Photo courtesy of WTM
I thought that this would be a topical subject, especially as we have one of the biggest events of the year coming up in the form of
WTM from 7-10 November.
If I could convert the number of times that colleagues have said to me “I wish I’d done more networking” into cash I would be a very rich person. For those of us that have worked in corporate life we often draw on the friendships we make in companies we work for and rely too much on those for our social life. Then the inevitable restructuring happens and you are facing redundancy or decide that it’s time to move on but don’t know who to call for advice or help.
I remember when I first left Thomas Cook I thought I had lost part of my family. My decision to leave was actually a conscious choice and led to all manner of interesting opportunities. However I can imagine how much more distressing it would have been, had it been a redundancy situation, without a good personal network.
Networking is often misunderstood and some people think it’s just about calling people when we need something but the complete opposite is true and it’s all about what you can do for others. The real benefit of networking is having a trusted circle of friends and colleagues that can rely on you to help them and not expecting something back in return. I really believe in the principle of karma which means that a good deed often leads to something positive happening to you in return, but not always from the recipient of your original good deed.
Many years ago during the dot com boom years I met a very interesting woman called Carole Stone,
an ex BBC producer, who had just written a book called “
Networking, the art of making friends” and I invited her to come and share her pearls of wisdom with members of a network I was involved with. Carole had been running a number of networking events at her home in Covent Garden which I was lucky enough to attend. I also discovered she had an address book to die for with no less than 17,000 people on it. Many of the good and great came to listen to Carole and I thought I’d share some of her top tips with you. Carole is an amazing “socialite” and still runs her famous networking events, now called
The Stone Club. The wonderful quality about Carole is that she is as open as ever and works hard to support young people to find the first step on their career path, by connecting them to the many experienced people in her network that can best help them. Rather than fill her flat with people every week Carole now rents premises in Central London. Carole has the knack of mixing the most amazing diverse group of people. Maybe not quite as diverse as this group of party goers we came across at a Colombian fiesta whilst on holiday last Christmas.
I’m aware that many of you will be busy preparing for the WTM where networking is so important so I thought I’d share some top tips that might help to get the most out of the show, drawing on some of my learning from Carole.
1. Advance planning is key
This means creating your target list of companies and individuals that you want to work with and doing your homework on the individuals. One of the best tools for doing this is Linkedin. I recommend that you join Linkedin groups that may be relevant to your industry sector (you can join up to 50). When you are in the same group you can often make a direct approach to the people that you want to connect to.
However don’t spam people with a sales message but make your intro message very specific and do your homework on the company and explain why you want to connect. Find a common connection which will help to build rapport. Often you can build a good reputation on a Linkedin group by contributing help and advice to other members. You can use the Linkedin company profiles to determine who the key decision makers are within each of your target companies. Don’t forget to join the WTM Linkedin
group to maximise your networking opportunities.
2. Keeping your Linkedin personal and company profile up to date
Make sure that your Linkedin profile has a photo, is up to date and explains what you can offer and what you are looking for. I recommend joining Slideshare to share some key top tips and embedding a video into your slideshare presentation so that people can opt to watch the video to get a better feel for you as a person. People buy from people and chemistry is important.
As an exhibitor you can create a short introductory presentation and invite people and your buyers to preview that first and then invite them to meet you on the stand. The WTM site enables you to schedule appointments. In this way you’ve got a bit of a head start over your competitors and saved your buyer valuable time at the show where they may be keen to schedule as many appointments as possible.
3. Tap in to the established travel agency networks
Many exhibitors use text or social media promotions to encourage travel agents to visit their stands by offering prizes and freebies. Remember that you ideally want them to learn something about your service or destination so make it informative and include some task they have to do on your website or fan page such as Facebook or Twitter to build more engagement and learning.
There are numerous UK communities of travel agents such as
Gazeteers,
TTG Digital,
Travelmole,
Travel Weekly or
Online Travel Training. Think about something of value that you can give to them such as a small guidebook, USB stick, DVD or attractive poster for your destination that they can share with their clients but remember that many visitors do not want to take anything too bulky or heavy. I’m amazed how many exhibitors still bring very heavy guide books which often end up in the bin at the end of the show. Let’s think about how much greener we can be about our display and our freebies.
