Some Excellent Thoughts on Using Facebook for Business from Social Media Examiner

see http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/3-reasons-facebook-trumps-twitter-for-business/

Here are some of the best pieces of advice.

From their Editorial Guide

• EVERY single wall comment gets a reply.
• Break news or discuss controversial industry changes.
• Delete anything that is self-promotional.
• Post an interesting link to someone else’s article each day.
• Make sure to post a link to our daily articles AFTER our email updates go out (to ensure email folks get the news first).
• Regularly ask interesting (and sometimes fun) poll questions to get our fans engaged.
• And a LOT more.

Why Facebook Works
For example, if you frequent a fan page, Facebook knows you care about that page and shows you popular posts and discussions from that fan page in your live feed, above others.  If done right, this is marketing gold!

When your Facebook page shows up in the live feed of your fans, it encourages rapid discussions and a chain reaction.  When your fans engage in those discussions, it shows up on their walls.  Their friends discover your page and your following grows.

In this regard, Facebook is like blog comments on steroids.  When people interact with your brand, you are building community.  This moves people from passive observers to advocates.  And that’s a powerful marketing weapon.

A Smackdown Between the CEOs of Homeaway and TripAdvisor

The CEOs of Homeaway and TripAdvisor go at it over at Tnooz.

My favourite quote is from the CEO of Tripadvisor, Stephen Kaufer

“...it's still a little on the risky side when you rent a property from HomeAway because you are sending a check off into the wilderness and you don’t have a lot of guarantees that you will have a great time,” 

Stephen, here at TripInquiry, we couldn't agree more. So much so that we have reserved your very own TripInquiry email address for you. Just use Stephen.Kaufer@tripinquiry.com the next time you inquire about a vacation rental and you too can experience simple secure vacation rentals.

S

More Acquisitions in the Vacation Rental space: TripAdvisor Buys HolidayLettings.co.uk

The M&A activity in the Vacation Rental sector continues apace.

HolidayLettings.co.uk was just bought by Tripadvisor. See here

This comes on top of Homeaways recent purchase of BedAndBreakfast.com and subsequent launch of language versions of this site in Europe.

The articles here are good and worth reading.

Shane

This is an Incredible Video on the Power / Prevalence of Social Media

Its form Eric Qualman author of Socialnomics



Here are some money quotes

- 1 out of 8 couples marrying in the US met via social media.

- If it were a country, Facebook would be the third largest, but it is an also ran in China.

- 50% of the mobile internet traffic in the UK is for Facebook

- What happens in Vegas stays in .... Facebook

- We will no longer search for products and services, they will find us via social media.

- The ROI of Social Media is your business will still exist in 5 years.

TripInquiry helps the vacation home industry reach out to consumers through social media.

Shane

Traffic to Social Media Sites Overtakes Search Engine Traffic

According to Hitwise via Tnooz, web traffic to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter just edged past traffic to search engine sites.

This comes in the same week that Steve Jobs had a go at the the Search Sovereign (Google) saying

“If you are looking for a place to eat, will you search on your phone or open the Yelp application”?

Here at TripInquiry, we firmly believe that social media is going to replace search for many things - not least of which: finding a vacation rental home to stay in.

Shane

Inspiration, Recommendation, Discovery (and a List). The Essential Preludes to a Successful Travel Transaction

There is an interesting article from Tnooz here on developments and innovation in the travel sector. They make the point very well, that well in advance of a travel transaction, there is Inspiration, Recommendation and Discovery.

At TripInquiry, we believe that social media sites, such as Facebook, are ideally suited to inspiration, recommendation and discovery. After all, who better to inspire you, recommend to you and help you discover, than your friends. 

However once you have done all that you need a simple, easy to use tool to organise your thoughts.

This is what has inspired Tripinquiry

Shane

Google: The Average Traveller Spends 6.7 weeks Searching the Web

Interesting quote from the Shearwater Blog

" Google research found that the average traveller spends 6.7 weeks searching the web and performs 8.1 travel related searches before booking."


This certainly chimes with what we think with regard to the difficulties in finding vacation rentals.

Shane

Travel Inspiration and the Bow Tie Revenue Model for Arilines

Over at the Shearwater blog, (innovation and ancilliary revenue for airlines), Martin Collings has come up with the Bow Tie model to describe how travel inspiration feeds into airline ticket purchases and and sales of ancilliary products.

It is a good read. I recommend it.

He has done some research and reckons that the average lead time for an air ticket purchase for a vacation destination is 80 odd days, and that for rental cars and the like is 7.

Shane