monday, August 23, Facebook will make some permanent changes to Facebook Pages. Among those changes are the elimination of boxes and the narrowing of custom tabs. If your organization has a Facebook Page, be sure to see if these changes will affect you.

Bonus! Here’s a fifth story you should check out from this week:

5: Foursquare Sorts Tips by Popularity | Foursquare Indy

Social Mediarology thinks: This is a welcome improvement to Foursquare. With 2.6 million users, some useless tips had been cluttering up more helpful ones as Foursquare used to sort their tips chronologically with the newest tip first. This will help clear out the clutter and will make the valid Foursquare tips even more important.

Report No. 1: Digital Morning

The first report in the Subscribers, Fans and Followers series focuses on general user behavior. What’s the first thing online customers check in the morning? How engaged are online consumers with email, Facebook and Twitter? Digital Morning gives a great overview of those and other questions. Here are some highlights from the report:

• 58% of US online consumers check email as their first online activity of the day.
• 93% of US online consumers are SUBSCRIBERS (receive at least one permission-based email a day).
• 38% of US online consumers are FANS (have a Facebook account and are a fan of at least one company or brand).
  • 69% of US daily Facebook users are FANS.
• 5% of US online consumers are FOLLWERS (have a twitter account and follow at least one company or brand).
  • 69% of US daily Twitter users are FOLLOWERS.

Even with the huge rise of social media, permission-based email is still extremely important for marketing. But even with a smaller percentage of US online consumers using Facebook and Twitter, those consumers should not be ignored. Use your target demographics to dictate whether getting involved in Facebook or Twitter would be beneficial for your organization.

Report No. 2: Email X-Factors

The second report in the Subscribers, Fans and Followers series is all about email. With the huge popularity of Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media, where does email fit into your marketing mix? Why should you still use Email? In order to have an effective email marketing campaign, here are the 5 Email X-Factors you need to pay attention to:

• Familiarity: Email is a familiar medium. Make sure your SUBSCRIBERS know what to expect from your emails.
  • 56% of Millennials subscribe to email in their search for ongoing deals compared to 28% who search for deals on Facebook.
• Manageability: Even while the average consumer receives 44 emails per day – just over 1/4 of those are permission-based emails – they also consider their inboxes manageable, not necessarily true with Facebook or Twitter. Let your users know how often they’ll receive emails from you.
• Trust and Privacy: Let your customers know EXACTLY what you will do with their email address and information. Consumers want to know their private information is secure.
• Relevancy: Be sure to provide relevant, if not personalized, content to your consumers. They want to feel that they’re receiving something special, not just a mail-merged email about the services you offer
  • 49% of consumers “always” open emails from their “favorite” companies, compared with only 16% who say they never open an email.
• Exclusivity: Among the exclusive perks you can offer your SUBSCRIBERS are promotions and deals, first-to-know information and tailored content.
  • 81% of SUBSCRIBERS have been motivated to provide a company with their email address due to some form of promotion.

An excellent example of a tremendously successful email campaign is Groupon – the daily email that offers you exclusive deep discounts for things to do in your hometown. Localized, exclusive and relevant, Groupon has been successful because they’ve done email marketing right.

Report No. 3: Social Profile

The third report in the Subscribers, Fans and Followers series talks in-depth about a dozen different social profiles that emerged during ExactTarget’s research. Every Subscriber, Fan or Follower fits into at least one of these categories and knowing which profile your brand appeals to can help you more effectively market to them. Here are a few of the social profiles that can be found in the report:

• Inner Circle: 47% of Online Consumers
  • Much more heavily focused on Email and Facebook, Inner Circle Consumers primarily use social media to enhance relationships they already have and may not be receptive to brands or organizations in their personal social media space.
• Deal Seeker: 30% of Online Consumers
  • These consumers focus more heavily on Email and Twitter as well as Facebook to find the best deals. The average Deal Seeker is a FAN of 10 brands on Facebook, FOLLOWS 10 brands on Twitter and receives 14 permission-based emails a day.
• Megaphone: 7% of Online Consumers
  • While there are relatively few Megaphones online, their heavy usage of Twitter and Facebook give them a disproportionate influence online. These consumers tend to share lots of information with people and 65% regularly maintain a website, blog or both.

