These 60 bullet points are the highlights from my 60 minute keynote presentation at the BC Hospitality Industry Conference in Vancouver, November 24, 2009.

1. You don’t need to be a techie to accomplish a lot.
2. Know your customer and meet their needs.
3. 2/3 of Travelers use the Web exclusively to plan travel.  Not focused online? Don’t worry, you still have 30% of travelers who will see your stuff (as well as Internet content).
4. Is it time to consider budgetary priorities based one where the income is coming from?  For most of us, YES.
5. Consider the best measures for success in all your marketing.  Then measure it.  For most of us measure results like phone calls, emails, visa receipts, etc. (NOT Web hits).
6. Your Website is stale, media and social Web can make it better.
7. Webmasters should never control your access to posting content.  If you are a Webmaster, start thinking of a different way to do what you do best and change your name for goodness sake, tourism industry doesn’t need masters, we need teachers and facilitators.
   
8. Consider your Website as the centre of all your media.
9. Media - Good news, there will only ever be four types of media – text, photos, video, audio.  Anyone can post any of these for FREE.
10. When distribution is free, reallocate distribution expenses to production of stories using all kinds of media and distribute content across multiple Web 2.0 Websites (online applications).
11. Anyone can create MEDIA and upload it to the Web.  You too!
12. Blogging with WordPress could replace most traditional Websites.
13. Mobile uploads to youtube up 400% since introduction of iPhone 3gs.
14. Youtube . . . Over 1 Billion views per day worldwide – Oct 9, 09.
15. Travelers want your photos and their own.
16. Photos: 2 Billion uploads/ month  on Facebook.  Flickr: 90 million/month – less than 1/20th size of Facebook. (September 09)
17. Basics of getting great photos:
    the right model,
    the right location,
    cues of activity,
    mood/emotion.
18. Hire the pros if you have money… DMO’s consider investing in photographers that are vetted and offer packages to operators.
19. Post your stuff under Creative Commons. Your best stuff will get seen.  With CC attribution, users will link back to your site. Come on, drop the Copyright.
20. Facebook is adding Half a Million New Users Every Day.  Don’tcha think some of them are your ideal guests?
21. Over 44% of all Internet users are active in social media.
    Travelers are especially social:
    19% visit blogs
    1/3 have written a review
    42% Youtube
    33% Facebook
    27% Trip Advisor
    73% search for photos
22. Facebook fan boxes…. Embed one on your site.  Your fans will love you for it and join.
23. IT’s OK for work to be fun.
24. Twitter: 60 Million users, 1171% Growth Rate. Worth getting in?
25. 19% of people update status daily – ie: Facebook status, Twitter, others.  That’s way up from just 9% in October of 2008.
26. Tweets now featured in search engine results. Bing and Google deals  in October, 2009.
27. Real Time Search is the next big thing.
28. Position your social media contact points in obvious places in print media: ie – receipts, business cards, posters, brochures.
29. Position your real world contact points in obvious places online.  ie: Phone number on every page.  Hey, handheld users can click it and dial you up.  This is a good thing.
30. Everyone has an audience.
31. 59% think customer reviews are more important than professional reviews.
32. 63% are more likely to purchase if a company has reviews.
33. Social Media is not optional.  Your business is naked.
34. Social sites like Facebook aren’t Websites, they are online applications.
35. Fans can make a difference
36. 7 deadly sins of Social media
    thinking you can control it,
    being unprepared for negatives,
    taking time to respond,
    expecting others to protect your brand,
    thinking your reputation rests with management,
    being deaf to conversation that includes your brand, region, your services,
    charging for Internet access.
37. Give Away WiFi access and never stop banging on the door for faster wired & handheld Internet access in your community.
38. High speed Internet access can double the revenue generating capacity across all industries in communities without it.  Faster speeds will likely increase revenue.
39. The real goal of your business isn’t to make sales, it is to Create FANS.
40. Check your listing on Google Maps.
41. Ask your Fans to tell their story on TripAdvisor – Embed a link in emails, tag lines, Websites, business cards.
42. The right business card and the right messagel can increase revenue 20%.
43. Current’cy is the new Currency.
44. The Here and Now Web means all your digital assets can be linked to location.  Do it.
45. 60% of the people in world have cell phone contract (3.1 billion). Phones are replaced every 18 months.  Most new phones are smartphones.
46. Over 90% of cell phone users have their phone with them 24/7.  This will be the Web marketing channel that matters most in travel.  Get started now.
47. 39% of N.A. now have smart phones.  Double from 2008.
48. 35% of 8 year olds in the U.K. have cell phones.
49. QR Codes: in Japan readers on 70% of new phones and can hyperlink any place, time or object to the Web. Apps can do the same in N.A.
50. Shop and pay with your phone?  It’s here.
51. Your next Website might not be a Website.  Think app!
52. Your app could:
    provide links to all your social media,
    allow fans to purchase directly from their phone or handheld device,
    allow your fans to upload and share their stories across all media types.
53. Hilton watched handheld revenue only double from mobile site year over year 2008-2009.  Then in May, month to month handheld sales started soaring!  Up 400% month over month from May to October.  Yes, we’ve hit the tipping point for mobile.  What are you waiting for?  Maybe you need to shift some of your print advertising budget.
54. Thinking app: Think iPhone, Blackberry, Android… in that order.
55. Collaborate with others in your community.
56. Engage your team.
57. Hire the skills of production and distribution.  Think beyond traditional job descriptions and application forms. Add some social media questions like: Which Web sites do you use?
58. The biggest shift in investment needed to succeed in social media is from money to time.  Where are you going to find the time to do the most important things?
59. It’s not too late to get started.
60. Augmented Reality . . . don’t even get me started about what the future holds.