4. Don’t forget the power of testimonials and referrals
Testimonials and referrals can be a powerful way of building relationships with new people so make sure that your network is fully briefed on who you are trying to reach and ask them for an introduction if they have them as a contact in their Linkedin network.
Photo courtesy of WTM
5. First time encounters - dos and don’ts
As a host at an event it is very important to make sure that everyone is warmly greeted on arrival and introduced to others. I’ve been to many social events over the years and the thing I hate to see is someone standing on their own. Fear of these situations will deter many interesting people from going to a business event. It is also not acceptable to ask professionals for a free consultation.
However the key to building rapport is to first listen hard which is something I’m not always good at doing. Ask about the other person and what is of interest to them and what brought them to the event. As Carole emphasizes, focus on open ended questions such as How, Why, What, When, Where?
If you are calling someone for the first time, make sure you check if it is a good time to speak, as this will build more rapport.
6. Follow up
When you have met someone then the key thing is to connect with them on Linkedin within 24 hours and follow up with them by email or text. Timeliness on this is key and you need to take responsibility for the follow up.
Sometimes I’m shy about asking for a business card but this is very important and if someone gives you one, always reciprocate.
7. Tips to stay in contact
This is the hardest part and takes considerable energy and commitment but can pay dividends. I have found that a monthly email newsy update is a good way to keep people up to date. However a follow up call or meeting is always the most powerful way to stay in touch as it enables you to learn much more about your colleague.
8. Sharing things of interest
If I come across something of interest that I think my colleagues will value then I’ll share it on Twitter or Linkedin. I’ve been a bit out of practice but the other thing I like to do is to find a good bar in London and invite everyone to meet up for a drink every few months which people enjoy. I try to be as generous as I can about enabling my contacts to meet each other.
Don’t forget to go to as many WTM social events as you can as you’ll often learn as much about what’s really going on in the industry from them.
9. Always deliver what you promise
This is another challenge but one you have to take seriously. If you promise to do something for someone then make sure that you follow through as soon as you can and be realistic with timeframes. Carole’s top tips include:
- Take notes on all action points
- Don’t rely on your memory
- Check spellings carefully for all names
- Make a friend of all “gatekeepers” such as Personal Assistants and Secretaries.
10. Tips to help remember names
This is something I struggle with especially with foreign names so I now try and use word association to remember someone’s name. If their name is Suraj I will think of a soaring eagle and an image of a Raj (king) so that I will remember it much more easily. This could be because I’m a visual so for those of you who have a more auditory sense you might find a similar sound of more help eg Graham could be “grey” and “ham”.
There is a speed networking event at WTM on 7
th November 2011 and you can find out more details on this event
here.
Other UK travel networking opportunities that you might enjoy are the
Travtweetups and the
Travel Bloggers Unite events plus those hosted by the UK Travel Associations such as
AWTE,
CIMTIG,
ITT and the
Tourism Society. Many of these travel organisations will be running WTM related events so don’t miss them. Don’t forget to register for WTM
here before 31 October to enter the prize draw.
If you found this blog of help, please like or tweet about it.
Have you got some good networking tips to share or any good articles or books on networking you can recommend?
Posted: 28/09/2011 22:09:32
These are questions I get asked a lot so I thought I’d combine a few tips to get you started on blogging with some tips on how to integrate your blog into Linkedin and Facebook.
I thought I’d also share some recent frustrations with Facebook that landed in my newsfeed this week. Many of you have probably seen the changes that they have made to the new stories and the new Ticker that they have put on the page which has definitely irritated quite a few users.
Here is the link if anyone wants to complain to Facebook directly about the recent changes.
http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-complain-2-2011-09 Judging from the number of times the complaints page has been shared, Facebook has had quite a barrage of complaints.
For a summary of all the recent Facebook changes and to vote on them, you can view them here on
Mashable.
Why blog at all?