With a dozen different social profiles out there, it can be tricky finding out where your target market lies, but just knowing about the different types of consumers can help you as you plan your digital marketing strategy.

Report No. 4: Twitter X-Factors

The fourth and newest report in the Subscribers, Fans and Followers series is all about Twitter. Here are the five X-Factors that make Twitter so unique:

• Influence: FOLLOWERS on Twitter represent the most influential online consumers and their reach goes way beyond Twitter. While only 12% of online consumers have created a Twitter profile, 23% of online consumers read Tweets monthly.
• Brevity: Because of the 140-character limit for Tweets, users must get right to the point. There’s no beating around the bush on Twitter and it can be used to find information quickly without much effort.
• Accessibility: Never before has the average consumer had such a direct line of communication with celebrities (@THE_REAL_SHAQ), corporate entities(@ComcastCares) and breaking news (@cnnbrk) – many of whom will even reply back to people who ask them questions.
• Interaction: Similar to accessibility, Twitter offers the ability for average users to truly interact with even some of the largest organizations in the world. In fact, 20% of consumers indicate that they started FOLLOWING a brand in order to interact with that company.
• Versatility: Throughout the ExactTarget research, no clear consensus emerged for why consumers turn to Twitter to engage with brands. Consumers interact with brand for a variety of reasons.

While there are fewer consumers using Twitter, they are the most influential online consumers that exist today and the conversations they have and the content they create doesn’t live in a bubble on Twitter:

• 74% publish blog posts at least once a month
• 70% comment on others’ blog posts
• 61% write at least one product review a  month
• 53% post videos online
• 45% share deals found through coupon forums

Twitter users truly can become a great channel for your brand, but it must be managed effectively. Twitter, and social media in general, is about creating relationships, not just about broadcasting your marketing message.

1: Beyond Foursquare: What Search Engines Could Do With Location Data | New York Times

Social Mediarology thinks: This is great news for consumers everywhere. With proper integration, Google Maps may, by default, look a lot like FourWhere.com (Read our post about FourWhere here), and search results could have some great location-based tips baked right in (Check out our post about Bing Maps’ Foursquare layer here).

2: Status Update: Facebook Logs 500 Million Users | USAToday

Social Mediarology thinks: With half a billion users, Facebook shouldn’t be ignored. The good news is that more and more organizations are joining Facebook every day in an effort to leverage the platform.

3: Is Email More Important Than Social Networks? | KyleLacy.com

Social Mediarology thinks: Kyle hits some great points in his post. In the end, the channel you use to communicate with your customers should depend on what your customers want.

4: 5 Mobile Commerce Trends for 2010 | Mashable

Social Mediarology thinks: With smartphone sales rising 49% in the first quarter of 2010, mobile technologies are here to stay. Here are some trends to keep an eye out for through 2010.

This is the third in a series of interviews with local leaders in the social media and technology industry that will be featured on Social Mediarology. Today’s interview is with Scotty Wise of Scotty’s Brewhouse, an Indiana-based restaurant with 6 locations throughout the Hoosier State.

Scotty Wise – Scotty’s Brewhouse

We opened out first restaurant in 1996 in Muncie. Not long after that, we tore down the existing building and rebuilt from the ground up. In 1998 I opened a fine dining restaurant, where I lost nearly a million dollars, but I learned more over the next three years at the fine dining restaurant than I’ve learned in the 14 years of Scotty’s existence.  When we closed that restaurant down, we opened our Bloomington location in 2001. West Lafayette opened in 2004 and the northside Indianapolis (96^th Street) location opened in 2007. We opened our downtown Indianapolis location (at Virginia & Pennsylvania Streets) in 2009. Scotty’s Lakehouse opened in 2010 and we’ll be opening our Brewpub, Three Wise Men Brewing Company in Broad Ripple in late 2010. We’ve also got a project we’re planning to launch in 2011 in Fort Wayne.  We’re looking to locate in left field of Parkview Field, home of the Minor League Fort Wayne TinCaps.

