The Details

Get beyond generic “This is Twitter” training, and straight to the heart of real results with the Tourism Currents online course in social media for tourism.

Tourism and destination marketing are being revolutionized by social media, because it is about reaching out to people nationally and globally… perfect for social networking, but with some unique challenges.

“I’ve found the materials from the Tourism Currents course to be helpful and informative in a friendly, down-to-earth fashion. If a relaxed group learning environment tackling social media success is what you’re after,  you’ve found it.”

Andrew G. Hayes, Travel Tech Consultant, Seattle, Washington

You have scores of events and attractions to promote, with months of planning.  You work hand in hand with local lodging and restaurants to assure all visitors leave with a positive experience. And that’s just your morning.

That’s why Tourism Currents exists: to help you learn to use the social web to tell your story online and attract more visitors, without driving you crazy with “stuff” you don’t need or that doesn’t perform.

• If you’re looking into the social web or plan to start slowly, this is a good way to do it.
• If you want to feel more confident about your tourism strategies and bump it up to the next level, Tourism Currents will be there every step of the way.

The social web is a powerful tool and quite unlike broadcast marketing, and until you understand it, you can’t integrate it.

“This isn’t the dirt level basics of ‘join the conversation.’ This is practical step-by-step advice. If I had the time to create something like this for the tourism industry, I certainly would have, but it wouldn’t be nearly as thorough and as researched as what Becky and Sheila created.”

Chris Brogan, Human Business Works and co-author of Trust Agents, Boston, Massachusetts

This is what makes Tourism Currents different:

• Everything here is created especially for tourism professionals.

That’s why you won’t be learning just about Twitter or Facebook, but rather you’ll learn how to use these tools to promote special events, for example.

All the examples and interviews in Tourism Currents are based on tourism. Everything you learn can be applied immediately within your normal workday.

Online lessons plus personal support

You’ve told us what you want. You want to learn, you want to learn quickly, and you want help and support while you learn. You got it. You can now complete the whole course in just six weeks. Each lesson is packed full of great stuff. You have access to it all from day one, but we’ll guide you through one lesson a week so it’s not too overwhelming.

And you’re never alone. We are always there for you in the comments on every page. You ask anything about tourism and social media, and we will jump in to help. Curious whether that online ad is worth it? We run the numbers with you. Not sure about promoting an event? We brainstorm new ideas with you.

“I was and am very excited that Becky and Sheila got together to develop and deliver this course. I’m saying that not just because they are my friends, which I am proud to say they are. The fact is, these are two of the most practical and at the same time most clued-in people I know on the social media front.”

Des Walsh, Business Coach, Tweed Heads, New South Wales, Australia

Full Course: All the Basics and The Results Multipliers

Master the basics and grab visitors’ attention

Build networks, promote and let the tours begin

Unleash online fans to rave about your tourism destination

You’ll make sure you have all the introductory concepts down, including links to tourism examples that make sense. Then you’ll confidently move on to All the Basics (Lessons One through Three.) You’ll tune up your listening skills so you can hear what is said about you online. You’ll find new ideas for your home base - your website, blog and Facebook Page.

After that, you’ll be ready to build outposts online and reach new visitors.

Then you can start on the Results Multipliers (Lessons Four through Six.) You’ll find and work with a team of online champions.You’ll promote special events in new ways, and you’ll touch visitors with a variety of new tour media.

(Are you thinking that you may not need the whole course, but would really like to buy just one or two of the lesson modules? Go here to buy one or more of the individual lessons.)

Introduction Workshop: What IS this social media stuff, and why should I care?

You don’t have to be an expert to get started. These lessons and videos help you understand and escalate your tourism efforts.

• Explaining blogs and microblogging (Twitter)
• Explaining Facebook, Flickr and YouTube
• Video: How a city gets started in social media
• Video: How a communications director monitors Twitter
• Video: The benefits of Flickr photo-sharing

“Since taking the course I feel much more confident in telling my clients that if they are going to ‘do tourism’ they must do social media….In short, consider me a big fan of Tourism Currents!”