Some of you may ask why blog at all so I thought I’d share some proofs that blogging will increase your website traffic. Have a look at the research from
Hubspot with their 1531 customers showing that those websites with blogs had 55% more visitors than those without. They also have a great free tool called
Bloggrader which will analyse your blog and tell you how you can optimise it further. Blogs can be a great first step to building rapport with your website visitors who may be somewhat reluctant to sign up for newsletters and other sales related literature but may be keen to read blogs if they contain some useful tips or information.
I recently interviewed Peter Shanks, the President of Cunard as to how he got started blogging and I thought his top tips might also be of interest to you. He also shared some thoughts on the blogs that inspired him to get started. You can read the interview
here.
OK, so here are some ways to get started:
Target audience
Firstly it’s important to think about your target audience. What do you think would be of interest and value to them?
Content plan
It’s worth spending some time to plan out key topics that you could cover. Have a think about events coming up in your calendar or which may be related to your blogs. A plan makes it easier to stay consistent with delivery of your blog. It saves you scrambling for a theme at the last moment as you realise another week has flown by and you need to write something urgently.
How often should I write a blog?
This depends on your market and audience but I would try for a minimum of one weekly to help to build your readership and think about guest bloggers and colleagues you could invite to blog on your website aswell.
Should I include a photo in my blog?
Photos and visuals add interest to a blog and I would recommend having at least one to build more memorable blogs. It’s often best to source your own photos but I have found the following sources helpful:
It’s important to check for copyright on images and follow the creative commons licence on any images used and quote the source and a linkback. You can build your own set of blog images over time as a resource for other bloggers to use.
Ensure you have a thumbnail of your image available for when you do a social post to build awareness of your blog. Networks like Facebook normally work with images of about 150x150 pixels in size for social posts. These will increase the likelihood of people clicking through to view your blogs.
What’s the best tone and person to write in?
Blogs are intended to be personal in nature and more informal in tone than corporate literature. It’s best to stay close to the personality of the writer so I would recommend addressing the reader directly in the first person as “You” and find a tone that you are personally comfortable with, almost as if you are talking to your reader on a one to one basis. Some people find a lot of success with story telling as this can be a way to engage your readers and to sprinkle some top tips with some personal insights and experiences.
Do’s and don’ts
It’s important not to do selling in the main body of a blog or you will turn off your readers. I try and limit any calls to action in a separate section of the blog for those that might be interested to read more so that those people can self select those sections but they don’t detract from the main body of the blog.
Length of Blog
I’d aim for about 500 words to get started – half a dozen paragraphs are a good start although my blogs are a bit on the long side. Sometimes they say less is more but I’ve not perfected that artform yet.
Which blogging platform shall I use?
I would recommend Wordpress as it has thousands of developers who have written code for it and it has some impressive functionality. I have noticed more companies now using this platform for their website. I went on a
course last week about how to develop your website in a matter of a couple of days on Wordpress. I can see how this would be possible given all the features that it now offers and the ease with which you can set up a new blog. However you need to make sure you download the security plugins so that you minimise the number of spam comments and trackbacks on your blogs. I would not recommend the free platforms as you will not be able to align it to your own website domain name. You should be able to get a paid hosting solution for less than £10 a month.
How can I drive traffic to my blog?
The key thing is to make sure your blog features as a sub domain of your main website eg if your main website is called
www.brains.com your blog url is
www.brains.com/blog and each blog post has the name of it as it’s own unique url eg
www.brains.com/blog/how-do-I-start-blogging as this will make it easier for the search engines to find it. You need to make sure that you set up all the keywords for your blog and Wordpress has fields automatically set up to complete this as you will see on this Wordpress blog entry page.
Make sure that you feature a social post about your blog on as many of your social networks as possible but remember that social networking is also about signposting other items which might be of interest and value to your network. Make sure you tweet more than once at intervals and ensure you are covering as many networks as possible e.g. Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and Google+ will be coming soon.
Integrate your blog into Facebook
There are applications such as ninva.com which will enable you to integrate your blog into Facebook to help build traffic as shown in the example below.
If your blog is on Wordpress you can also integrate it into your Linkedin profile using bloglink so that your contacts can read the latest blog there too as shown on this example and you can read theirs and also see what events they are attending.