When I was looking to expand to Indianapolis, all the banks told me that the 96^th street location wouldn’t work because we were a college town bar and there was too much competition, but it’s the most successful restaurant in our portfolio right now.

How has social media affected your bottom line?

The best way to apply social media to our bottom line is that we’ve eliminated every single piece of outside advertising, no print, no radio, no other types of traditional media, whereas in the past, we would spend about $250,000 each year in football ads, newspaper, and radio during Christmastime to promote gift cards. We eliminated all of that. The original reason we eliminated that was because of the economy. A year and a half ago, when the economy crashed, that was the one part of the budget we could eliminate without having to lay employees off.

At the time, I was personally using social media, but not for business purposes, and I realized that without a marketing budget, my use of social media was the only way to get our message out. You can’t walk into a business and say, “If you spend $500 on this ad, I can promise you that you’ll generate X amount of dollars back”, that’s why marketers rely on impressions and views and all of those similar metrics. The reason that social media was so successful and the reason I jumped on board was not just because I had to, I felt that the world had already shifted over to social media. I just gave a talk to a young professionals group in Muncie about social media and I asked the attendees to raise their hand if they subscribed to the newspaper. Of the 50 people I was talking to, only 2 raised their hand. Then I asked them to raise their hands if they had a Facebook account. Every single person raised their hand. I said “You guys just made the point for me – I could leave right now and this would be a successful talk”. The world changes and you have to change along with it. I don’t get the printed newspaper because I get the latest stories from the Indy Star sent to my inbox three times a day. That’s where I read my news.

I always put myself in my consumers shoes in everything I do, whether it’s the food I design, or the atmosphere you walk into, I always think “How would he feel? Would this make her want to come back more?”

The same concept goes into marketing. I knew that was the way I liked getting the news and talking to people. I think I just saw that social media was the way the world was headed and I think I got a head start on everybody and now I call myself the Howard Stern of social media, because I’m not politically correct with the things I do, but it matches my brand. People know it’s me and they know I don’t have a ghost writer or a ghost blogger doing my updates for me, they’re getting the real me telling them what’s going on in my life. One day I might tell them that my kid just crapped his pants then three tweets later I’m reminding people that kids eat free on Sundays. I use the medium in a way that I feel is most effective. I’m not going to blast marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing all the time, because you’ll just turn it off. So I dabble in things I’m interested in. One day you might get an article about a chef that I like, then the next day I might say something about the Colts, then the next day I might say something about the Pacers, or something funny about my kids.

You have to remember you’re not talking AT people. The biggest thing you have to remember about social media is that you’re listening.

I think a lot of people forget that – they’re pushing messages. I think you do still have to push messages, because that helps you gain followers, but at the end of the day, we now use social media for communication.

I’ll tell you another way social media affects our bottom line. We’re getting rid of our secret shopper company that we’ve had in place for probably ten years, because I don’t need them anymore. Sure they give us the secret shopper and they give us all kind of data, but I don’t need that when I’ve got 5,000 people on Facebook or Twitter and they have a bad experience or they have a good experience, and they let me know about it. It’s funny, I find out things about my staff while they’re at work. I’ll get a tweet that says “Hey, your bartender is doing a crappy job” and if I’m checking my Twitter account then, I get on the phone with the manager and say “hey, you’ve got a problem at the bar, go take care of it right now.” We can take care of things instantaneously, whereas before, that person may have left and might never come back to our restaurant.

Where did you get started in social media?

