This week, DMMI (Destination Management and Marketing Institute) released their “How Social Is Your DMO” rankings for their annual conference, “The Total Experience.” All attending DMOs were ranked, and out of 72 attendees, two JB Inc. clients ranked among the top 20, including the Baton Rouge CVB at number 9 and the Panama City Beach CVB at number 16. Congrats to these cutting-edge destinations!

The following criteria were taken into account when determining the rankings:
1) Certified Site Traffic Measurement from Quantcast.com
2) Presence of Social Media Icons and Links on the Web Site Home Page
3) Keyword Search in Google
4) Facebook Presence
5) Twitter Presence
6) MySpace Presence
7) Flickr Presence
Panoramio Presence
9) YouTube Presence
10) Content Sharing Via a Social Media Tool like Add This or Share This
11) Blog Presence
12) User Generated Content/Review Site
13) Domain in‐Links via Yahoo

Additionally, a unique algorithm was used to calculate final results, developed by Gammet Interactive.

While these rankings are an excellent tool and consistent way of benchmarking the way DMOs are faring in the world of social media, there are countless other measures of success, as well as many other up and coming social sites on which destinations can be represented.

Social media moves at the speed of light, which is why it’s crucial to not only stay abreast of all the latest social media trends, but also to keep up on the newest tracking tools to help measure progress and ongoing representation across the internet landscape. At JB Inc., we use a variety of different tracking tools for clients, and are continually adding new measures and researching effective means of determining ROI. For instance, the seomoz linkscape tool, which measures the number of root domains linking to your site, links to the page, and provides you with a “mozRank” that can help you identify your site’s popularity across the web.

Early next year, look for JB Inc’s top ten list of the best web tools to measure your organization’s message within the digital landscape.

So what are you waiting for? Looking to start up an effective social media campaign? Or refine your current efforts? We’re here to help – contact us, and we’ll help you generate buzz like no other, so next year, you can make the list!

We’re very excited to be a part in the E-Tourism Summit October 13-14 in NYC. It’s the 10th Annual E-Tourism Summit whose conference provides a much needed venue for tourism professionals to gather, learn about new areas of interactive marketing, rich media, web 2.0 development and much more in an environment filled with educational sessions and plenty of time to share feedback and opinions with peers in the industry. The Summit is also the only venue at which travel industry professions can evaluate pre-screened providers who have the most relevant products for their programs.

Jennifer Barbee will be part of two very important sessions during the summit. On October 13, Jennifer will be part of a panel titled “The Visionaries: What Will Travel Web Sites Look Like in the Future?”. This session which also includes presentations by Tripfilms, Razorfish and VideoEgg, will focus on where our online presence is going by way of web 2.0 and web 3.0 technologies, feeds and design.

On October 14, Jennifer will be hosting a session titled “The Future of Web Site Development: Tactics for Lowering Your Bounce Rate” in which Jennifer will cover ideas, technologies, usability and much more with the goals of keeping your visitors on your web site and coming back in the future.

On October 22, Jennifer Barbee, Inc. will also host a special webinar for the LTPA (Association) on Social Media and Tactics for improving your organization’s social presence.

We hope to see you at E-Tourism in NYC. We will have all hands on deck to provide live feedback from the event and sessions bringing the latest trends and ideas back to the industry. Here is a lineup of Presenters and what each will be covering:

• The Travel Channel (How to make your own short form video out of b-roll film, or from scratch)
• Google: ( What new products Google has under it’s hood for travel marketers)
• TripAdvisor: (How to deal with bad reviews)
• Razorfish (The top trends that will dictate the future of travel marketing)
• Brink Media (How to develop, market and promote an I-Phone App for travel companies)
• Travelzoo (How to drive more traffic  using new e-mail techniques)
• Comscore: (How the state of the online industry is evolving to travel information sites)
• Video Egg (How a new ROI –return on involvement–)can build quality traffic to your site
• Bing (How a “Decision Engine” can help travel companies)
• Jennifer Barbee, Inc: (How “heat charts” are used to develop high-performing websites)
• Trip Films (How to bring a destination to life through video)
• Travel 2.0: (Building your presence on Twitter, Digg, Facebook in an E-Tourism Workshop)
• Red Tettamer Agency: (How PA  created a love story to drive viewers to videos)
• Loundoun County CVB: (How they won an Emmy  for the videos stories on their site)
• Go See Tell: (How Travel Portland developed 8,000 followers on Twitter)
• Spokane CVB (How to use Twitter in the best way)
• R Levin Marketing (How a 17 room Atlantic City B&B beat out major casinos Google rank)
• .Com Marketing (How to maximize SEM in light of the latest tools and changes)
• McPheters & Company: (How to compare branding ROI from print vs TV vs Interactive)
• Visit Denver (How they created an effective text messaging campaign & what they learned)
• Visionary Consulting: (What to do when analytic reports from Google and Webtrends conflict)
• Miles Media: (A former Meeting Planner discusses how to create sticky content for them)
• Campaigner: (How to get more recipients to open your e-mails)
• Madden Media, e-Brains, Miles Media: (How to generate new traffic to your website)
• 97^th Floor: (How to manage an SEO and SEM campaign overseas)
• Development  Consultants Int’l: (Who are the Twitter Elite?)

Jennifer Barbee Inc. spent a fabulous day at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Miami yesterday! The Conference, held at the landmark Fontainebleau Hotel, was full of interesting information, travel-related data and marketing discussions. We heard speeches from Governor Charlie Crist of Florida, renowned researcher and author Richard Florida, and listened to a panel discussion featuring Roger Dow, President & CEO of the US Travel Association; Terry Dale, President of Cruise Lines International; Kevin Healy, Senior VP of Marketing and Planning for Air Tran Airways; Mark Lomanno of Smith Travel Research; and Peter Yesawich, Chairman & CEO of Y Partnership. We Tweeted live from the conference, so check out our feed @jenniferbarbee!

