The 4TM Social Media Training Centre
On Wednesday I went to a lunch time presentation at the Horizions building, a great business centre just outside Forres Moray
4TH Social Media Training Centre is a new venture with Rene Looper and David Sims, I have mentioned Rene and this event in a previous post. The event was an introduction to the business benefits of social media. David gave a clear explaination of how social media developed and how it has grown exponentially over the last 3 years. Something like 50% of the population are now reading blogs, watching Utube or social networking. Another interesting fact was that there is now more social networking on the web than porn, it seem that communicating with each other is a better use for the computer.
David showed some great examples of social media sites including Rene’s face book page, and there was my face on the screen as one of Rene’s Face book friends! The key message was that traditional advertising may generate 5% to 10% response ( if you are lucky) and personal recomendation can generate responses well over 50%. This is becoming so big that companies are setting up internal blogging and social media systems to encourage staff communication. This is not some silicone valley early adopter, he was talking about big companies like BT and News Intenational. That particular project is being personally championed by Rupert Murdoch - at 77 years that has to be an inspiration.
David having set the scene handed the presentation over to Rene who went on to show the audience how this can be applied to the tourist industry. To prove a point he set up a virtual B&B using his Inverness home. One Sunday afternoon a few weeks back he created a blog on wordpress http://creevale.wordpress.com/ and within a couple of days he was getting traffic and booking enquiries. He passed these early requests on to local B&B’s, but after a few weeks and realizing he missed his hotel routes he and Pamela have started taking guests!
The point was that the site had been promoted using social media, it had a short Utube sequence of the garden, links to tripadviser, laterooms.com and his facebook page. The biggest boost was created by getting feedback and back links to the page from these sites. Rene then showed us some of his favorite Utube videos. Some of these uploads were just pieces of film shot by happy customers. One of the hotel clips had so many hits, and they had no idea it was on utube until guests started telling them. Some guests had made the decision to visit having seen the utube film.
It was a powerful message and it has got me thinking about how I can help and support you my customers in this great opportuniuty. The main objective of the event was to inform and to get feedback on what sort of training people would be interested in. If you want to know more go and see 4TH Social Media Training Centre
The event was followed by a light lunch laid on by the Horizion team (thank you). It was a great chance to catch up with people. I met up with wild life specialist Dr Deborah Benham (I worked with her earlier this year) who has been instrumental in making the Dolphin Space Programmme such a success. This is a project to encourage boat operators to practice responsible dolphin watching. Her new project Wild at Heart Eco Holidays looks like an exciting opportunity for wildlife tourism as it should be.
Another familiar face Marion Walker, a marketeer like myself that has abandoned the city life for the rural idyl . We chatted shop and both agreed that with all of this media doom and gloom our time is now. This means being the best at what we do and holding the faith for our customers, now is the time to market market market. Following the presentation by Rene and David with social media tools marketing by recommendation has become easier and there has never been a better time to start, If you stop talking to your customers they will think you have gone.
