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.

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I spent Friday at Blog Indiana, a great social media and blogging conference  based in Indianapolis. It was a great chance to run into some social media and tourism people from Indianapolis and a chance to finally put a face to some names I’ve gotten to know through social media.

Day 1 Highlights:

• Getting the chance to “tag” ourselves by wearing buttons that described what we did and specialized in – such a great idea.
• Getting to hear Jason Falls (@JasonFalls – Social Media Explorer) speak about conversational marketing
• Listening to a panel of Jason Falls, Chris Baggott (@ChrisBaggott – Compendium) and the newest Hoosier, Jay Baer (@JayBaer – Convince and Convert) speak about blogs and your blog readers and how to reach them.
• Lisa Vielee (@LisaVielee – Gracie Communications) mentioned the Indiana Insider Blog as an example of how to build a blogging community.
• Catching up with Doug Karr (@DouglasKarr – DK New Media) and hearing him mention the Wibiya bar as a great tool to use on a website – I’ve been using it for a while now.
• Finally getting to meet Chris Theisen (@CJTheisen – Hare Chevy), Heather Richey (@hnrichey – Conner Prairie), Josh Humble (@tkographix – TKO Graphix) and Lisa Vielee.

Thanks to Noah Coffey (@NoahWesley) and Sean Plew (@HoosierPlew) as well as all the other presenters for putting on a great conference this year.

Since I’ll be at BlogIndiana tomorrow, I’m posting the weekly Four On Friday a day early. Here are some great posts from the past week about social media:

1: Facebook Places Makes Location a Commodity | ReadWriteWeb

Social Mediarology thinks: With Wednesday’s release of Facebook Places, what does this mean for location-based services in general and for Foursquare and Gowalla specifically? This post hints at the idea that the commoditization of location that Facebook Places could provide might just allow services like Foursquare and Gowalla to focus on providing rich features to users, rather than having to spend so much time on location accuracy.

2: The 8 Wrong Questions PR Firms are Asking About Social Media | Convince and Convert

Social Mediarology thinks: Instead of clamoring to make sure you can provide social media service to your clients, make sure you can provide the RIGHT social media service to your clients. These tips can be extracted for whatever industry you happen to work in, not just if you work at a PR firm.

3: 100 Free High Quality WordPress Themes: 2010 Edition | Smashing Magazine

Social Mediarology thinks: Smashing Magazine delivers a fantastic list of 100 free WordPress themes. Take a look through to find what you’re looking for. Read our How To: Choose a Blogging Platform for Your Organization post to see if WordPress makes the most sense for your business.

4: BlogIndiana 2010

Social Mediarology thinks: We’ll be out of the office today at Blog Indiana 2010. This great event, now it it’s 3^rd year, features 35 different speakers from across the country talking about all kinds of digital topics, from blogging to social media and everything in between. If you missed this year’s event, be sure to check it out in 2011.

HootSuite just announced new Freemium pricing yesterday and here are the options. If you create a new HootSuite account today, you’ll have to choose between the different free or paid options and if you already have a HootSuite account, you’ll have to make your decision next week.

Interestingly enough, $99/month is not the top price point – the highest price plan is actually $1,999/month with Ow.ly Vanity URL service (see this page for more information). Beyond the fact that only the largest of organizations can afford nearly $50,000 a year for an SaaS social media management solution, I’m feeling a bit betrayed by HootSuite by their new pricing structure.

I’ve long been a supporter of HootSuite and have recommended it to anyone who manages their organization’s social media initiatives. I’ve even written about them several times on this blog. I don’t even mind that ads are included in the free plan. Most web users are used to seeing ads when they get something for free. And while I completely understand that HootSuite can’t continue to offer their product for free forever – no company can survive on unlimited VC funding without a solid revenue model – but I think they went about creating their paid accounts the wrong way.

Where Did HootSuite Go Wrong?

• First of all, only giving current users about a week to decide which plan to sign up for seems really quick. I’ve known that some kind of paid options was on its way for some time now, but the number and cost of options makes this a difficult decision to make in a week’s time.
• HootSuite has completely eliminated Team Members from the Free and $5/month options and even with the $20 option, you only get to add 1 team member. You have to move up to the $50/month plan in order to delegate your social media duties to more than one other team member.
• This feels like a bit of a bait & switch to me. Typically, when a service introduces paid options, they’ll include extra features and more in-depth analytics with their paid packages, but the free option usually stays the same. HootSuite is now crippling their free (and, in my opinion even their $5/month) option by limiting the number of social networks and RSS feeds.

What Could HootSuite Have Done Differently?

