View as a Web Page
Travel Blog Project

The Daily Post
January 20, 2011
Day 9
Facebook

Facebook Marketing
I am excited to present an incredible article by Denyse H. Turner discussing marketing travel on Facebook. Denyse is one of our Travel Blog Project Participants and also one of the most successful travel agents on Facebook. If you visit her Facebook Fan page you will clearly understand why she is so successful. She puts a lot of effort into it. We are fortunate to be able to present her insight, knowledge and experience.

Custom Facebook Tabs
Many people have expressed a desire to create custom tabs (i.e. Welcome) on their Facebook fan page. It is not that hard and it is also free to do. Check below for step by step instructions.

Enjoy The Journey!
George

Facebook Marketing

MAKING FACEBOOK "CLICK"
by Denyse H. Turner

I’m certainly no expert at marketing my travel practice, however, I have found that using Facebook and other social media networking sites are extremely beneficial to the success of my practice. Additionally, seeking out others who are experts at what they do to assist in my goals gets the job done! For instance, if you don’t know how to make your page look professional, find someone who can.

Most of my life has been the same story. When it comes to many of my skills, they are self-taught. In other words, I did not learn them in a classroom. Such is the case with social networking. Let’s be real; I'm part of the baby-boomer generation – toward the end of the generation! Technology is not easy to learn, but its something that I love and I know it can be successful for any business.

I started working with Facebook around the end of 2008 but didn’t begin to really use it until mid-2009. I started with about 20 friends in about 30 days. When I really thought about what I had, it clicked in 2009 and I "worked" it. Sixteen months, over 1,790 friends and over 350 fans later, I see the success! The trick is you must interact with your friends/fans about topics OTHER than travel on a regular basis. Doing that, they get to know YOU and that’s when you begin to build relationships and trust.

As I do lots of research and take lots of classes, I find differing opinions on the proper use of social networking. Some I follow and most I don’t because I’ve found what works. Just having an account doesn’t work. I talk to many agents who tell me they have an account/page and don’t see anywhere near the success I’m having. My first question to them is "how and how often do you use it?" Their responses are varied, from posting a couple times a month to posting once a week.

CLIA defines social media networking as "using the internet to meet people to whom a brand or product can be exposed." How often do you see the green gecko? Do you know what brand he represents? That’s exactly how you have to be to expose your brand and product. If people don’t know what you do and aren’t familiar with who you are, guess what? They more than likely will not support you. Your goal has to be to get people to think of you first when it comes time for them to travel.

What is my success? Right now for 2011, I have 16 group cruises, 7 individual cruises and more vacation packages than I can handle alone. I also have 2 group cruises already for 2012. Two of those groups include a 500 passenger and a 1500 passenger group. Where did they come from?? Facebook.

I actually use seven (7) different applications/methods every day and many more than that less frequently. But here are 10 tips to guide those uses:

1. You have to use multiple applications to be successful, including blogs
2. Your goal is to establish credibility
3. Promote your brand and website everywhere you can
4. Don’t discontinue your use of traditional marketing; maintain the human touch
5. Follow routines and stick to them!
6. Keep your posts short and simple; no one wants to or has time to read a short story or novel
7. Monitor what colleagues are doing
8. Use photos and/or videos to capture attention
9. Ask questions and offer opinions to maintain interaction
10. Be honest!

Be successful!

Denyse H. Turner is the Owner and Head Travel Practitioner of Rx 4 Fun Travel based in Paterson, NJ. For more information, you can contact Denyse at rx4funtravel@ymail.com or visit www.facebook.com/Rx4FunTravel and www.facebook.com/Rx4FunTravelSpecialEventsatSea.

Custom Tabs for Facebook

Every wonder how some businesses set up those welcome pages? This is done by setting up a custom tab using the FBML app. It is "relatively" easy if you follow these step by step instructions.

1) Log into your Facebook fan page. In the upper left area you will see some links. Click on "edit page."

2) Now click on the "Apps" link. You will see an application labeled "Static – FBML."
Click on "Go To App." Then click on the button labeled "Add Static FBML."

3) Now go back to the original "Edit Page" link and click that.

4) Now you will see a link in the same upper left area called Apps. Click the Apps link. A list of apps will show, but at the bottom you will see FMBL and click on "Edit Settings."

5) On the page that appears, you will see a text field labeled Box Title. Put "Welcome."

6) Beneath that field is a text area where you can put text and a link to an image.

7) When you are done with step 6, click on the Save button

8) Now go back to the main edit page where you clicked on Apps. This time click on "Manage Admins." You will see a drop-down box labeled "Default Landing Page." Welcome should be one of the options. Click on Welcome as your default and then click on Save Changes.

Congratulations! You now have a welcome tab and it will be the page people see when they visit your page for the first time. But it seems boring with just text. Would you like to add an image to the body of your Welcome page?

9) Load the image you want in the photos section of your Fan page.

10) Move your mouse over the loaded picture and right click on your mouse. One of the choices you will see in the menu is "Properties." Clicking on properties will open a pop-up box and one of the fields you will see is "image source." Highlight that long image source of where Facebook stored your image. Sometimes the image source gets hidden as it is so long, but if you move your mouse to get it all it becomes visible. With this image source highlighted, copy it (Hold down Ctrl key and the C key).

Now go back to steps 3 & 4 to open up the FBML app and then Edit Settings.

11) In the large text area you will be inputing the code below after replacing YourImageSource. < img src="YourImageSource" border="0" / >

Replace "YourImageSource" in the statement above with the long source you have copied with your mouse in step 10 by pasting it (Hold down the Ctrl key and the V key).

The image you are loading must be less than 525 pixels wide by about 600 pixels high. It can be less, just more than these dimensions.

12) Save changes and Viola!

You should now have a Welcome tab and it should be the default landing page for people visiting your page. Note that if someone "likes"” your page, they will automatically be taken directly to your wall.


Quote of the Day

 "You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you towards success? Or are they holding you back?" – W. Clement Stone, Originator of the PMA (Positive Mental Attitude)

Travel Blog Project
P.O. Box 23712 · San Jose, California, 95153 USA
We hope you are enjoying The Travel Blog Project. If you prefer to not receive these emails: Unsubscribe