If it works for Lodge Owners, then it’s gotta work with other Niches too.

Research And Development

In order to answer the question “Do These Social Media Strategies Work?”, Quetico Internet Marketing has invested heavily in research and development over the past few months, setting up several variations of nearly identical social media strategies in several unrelated niches.

Learning From The Best

One of the greatest personal benefits I experienced from working with Social Media sites was the ability to learn from the Gurus. Twitter and Facebook let you get upclose and real-time with the people you follow – it almost seems personal.

I didn’t use Twitter as a means to chat with people, instead, I used it as a way to monitor the people and topics I was interested in learning about.

Right off the start I met and followed @marismith, and I’ve been creeping her profiles ever since – often gaining a boost by her sheer energy and enthusiasm – then a great social media tip to ride the wave with – and to create something productive out of!

Work At Your Own Pace

For Tourism Operators who must learn about Blogging:

Learn about Social Media from Mari Smith. Mari offers a number of outstanding course options that I’d like to pass along:

FREE Facebook Tips

Social Marketing Method – INTRO PROGRAM.

This is the most affordable way to access Mari’s introductory materials: The Intro Program

NEW: Social Marketing Method – QUICK START PROGRAM

The Social Marketing Method Quick Start Program includes three LIVE 90-minute webinar sessions. By popular demand, Mari put this program together specifically to help with more hands-on training. (Don’t tell her I said this, but you get three sessions for much less than the price of one individual session with Mari!) Here’s just a peek at what it includes!

This weekend I spent a few hours at my computer following the conversations of Internet Marketing and Social Media Guru’s who were attending a conference of Internet Marketers and Social Media Guru’s.

This was the first time I’ve used the conversational tools to participate – in real time – with the audience at a live seminar.

I am excited to work with the new Internet Tools I learned about, and, as I was preparing to write this post, I started to think about the ‘trickle down effect’ that was occuring with the information from the conference.

I don’t know how many people attended the conference, that does not matter. Because when just a few conference-goers like @marismith start Tweeting to their list of thousands – the information transfer becomes almost unthinkable in it’s potential scope.

Another exciting advancement – the ability to tune into the Live Ustream.tv video feed. What’s more, the video and audio are available for download after the conference is complete. (http://tinyurl.com/6s6aw3)

These days, these technologies are ghastly simple to implement and hold the same amazing potential of sharing your message – even for a computer newbie.

Sort Of Pushed Into It

Many of my Tourism clients feel almost as if they have been pushed into having to become fluent with the Internet. Many are still planning to spend 70% of their marketing budget on Sport Shows rather than Internet Marketing, while others have engaged themselves in the Internet entirely, and spend zero on Sport Shows.

This tells me that the industry is still early in it’s transition, and front-leaders will gain a significant advantage – very critical in today`s economy.

Fortunately, the Internet has become very much easier to use – and our industry has champions and leaders who are making it clear and simple for Tourism Business owners.

If you haven’t already, subscribe to http://www.tourismkeys.ca/blog/ where you find cutting edge tourism marketing advice made simple and easy to understand. I especially recommend the audio podcasts; download them, bring them with you in your car or on an iPod while you walk.

Upcoming events of interest: The NOTO Convention in Dryden Ontario, where I hope to find a place for my laptop so I can Twitter-Report on my first event.