Measuring traffic to your blog
You can measure traffic to your blog by using platforms like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. Hootsuite enables you to schedule posts and to track which social networks are delivering the best traffic to your blog.
Ensure that you have put Google Analytics code on your blog page as on all pages so that you can clearly track traffic to it.
Want to know more about blogging?
You can join the free World Travel Market
social media sessions from 7th-10th November, 2011 for more top tips on travel blogging or sign up for a
social media webinar series starting on October 4th, 2011.
Here’s a
link with some top tips on how to attract more eyeballs to your blog and a useful
guide from MSN on how to blog for business and more top blogging tips from
Mashable. This blog from
Social Media Explorer has good tips for leveraging your blog to expand your business.
Posted: 22/09/2011 01:17:40
I went to a very interesting talk recently by
Cristina Escallón which was hosted by the Colombian Tourist board. The topic caught my eye as it was dealing with culture in the workplace and having worked on a big multinational project years ago with Price Waterhouse and in multicultural teams at Thomas Cook, I was keen to learn how our understanding of the dimensions of culture has evolved.
My learning was based on the
Hofstede study of the cultures of IBM many years ago which focuses on the following five dimensions of culture:
1. Power Distance
2. Individualism
3. Masculinity
4. Uncertainty Avoidance
5. Long Term Orientation
It’s clear that there is now a lot more research available to help us with a new challenge as to how business practices may need to evolve to work successfully with the
BRIC[1] or BRIICS[2] cultures. I will explain why I’ve used the word BRIICS later.
Cristina is a Colombian who had been living in the UK for 16 years and had some interesting stories to share on how differences in direct versus indirect communications between Dutch and Colombian cultures had caused all manner of difficulties with a joint venture in South America.
Comfort with silence
She explored some of the many different dimensions of culture such as our comfort with silence. In Thailand and Japan average comfort levels of up to 16 seconds are diametrically opposed to those in the US, which are as little as 2 seconds.
Being versus doing
She also demonstrated how different cultures accord status based on “being” and who you are in the Middle East versus “doing” in Anglo Saxon cultures.
Universal versus contextual rules
Our Western perception of universal rules with an emphasis on rights, rules and contracts are very different to Russia and the Middle East where rules are much more contextual. In addition the US and UK preoccupation with task versus getting to know the people first is one of the most striking of differences between Chinese, Malaysian, Russian and Brazilian culture. Cristina talked about how children in Asia are brought up focusing much more on verbs whereas children in UK culture are often first taught the name of objects.
Management of emotion
She also demonstrated the scale for how emotions are managed outwardly where Japan and Egypt are on the opposite sides of the scale. If we remember the recent Japanese earthquake you may remember the calm that prevailed in the face of adversity and disaster on our TV screens versus the noisy scenes of mourning in Egypt for the victims of the uprising.
UK challenges for US expats
Cristina reminded us that it is our own reactions to other cultures that we should use as a mirror to remember the conditioning that has shaped our different view of the world. She commented on how surprised many US expats are by the cultural differences when they come to work in the UK. On the surface many cultures with the same language look similar but spend any time living and working in a country and the differences become much more visible. South Americans in the audience nodded when Cristina mentioned that even those choosing to work in neighbouring South American countries found quite a few cultural differences.
Managing global, virtual teams
Cristina talked about the challenge of managing virtual global teams and the need for more structure and discipline that this requires, together with an understanding of trust when dealing with conflict.
BRIC versus BRIICS
Many of us will be familiar with the acronym BRIC for what we have also called the “Tiger economies” that have not suffered the recent economic downturn we’ve seen in the US and Europe. With fast growing economies these countries have seemed tempting markets for expansion. However a recent Economist article
[3] drew my attention to some interesting new additions to the BRIC group, gaining attention due to the strength of their economic growth. The
Economist points out that the BRICS alone account for about 21% of global GDP.
The 5th BRIIC?
