Facebook Deals Threatens Google Places, Foursquare, Gowalla

"Facebook isn't lavishing kisses on Foursquare, Gowalla, Google or any other company with a mind to compete in making money from local businesses with its new Facebook Deals service.

Facebook Deals connects U.S. consumers with local businesses via the Facebook Places check-in social service. iPhone users must install the Facebook for iPhone 3.3 application, touch "Places" and then "Check In."

Nearby stores participating in Facebook Deals will display a yellow icon. iPhone users can view the deal and check in to claim it, then show their phone to the cashier to receive the gift or discount. Starbuck's, McDonald's, Gap and some 20 other stores are currently enrolled in the Deals program.

Consumers who check-in via Deals get free or discounted goods, or have donations sent to charities. Businesses can lure both new and returning patrons, explained Tim Kendall, director of monetization for Facebook, during the Deals launch Nov. 3."

via www.eweek.com

Social Media ROI - Seeing the Forest for the Trees

"There has been a lot of discussion about social media ROI lately - everyone is pushing very hard to figure out how it can be used to make money or reduce costs. Fundamentally we need to start any investment initiative with the goal of making more or spending less so the ROI conversation is very important. However, as an analyst I often had to chuckle because we hear very little from the companies making a lot of money (with high margins) off of social media and online communitities - companies like The Knot, Match.com, and UTest. Why? Those who have figured out the puzzle have no particular need to share their secrets and in most of the examples I know of they are market disruptors, not established brands."

Read more by Rachel Happe via socialmediatoday.com

Internet Advertising Hits New Revenue Record

"Online advertising is thriving in the U.S., according to figures released in the latest IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report.

Businesses and individuals spent approximately $12.1 billion on online advertising in the first six months of 2010, up 11.3% from the from the first half of 2009 and 13.9% from the second quarter of 2009. In fact, this was both the highest first-half and second-quarter revenue ever recorded."

Read more at www.mashable.com

LinkedIn - The Social Network That Gets Down to Business

"Joanna Wiseberg began Red Scarf Equestrian, which makes stylish handbags and other luxury goods for horse lovers, two years ago, just as the economy plunged into recession.

Nevertheless, Ms. Wiseberg was soon meeting people who invited her to showcase her goods at elite places like the Cannes Film Festival, the Monaco Grand Prix and a luxury goods conference in China. Now, she said, Red Scarf Equestrian, based in Toronto, is poised to take off.

“My business is a niche within a niche, and I opened at the worst possible time,” Ms. Wiseberg said. “You try and push a ball uphill.”

Her tool was LinkedIn, the social network for business professionals that is often perceived as a workaday cousin to the social butterfly of Facebook. But as Ms. Wiseberg discovered, LinkedIn is actually more than just a place for job seekers to post a résumé. “I wouldn’t be here without LinkedIn,” she said."

Read more at www.nytimes.com

Following the Money in the Social Media Advertising Boom

"In the social media world a number of trends are dictating how, why and where money gets spent--trends that will push the industry past the $2 billion mark in 2011, according to eMarketer's projections.

Not surprisingly, the biggest beneficiary of the current euphoria around social is Facebook, with several estimates now pegging the company's 2010 revenue at better than $1 billion. That growth is being fueled in part by what some advertisers see as competition to scoring prime advertising space on the site."

Read more at www.forbes.com

Social Media Is Not Free: Here's Why

"Twitter is free. Facebook is free. Foursquare is free. TweetDeck is (still) free. Google Alerts is free. So, social media is free, right? Wrong. Beyond even the obvious costs - designing and building a Foursquare application, or stepping up to a fee-based listening platform like Alterian, Collective Intellect, Cymfony, BuzzMetrics, or Lithium's Scout Labs, social media is far from free.

In fact, social media-based marketing costs real money. While it may not be millions of dollars for 30 seconds of air time, making sense of the social Web and really getting it right takes planning, creative insight, product management, and other internal resources, all of which have costs associated with them that you may not see at the outset."

Read more via www.clickz.com

Welcome to the future, where hotel operations and marketing are one

It is official; the walls on every hotel worldwide are now made of glass and are completely transparent; the outside world can now see into your hotel lobby and witness how real guest are treated in the real-world daily. For those who thought that TripAdvisor had revolutionized the hospitality industry, be assured that we have so far only seen just the beginning.

Read more via www.hotelmarketing.com

Making customer satisfaction pay in the hotel industry

"In recent years, reports in the business press have questioned the value of measuring customer satisfaction, suggesting that such research does not explain or predict financial performance. A new Cornell University research paper demonstrates now the contrary.

In this report, Cornell University demonstrates that customer satisfaction research, when designed and executed with the prerequisite psychometric and statistical rigor, does in fact yield actionable insights and show clear linkages to actual financial outcomes"

Read more via www.hotelmarketing.com

Americans Head to Travel Sites for Vacation Planning

Americans Click It to Book It

Travel site categories experienced a gain in activity in June as Americans entered the heat of travel season. More than 100 million Americans visited the category during the month, affecting the following travel sub-categories: Transactions, Hotels/Resorts, Ground/Cruise, and Airplanes.

Travel - Transactions sites ranked as the top gaining category for the month of June, growing 32 percent to 5.2 million visitors. Viator.com ranked #1 in the category with 1.1 million visitors, followed closely by TravelPN.com with 1.1 million. OneTime.com grew to 853 million unique visitors, while WWTE.com attracted 457 million visitors.

Hotels/Resorts sites also saw strong growth during the month with 36.6 million Americans turning to these sites for lodging options. Marriott ranked as the top property, growing 16 percent to 6.5 million visitors. Hilton Hotels attracted 6.0 million visitors (up 13 percent), followed by InterContinental Hotels Group with 5.1 million (up 14 percent), Wyndham Worldwide with 4.0 million (up 9 percent), and Disney Travel with 3.6 million (up 5 percent).

via www.prnewswire.com

CoMMingle Offers Free Social Media Marketing Audit

CoMMingle by Lodging Interactive, an award winning leading interactive and social media marketing agency servicing the hospitality industry, today announced it is offering a free social media marketing audit service to hotels.

To get your free social media marketing audit, visit www.CoMMingle.me