Presentation to the Business Tourism Networking Group (York and Scarborough) given by Fox Communications.

1. York & Scarborough Conferences
Business Tourism and Social Media

2. About Fox Communications
Established in 2001 as a PR and marketing consultancy.
Worked with numerous clients on the media relations side of PR.
Involved in the digital side of marketing since the beginning and therefore began to
specialise in online PR and later social media.
Social media is all about conversations – usually instant! Hence the advantage of a
background in PR - and solid experience in marketing.
Now work with many organisations in both the PR/Online PR sectors and in social media
strategy and campaigns (including representing Visit York online since 2009).
.

3. Social Media is…..
“Communicating over the web and using new technology to effectively
communicate with stakeholders” Source: CIPR website 2007
We believe that it enables us to:
LISTEN to our customers and potential customers in ways never previously
possible
ENGAGE with multiple stakeholders (online customers/partners/influencers) in
relevant and interesting ways
IDENTIFY those that influence others and the issues related to our organisation
and sectors
MEASURE outputs and outcomes of our engagements

4. Social Media is…..
Forums and blogs

5. Social Media is…..
Podcasts

6. Social Media is…..
Social Networks

7. Social Media is…..

8. Social Media is…..

9. Social Media is…..

10. 5 Reasons to Avoid Social Media
1.)
IT IS A FAD – IT WILL ALL BLOW OVER SOON ENOUGH
Why should I invest time and money into social media when something else will
come along soon enough and nobody will remember Facebook, Twitter etc?

11. 5 Reasons to Avoid Social Media
2.)
IT TAKES A GEEK TO ‘DO’ SOCIAL MEDIA
I still haven’t learnt to send a text message on my mobile, so how am I going to
learn to ‘do’ social media?

12. 5 Reasons to Avoid Social Media
3.)
IT IS A DIGITAL BLACKHOLE
I’ll spend a fortune paying my staff to spend hours on end wasting time on
Facebook?

13. 5 Reasons to Avoid Social Media
4.)
WE ARE ALREADY TOO BUSY.
Staring at a screen all day cannot be profitable. We should be meeting clients
and speaking to customers...not writing 140 character messages to
‘followers’.

14. 5 Reasons to Avoid Social Media
5.)
MY AUDIENCE ARE NOT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media is for kids who want to share photos of their bums with their friends.

15. 5 Reasons NOT to Avoid Social Media
IT IS A FAD – IT WILL ALL BLOW OVER SOON ENOUGH
A fad like never experienced before
Companies such as Sony, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Ford Motor Company making
social media a core element of their marketing mix – spending £billions
Recent survey – 79% of Fortune 500 companies have social media as part of
their marketing strategy
It’s a shift in communication.
It’s how brands are communicating with previously hard-to-reach audiences
It’s not going away

16. 5 Reasons NOT to Avoid Social Media
IT TAKES A GEEK TO ‘DO’ SOCIAL MEDIA
Rubbish. Remember getting your first mobile phone?
All you need to do is type
Plenty of social media tools to make it more ‘friendly’and easy –
Hootsuite/Tweetdeck
Learn the basics and the rest will come with practice

17. 5 Reasons NOT to Avoid Social Media
IT’S A DIGITAL BLACKHOLE
Do your employees play solitaire all day?
There are possibilities to waste time but there are with everything
If you don’t trust a person, don’t allow them to represent you online
Create a social media strategy BEFORE you begin – stating who can represent
you online and how

18. 5 Reasons NOT to Avoid Social Media
WE ARE ALREADY TOO BUSY
Everyone is busy but you are missing out on conversations involving you/your
company/your venue/your service
People are asking for services you offer online right now and you are not able to
take advantage of this
Use tools, hints and tips to make things easier, quicker and to filter out the
rubbish
Outsourcing? Find a trusted and experienced agency who understand your
overall objectives.  (ben@foxcommunications.co.uk)

19. 5 Reasons NOT to Avoid Social Media
OUR AUDIENCE/CUSTOMERS ARE NOT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Yes they are.
We can prove it.

20. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 70 million members
and growing rapidly.
LinkedIn connects
you to your trusted
contacts and helps
you exchange
knowledge, ideas,
and opportunities
with a broader
network of
professionals.

21. LinkedIn
LinkedIn Groups allow you to:
•Quickly discover the most popular discussions in your professional groups.
•Have an active part in determining the top discussions by liking and
commenting.
•Follow the most influential people in your groups by checking the Top
Influencers board or clicking their profile image to see all their group activity.
•See both member-generated discussions and news in one setting.
•Easily browse previews of the last three comments in a discussion.
•Find interesting discussions by seeing who liked a discussion and how many
people commented.

22. LinkedIn
Business
orientated
High earners
Decision
makers

23. LinkedIn
Follow Groups of Interest.
Track conversations
and join in.
LinkedIn contains
an incredible
amount of regional
business groups –
such as The
Yorkshire Mafia -
as well as groups
from vertical
sectors.
Lots to attack!

24. Promote Our Strengths
Take Advantage of the Area
It's not all about business. Remind potential organisers and delegates what a
beautiful area they’re visiting. Bring a partner or even the family and stay longer?
Remind them just what we’ve got and it may swing the decision.
The beauty of social media
is that you can often get messages
like this across in conversations.
They may not care that the conference
room has a 50” plasma, but they may
like the sound of hitting Scarborough
beach and then York’s restaurants.

25. How social media can influence
Listening and responding.
On the Visit York Twitter account we saw a post from an IT consultant
who wished to organise a large international conference in York but was
encountering resistance from foreign delegates who didn’t know much
about York.
He tweeted us for help and this resulted in him
meeting up with Visit York staff which in turn led
to him booking the international conference.
The nature of social networks is that people are
far more likely to interact. They don’t need to
phone, find the correct email address or visit.
A presence in social media means that we’re
there and available in a way not previously
possible.

26. Twitter example
benfox2212: Anyone know of a good conference venue in #Yorkshire? -
capacity of about 100 people, disability access a must? Please RT...
1:19pm, Jun 24 from HootSuite
lorelei_: @benfox2212 If no one suggested it yet, the Harrogate International
Centre might be worth
a look – from memory
it should cover your needs
1:55pm, Jun 24 from Web

27. Twitter
Observe and listen
Search for relevant posts
and people
Join in conversations
Avoid being too ‘salesy’
Show don’t tell (links, pics)
RT other posts, talk about
lots of subjects

28. What’s New?
So, what’s around the corner in social media, the next big thing?
Well YouTube has been around for five years now but experts predict its
phenomenal growth will not just continue, but explode!
“Video sharing website YouTube now
gets more than
two billion hits daily”.
“Every single minute,
over 24 hours of video
are uploaded to YouTube”.
Sources:
BBC News, May 17, 2010.
YouTube Fact Sheet, May 2010

29. YouTube – an under-exploited resource
Here’s a tip. If you want your videos to be found and viewed, play the
game. Optimisation helps your video get discovered in YouTube search
results

30. YouTube
A major part of getting your videos found and viewed is simply
through the clever use of headlines, descriptions and tags.
Help your videos be discovered in search results and ‘Related Videos’
• Title: 120 characters
– Think of your title as a headline
– If you include brand name in title, it should go last
• Description: 5,000 characters
– Be as detailed as possible (short of entire transcript)
– Include URLs (with http://) to Playlist or website
• Tags: 120 characters
– Be as detailed as possible
– Include: Brand, city, topics
Source: YouTube Partner Help Centre

31. YouTube
Why so important?
We work with specialists in YouTube optimisation and here’s an
example of the results they achieved with a client who run an online
travel video channel.
On YouTube the travel client in question had received 1,510 total views
in eight months.
In the next 100 days, they received 116,905 total views.
Getting the optimisation right really works!
Another benefit: In April, external links to the
client site grew from under 1,000 to over 2,500.
Incredible for SEO purposes.

