On Thursday night at Peppers Coral Coast Resort, speakers from Google, Facebook, U-Tube and Trip Advisor addressed an eager crowd. The representatives were on hand to answer individual questions after presentations about their respective tools.
Mark Cowan of Facebook spoke about the power of word-of-mouth. “Friends influence each other. Facebook is the engagement centre for your brand,” he said.
Darren Keppie from Google told the audience: “Be found, be relevant, be engaging, and be accountable”. Mr Keppie didn’t delve into the realms of search-engine-optimisation but he did say, “the more relevant you are, the more likely you are to go to the top when people search for you”.
Bianca Bailey from U-Tube said currently one third of all internet traffic was video-based. “By 2013 it will be 90 per cent,” she said.
“This is not just your Gen-Y kids uploading skateboard videos. People are turning to U-Tube to learn and be educated.”
Jim Brody from Trip Advisor gave tourism operators tips on how to deal with a bad review.
“Respond,” he said. “And do it in the way you would if they were standing in the middle of your business.”
The digital media forum was an initiative of Tourism Queensland, which Whitsunday Region Director Racheal Klitscher said was extremely well received.
“We initially aimed to attract 60-80 people and had 125 RSVP. The feedback about our speakers & their content has been exceptional with guests raving about the value they got from the event,” Ms Klitscher said.
Director of Whitsunday marketing company Telltale Communications Corrie Gardner said the forum was very timely and “exactly what we all need”.
“I thought it was absolutely fantastic and a great thing TQ and TW can do for their membership base. As individuals we couldn’t get access to those kinds of people. When times are touch it’s paramount that people focus on their marketing,” Ms Gardner said.
Internet consultant from eCentral and ChannelWhitsunday.com John Nayler said, "Having presentations from Facebook, Google, Youtube and Tripadvisor has removed some of the guess work from web strategy."
Mr Nayler’s one criticism of these social media ‘tools’ was about TripAdvisor’s anonymity.
“Google and Facebook are well accounted for their insistence on real names. Transparency is very much the vogue for social networks," he said.
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