A Grey-beard’s Adventure in On-line Marketing

First published on onlivetravelfocus.com

According to Wikipedia,  “In technology, a mashup is a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool; an example is the use of cartographic data from Google Maps to add location information to real-estate data, thereby creating a new and distinct web service that was not originally provided by either source.

“Mashup originally referred to the practice in pop music (notably hip-hop) of producing a new song by mixing two or more existing pieces.”

You and I, of course, as tourism professionals of the highest water (well I am - aren’t you?) know that a mashup is something they slop onto your plate - usually with burned chops or over-cooked Bratwurst. Which is great for vegetarians …

But it came to me a while ago that maybe I ought to get with the programme and start learning about social media - at least start understanding how to use the technology, even if I’ll never understand the technology itself.

I had two motivators for this: (1) I wanted to be sure that what I was doing for my clients was as up-to-date as it could be. And (2) I sure as hell didn’t want to grow old gracefully and allow the kids to have all the fun.

And so began an adventure that’s been - and still is - as startling as any I’ve ever had: just as scary, just as exciting, just as adrenalin-filled. But in many ways much more useful (yes, paddling down that river and abseiling off that cliff were adventures for sure; but how did they benefit anyone except me?).

So let me take you along and tell you about this journey of mine. It’s really only been three months in the making but already I’m blogging (on not one, not two - but three sites), I’m on Facebook, I’m LinkedIn, I’ve been StumbleUponned, I get RSS Feeds and, of course, I use text messages all the time (but I haven’t got a clue about MixIt - and I’m not even sure how to spell it).

Whatwazzatyoused? Oh, OK: you want to know what Web Two-Point-Oh actually means.

Well, let’s put it this way: if you and I were sitting looking at a product brochure - the brochure itself would be ‘Web 1.0.’ Pretty, perhaps, and with lots more information than a normal, printed brochure could ever give you - but still just a brochure.

Now let’s you and I talk about the product, let’s rip it apart and put it together again, let’s tell our friends about it (and then let them tell their friends - and they tell their friends), let’s call the advertiser and tell ‘em what we think of them (and where do they get off dictating to us like that?) - and let’s do all of that stuff online, and on our cell phones, and on our Blackberries…

You see that brochure now? And the product and the whole conversation around them? - put them all together and that’s Web 2.0.

The operative word here is ‘conversation’ - Web 2.0 enables conversations.

Now I know that there’s an old guard who’ve recently been saying (quite loudly - and using the social networks themselves to say it) that all the predictions about how social networking’s going to change the way we shop are just plain crap and that there’s nothing to beat good ol’ traditional, tried-and-tested marketing and advertising. But they’re Luddites. It doesn’t work that way anymore.

Especially where tourism is concerned.

Web 2.0 has already made significant inroads into the way the world buys its travel - and how we make our decisions to buy. Just think - 5 years ago, how easy was it to find word-of-mouth recommendations (or word-of-mouth warnings) from other travellers whom you’d never met, but who shared your values and tastes? It was impossible. But now we have Trip Advisor and many, many other sites like it - and more and more people are relying on them (and less and less people are relying on those glossy old brochures - because nobody really trusts marketers anymore).

But if we learn about this new way of thinking - and Web 2.0 is really more about a new way of thinking than about new technology - we certainly can influence what happens in the marketplace. A bit. After a while. If we try.

The (watch out! - here comes a cliché!) bottom line here is that tourism in South Africa needs to mashup - to become fully integrated - with Web 2.0. Or we’re going to lose the race.

So to get you started, here are three sites to visit - and next week I’ll tell you what I’ve learned about why they’re really quite significant:

www.whl.travel
www.rhinoafrica.com
… and my own personal favourite: www.thistourismweek.co.za (which we’ve just re-built on a Web 2.0 platform).

Talk To Me!

Martin Hatchuel - martin@thistourismweek.co.za

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