MySpace was where we got started. A lot of people don’t remember that, but Twitter wasn’t around, Facebook was only for college students so MySpace was then what Facebook is now. I knew that,and I got on there and was putting up my designs and stuff. I wasn’t posting like I do now, I mainly put up a lot of our marketing messages on MySpace. Then I started putting up pictures of me on the boat or with my kids. Then when Facebook announced they were opening up to everybody, right away I got on there and started putting our stuff up there. That’s when I started having fun saying and posting funny things. Then Twitter came along and I created my account in November of 2008. When I first joined I didn’t use it very much. I knew it was going to be important, I just didn’t know how. I didn’t quite understand how it was going to be a big thing, but I had a gut feeling about it. So I got onboard and it started to grow like a snowball. I got some help from a friend (@CoxyMoney) and from there I blossomed. What I was doing was working, so I didn’t change my model.

Our use of Twitter also continues to grow. Right now we’re using it in all our restaurants. I’m encouraging my manager and front-line employees to tweet as well. I don’t know if it’s the right avenue to take, but it’s something I’m doing because of a gut reaction. Obviously, there are a lot of things that can go wrong with social media, which is why you’re starting to see more social media contracts that employers are trying to get employees to sign, and we’re no different. We do the same thing. I think you have to be careful, not only about what employees can post, but sometimes the message can get mixed. My employees are a representation of me and if I’m asking them to tweet, “hey, I’m serving tonight, come see me”, that’s great, but then 6 hours later they’re tweeting that they’re in Broad Ripple getting hammered, that sends a mixed message. I think we’re trying to be proactive in how we use it and we’re excited to introduce this to our company and let our employees leverage it. We’re also setting up accounts for all the different restaurants and I know we’ll be able to control those. That way, if you don’t want to follow or know what’s going on in Muncie because you live in Indy, you can just follow that account and they’ll tweet about things going on in town.

We’re encouraging our managers to take pictures of a guest at a table or their employee of the month, or of the cooks making a dish – something people would be intrsted in click on and looking at. So that’s another way we’re using social media.

How did you get started with Foursquare and what successes have you seen?

Foursquare was first introduced to me by another guy on Twitter, who I’ve never met in person, @DrThomasHo. He said “Hey, look into this – I really think you need to be involved”. I guess I’m lucky because I have so many people looking out for me because I started looking at it and I started reading more and kept hearing it being brought up in conversations and

I think it’s [Foursquare] actually one of the purest, easiest forms of social media out there.

It’s today’s version of a loyalty card without having to actually carry  a card in your wallet. Everyone carries their phone with them, many have an iPhone, an Android or Blackberry, that’s your loyalty card right there. All you have to do is check-in. Now, my job as a business owner is to figure out a way to make that an actual loyalty card – make it where you want to choose my place over the guy across the street because you’ll get 10% off just for checking-in. I embraced a special Foursquare Mayor’s-only discount because that means I’ve got somebody who is at my restaurant so often that he’s considered a mayor, now I’m going to offer an other incentive that says, hey if you can dethrone this guy or gal, I’m going to give you something huge. That’s our next approach, turn it into a competition. In the end, the name of the game is loyalty. I want repeat visit, so I think that’s what Foursquare can do for a business whether it’s restaurants, retail, or something else.

I spoke at a banking conference two weeks ago and I said “I can’t tell you how to use social media in your company, that’s for you to decide, I can tell you that it works”. You have to be the createive one that figures out how it works in your industry. I went on Google and searched for “Foursquare Banking Indistury” and I found dozens of articles on there. One example was a bank in Wisconsin. If you check-in at their bank, they give you ¼% off your loan or an initial deposit when you open a check-ing account or something like that. With just the few minutes of research I did, that’s a great example of what other banks can do.

I think location-based social media sites are the next big thing. If somebody’s following me and they live in California, that’s great, but it doesn’t really do anything for me. At the end of the day all the stuff I do, the goal is to get you in the doors of Scotty’s Brewhouse. The beauty of location-based social media is that I’ve got people that are near my locations. They’re the closest ones to getting in my doors so you have to embrace the medium. I think that Foursquare’s badges are brilliant. It just gives people another incentive to keep checking-in, just to get these silly little badges. From a retail point. Your goal is to give customers something unique. One of the badges that I think can apply for any organization is a swarm badge. If you get 50 people to check-in at one location during the day, everyone earns the Swarm Badge. So we had a Swarm Badge Party. What does that do for my business? 50 people that are all checking-in on Foursquare are all drinking a beer or two, they’re all having an appetizer…I’ve just increased my sales with people who might not have been there otherwise.