Many may not be aware that Indonesia is home to the second largest number of Facebook members and it has developed an insatiable appetite for smartphones and scooters. According to the Economist is has one of the best performing economies of the G20 club, growing by 6% and has a huge population of 238 million with a fast growing middle class, forecast to grow to 150m by 2014. Some banks like Nomura are saying their middle class is becoming bigger than that of India. To counter the enthusiasm however there are still issues with the poor infrastructure and reports of corruption but it’s clear that Indonesia is a market that may soon join the BRIC club.
The BRIICS?
Now that South Africa has been invited to join BRIC by China there is some speculation by
Bloomberg that although it is a minnow in population (49 million) compared to the other players, it could increase its power on the world stage as Africa’s main representative in BRIC. Its GDP forecasts for 2011 and 2012 are on a par with that of Brazil as shown below but its latest industrial production figures and whopping unemployment rate of 25.7% are an issue.
|
Country
|
GDP 2011
%
|
GDP 2012
%
|
Industrial Production
|
Consumer Prices 2011
|
Unemployment Rate %
|
|
Brazil
|
+3.6
|
+3.8
|
-0.3
|
+6.5
|
6.0
|
|
Russia
|
+4.3
|
+4.5
|
+5.2
|
+8.9
|
6.5
|
|
India
|
+7.9
|
+8.2
|
+3.3
|
+6.8
|
10.8
|
|
Indonesia
|
+6.5
|
+6.3
|
+5.7
|
+5.9
|
6.8
|
|
China
|
+9.0
|
+8.6
|
+13.5
|
+5.4
|
6.1
|
|
South Africa
|
+3.2
|
+3.9
|
-6.0
|
+3.7
|
25.7
|
Implications for how we do future business
The learning for me from my study of culture and the presentation last week was how diametrically opposed many of the BRIC
[2] country cultures are from Anglo Saxon culture. Given the rise of these BRIC markets, the way we do business there will have to be shaped by the cultures of these countries going forward in order to be successful. I remember being fascinated by the Confucius stories told by an Asian Thomas Cook colleague many years ago which seemed timeless and as full of meaning for everyday life as we hold our Shakespearean drama. In fact the teachings of Confucius from 500BC actually shaped Hofstede’s 5
th dimension of culture using a questionnaire designed by Chinese scholars.
Changes in Asian culture
Interestingly however perhaps Asian culture is changing too and I was intrigued by the recent Economist article
[4] about the increasing number of Asian women who are rejecting marriage and marrying later and less than in the past. This is likely to exacerbate an existing issue with the Chinese one child policy which has driven up the male to female population ratios drastically in China. It is still too early to predict whether this reluctance to marry will lead to an influx of foreign brides which happened in Taiwan and South Korea.
The second Chinese consumer revolution
Having a clear understanding of trends in these BRIC markets will be key to developing new products and services for these regions. Players such as Home Depot an American DIY chain have made expensive mistakes by not adapting their product to the local Chinese market. The Economist
[5] reports that both Nestle and Unilever are preparing for what they call “a second consumer revolution among the 665million Chinese who live in rural areas”.
Travel growth forecasts for BRIC markets
The
UNWTO latest international tourism receipts show how China has jumped to number three position and overtaken the UK.
The UNWTO graph below illustrates the huge jump we are likely to see in the Asia Pacific share of international tourist arrivals by 2020.
China is on its way to becoming the biggest luxury good market and we know that the main drivers of air travel growth over the next twenty years will happen within the Asia Pacific region as shown by the Boeing forecasts below:
What are your predictions for the impact the growth of the BRIC markets will have on the travel industry?
Want to know more about the BRIC markets?
Come along to the WTM sessions titled:
with representatives from IATA, Oneworld Alliance and N America Air China Ltd
or:
“Power Talk: Investing in BRICS tourism” with Stephen Sackur and the Brazilian Tourist Board on 9
th November to find out more about the BRIC economies and the impact they could have on your market whether that’s receiving visitors from these countries or doing business in them.
[1] BRIC = Brazil, Russia, India, China
[2] BRIIC = Brazil, Russian, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa
[3] Economist July 23-29 2011 “Missing BRIC in the wall” page 51
[4] Economist August 20-16 2011 “Asia’s lonely hearts Why Asian women are rejecting marriage and what that means”
[5] The Economist July 9, 2011, “The Mystery of the Chinese Consumer” page 59-60
Posted: 19/09/2011 23:26:55
You may wonder where this much used phrase “Content is King” comes from, so I thought I’d do a spot of online research to find out. According to a recent
blog it was quoted by Bill Gates of Microsoft back in 1996 before “google” as a verb ever existed in the English language.