32. Foursquare
What is it?
It’s a location-based social network that combines your friends, location
and status, meaning it allows you to tell your friends where you are and
what you’re doing.
The interesting thing about Foursquare is that this happens in a
pseudo-game format. When you check-in
at places – such as your venue- you
receive points. After multiple check-ins, you
earn badges. And you can see how
many points you have in comparison
to your friends. You can also leave tips
(comments) for other Foursquare folk.
It’s mainly based around mobile so it’s ideal for
catching visitors on the move

33. Targeting Vertical Sectors
Every sector gets together. Exhibitions. Trade Fairs, Sales, Networking,
Conferences, Training.
Follow a sector that’s of interest to you to give you a genuine interest and to offer
an authentic voice if you are joining in conversations.
Love jewellery? Research trade body sites,
blogs, forums, and the social networks
(Facebook, LinkedIn) to discover groups.
Choose the larger / influential groups - then
follow conversations. Are they planning to
meet up for networking? Have a trade fair?
How about suggesting they have a public
sale in North Yorkshire? They may
consider your venue, so join in.

34. Why is social media so important?
Using social media properly has many advantages – here’s just four for
starters:
PR – it’s a powerful and instant PR channel. It works both ways. E.g. Conduct a
survey on Facebook and you’ve got an instant story.
User value – you’re providing great information and entertainment for your
customers – what’s not to like?! Plus they feel valued as it’s way for them to
provide feedback and get questions answered.
Market Research – You’ve got a ready made market research team at your
disposal. Find out what customers like and dislike. Gauge demand, ask for ideas.
Search Engine Optimisation – keywords and links on social networks referring to
your site will boost search engine rankings. This can be incredibly important.

35. Remember - Social Media isn’t…
The answer to all your marketing prayers
It takes a lot of work and a lot of time to
become effective and for it to work for you.
It can help all other forms of marketing but
it does not work in isolation.
It should be:
Integrated
PR led
Committed
Long-term
Consistent
Not to mention engaging, interesting, two-way, entertaining, different, amusing,
viral, informative, playful, helpful…..you get the picture

36. How should we join in?
When promoting online, think in categories:
•Listen and Monitor
•Research
•Promote Yourself
•Keep the channels open at problem times
Always remember:
Transparency
Honesty
Objectives
Timely responses
Don’t forget to include references to your social networks on all your marketing
communications. E.g. ‘Follow Us on Twitter’, ‘Join us on LinkedIn’. ‘See our YouTube
channel’. To get people to engage with you on social networks, you need to get them there
in the first place - and the offline method is often neglected.

37. It’s great but how do we Measure?
Clear objectives – what to measure and what will be useful?
Buzz and sentiment – not just numbers. This is where
monitoring and listening come in. 30 new followers in
one morning? So what? Big deal.
But what if 20 people that morning were complaining about
your venue’s customer service? That’s a big deal.
That’s more useful for you to know than numbers. Stay alert
as to what people are saying about you; it’s great for
improving your offering and ironing out problems – and it can
even avert a potential crisis.
Check out software such as Meltwater Buzz and Social Media Metrics

38. Measurement
Web analytics – when measuring, remember to use tools
such as Google Analytics. You need to know the effect
social media is having upon your main web site. You can also
see exactly what has proved successful, and what hasn’t.
Other signs – don’t forget to count and consider conversations,
downloads, video views and comments, competition
entries, Re-Tweets, Likes, referring URL visits,
page impressions, visit times, influential followers,
Interactions, Organic SE positioning, in-bound links,
Fan photos and videos, etc. etc.
It’s not just about number of Fans and Followers!

39. Join, search, ask, tell
Single most important thing to take away?
Integrate. Social media only works if it’s part of the bigger picture.
It’s part and parcel of PR today and will amplify your efforts. It’s powerful and
immediate and can work well with your advertising, promotions, direct marketing
and every single other aspect of your marketing.
It can even help with your recruitment!
Social media isn’t difficult, think of it as telling your story.
Treat each medium differently, but ensure it embodies your venue or service’s
personality. Consider how to utilise it so that it will spread your stories, news and
thoughts in the most effective way.
Have fun – it will show!