May 2010 – Let’s meet IRL (in real life)

We are Making it Great with Phil Gerbyshak, at SOBCon in Chicago

One of the best ways to figure out how to navigate the online social Web is to take your learning and exploration offline. Of course, in a world of constrained budgets and compressed schedules, conference-hopping is probably not the best use of your time if it is only for the sake of racking up badges, [...]

April 2010 – LinkedIn for Tourism

The door is opening (courtesy emma.kate at Flickr CC)

We are glad you’ve taken the time to stop by and join us for a minute! Thanks so much for your support as we wrap up the first sessions of our comprehensive online lessons in social media for tourism.  We are busily getting ready to reopen our doors in May for the next classes. We plan [...]

March 2010 – Tours in Destination Marketing

iPhone earbuds (courtesy Bennigan at Flickr CC)

Welcome to this month’s Tourism Currents newsletter, where we hope to help get your mental idea machines kick-started with a discussion about adding some social media flavor to those familiar tours of your destination or attraction. Yes, we’re talking about souping up that “guide-holding-up-an-umbrella” staple in your destination marketing toolkit, and also helping people “visit,” [...]

February 2010 – Special Event Promotion

It's Festival time - Caracol 2010 in the Philippines (courtesy denvie balidoy at Flickr CC)

Effective marketing and promotion for any tourism-related special event, festival or conference/meeting generally follows a standard trajectory: Build up excitement and attention beforehand, keep people updated and interested – and wishing they were there – during the activities, and sustain the experience-sharing afterwards, so that those who went have their good memories reinforced (and those [...]

January 2010 – Find Your Online Champions

Get your online champions talking! (Texas A&M yell practice courtesy the University's Cushing Memorial Library at Flickr CC)

Social media, networking, Web, Internet blah blah blah…. Let’s talk about the really fun stuff….connecting with your local bloggers and even meeting with them offline.  One of the most powerful ways to interest visitors in your destination or attraction is to enlist the help of those who already love it and live it, right under [...]

December 2009 – Reaching out with outposts

Favorite Place Decal from Google Local

There’s something about this time of year that makes you want to reflect….and then go organize your garage. It’s an interesting combination of assessing where you’ve been, looking at what you did or didn’t accomplish, vowing to improve at work and at home and then (if you’re like Becky) writing up a big ol’ single-spaced [...]

November 2009 – Building a Home Base

Building that home base (courtesy Paul Keleher at Flickr CC)

“Hell, there are no rules here-we’re trying to accomplish something.” – Thomas Edison, tweeted by @rapidbi Mike Morrison Thanks for stopping by to read the November 2009 newsletter, and a special welcome to our new Tourism Currents members.  We are glad you’re here. We’ve been out and about traveling, speaking and collecting terrific tourism and [...]

October 2009 – How to Listen

Listen (courtesy ky_olsen at Flickr Creative Commons)

We’ve had a busy month welcoming new Tourism Currents members, holding an Open House to show off our goodies and gearing up for a bunch of speaking engagements throughout the month (because y’all know we can talk!) Thanks for all of your support, and a warm welcome to all of our new members. We hope [...]

September 2009 – Welcome to Tourism Currents

A two-rocket launch (courtesy jurvetson at Flickr CC)

At long last, it is September 2009 and we’re ready to launch our online learning community, Tourism Currents. Sheila wants you to know that this is all Becky’s fault…. Back in May 2009 during the SOBCon “Successful Online Business” conference in Chicago, Becky and Sheila sat down during a session break and began drawing pictures. [...]

Not long now

Coming September 9, 2009 Social web learning resources specifically for tourism from Sheila Scarborough & Becky McCray New ideas are changing tourism. Now it is possible to reach more people, in more places than you could ever have afforded to before. But it’s also more complex, with more complicated choices, and a faster pace of [...]