I’ve often been asked by small businesses which social media platform they should use to engage with their customers and drive traffic to their websites. My advice, much to their chagrin as it means a bigger investment of time, has always been Twitter and facebook. I personally find Twitter to be more dynamic and a more interactive platform. Facebook, on the other hand, allows you to attract more attention by means of photos and videos, thereby driving more traffic to your website. I was happy to see my suspicions confirmed in the following infographic. This infographic, sourced from Mashable, was created by Postling based on analysis of 20,000 Postling users of how small businesses use social media. The results provide great insights into how small businesses utilise social media and which platforms are the best for which purpose.

My presentation at WTM 2011 (image courtesy of Oliver Gradwell)

On 7th November 2011, I gave a presentation at the World Travel Market (WTM) in London about the value that travel bloggers can provide to the tourism industry to help increase brand visibility and sales. My presentation was part of a session organised by Travel Bloggers Unite and WTM, and I was honoured to share the floor with Janice Waugh from the Solo Traveler blog and Jaume Marin from the Costa Brava Tourism Board.

After several years of attending WTM as a travel blogger and having the feeling that I had to knock down walls to get heard, WTM 2011 turned out to be an uplifting experience. Judging by the enthusiastic response to my presentation, it’s clear that the value proposition offered by social media, and specifically, travel bloggers, is starting to turn heads in the tourism industry. For the first time at WTM, presentations and panel discussions on social media and blogging were included in the official WTM programme. The response was quite overwhelming: my session with Janice and Jaume was oversubscribed and many people were turned away. For those who didn’t get to attend the session, here are my slides, including a short explanation for each slide:

Slide 1: Travel bloggers are multi-skilled and driven by their passion for travel

100 people. A cosy venue. Experts who shared their expertise. And FREE wi-fi that worked!

The Travel Bloggers Unite conference March 2011 in Manchester brought together travel bloggers from around the world as well as representatives from PR agencies, tourism boards and online marketing companies. The result was a weekend of serious networking, new insights, lots of fun and many new friends.

The conference

TBU11 kicked off with a networking event at Manchester’s People’s History Museum. It was a terrific event where the wine and beer flowed and canapés were served under a canopy of bras (yes, you read it right… bras!). It was fascinating to observe these travel bloggers flitting across the hall, business card in hand, introducing themselves to other bloggers, PR people and reps from various tourism boards. It was evident that travel blogging has evolved into a serious business, and travel bloggers, once travel writers or hobby bloggers, have become entrepreneurs.

It was only fitting then that my keynote speech the next day was titled: “The Business of Travel Blogging“. I spoke about the origins of the Velvet Escape blog, as well as identifying and developing revenue streams and creating a strong personal brand. The video below (courtesy of Quno Spotter) is the first of a five-part recording of my presentation.

To watch the other four parts and the Q&A, please click here.

Cheers to a successful blog trip!

I was in Tuscany last week for a blog trip organised by Avventurosa (a social media specialist based in Milan) and Casa Gentili (a B&B located in Avane, outside Pisa). The theme of the trip was “Like a Local Between Pisa & Lucca” and it lasted four days. There were visits to gelaterias, museums, monasteries, agriturismos, historic villas, and restaurants as well as tours of the countryside, Lucca and a cooking course.

Promoting local businesses in real-time

Five bloggers were invited for the trip: Me, Abigail King, Nellie Huang, Isabelle Kenis and Simon Falvo. This trip is a prime example of how a small group of travel bloggers effectively utilise various social media platforms to promote a destination and many local businesses… in real-time! During the course of the trip, we kept our Twitter and facebook followers up-to-date with short messages, videos and many photos. We used the hashtag #TuscanyTrip for all our tweets.

Shoot & tweet at the cooking course

The resulting buzz that was generated by this trip was simply incredible. People from all over the world followed us as we biked through the Tuscan countryside, gaped at the splendour of historic monuments and indulged ourselves with the fruits of the land. During the cooking course, in which we prepared a variety of pasta dishes, thousands of people followed us via tweets and photos as we made fresh tagliatelle. As we kneaded and stirred, our followers (from Colombia to the US and UK to South Korea) responded to our tweets with questions and comments. The name “Tuscany” became a top travel trending topic on Twitter (according to Wanderlisting) on two of the four days we were there!

Interest from local authorities

The buzz generated from this trip soon reached the offices of various tourism boards and the local press. An official from the province of Pisa visited us to learn more about this innovative approach to marketing the region. We talked about the value that social media and blogging can offer and showed him how we worked. A day later, we were featured in the local La Nazione newspaper and another local paper, La Voce del Serchio. Along the way, we added many local individuals as well as businesses to our Twitter and facebook networks.

Travel bloggers grace the pages of La Nazione newspaper

The buzz continues – part II

We started blogging about our experiences as soon as we returned home. The buzz continued, this time via our blog posts. I decided to run a check of the reach of the hashtag #TuscanyTrip, four days after the end of the trip. The stunning results can be seen below:

source: Hashtracking.com

Five bloggers generated 260,517 impressions on Twitter and reached 213,078 people with their content!

The benefits of this blog trip will continue as we publish more posts about our experiences in the weeks or months to come. This blog trip successfully grabbed the attention of local and regional tourism boards and travel companies/organisations and I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from them. We’ve also agreed with Marco (from Casa Gentili) to supply him with links to our blog posts which he will then forward to guests who book at his B&B, thereby introducing our blogs to a wider audience. A win-win for all!

The Buzz continues – part III  (update July 2011)

Several months down the road, the fruits of the blog trip are evident. A great variety of posts have been published and an excellent case study of the Tuscany blog trip was made with contributions from the five bloggers. Here are some of my favourites:

• “V is for Vespa – Making Engineering Sexy” by Abigail King
• “Culinary Education in Tuscany” by Nellie Huang
• “Like an Earl at Villa Corliano” by Simon Falvo
• “A Jewel to Discover – Lucca” by Isabelle Kenis
• “Enchanting spots: Calci Charterhouse” by Keith Jenkins

Many of these posts have been syndicated to Lonely Planet. In addition, some of these posts were featured by the likes of National Geographic Intelligent Traveler and EasyJet.

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve been invited to conduct a presentation on travel blogging at the Travel Bloggers Unite 2011 conference in Manchester, England on 26-27th March. It will be my second ‘gig’ this year, after my presentation on social media at the British Guild of Registered Tour Guides in London earlier this month.

‘The Business of Travel Blogging’

Whereas my presentation to the tour guides focused on utilising social media such as blogs, facebook and twitter to build a personal brand and gain exposure, my presentation in Manchester will focus on my experiences as a travel blogger. Points that I will include in my ‘The Business of Travel Blogging’ presentation are:

• Your blog: a hobby or a business?
• The importance of networking
• Developing a personal brand
• Growing your blog
• Challenges and the gratification of travel blogging
• Blogging and travelling

I’m really looking forward to it and I hope to see you at TBU11!

More information on TBU11

We’ll be bringing you 2 full days of networking and advice from top industry experts at the Travel Bloggers Unite annual conference, taking place in Manchester, England on the 26th and 27th of March 2011.

Once a hotbed for the industrial revolution, Manchester is now at the forefront of the rapidly growing Social Media & Travel Revolution.

You can expect:

• Travel bloggers, PR and social media experts in attendance
• Inspirational keynote speakers
• Thought provoking panel discussions
• A series of informative and fun “How To” sessions from top industry experts, covering a variety of topics
• All in a fantastic venue in Manchester