Creativity is your only limitation with a service like Foursquare.

American Eagle is now giving you a 15% discount for checking-in at their stores and Chili’s will give you a free order of chips and salsa for checking-in. Those are two national brands that are now using Foursquare as a way to drive engagement, traffic and revenue to their locations.

Are you constantly looking for new ways to utilize services like Foursquare?

Absolutely. I recently got in touch with a guy in Wisconsin who owns a bar called AJ Bombers (@AJBombers). He’s been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal and CNN and he’s become the poster child for social media usage in restaurants. For example, he has free Wi-Fi available and the name of his Wi-Fi account is “Don’t Forget To Check-in On Foursquare”. He gave me the idea of offering the special for dethroning the current Mayor.  When we originally set it up we were giving discounts for every 3^rd visit or every 5^th visit, but Foursquare’s GPS was notoriously bad and people were checking-in from two miles away just to increase their check-in count, so we changed it to a smaller discount (10%) for every check-in.

What is over the horizon for social media? What will be the next big thing?

I definitely keep an eye out for new technologies. Just like when Google Buzz came out, I tried it out. I’ll usually start an account and then just wait and see how it goes. The more I hear about it, the more I see that this new site or technology has something to it. Some of it might not apply to my business, but it might – it just depends. For example – everyone wants to create an iPhone app. A while ago, I decided I didn’t want to just create one just to have one. I wasn’t going to make one that would just let you get to our menu, you can do that on our website, that’s not an app. You have to give the user something of value. So we’ve been kicking around an idea where you can open up the app, and it will tell you about all the coupons that restaurants are offering within two miles of where you are. Then, whichever of those coupons you want to use at our restaurant, we’ll let you use. That’s just an idea, but who wouldn’t want to open up an app, find the best coupon in the area then use it at Scotty’s?

I’m not really a good predictor about what’s next. When some of the technologies have come out, I haven’t really been able to see how they could be applicable, but I’m not so naïve to think that they can’t be used at all. I keep an eye out, but I don’t know exactly what’s next. I’ve actually just hired on a Director of Technology and Digital Media. I created the snowball that has become a huge avalanche, but I can’t continue to grow the company and try to monitor all of our social media initiatives. Since social media has grown so quickly, I need him to help with Facebook, Foursquare Twitter and whatever new mediums we get into.

Any closing thoughts about Scotty’s or social media in general?

All of these social mediums can help you with marketing, but one of the most important things you can do, both for your business and personally, is listen. You know the people you see at a party and you can tell they just like to hear themselves talk? I think the successful people just zip their mouths and let somebody else talk and sit back and listen. I think that same thing can apply to social media. One of the biggest benefits for Scotty’s is being able to listen to our customers through social media. Creating a personal connection is one of the best things that Twitter has allowed me to do. One of the reasons I got into the restaurant business is because I’m a people person. I like talking to people, I like bartending, I like waiting tables. As we’ve grown I realized that I created for myself a desk job. I got into the restaurant business because I didn’t want a desk job, I wanted to be behind a bar. The beauty of Twitter is that it’s allowed me to electronically table-touch and bartend again. In our industry we have our managers table-touch – which means going around to the tables and seeing how the customers are doing and taking care of issues. If the customer isn’t happy, they can take care of the issue right away. Now, Twitter has allowed me to do an electronic table-touch in front of 4,500 followers. That’s the best thing in the world! It doesn’t bother me that someone complains about cold food in front of all my followers, we’re not perfect; we’re going to make mistakes. The best part is that I listen to them and reply to them and 4,500 people saw that I took care of the issue and gave them a gift card and made the situation right. That’s the beauty of social media – it’s about making personal connections with my customers.