Carolyn Brackett, Senior Program Associate for Heritage Tourism, National Trust for Historic Preservation

Lesson 1: How to Listen

• Google listening tools
• Listening on Twitter and Facebook
• Alltop, plus more free and paid listening services
• Improve and refine your listening
• How to respond to what you hear
• Video: How @SeattleMaven monitors Twitter for Seattle tourism
• Video: Morning coffee with @SeattleMaven

Lesson 2: Building a Home Base

• Tips for a better website
• Building a better blog
• You’ve started a blog, now what?
• Why you need a Facebook Page
• Using images, video and audio to enhance your home base
• Video: Blogging lessons learned from Sheila

Lesson 3: Intro to Outposts

• Twitter for tourism: why and how, and an introduction
• Twitter starter pack: ideas for two weeks of tweets
• Best ways to use Flickr photo sharing for tourism
• Best ways to draw visitors with YouTube and online video
• Other outpost services you can use to reach visitors
• Video: How the Lynchburg, Virginia CVB uses outpost sites

Lesson 4: Building your online champions network

• Where do you find your online champions? (Blogger outreach)
• Building stronger online relationships
• Bringing online relationships offline
• Easy ways for your champions to help your destination marketing
• Video: Learning to navigate the blogosphere
• Video: Strategies for finding and pitching bloggers

“Leslie brought the business community together to learn how to use social media to help market the destination of Lake Arrowhead.  By providing social media training, the businesses began to speak in the same voice as the destination marketing organization and they learned how vital each business voice is in marketing the destination. Each business promoted each other’s business thereby creating a social media buzz about the area all together.”

Gina Richardson, Director of Catering Sales, Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa

Lesson 5: Promoting special events

• Building up to your event
• Social media promotion during events
• Keeping the buzz going afterward
• Video: Facebook promotion for a special event
• Video:  Mobile tech for festivals
• Video:  Using social media to crowdsource an event

“I really enjoyed the Tourism Currents course and found the information to be very valuable and helpful….a fantastic resource.”

Erica Houskeeper, Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing

Lesson 6: New ways to do tours

• Audio tours and programming
• Video tours and basic video techniques
• Easy ways to get mobile-friendly
• Connect to the web with your personal (fam/press) tours
• Interview: Better blogger/PR relationships and press trips

Finding time to do it all

Based on your feedback, we’ve compressed the course. You can now complete all the lessons in six weeks, instead of the six months that we launched with in 2009. Every single bit of information is still there, we’ve just made the adjustments to the reminder emails to get you learning quickly.

• Each week, you’ll be reminded to review a set of lesson pages, often with video or audio included to help you get the important concepts.
• Each lesson includes interviews with experts in social media and tourism.
• You’ll get a takeaway/checklist document for every lesson to keep you focused and moving forward.
• Throughout the course, you can share ideas in the comments section on each page. Ask questions of us, plus see how other folks are doing it.
• Once a month, you’ll get the newsletter to keep you up to date in the latest developments.

“This is a terrific course that I have not had a lot of time to devote to. But luckily, it is all still available to me so I can do it in my time frame.”

–Charter member, Billie Yahne, City of Bedford, Texas

Yes, we remember how to do paper. For assistance with government purchase orders or other payment methods, please use the contact form to start the process.

Full Course $590

Buy Now

(PayPal plus all major credit cards accepted. Look for the “Don’t have a PayPal account?” hyperlinked text when you arrive on the Order Summary Page as you’re buying, if you’d rather use a credit card.)

(Are you thinking that you may not need the whole course, but would really like to buy just one or two of the lesson modules? Go here to buy one or more of the individual lessons.)

Our Money-Back Guarantee

We don’t offer a “no-questions-asked” guarantee.

We offer a “lots-of-questions-asked” guarantee that you’ll be happy or we’ll return your money.

If you decide in your first 30 days that we didn’t deliver what we promised or you’re not satisfied, we’ll refund your payment….but we’ll have questions.

We’ll be asking you for feedback. We’d like to know what we can improve to better serve the people of the tourism industry. Of course, you aren’t obligated to answer, and we aren’t trying to drag our feet on your 30-day refund, but we’re nosy, perfectionist sorts and want to know where we blew it, if you’ll tell us.

Hopefully, of course, it won’t ever come to that!

Ready?

Let’s go!

Full Course $590

Buy Now>/span>

(PayPal plus all major credit cards accepted. Look for the “Don’t have a PayPal account?” hyperlinked text when you arrive on the Order Summary Page as you’re buying, if you’d rather use a credit card.)