Got any bullet points to add?  What’s your favourite?

BTW, these points are all published here under creative commons license.  Feel free to use and attribute the ideas to this blog with a link back.

Microsoft search engine Bing inked a deal with Twitter that includes tweets in search results. Microsoft announced the deal onstage at the Web 2.0 Summit today. The non-exclusive deal made it easy for Google to piggyback on the Bing announcement with their own announcement of a commitment to feature Tweets in search results.

Significance of the Bing / Google Twitter Announcements for Travel:

Tweets aren’t just for your followers on Twitter any more. Travel regions and tourism businesses will need to post relevant tweets and links to benefit from higher visibility among search users whether or not they are users of Twitter. Tweets will show up in Search results.

The upshot: Get tourism businesses in your region tweeting!

Twitter on Bing

Using http://bing.com/twitter will reveal relevant real time Twitter search results. Microsoft also announced that soon Facebook status updates will also be featured on the search engine. What is interesting is that Bing sample results page features the tweeted link title and sample tweets featuring the avatar (photo) and text of the tweet!

Twitter on Google

Marissa Mayer announces Google deal with Twitter at Web 2.0 Summit (youtube)

Surely the enlightenment of embedding Twitter in search results on Google was overdue.

In May this year I reported how Google was not invited to the Twitter Party, and that Twitter search was indeed a critical piece of the search puzzle for Web 3.0 – the Here and Now Web.

It appears now, Google and Twitter have come to a financial agreement that will result in tweets being featured in Google search results.

News on the Twitter deal from the Google Blog

“Given this new type of information and its value to search, we are very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results. We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months.”

What will Tweets in Search Results look like? We don’t know yet.

Some users of Firefox have been using a Greasemonkey script which embeds Twitter search results at the top of any Google search result as shown below.

Google itself highlighted the importance of travel regions and tourism operators making effective use of the Twitter platform on its blog post:

“The next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you’ll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information.”

Impact of these Twitter announcements from Google and Microsoft:

• The Here and Now Web (Web 3.0) is here. Real time search results and location relevant search results will take on greater importance.
• Twitter will Grow in adoption as tweets get greater visibility beyond the Twitterverse.
• A new era of search engine innovation will come about as engineers figure out how to identify relevant tweets from spam.
• With access to Twitter search results, Google and Microsoft will need to rethink their search result algorithyms and determine how much relative importance to give to tweets.

Share your thoughts?

