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October 2, 2009 – 8:30 am

With the increasing number of ways for customers to express their opinion about your product or service there’s a new trend to monitor sentiment on the Internet. Basically it’s about tracking whether the crowds opinion is positive or negative in blogs, social networks, news articles, online forums etc.

good and bad egg The next wave of online marketing? Listening

Good and Bad Sentiment Online

What does this mean for the Motorcoach industry? Well not a whole lot at the moment, but there’s an opportunity here to get and stay ahead of your competitors by starting to invest in your online reputation.

This is more than optimizing your website for search engines and more about really listening to what’s being said about your company good and bad. In fact as often is the case with dealing with traditional customer complaints, dealing with the negative effectively can often turn into a positive experience for the disgruntled customer.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to share my experiences about Twitter and similar tools you can use to manage your online reputation.

Regards,

Eamonn

*Data mining and connecting with services like Facebook and Twitter will be part of TravelManager in 2010 to help our users connect with new customers and retain existing ones.

Don’t just take my word for it! Recent Article in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/technology/internet/24emotion.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all

September 21, 2009 – 9:00 am

Just when you thought that you’d figured out search engines and pay-per-click advertisement the market is starting to change. Yep, you’ve heard it here 1st, all things that worked well in the past are not going to provide the same ROI into the future.

Like the smart companies that starting using Google Adwords ahead of their competition it’s time to another step forward by using social media to get in on the conversation with you potential customers.

Picture 13 Online Marketing is changing (again!!)

Social Media Conversations

**It’s no coincidence that Facebook has hit 300m+ users and a profit.

Regards,
Eamonn

**Here’s a great article that while applies to the Hotel industry is quite applicable with the Motor coach and tours industry: Future Trends

September 14, 2009 – 3:49 pm

So now that you’ve created a Facebook page it’s time to start promoting it. This can be done several ways:

Picture 8 Getting Fans to your Facebook Page

Irish Coaches Facebook Page

1)   Paid Advertisement

2)   Inviting Friends to become a Fan of your page

3)   Promoting your page off Facebook

We’re going to try all 3 techniques to see how effective they are and we’re going to share the results over the coming months.

social media marketing Getting Fans to your Facebook Page

Social Media Marketing

Paid Advertisement:

This is probably the fastest way to get your page out there and infront of your target audience. It involves creating a advertisement that will be listed on facebook users pages that fit your profile. So for example you can have you advertisement displayed to specific age ranges, genders, countries etc.

You can pay per impression (number of times you’re advert is displayed) or pay per click (like Google Adwords). For the initial campaign Irish Coaches are going to use pay-per-click.

Inviting Friends to become a Fan:

One thing that has annoyed a lot of people promoting businesses on Facebook is that you can’t invite people directly to become a fan of your page. They have to be a friend and then you can use the “Suggest to Friends” facility to promote your page.

This means that you won’t be able to start sending invites to all your customers or mailing lists, rather you have to either become friends on facebook or promote your page without using Facebook.

Promoting your page off Facebook:

What I mean by this is NOT using Facebook to promote your Facebook page. This has surprized a lot of people that Facebook is quite restrictive on helping you to promote your page. Apart from inviting your friends to become fans or by adding a “Badge” (link from your website) they’re is very few other tools you can use.

Regards,

Eamonn

**Useful Diagram:

sales funnel Facebook Getting Fans to your Facebook Page

Sales Funnel using Facebook

September 2, 2009 – 9:00 am

In this weeks marketing post I’m focusing on the basics of Facebook. Facebook is a powerful and affordable way to announce events, promote your blog/website, and dialogue with your customer base.

The 1st step is to create a Facebook page, which is an extension of your personal Facebook account.  So of you don’t have a Facebook account you’ll need to create one on Facebook.com.

Ok, so I’ve created my account using an email address I’m going to use for all my Online Marketing efforts. Next step is to customize your page with things like you’re company logo and some interesting content. I’ve uploaded the Irish Coaches logo and also a video about the company.

Now I need to start letting people know about it so today I’ve added a Facebook badge button with a link from the Irish Coaches website.

find us on facebook badge Getting started with Facebook to Market your Business

Find us on Facebook Badge

Later in the week I’m going to look at customizing the Page and ways to increase the number of fans.

So get started and create your Facebook page today icon smile Getting started with Facebook to Market your Business

Regards,

Eamonn