Post on 15-Jul-2015
Travel Blogging Today
Who am I?
Michael Hodson@GoSeeWrite
Immediate Past President, PTBA
Why Work with Travel Bloggers?
Advantages
• Dedicated followers• Living in Social Media• Evangelists, not just content sources• Timing of content• Duration of online content• Can also be content creators for you• Co-marketing campaign possibilities• Developing relationships with bloggers as a
future knowledge resource
Big, or Possible Little, Advantage
• Almost infinite variety of options• Niche• Language• Target Audience• Style of Content• Multiplicity of content types
Finding and Evaluating Bloggers
You want to work with us…..
How do you find the exact ones you want to work with?
Qualitative Analysis
• Design• Self-hosted• Niche• Age of site• Frequency of posting• Appropriate content• Photo vs. video vs. text• Informational vs. narrative• Comments and interaction with readers
Trust Your Gut
Work relationship – you need to feel comfortable with who you are working with
You can tell a lot about most bloggers (not all), by simply reading their site for a while
Navigating Quantitative Analytics
The Big Issue
• Numbers alone are NOT the key
– What social media platforms do they use– Who are their followers– Are they contributing regularly– Are people interacting – is there conversation
or just broadcasting?
Starting Point: Google Analytics
Twitter Focus – Too Much Here
Twitter Focus – Not Enough Here
Big Numbers, but…
Facebook interaction?
Facebook interaction….The other side
How many FB fans do you think this page has?
Answer
Before working with a blogger ask
• Statistics– Who reads them?
• Demographics now on Google Analytics
– Google Analytics only
• References of people they have worked with in the past
• Example of previous press trip posts, photos, or videos
Deeper Looks: Twitter Stats
analytics.twitter.com
Facebook Insights
#tbdi2014
Facebook Insights
The PTBA
The PTBA
• Formed to help develop travel blogging into Formed to help develop travel blogging into profession with a set of professional profession with a set of professional standardsstandards
• 50 bloggers and 10 industry members worked 50 bloggers and 10 industry members worked for 12 months to develop structurefor 12 months to develop structure
• Over 200 international blogging members Over 200 international blogging members right now and growingright now and growing
• travelbloggersassociation.comtravelbloggersassociation.com
Customized search
• Search by location, language and nearly 40 niches
• Industry standard statistics for site evaluation• Metrics for all social media platforms• RSS subscribers and newsletter subscribers• Outside evaluation included (Klout,
PeerIndex, Kred)• Unlimited number of searches, using any and
all criteria you want
Search Engine
Blogger Profiles
Interesting Campaigns
Tons of interesting things going on out there
• Trover working with bloggers on their launch of their photo sharing site
• Yonderbound doing the same with their travel booking site
• Visit Britain having bloggers curate content for a new dedicated site
… and tons more
Australia -- Crowdsourcing
Australia
Campaign Examples -- Instagram
#inCostaBrava and #inPyrenees
2013 edition:•Total number of towns: 30•Total number of participants: 2,968•Total number of photos: 33,831•Total number of likes: 1,044,108•Total number of impacts: 1.450.348 2014 edition:•Total number of towns: 32 (41 in total by end of year)•Total number of participants: 1,935•Total number of photos: 15,235•Total number of likes: 648,196•Total number of impacts: 1,088,463
Campaign Examples -- Hostelworld
Big Rewards -- Hostelworld
• 16,000+ interactions using hashtag #EscapeNow• 120,332 social shares of landing page• Facebook reached 1 million people+ via posts/ads
Final success – 750,000 sign ups across 9 languages
Thank you
Michael Hodsonmichaelshodson@yahoo.com
Craig Martin, current PTBA Presidentcraig@indietravelmedia.com
Laurence Norah, President Electlaurence@findingtheuniverse.com
For PTBA inquiriescontact@travelbloggersassociation.com
Questions
Hopefully, lots of them