Rocky Harbour Newfoundland – Tourism Keys State of the Web Keynote

I have four brothers.
Each has a passion.
Here, three of us discuss the nature of the Web as it might apply to musicians.
(note: the video starts mid conversation – thinking about how a tech-literate band could connect with their fans on a whole new level using existing technology)

Let me tell you a bit about the participants:

Tom (the dude with the smart looking hat is on the left joined the conference from his home in Windsor, Ontario): Tom owns a bar in Windsor Ontario, Phog Lounge and his patrons are arts-oriented and he strives to help them understand how to use the Web. Tom has sick moves on the basketball court. Tonight, I’m skyping in to the bar to give a little presentation on screen. Tough job being the youngest of five brothers, but he leads us all doing a number of innovative things in his community including with Phog Lounge as his base:

Big Table - Got an idea? Folks in Windsor don’t keep it to themselves, they bring it to Phog Lounge to talk about it. Tease out the details with other dreamers and them make action plans to bring big ideas to fruition. This man is a futurist. Here are a couple of recent projects:

• The Big Walk – intrepid locals take to the streets for a 17 hour walk about town to discover hitherto undiscovered treasures in the community. Stories are told, Webs woven.
• Broken City Brilliance – capturing and sharing video, photos and stories of the downtown and posting them on a community Google Map back at the bar
• Catch Tom’s Twitter stream @phogtom to learn when Canada’s best independent acts are hitting the stage at Canada’s premier live music venue (despite seating less than 60!)

Rodd (my identical twin bother lives in Komoka, Ontario – near London, Ontario): Rodd is an educator who strives to expose teachers to the world of technology and dreams of schools that use technology to inspire the youth of this world to make their dreams become a reality. He’s currently a go-to guy working with the Ministry of Education, helping Ontario teachers understand and embrace technology. He deserves to have more time to imagine the future of education. After all, who else is doing that?

If you know an educator who want to know what promise technology has in the classroom have them follow this @CleverSheep. Listen to his podcast or read his blog at TheCleverSheep.com

Me, Well, I hope you know me by now, I’m Todd and I start off this conversation (which we started recording after about ten minutes of dialogue).

The Creative Class and the new Web

I start by describing how an independent band could make use of current technology to connect with their fans. From there, we chat about all sorts of issues including how to establish a regular bar camp to help the Arts community embrace technology.

How’d they do that?

Many people are familiar with Skype or Google Video Chat for holding video conferences. Only iChat – a Mac application enables the simultaneous sharing of three cameras and microphones. Using standard laptops and wireless Internet access we came together and let the software link us.

I recorded and edited the screen and computer audio and my camera and microphone using ScreenFlow, really neat software that is designed for use in creating on-screen demos of software applications. In post production, I mixed my camera and mic with the screen capture creating the transitions to create the final product. I took about two hours to edit the screen transitions into the final product and this was my first ever use of the software – so I think it’s pretty intuitive and powerful stuff.

To share it, I uploaded it to Blip.tv and embedded it here.

I think the current evolution we’re seeing in the Web is creating unique opportunities to have important discussion and dialogue over great distances.

If you could pull two people together that you share an affinity with and just talk about issue that matter to all of you, what kind of magic could you produce?

Web 3.0 Definitions

My Web 3.0 Definition: the location-aware and moment-relevant Internet.

In point of fact, I think most of the Web 3.0 definitions were written way to early in the Internet evolution to really be of any value.

Google currently points to two definitions:

• Web 3.0 is one of the terms used to describe the evolutionary stage of the Web that follows Web 2.0.
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_3.0
  
• Even cooler than Web 2.0.
  www.neubertweb.com/definitions.html

Both leave something to be desired.

From Wikipedia, Web 3.0 is the Semantic Web -

Web 3.0, a phrase coined by John Markoff of the New York Times in 2006, refers to a supposed third generation of Internet-based services. that collectively comprise what might be called ‘the intelligent Web’—such as those using semantic web, microformats, natural language search, data mining, machine learning, recommendation agents, and artificial intelligence technologies—which emphasize machine-facilitated understanding of information in order to provide a more productive and intuitive user experience.what might be called ‘the intelligent Web’—such as those using semantic web, microformats, natural language search, data mining, machine learning, recommendation agents, and artificial intelligence technologies. . .

Semantic Web sounds right and I’ve heard a handful of folks talk about it in this way, but I think its far too onerous to be of any value. If it can’t be explained by the average person, it isn’t good enough.