• Give current HootSuite users more of a heads-up and the ability to switch between the different account options for a month or so to better determine which package they would need to continue using HootSuite for their organization’s social media management.
• Create fewer, more simplified options. Rather than 4 paid options (not including the Enterprise option) HootSuite could have offered $10, $25 or $50 per month options in addition to their free plan. These options could contain escalating features, but this could offer users a more simplified way to choose their plans. They could have also offered a one-time fee to  “purchase” any of the plans, rather than paying by the month.
• HootSuite also should have either left the free option as it was (with the ability to add Team Members and manage more than 5 accounts and more than 1 RSS feed) and added more advanced features for paid users, or they should have implemented their paid structure before introducing all of their advanced features. By implementing so many great features, then putting many of them behind the pay wall, I wouldn’t be surprised if HootSuite sees a significant amount of users defect to other platforms.

Is HootSuite Still Worth Using?

In a word…Absolutely. I still think HootSuite is the best and most complete social media management tool out there and even though most of its best features are only available to paid members now, it’s still worth looking into for your organization. While you’ll have to decide for yourself whether it’s worth $20 or $50 per month for the more in-depth features, I still think HootSuite offers more than its competitors.

If you’re interested in checking out an alternative to HootSuite, you should look into Seesmic (both web- and desktop-based versions), CoTweet (web-based) and TweetDeck (desktop-based). Seesmic and TweetDeck also have iPhone and Android versions available. In fact, Seesmic, TweetDeck, CoTweet and others would do themselves a big favor if they started courting frustrated HootSuite users like Posterous’ campaign to woo users from Blogger and from Wordress.

Have you used HootSuite before? If so, does their new pricing structure make you rethink using them to manage your social media initiatives?

Here are some great posts from the past week about social media:

1: The Social Media Cheatsheet | Daily Bloggr

Social Mediarology thinks: Great, simple infographic that details what 10 different social media sites are good for – from Customer Communication and Brand Exposure to Traffic to Your Site and SEO.

2: Android Now Top-selling Smartphone Operating System | Mashable

Social Mediarology thinks: While it’s important to note that there are only 4 versions of the iPhone (and only one manufacturer) and there are countless versions and manufacturers of Android devices, this is still very important to note. No longer can you simply focus on an iPhone app for development – Android must be top of mind as well.

3: How to Create a Killer Social Media Strategy | Business Insider

Social Mediarology thinks: The short answer is to focus your activities to the social media platforms that matter. If you’re not sure where to start, take a look at your competitors and see what successes and setbacks they’ve experienced.

4: RIP Google Wave | Mashable

Social Mediarology thinks: Google Wave, possibly the most hyped tech-related launch of 2009, was just officially discontinued. It will be supported through the end of 2010. It just seems that Google can’t figure out how to get an edge in the Social market – with the failure of Wave and the relative small use of Buzz. For more thoughts on Google, check out my “Has Google Lost Its Edge?” post from earlier this year.

Here are some great posts from the past week about social media:

1: The Ultimate List: 300+ Social Media Statistics | Hubspot

Social Mediarology thinks: While this is a somewhat dated list (May, 2010) there’s still a wealth of information to be found here. My favorite stat: Nearly 30% of all link sharing is done via Facebook (24%) and Twitter (10.8%).

2: Old Spice Sales Double with YouTube Campaign | Mashable

Social Mediarology thinks: The old economists’ adage that “correlation does not equal causation” is certainly true in this case, but you can’t argue that the campaign has contributed to sales. If nothing else, it created a tremendous amount of brand awareness.

3: Google Introduces Location-Aware Mobile Display Ads | TechCrunch

Social Mediarology thinks: This could be huge for any tourism-related business. Attractions, hotels, restaurants, etc. This brings the location-awareness of apps like Foursquare to the general public.

4: 5 Critical Web Metrics to Keep a Close Eye On | ReadWriteWeb

Social Mediarology thinks: These are five great metrics. Some related to your website, some to Facebook and some to Twitter. Do you notice you have more Daily Active Uses on Facebook when you ask questions? Post more? Offer discounts? Check out the insights for your Facebook Fan Page at Facebook.com/Insights and unclick Total Likes to get a better look at your Daily Active Users.

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

5: The Time for Foursquare Marketing is…Later? [STUDY] | Mashable

Social Mediarology thinks: We’ve been talking about Foursquare a lot lately and so have many other people. Mashable reports that

Only 4% of the adult, Internet-using population has used any kind of location-based service, and just 1% of all adults check into a location at least once a week.

While that’s true, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least think about integrating Foursquare into your marketing efforts. Especially if your target demographic is more likely to have a Foursquare account.