Ski.com Director of Marketing got a $70,000 booking from a single Facebook referral
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Dan Sherman is Director of Marketing Communications at Ski.com
Ski.com is North America’s largest provider of mountain vacations
My day-to-day changes every day
I wear a lot of hats: the two largest are public relations and social media
The link between social media and PR is managing messages and keeping the dialog going
You skip the middleman and go direct to your target audience
Unlike PR, with social media you can somewhat control your message
When you’re pitching media, you just hope they write about what you want
Facebook and Twitter are two different vehicles for two different purposes
I do more offers on Twitter than Facebook
Facebook is more engaging in my opinion – it lets you have more of a dialog with more people in one place
Twitter is better for lead generation, driving traffic to a website
If I do a sales message, I don’t get a lot of action
But if it’s just relevant information, like a photo of new snow, people like to engage with that
When people comment on anything on Facebook, all their friends see that
Through this method, we got a $70,000 booking from someone who had never heard of us before
I generally do all the Facebook updates myself – and I manage multiple pages
The last thing I want to do is post too much, and have people hide us in their newsfeed
Our business is seasonal, so I want to be tapping people on the shoulder, but not too much
Facebook Connect may become a thing of the past
I have very high expectations for putting Facebook functionality on our own website, allowing their friends to see they’re engaging with Ski.com
We just implemented ‘like’ buttons on all of our resort pages
When people click that, on their friends’ newsfeed they’ll see John Doe likes Ski.com
Advice from strangers on TripAdvisor is great, but people really trust their own circle of friends
Recommendations from friends are more likely to encourage a buying decision
People have always been influenced by what other people like, but Facebook makes this much more visible
See Dan this October at EyeforTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit North America 2010.
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As usual a great post J with the great new format !
My most important points were:
1. If I do a sales message, I don’t get a lot of action. But if it’s just relevant information, like a photo of new snow, people like to engage with that.
When are hoteliers going to get this ? I have stopped following sooo many hotels on Twitter because all I got was hard core selling !
2. Advice from strangers on TripAdvisor is great, but people really trust their own circle of friends
Recommendations from friends are more likely to encourage a buying decision.
I have a great blog post coming up about how Schmocial Schmedia is replacing Search. All I need to do is DO IT WRONG and get it up QUICKLY.
Cheers
Mihir
Thanks for the positive feedback on this, Mihir – I’m liking this interview format as well.
Re: sales in social media – I’m wondering if we should stop seeing it as a lead generation activity, and more relationship building. Perhaps another tool – like email – is better for closing the sales loop?
Re: Advice from others – I’m excited how Facebook (and others) are bringing the ‘social graph’ from closed networks and integrating a bit more with websites. I think this is a powerful trend.
Exactly J !
I always used Schmocial Schmedia as more of a personal branding tool rather than a hardcore sales generator.
But then I read an article that made me really sit up and think.
I’l be blogging about it soon. Check it out…
Cheers
Mihir
Speaking of interview format, could we do my interview with a format like this along with the audio ?
Cheers
Mihir
Actually I just finished transcription, and I’ll post our interview tomorrow in text-only format? Is that fine?
If you have any photos you want me to include – of yourself or the hotel – just email them over
I think the above format is perfect J !
The photo of me smoking my cigar and drinking a single malt would be great for personal branding J. I sent you a copy by email.
Cheers
Mihir
As promised, my latest blog post on ‘How Social Search is replacing Google’ ! Are you ready for it ?
http://mitaroygoahotel.com/2010/08/03/how-social-search-is-replacing-google/
Cheers
Mihir
Very good article describing a very real trend. Everyone, go read this article Mihir wrote:
http://mitaroygoahotel.com/2010/08/03/how-social-search-is-replacing-google/
Thanks for the heads up J !
Cheers
Mihir
Great interview highlights, J. I like the esquire-inspired format, too! I wish “girl” magazines would hire Esquire-league writers and interviewers so I can stop skipping through men’s fashion articles to find the good stuff
But back to this interview! I really like this:
“Facebook and Twitter are two different vehicles for two different purposes” — Indeed, and neither of those vehicles are the same as an old-school media outlet.
“I do more offers on Twitter than Facebook” — I’ve noticed alot of businesses use Twitter to broadcast promotions, and that…
“Facebook is more engaging in my opinion – it lets you have more of a dialog with more people in one place” — It must be easier to start dialogs when you’re only speaking to people that have “fanned/friended” you
and the layout certainly encourages more two-way conversation than Twitter.
“Twitter is better for lead generation, driving traffic to a website.” — Definitely use Twitter in this way, one of my favorite sources of new articles and bloggers!
I’ve already commented on your site, but again — really enjoyed your excellent summary (and interview), Mihir!
What kind of good stuff would you be searching for in men’s fashion articles Katie ? Not just the pictures I hope
I certainly think that Twitter is a great source of new articles. I even tweeted a while ago how Twitter is the new RSS !
Thanks for the heads up Katie ! I really appreciate your company and comments on my blog !
Cheers
Mihir