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Hotels and Resorts, with its blog (the Lobby.com), and Sheraton
s consumer experience and photo
sharing. Marriott International has a program to reach bloggers that includes asking them to speak to
its corporate communications team. Marketers can utilize the various types and formats of social
media to promote their products and services. HotelChatter.com and TripAdvisor now accept display
ads, and many discussion boards accept advertising. A problem here is that measuring ad spending
effectiveness on social network sites is dif
cult and still being developed. eMarketer projects that
global social network advertising will total $2.0 billion in 2010.
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Wiki
A wiki is a type of Web site, like Wikipedia, that lets anyone create and edit its pages. The word is
Internet slang. The word wiki is short for Wikiwikiweb. Wikiwiki is Hawaiian, meaning
''
In a wiki, people can write pages together. People can change or add something new to the pages.
People can discuss as well and tell their views.
''
fast
''
or
''
speed.
Podcasting
According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Web site, a podcast is a media
file that is distributed
over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal
computers. Podcasting is a combination of the words ipod and broadcasting, and it is a new way to
share and information through MP3 audio
files. The formats are downloaded, shared, and subscribed
to using an MP3 player. The Apple iTunes store offers tens of thousands of podcasts that can be played
on their iPod. Podcasts can be found for almost anything, including TV shows, movies, radio shows,
blogs, books, and games to mention a few. A visit to podcast.com provides an indication of the variety
available. Small businesses have discovered podcasting, with everyone from
fitness experts to travel
agents using podcasts to stimulate their business.
An Internet marketing strategy is composed of many tactics to grow the direct online distribution
channel. Social media is a new tool to be added to this strategy. Consumer-generated media provides
a unique value proposition to customers.
Microblogging
A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically much smaller. A microblog
entry could consist of just a short sentence, a sentence fragment, an image, or an embedded video.
Twitter is the most prominent site. Some others are Qaiku, Google Buzz, Tumbir, and Plurk.
Forums
An Internet forum or message board is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations
in the form of posted messages. From a technological standpoint, forums are Web applications
managing user-generated content. Depending on the forum setup, a posted message may need to be
approved by a moderator before it becomes visible. Discussion forums have been around for a long
time and are a powerful and popular element of online communities. TRINET is a valuable forum for
tourism scholars and researchers.
Content Communities
The purpose of content communities is the sharing of media content among users. Content
communities exist for a wide range of media such as BookCrossing for books, Flickr for photos,
YouTube for videos, and Slideshare for PowerPoint presentations. Users of content communities are
typically not required to create a personal pro
le page.
Social media has become an important and necessary part of tourism marketing. For companies
and destinations, social media can play a large role in online marketing success. While it is important to
have a Facebook page and be on LinkedIn, it is equally important to join and participate in other travel
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