Be sure to check out Scotty’s Brewhouse, at one of there many locations throughout Indiana. you can even follow Scotty on Twitter (@Brewhouse) or “like” Scotty’s on Facebook.

A few days ago I wrote about how to get started on Foursquare, but today, I want to show you how to use Foursquare as an organization. There are many benefits for organizations to get involved in Foursquare and tourism entities of all types – restaurants, hotels, attractions, Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) and more – can benefit the most.

In our increasingly connected and mobile world, visitors to your destination are using printed guides less and less and are relying on the internet, social media and their mobile devices more and more. While Foursquare is still used primarily by early adopters, new users are signing up every day – especially as people begin to realize how they can benefit from using Foursquare.

Claim Your Business:

Check out this post for more information about how to get started with Foursquare, but once you’ve created an account and are signed in, do a quick search for your organization. Once you’ve found it, click on Are you the manager of this business? Once here, you’ll need to copy and paste a link to your business on Yelp, Google Maps or a similar service. If your organization isn’t listed on any of those services, you can also fill out your name, email address and phone number and a Foursquare team member will be in touch to verify that you are, indeed, the manager of that business.

Why do you need to claim your business? If you don’t claim your business, you won’t get access to back-end analytics (click on the image to the left for a closer view) and you won’t be able to create a special offer at your location. Starbucks gives mayors at each individual store $1 off Frappuccinos and Scotty’s Brewhouse (with locations in Indianapolis, Bloomington, Muncie and West Lafayette, Indiana) offers a 10% discount to ANYONE who checks in during lunch (Mon-Fri).

Create Your Special:

Once you’ve claimed your business you can set up specials for people who check-in at your location. Foursquare actually offers quite a range of different ways to set up your offers. You can offer discounts to Mayors only, like Starbucks, or you can offer discounts to anyone who checks in, like Scotty’s. You can also offer a special to customers who visit a certain number of times within a set time period (ex. Free Coffee if you check-in 3 times in 1 month). You also have the choice to offer a special on every X check-in (ex. 5% off your bill on every 5th check-in). The final, and most flexible, option is to offer a special to a customer dependent on whatever you choose (ex. Free burger if you check-in during the NFL season and are wearing a Colts jersey). You can also offer more than one special at a time. This kind of targeting allows you to decide which kind of offer works best for your business.

In fact, Foursquare recently blogged about the successes that some businesses have seen since implementing Foursquare Specials.

Promote your Special:

Now that you have claimed your business and you have a special up for customers, you have to let people know about it! Promote the special through Facebook, Twitter and your blog. Put it in an email letting people know you want them to check-in when they get to your location. You can even fill out this form to request a window cling to put in your storefront. You can also download this pdf that you can print out and hang in your store.

Get creative, think of other ways you can promote your new Foursquare Special and make sure to keep track of your redemption rate. With the analytics available as a manager of a location on Foursquare, you can see who has checked in to your location, when they checked in and how frequently they check-in. Keep a close eye on those metrics to make sure you’re getting the most out of Foursquare.

I’ve written about Foursquare, the most popular location-based social media game, a couple of times before, but I wanted to write about how to actually get started with Foursquare. How to create your account, how to connect your mobile phone and how to get started checking in.

What is Foursquare?

Foursquare's Newbie Badge

First of all, a brief explanation of Foursquare. Foursquare is a location-based social media game that allows you to check-in at different locations when they’re out and about. You earn points for each time you check in at a location and you can also unlock custom badges that tell your friends about some of the things you’ve done. If you check in at a particular location more often than anyone else, you’re considered the Mayor of that location.

Friends that follow you on Foursquare will see where you’ve checked in and, who knows, maybe they’ll join you at the coffee shop while you’re relaxing there in the evening. You can also leave tips at each location when you check in. Want to let your friends know about the appetizer they should order at the new restaurant in town or let them know where the best place to park for a Colts game is? Leave a tip and anyone on Foursquare can view it.

