We’ve created a short how-to guide on using Google+ pages for destination marketing. We hope that convention and visitors bureaus, cities, and others in the tourism industry will find it useful.

You can download the guide here:  Google+ for tourism, CVBs, and cities 

Best,

Jacinta Langford Hoyt
LangfordMedia

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Google+ for Tourism, CVBs, and Cities

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TIME FOR A SMOOTHIE! That’s what you may hear over the speakers at Zarco 66 when you go fill up your gas tank at five o’clock in the morning. You’ll be going there that early in the day because if you are one of the first five people to check in to a Zarco 66 on Foursquare, you will get ten cents off per gallon of gas that you purchase.  

Not many better ways to entice customers to your gas station than giving discounts on an expensive necessity like gas. There are five Zarco locations offering the special, three of them in Lawrence.

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Zarco 66 Pumping Out Foursquare Deals

Technorati Tags: lawrence

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Big East: Goodbye Reese’s, Hello Twitter?

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It’s hard keeping up with all the Facebook Page updates lately! The latest one I came across involved being able to rename the app on your page sidebar. Click “Edit Page”>Apps>”edit settings” in the app of your choosing.

Happy editing!

*As noted by @bailann below, you cannot edit “basic pages” like Notes, Photos, etc.

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Rename app tabs in Facebook Page

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I’m sure over the last few weeks you’ve noticed Facebook has been rolling out a new look for profiles. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when it comes to the new profile:

Photos at the top. The photos at the top display the last five recent photos you’ve been tagged in. In case you’re not happy with what is displayed, you can simply hover over the photo you’d like to remove at the top and click on the little ‘x’.

Featured Friends. You can now highlight your closest friends by clicking on “Featured Friends” when editing your profile. Once you’ve added which friends to feature, they will show up on the left sidebar of your profile page.

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Customizing the new Facebook profile

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Google Goggles has teamed up with five companies to test using Goggles as a way to further engage customers.

More information on the experiment can be found here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/offline-meet-online-marketing.html

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Google Goggles Marketing Experiment

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We talk a lot about the need for a business to have a social media presence.  A situation may arise at any moment in which a business can bring a new customer in the door.  That very situation occurred on Twitter just last week.

Fox College Sports sideline reporter Samantha Steele rolled into Lawrence, Kansas last Thursday for the University of Kansas Jayhawks football game* taking place on the following Saturday night.  She arrived to town seeking a couple of things.

Let us disregard the fact that she was in New York prior to coming to Lawrence because, apparently, Lawrence is the place to be to get your hair done.

Samantha received multiple responses from Lawrence twitterers about where she could get her hair done.  Rejuvene Salon & Spa was one of the suggestions for her and because Rejuvene actively uses Twitter, they were able to respond in a timely manner.  A time was set up and Rejuvene had a new client (and possibly earned future customers).  Yes, it was that easy.

Your business needs a strong social media presence because someone may be discussing your business.  It’s important that you are able to respond to those comments.  In this case, someone was looking for a service.  A business was suggested by someone else to provide this service.  That business was there to answer that call.

Through Twitter, Samantha Steele found a haircut and Rejuvene found a new customer.  If only, for my sanity, the Kansas Jayhawks football team can find an offense by 11:00 am on Saturday.

*I’m trying hard to erase the memory of the game because Kansas lost while only scoring three points.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Three points.

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Twitter and the Curious Case of Samantha Steele’s Hair

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I’ve struggled lately coming up with blog posts.  I feel like we’ve read it all before. There are so many social media blogs out there, I think it’s hard to differentiate one from the other. How many blogs just seem to regurgitate the same things about social media? Do I really need to write one more? There has to be some ways around this problem.

I understand that there is a need for us to talk about the common issues (Twitter etiquette, Foursquare marketing, Facebook pages) on here because people need to know LangfordMedia addresses these needs in the social media marketplace. However, I think social media blogs can be redundant. I don’t want this one to be just another redundancy.*

I don’t want to simply rehash a post from Mashable and call it good. I’ve tried to create a mix of talking about the major social media platforms and connecting it to something about me or my community.  Such as, finding a local business that is using social media to evolve its business strategy.  Perhaps a local bar is offering a Foursquare special.  I think every post needs something to make it feel real and unique.

A social media blog is going to speak about Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare a lot, obviously, but there needs to be a connection to something that makes the post yours.  A blog needs its own identity.  I’m not necessarily saying that I’ve accomplished this goal with everything that I have written because I know that I haven’t.  I will continue to strive to because we don’t want to be camouflaged in the vast land of social media.

Any thoughts on how to differentiate your blog from all the others?

*Redundancies always make me think of the British version of The Office: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vigyy3hpXPk

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Social Media Blog Regurgitation

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There is a new player in the location-based service market.  GroupTabs is a startup that is being billed as a cross between Groupon and Foursquare.  The idea is for a business to offer a deal if enough people check in to the location.  It is currently being tested in New York City and the first deal just happened last week.

The next deal takes place Saturday.

The deal tips when ten check-ins are reached.  The customer shows up to the bar and checks in using the mobile web based app.  GroupTabs will only allow you to check in once you are at the venue.   Users can also RSVP before hand so others can have an idea whether or not the deal has a good chance to take place.  The idea is to try to get numerous people in the door at once with the hope that some of those people will be new customers.

As JP Manninen at VentureBeat writes, “The biggest problem for location-based services these days is that they are rewarding people who already frequent a certain venue.”  GroupTabs aims to fix that problem by offering a business the opportunity to set a deal which a mass of people have to unlock.

This appears to be another positive step in the location-based service marketplace.  I think that this has great potential and seem like it would of great use to restaurants and bars.  Hopefully the testing in New York goes well enough and GroupTabs opens up in other cities soon.

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GroupTabs-Groupon Meets Foursquare

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Let’s say you’re attending a social function at which you meet a lot of new people. Do you greet each person the same way? Do you actually say, “Hi, pleasure to meet you. Please be sure to check out my site” and then spout off the web address? I don’t think so. Instead of greeting someone with “hello, nice to meet you”, do you decide to share some “cute” saying that is supposed to make me think about the meaning of knowing you? I certainly hope not. Neither of these greetings will make someone want to talk to you for very long. Now let’s apply this to Twitter. It’s better known as the automated direct message.

I decide to follow you. Obviously, I have decided to follow you for a reason. Maybe you were recommended by a fellow twitterer or you just tweet about a topic of interest to me. Moments after I click the button to follow, I receive an email. I’m notified of a direct message sent from you.

So, the first response I get from you is a direct message? Why? We haven’t had any communication yet? What could you possibly need to say to me in private? Oh, you wanted to send me a link to your blog or company website. Maybe you were trying to sell something or maybe you wanted to share what you think is an intelligent quote with me. Stop.

This should not be our first communication. You should not send me a preconceived message that you send to every other twitter follower that you have. You definitely shouldn’t send me a link pushing a product or site. One of the things Twitter is supposed to be about is sharing information; not shoving it at me without me asking.

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The Auto DM

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