The recent changes by Google to their search algorithms as discussed in a recent
blog, otherwise known as the “Panda” or “Farmer” update means that high quality content is now more important than ever as to how your website is ranked by the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.
Some of you may be planning to launch your own blog or wondering how to develop the right kind of content on your website to convert your website visitors to customers. Here are some top tips to think about when considering your online content strategy.
Those companies that have not started their social media roll out plans are those most likely to see their websites overtaken in the unpaid search rankings by those that have.
The numbers of fans and followers and popular ranking of your content is going to be become more important as readers want these indicators to guide them to the best quality content.
Here are some practical tips to improve your website content:
1. Content Planning and Consistency key
Ensure that you have a content plan with the key themes you are going to cover in your blogs at least a couple of months ahead and allocate people to them. Suggest that weekly is the minimum frequency for a blog as consistent delivery is key to building your readership. It’s important to check your Facebook insights to see what you can learn from your fan profile to help with your content planning. You can also tailor your Facebook posts to focus on fans from a certain city or country to make them more relevant.
2. Pictures speak a thousand words
As blogs proliferate you need to give your content some “standout” so try to incorporate some imagery to build interest and impact. Infographics can be a powerful way to display data. Here’s an extract from a great infographic from
Moontoast that I found on browsing Mari Smith’s top Facebook tips which you might also find helpful.
3. Invite your customers to share
You can reward your customers for sharing their experiences and stories. This makes for much more engaging content and builds trust as customers trust content more if written by people like themselves.
4. Reviews make a difference and are trusted more
You have a number of choices when choosing how to share customer reviews. You can integrate reviews from third party websites like Trip Advisor into your website or you can develop your own customer reviews.
5. Don’t forget the power of video
Many companies are recognising the power of video to build trust and engagement with your customers. They can provide a quick summary of why people should choose your services or destination
How many websites have you visited where it’s not clear on the home page exactly what the site offers? This is especially true in travel where the product is complex and you’re left with a few niggling questions about the holiday or trip before you want to book it. Your competitors are just a click away so it’s important to get your visitors to the most relevant service, product or valued information as quickly as possible. Short helpful videos of two minutes or less hosted on sites such as You Tube and Vimeo can really help to drive traffic.
6. Leverage the growth of smartphone usage
The power of mobile is the staggering 216% year on year increase reported by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) on the use of mobile browsing in the UK.
Hotel groups such as Accor are recognizing the importance of mobile browsing as shown below:
The take up of smartphones has accelerated across Europe as shown in a recent blog with some top Facebook tips and is still growing by up to 14% year on year in Spain, so don’t forget to make it easy for customers to book and browse your content on the move. Remember to check how your Facebook posts look on a smartphone.
7. Importance of social icons
Those sites that have implemented “social sign ins” where the web visitor has been invited to “like” or “tweet” something on their web page and have integrated “like” and “tweet” into every product in their shopping carts and on their emails are seeing big increases in web traffic as shown by recent L2 digital research results shared in a recent blog.
Recent research by Rategain and Revenue by Design showed that only half of hotels surveyed in 2011 are tracking the revenue of their social media activity so still lots of room for improvement.
Whilst companies are starting to invest in social sign ins, few have integrated customer social IDs into their customer database which will enrich their customer insights.
Want to know more?
If you want to learn more about how to develop your content to really differentiate your company from your competitors then don’t miss the free “Content Counts” WTM Seminar on Tuesday 8 November. Click here for more information on the seminar and click here to enroll for the show and your chance to win a his or hers Bally bag worth £850. (View terms and conditions)
Do share your comments below on this blog and tell us what type of content has worked best for your website visitors. If you found this blog useful, please tweet, “like” or “share” the link below or email to your colleagues.
We look forward to hearing from you. What type of content is king for your company?
Posted: 05/09/2011 18:52:59