As early as 2007, Jason Calacanis defined Web 3.0:

the creation of high-quality content and services produced by gifted individuals using Web 2.0 technology as an enabling platform.

More Web 2.0 . . . blah blah blah.

Let’s look back in order to understand where we are

Web 1.0 was the content Web. Generally, information and links to more information. For business applications, the initial search directories actually blocked businesses from even being listed! Early Web 1.0 was the not-for-profit, information age.

Web 2.0 has generally been regarded as the social Web. The Internet of user interaction and contribution as well as communication. It is best known for it’s social nature including Web services like: Wikipedia, Facebook, Ning, Flickr, Youtube, Skype, Yuuguu, intranets, online banking, referrals and commenting sites, etc. Content such as blogsites, podcasts and opportunities to distribute text, photos, audio and video and even screensharing to a world wide audience evolved during this era.

Now that we’ve got history out of the way and the definitions based on prognostications of what might have been, let’s get on to what Web 3.0 is. We have only recently crept into Web 3.0 in a more universal way in late 2008 and early 2009 (although many have been using Web 3.0 tools for longer, the tools and applications described below are just now becoming more mainstream).

Web 3.0 Defined: the location-aware and moment-relevant Internet.

If there is a moment that ushered in the era of Web 3.0, it might best be represented by President Obama’s Inauguration address in the United States on January 20th, 2009, an event experienced by millions in person and shared with many more millions of people simultaneously around the world.

Content relevance in Web 3.0 is heightened by location and time. Intimate connections are made between the real world and the Web, often with the use of handheld data-enabled phones like iphone and other devices.

A few things that showcase the relevancy of this definition:

• twitter messaging that allows news of global happenings to be transmitted and distributed within minutes.
• gps triggered driving directions
• Handheld 3G Devices provide fast access to Internet almost anywhere
• Web 3.0 iphone apps like Around Me (find and get handheld map, phone number, directions to just about business), OneTap (local movie listings and trailers), LocalPicks or LocalEats (locate nearby restaurants with user reviews), iTV (gives local TV listings), StarMap (shows overhead constellations based on location)
• instant uploading of photos from phones to the Web
• gps tagging of images both in the capture, uploading, tagging and mapping of multimedia content on Google.com/maps and by extension, Google Earth.
• CNN’s The Moment and use of use of multitouch screens and photosynth (a Microsoft technology that creates 3D interactive spaces from hundreds of 2D photos) to browse images of the Inauguration address within minutes of attendees uploading snapped images of the event.
• gps triggered multimedia content that displays on handheld devices. Instant messages, sms advertising, and more.
• online storage at sites like – aka the Cloud, permits access to online files anywhere.
• Real time communications like video calling: Skype Video and Google.com/videochat brings distant people together bridging time and space.
• Multimedia group messaging with tools like Utterli
• location specific multimedia and stories such as those found in websites like Murmur Toronto,
• QR code (Quick Response) aka 2d bar code or Microsoft tag enabled content – linking from physical world objects to the Web (hardlink or physical world hyperlinks). Snapping a photo of a bar code, leads handheld users online. Learn more at What is a 2D Bar Code?
• things that connect the real world to the Web forging real time social connections with people in specific locations – ie: qik.com. This cell phone video broadcasting platform and other like it, enable people on the internet to see the world of the cell phone user through their camera. Qik also enables viewers to post comments (viewable to the camera user) and engage in real time conversations over 3G Cellular and Wifi networks. The site also auto messages Twitter and other social networks to alert family and friends near computers that a video stream is live.
• even google search results differ, depending on where search takes place.

Combined with the social Web 2.0 services, Web 3.0 provides the Internet user with the opportunity to engage with people all over the world on a variety of devices. The richness of these communications and the relevance of locally available information are what add depth to Web 2.0 services, creating a new era, Web 3.0.

Sure, Web 3.0 is semantic. Content is recognized by it’s context, but more easy to understand and share is a definition like this:

Web 3.0: the location-aware and moment-sensitive Internet.

Not only is this more accurate definition of a shift in Web technologies, it’s one that techies and non-techies will quickly come to understand without reaching for a thesaurus.