Still confused? Here’s a quick video from HowCast that explains Foursquare in a nutshell:

Why should I use Foursquare?

Part of the reason to use Foursquare is the same reason you use any other social media platform; to connect with people you know. The difference with Foursquare is that you’re broadcasting what you’re doing while you’re doing it and you can see what your friends are up to at the same time. Foursquare’s real benefit becomes apparent when you’re in a new city. Are you in Chicago for a conference and looking for a place to eat dinner? Fire up Foursquare to see what the locals recommend. By checking in and leaving tips at the places you frequent, you could provide just the help a visitor is looking for.

Create An Account:

Creating your Foursquare account is simple. Go to Foursquare.com and click on the big Join Now button. Fill out the standard account information; name, email, current location, etc. then head to the next step. You can easily add your Twitter or Facebook friends who already have Foursquare accounts and you can invite other friends who haven’t yet signed up for Foursquare.

Connect Your Phone:

Now that you’ve got a Foursquare account, you need to connect it to your mobile phone. Foursquare makes this very easy if you have a smartphone (iPhone, Blackberry, Palm or an Android-based phone). Simply visit Foursquare.com on your mobile device and download the app for your phone. The Foursquare apps available for each mobile device are simple and easy to use, just fire them up and enter your login information to get started.There are also a host of other applications that allow you to check in with Foursquare, but the easiest thing is to download the official Foursquare app for your phone.

If you don’t have a smartphone but you can access the internet on your phone, you can still check-in by visiting m.foursquare.com. If you don’t have a smartphone or a web-enabled phone, it’s time for you to upgrade . Seriously, though, you can check in by sending a text message if your phone can’t connect to the internet.

Start Checking In:

Now that you’ve downloaded your Foursquare app, you can start checking in at your favorite locations. Load your Foursquare app and start checking in and leaving tips. If you’re don’t have a web-enabled phone, you can still check in via text. Send a text message to 50500 (like this: @ Ace Bar ! Playing skeeball)

If you’re read some of my previous posts, you’ll know that I really like HootSuite and use it for my social media management. Not only does it aggregate Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, WordPress and MySpace, (yeah, I said MySpace. Who even uses MySpace anymore?) but with each new release, they add better and better functionality. I’ve written about how to manage your social media initiatives with HootSuite as well as some of HootSuites Expanded Capabilities, but today’s post will focus on the new features in HootSuite5.

Of all the upgrades in HootSuite5, you’ll need an HTML5-capable browser to take advantage of some of the best ones. I won’t go into HTML5 too much, but it’s one of the next big things on the internet and will enable much easier web coding and interactivity. The following browsers are HTML5-capable, and you if you ant to take advantage of the best features of HootSuite5, you should download one of them:

• Firefox 3.6
• Chrome 5
• Safari 5
• Internet Explorer 8

Geolocation-based Search

With HootSuite5, you can easily narrow your Twitter searches to just people in your area. If you’ve used Twitter Search to look for trending topics, you’ll noticed that unless you’re very specific with what you’re searching for, you’ll get a lot of tweets that may have nothing to do with your search. Many times, you’ll even see tweets in foreign languages. By utilizing an HTML5-capable browser’s geolocation capabilities, you can search more effectively, using local Tweeters to help answer your queries.

Integrated Google Analytics

If you’re anything like me, you spend a bit of time each month tracking your analytics, especially as it relates to your social media initiatives. If you use Google Analytics to track data on your site, you no longer have to go back and forth between multiple browser windows or tabs to see your analytics data – HootSuite has baked it in with HootSuite5. Once you start tweeting, you can even see your standard webstats and how many visits you received through your HootSuite Tweets!

Another tip for more accurate analysis of traffic to your website through your HootSuite shortened links: When you hover over the Shrink URL field, you can click on Advanced and then you can add custom source information to the end of EVERY link you shorten through HootSuite’s Ow.ly/Ht.ly URL shortener. Since I use Google Analytics, I’ve included the `utm_source=` and `utm_medium=` fields so I can easily see that a referral link came through HootSuite. If you use another analytics package, you should be able to append other information to the end of your URLs so you can track them as well.

