I’m headed to Arizona next week. Not for the sunshine and a relaxing retreat (although I could certainly use some of that right now), but for the biggest online travel conference of the year, The PhoCusWright Conference, where the leaders in online travel convene to network, discuss trends and bright, young start-ups launch their big ideas. Since my PR days at airfare prediction site Farecast, this has been THE place to network with my peers and influencers in online travel and a chance to hear directly from the senior leaders shaping how we as consumers discover, book and share travel experiences.
This year, I’m thrilled to be representing Hip Travel Mama, alongside partners Expedia and the Travel Blog Exchange Conference (TBEX), to lead the discussion on a topic I’m super passionate about – Travel Blogging and Social Media Engagement. What does social media engagement mean? It is a marketing term for how the travel brands you know and love use social media tools, like Facebook and Twitter to engage with you, share travel inspiration with the blogs you love (like this one), and most importantly, build trust and authentic relationships with travel customers.
As a blogger for the last four years, I’ve found my blogger tribe at TBEX, the world’s largest gathering of travel bloggers, writers, and new media content creators. The TBEX community is an amazing mix of professionals, friends and talented authors of many of your favorite travel blogs. The TBEX tribe includes two of my fellow PhoCusWright workshop panelists, Spencer Spellman, author of The Traveling Philosopher and founder of the extremely popular #ExpChat for Expedia, and fellow Seattle travel blogger and TBEX Conference Director, Mary Jo Manzanares.
Joe Megibow, Expedia’s Vice President & General Manager, will moderate this great PhoCusWright workshop discussion and I’m thrilled to have us represented together on one panel at PhoCusWright to share our collective knowledge, best practices and provide tools to build and engage in meaningful conversations with travelers.
If you are a travel industry professional reading this and headed to PhoCusWright, join us at our workshop, or online for free, live streaming of the event. And of course for you travelers, I will be sure to bring home and share what I learn about new companies, technologies and ways to help discover great places to travel and get the most value for your travel dollar!
The New Rules of Social Engagement Presented by: Expedia Inc. and TBEX
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 11:30am-12:15pm The PhoCusWright Conference, Westin Kierland, Scottsdale, AZ
Traditional marketing has reached its own “Pivot Point” where the key to driving traffic and hitting milestones is about building and engaging in meaningful conversations with your followers, influencers and the travel blogger community. Join this executive-level discussion on how you should be thinking about your social media investments and PR strategy and help your team efficiently navigate the pitfalls and opportunities in social media to build measurable campaigns that grow your business.
Workshop Panelists:
Anne Taylor Hartzell, Social Media Consultant, Blogger, Hip Travel Mama
Mary Jo Manzanares, Conference Director, TBEX, Traveling with MJ
Joe Megibow, Vice President & General Manager, Expedia Inc.
Spencer Spellman, Creator of the Popular #ExpChat Twitter Chats and Blogger, Traveling Philosopher.
Disclosure: I received a complementary ticket to the PCW conference for putting this panel together. As a rule, I partner only with brands or hotels that I would recommend to a friend, or stay at/use myself and the opinions shared here are my own.