Leaders in the Tourism Industry are gaining control of their online communications by establishing a solid CRM plan.
I had a brief chat this week with Gary at the Algonquin Inn, who was asking a question about their tourism Web presence. Refreshingly, he fully understands that what he needs is a communication plan!
Indeed, the Internet is a collection of tools for communication. What every tourism business needs to do is understand what their ideal guests’ preferred methods of communication are, and develop a plan for Web communications.
Gary has done the work identifying who his ideal guest is, now he just needs a plan for communicating with them on a regular basis.
CRM – Customer Relationship Management is the traditional way this acronym is explained. I’m suggesting we change our description of this acronym to Communications & Relationship Management. What is needed is a CRM plan that focuses on using Web 2.0 tools for effective communications with our ideal guests.
Swim in the Stream, not the Lake: Don’t think about content, think about being creative – as often as you can.
Another important consideration is that communication is a two way street. Not only do tourism regions and businesses need to put together a plan for outgoing communications, they also have to develop a strategy for keeping tuned to incoming communications from prospective travelers, guests and fans. More than just reputation management, tuning to the conversations that are already happening across a variety of platforms can give your region or business a leg up on the competition, by providing an opportunity to engage with folks in an online dialogue.
I use http://www.google.com/alerts to keep track of Web discussions that matter. I also monitor keywords in Twitter with Tweetscan and get incoming email from each of these whenever our organization or brand-related news hits the Web. Backtype has a great search tool for tracking Blog comments for people or keywords.
You’ll never run out of creative communications ideas if you think about the opportunities:
- Real Time, Scheduled, Posted ideas on your blog and in the comments on the blogs of others
- Both Private & Public messaging
- MultiMedia – video, audio, photos, text
- A combination of Personal vs. Corporate (informal / formal) information exchange
- Follow vs Lead – Do a bit of both, on your own blog posts & the comments sections of others’ blogs.
- Scheduled Communication: Commenting on videos, blog posts, photos, podcasts is a great way to get exposure for your tourism business.
- Instant Communication: tools like Skype , Google Video Chat, Seesmic and others enable your clients to exchange ideas by live video. Got a video cam on your computer, add your comment on my video above?
- Communication can also occur in real time or near real time using print and video (as we saw in Davos, Switzerland this week).
What are your thoughts on CRM? Do you have the time to develop a plan, or are you doing something more important with your time?
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