Use Either Classic Retweets or New Retweets

If you’re a bit fuzzy on the difference between a ‘classic retweet’ and a ‘new retweet’ check out my Sharing, Retweeting and Mentions on Facebook and Twitter post. Older versions of HootSuite only allowed you to use the ‘classic retweet’ option, which meant that you could add your own comments, but you may have had to shorten or modify the tweet so it would still fit within the 140-character limit. The ‘new retweet’ option is the default in HootSuite5, and allows for one-click retweeting of content. Since it is the default, if you want to go back to the ‘classic retweet’ simply click on the owl at the top left, then select, Settings -> Preferences and uncheck the box next to Use Twitter Web retweets.

Enhanced Facebook Features

With older versions of HootSuite, when you posted a link to Facebook, the URL would simply show up in your status, but it wouldn’t include any of the rich options that are included when you include a link directly from Facebook. For that reason, I didn’t use HootSuite to post links to Facebook very often. That’s all changed with HootSuite5 and when you include a link to post to Facebook, a new dialog box comes up that allows you choose in image from the linked-to page as well as include some further description beneath the link – just like it works if you post the link directly from Facebook. This is a huge improvement in my book.

Drag and Drop Images to Twitter

This is another one off the features that you’ll need an HTML5-capable browser to use. Rather than having to click on the upload an image button and search for the image on your computer, you can now just drag the image and drop it right into the HootSuite5 status box. HootSuite automatically uploads it to their servers and spits back out a shortened URL directly to your image. This is just another great feature of HTML5 and HootSuite5.

There are still a few more new features in HootSuite5, but I’ve covered some of the most important ones. You can find the full list of updates on HootSuite’s blog.

Enhanced Team Collaboration:

In an effort to expand team collaboration, HootSuite has changed the way users manage accounts.  When you add an account, you’ll be asked if you are the owner. As an owner, you can give access to the account to other team members who also manage the account. As account owner, you have full control of adding or deleting members. Since the account owner can give access to team members, each member can manage those accounts (Twitter, Facebook, etc) through HootSuite without needing to know the master password for each social media account. This just enhances the privacy for those accounts and puts the organization in control of their social media accounts.

The video below should give you a good feel for HootSuite’s expanded team collaboration features.

Reply All Feature:

If you’ve ever tried to reply to a tweet where multiple people are mentioned, you know it’s a bit of a hassle to type in everyone’s handle. HootSuite has fixed that problem by implementing their Reply All feature.

Simply hover over  the right-hand corner of any tweet and click on the down arrow. Then click on Reply All and your updates box will automatically populate with the twitter handles of everyone mentioned in the Tweet. This makes replying to multiple people in the same message easy.

Hootsuite University:

HootSuite University is another featured that was launched last week. Beginning on May 1, HootSuite will offer their HootSuite Professional Program. The program includes HootSuite Training Certification, a monthly webinar and a place for members to network, share ideas and talk with one another. For more information click on the image below or visit Learn.HootSuite.com.

If you have an iPhone, you can start managing your social media efforts from your cell phone. If you have an Android phone or a Blackberry, rest assured that HotSuite is working on an app for you as well.

Are you using HootSuite to manage your social media efforts? If not, how do you manage them?

While the Foursquare App isn’t live for everyone just yet, you can visit Maps.Bing.com and click on the Map Apps button (If you can’t see the button, click on Try It Now within the Explore the new Bing Maps button on the left side of the page) and load up their Twitter App to get a feel for how the Foursquare App will work. This kind of integration of location and user generated content is invaluable for tourism. Imagine you’re planning a trip to the Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood; simply point your browser to Bing Maps, load up the Foursquare App and you can plan your trip confident that you’re getting suggestions from the people who frequent the attractions, hotels and restaurants in the area.