The overriding theme that came out of this important conference is that while travel may be down, people are still traveling – they’re simply spending less money and staying for a shorter time. The key to surviving and thriving in these times is creativity and innovation when it comes to marketing. The businesses that are making it through and staying successful are learning how to do more with less. They’re using all of their resources, human and otherwise, to find new solutions to their marketing challenges.

There are countless ways to do this, be it through social media, online advertising, finding new niche markets, etc. The key is, traditional budgets and ways of doing business are changing, and it takes new media, new innovations and new ideas to stay afloat in tough economic times. Luckily, this industry features tons of talented and strategic people who are meeting the challenge and staying positive the whole way!

Last week, Jennifer Barbee Inc. taught two days at STS Marketing College in Dahlonega, GA.  Boy, we had our running shoes the time we were there!  We started out by covering the movement of Social Marketing and it’s relevance in destination marketing today.  Little known fact that social marketing actually was born from the Can-Spam, Pop-Up Blockers and Do not Call lists.  When users are able to control the “interruptions” they experience, peer-to-peer marketing becomes the more authentic way to expose users to your brand.  But, it’s tricky.  We have to relearn how we market and make the transition to relationship building vs. direct messages.  We had to learn how to create inspiration thought viral link baits and a holistic “social strategy” rather than posting direct “click here, come here, do this” messages.

I learned that the trepidation and worry over social marketing for travel companies come from a few things:  the use of each medium fully (facebook widgets, twitter feeds, you tube options), and utilizing their time on the sites that are going to yield the most return.  We stressed the importance of playing in each medium – forms, fields and options are going to change on each social site.  Right after we finish showing you how to use notes, create fans, etc.  There will be shift.  The important factor on all social media – is thinking about the audience, what they like, what their interests are – and pushing that message through the variety of options for the message.

But, once we had the opportunity to play on a few of these sites with the students, and were able to illustrate how to extend their brand and create evangelists….they all kicked in with great ideas for their own destinations and travel companies.  I really love being able to show and tell what we do for clients, and illustrate that this marketing genre is not just for geeks anymore!  When we did a break out for each group to come up with their own ideas for a social promotion that was:  relevant, viral, multimedia and time sensitive — I was impressed!  Every one of the students attacked the project with open ideas and there were some unique ideas that you might be seeing on the web very soon.

I just want to take the opportunity to thank STS for inviting us and thank the students for being so interactive, asking questions and applying the strategies to their own places.  I’ll be sending out homework assignments for each of you soon, and I will be following your progress online. J  Call me a cyber-stalker – I have to watch my new social-stars!!!!

Check out http://www.southeasttourismsociety.org/ for all the recap of Marketing College and some fun photos of our class.  Continue to support the associations that are able to connect firms like us to the industry!

Off next week to talk about Social Media to Baton Rouge Hospitality Management Association.  Round two – and I am PUMPED!

Jennifer Barbee, Inc. has been invited by the Southeast Tourism Society to teach this year’s Alumni Class at the STS Marketing College June 26-31. The class is all about social and is decidedly titled so…”What is Social?”. We feel it’s so important to use any means of education right now to really help organizations understand what social awareness and media can mean for their brand. I think we all understand what it means to be social on a personal level but taking that same thought process and representing a different message to a broader audience is what gets everyone and every organization talking.

Putting a group of marketers and brand strategists in a room together to bounce ideas and successes off each other is a real passion for our agency. We love to help people understand a strategy from the bottom up and social is a great area of education to make that happen.

We’re so excited for the opportunity to teach this course at the STS Marketing College! If you are attending, let us know how we can help make this course one you’ll never forget! Comment on our blog or find us on Facebook and Twitter. We would love to hear your thoughts.

When a boutique interactive agency gets the chance to be part of an innovative and idea driven group like the attendees at the CM Summit this year, we get very excited. It’s a chance to regroup with our peers, talk about what’s new, what’s old, what the trends are and most important. . . what works! The theme of this year’s conference in NYC was just that. . .  simply themed, “What Works? The Case Studies”.  It was all about social media, social presence, marketing with conversations and not closed end messages. It was truly an experience that we took a lot away from. One of the comments made by one of the speakers stuck with us…so true but also a little scary. “The only thing certain in social media is that nothing is ever certain.” For everyone in this industry, the experience and the strategy is key.  No one wants to make an effort and devote hours of work and resources to something that in the end. . .  can’t be shown in a positive light…a case study for how great that effort paid off.

It was all about ROI. . .  Eyeballs. . .  Conversations. . .  Comments. . .  Videos. . .  everything that we are spending our spare time doing. It’s really funny to think about. . .  but I have more conversations online than I do in real life! Our virtual friends are a larger group that our real life friends. Why is that weird to think about?? Maybe in the early 90’s if someone had said just that, we would have thought. . .  are you crazy? Are you in lala land? That’s Star Trek talk!! It’s not. . .  it’s real. . .  and it is THE way to be social.

Check out our Twitter Page. We tweeted live from the conference audience and tried to get all the top trends, highlights and stats from the speakers. You can also check out the blog that highlighted some great points from the conference.

We encourage you to ask us questions. Interact with our team that attended this year’s conference. We are happy to share with you everything we took away and answer any social media questions you have.

Ask Away!! Can’t wait to share with everyone!

Image Source: cnn.com