2011 Conference on Social Media and Tourism

On October 21st and 22nd,  I was privileged enough to be a keynote speaker at the 2011 Conference on Social Media and Tourism, which was presented by the Virginia Tech Pamplin College of Business, College of Charleston and the Management Center Innsbruck. It took place in beautiful San Martino Buon Albergo, just outside Verona, Italy which provided the perfect backdrop for an event dedicated to travel and tourism.

For me, it was an interesting experience that melded the academic research fields with what those of us in the agency world do (what I call the "practical application" of research). Hearing many brilliant people present their research papers yielded a lot of insight into what I do on a daily basis, and I was impressed that many of the researchers were just as interested to hear what is going on with agencies. We certainly have a lot to offer each other.

For instance, I think digital agencies tend to use secondary research to create strategies for our campaigns, then revisit that initial rationale at the end of the campaign to create new findings. It is a symbiotic relationship that I wish was stronger because I sometimes get the sense that we would all get to our conclusions/findings quicker if we worked together more. I hope that conferences like this create further dialogue between the two sides (researchers and agencies).

I thoroughly enjoyed the presentations I was able to attend, which gave a truly international perspective. They ranged from Johanna Heinoen's presentation on creating a social media strategy for the tourism business in Finland to Peter O'Connor's exploration of best practices and social media adoption by International Hotel Companies, and Sebastian Heinzel (CEO of successful European social travel site Tripwolf.com) on "The Future of the Travel Guide."

Some interesting conversation and debate centered around just how to measure our success. It is clear that social media is about WAY more than a numbers game, such as simple "number of likes" or even traffic, but we have a ways to go before we are able to measure the success of a meaningful, social interaction. I will write more on this later, but it is definitely a topic that will not go away for some time.

I had the opportunity to make a presentation on "The Convergence of Customer Service, PR and Marketing on Social Media" on Friday, and to participate in a panel discussion on "Business to Consumer Communications Using Social Media Platforms."

And, did I mention it was in beautiful Verona? Being my first time in Italy, I tried to make the most of it as well, visiting several nearby towns and cities. For those who want to see my photos, I made a public album on Google+ here.

My main takeaways from the conference are that:

• Much research still needs to be done on the elusive answer "social media ROI." It is on the fringes of every conversation and at the center of some.
• Researchers and agencies have much to benefit from by working together more often and sharing knowledge. We also stand to benefit from more diverse groups that shares in this conversation.
• We need to create a better vocabulary for speaking about our true successes. Number of follows, website traffic and even simple conversions are one thing, but in order to truly understand the 'social' aspect of social media, we need a way to talk about the value of the emotional and human connection that social media allows.

 

Until then, I am ready to go back to Verona if I'm needed.