LINCOLN, NEB. (May 2, 2012)—Three Nebraska City sites and one program will be recognized Thursday for their inclusion in the National Park Service’s national Underground Railroad program.

Kathy McKillip, director of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development’s Travel and Tourism Division, will be on hand for a 12:30 p.m. ribbon cutting ceremony at the Old Freighters Museum, 407 N. 14th St., Nebraska City.

The ceremony, sponsored by the Nebraska City Tourism & Commerce office, will commemorate the new Network to Freedom listings in Nebraska. The National Park Service’s Network to Freedom program coordinates preservation and education efforts of Underground Railroad sites nationwide.

Last year, Arlington High School teacher Barry Jurgensen and his students conducted research on sites related to the Underground Railroad. Three of the Nebraska City sites, along with one program, Dr. Sara Crook’s portrayal of Barbara Mayhew, were added to the Network to Freedom program last August. The sites are:

• The Nuckolls Residence, where two slaves, Eliza Grayson and Celia, owned by Stephen F. Nuckolls escaped on Nov. 26, 1958.
• The Majors Residence, the site of the escape of six slaves, owned by Alexander Majors, in 1860.
• Camp Creek Cemetery, where Barbara (Kagy) Mahew Bradway is buried. She and her husband lived in Mayhew Cabin when it was part of the Underground Railroad.

The new listings will complement the Mayhew Cabin, which is already part of the Network to Freedom.

The Mayhew Cabin Foundation recently received funding from the Nelson Family Foundation of Nebraska City to install outdoor markers recognizing the history of the new Network to Freedom sites and creating a driving tour.

http://www.geringcitizen.com/articles.php?ID=894&Member_ID&l&First_Name&Last_Name

Obtaining positive reviews and testimonials is an essential component of a customer acquisition and retention strategy. According to the most recent Local Consumer Review Survey, 76% of consumers regularly or occasionally use online reviews to determine which local business to use, and 52% of consumers trust online reviews just as much as personal recommendations (Source: HubSpot). From an SEO perspective, the good folks over at Bizible have found that having an average Google review of one star or less significantly hurts your business’ ranking in the local listings (Source: Search Engine Land).

Clearly reviews are important, but actually getting existing customers to leave them is easier said than done.

That’s where Foursquare comes in. Although the free check-in app is itself a great promotional and loyalty-building tool for brick-and-mortar businesses, for our purposes, it has two distinct benefits. First, because it’s integrated with Twitter, it gives you direct access to your customers. Second, by nature of who’s most likely to actually check in, it more specifically gives you access to your most loyal brand advocates. After all, if a customer goes as far as to publicly announce that he or she’s visiting your storefront, it’s pretty safe to assume that they had a positive experience. These are the people you want to leave reviews!

Let’s get to the nitty-gritty. When a user checks in via Foursquare, they also have the option of announcing the check-in via their personal Facebook and/or Twitter profile. Most Facebook profiles are set to private, so let’s focus on Twitter. Here’s what the typical check-in looks like in a Twitter stream:

Ideally, we want to get a notification every time a customer check ins to your business using Foursquare and publishes the check-in on his or her Twitter account. That way, you can follow up with the customer to thank them for their visit and to ask them to leave a review while the experience’s still fresh in their mind.

There are quite a few ways to set this up. If you can afford to monitor real-time notifications, consider signing up for a free HootSuite account and set up keyword monitoring for your business name. For optimal results, don’t actually listen for exact matches. As an example, although the name of our company is St. Pete Bagel Co., very few people actually include the “Co.”, hence we monitor for mentions of “Pete Bagel”.

If you’re a small business owner with limited time, daily email notifications may be a more realistic option. Again, lot of options here, but my personal favorite is Twilert. The setup is simple, and takes only a few seconds to configure – connect with your Twitter profile, enter your keyword(s), and designate when you’d like to receive notifications.

If Apple lives up to its promise, you’ll be able to build apps yourself–no coding required.

Let’s face it. Most of us aren’t terribly technical–present company included. I may know my way around a computer and an iPhone, but coding? I’ve met people who can code better with one hand than I can with two.

Good thing one need not hold a degree in computer science to do some pretty cool and “techie” things. The power of user-friendly tools to create websites, original content, and apps is only growing. And Apple is about to launch a tool that may only increase it.

Let’s talk about apps.

App Evolution

Early app development required at least some degree of technical sophistication. While useful, the average Joe Six-Pack could not effectively use software development kits (SDKs) provided by Apple and Google. In 2010 when I launched an app for my third book, The New Small, I had plenty of help. (I worked with Marisa Smith of The Whole Brain Group.) In the words of William Hurley, co-founder of mobile development company Chaotic Moon:

SDKs have come a long way in general. For example in the early days of app development, there was no SDK for the iPhone. Apple simply said that “no software developer kit is required for the iPhone.” As a developer, you were limited to developing Web applications. The lack of an SDK not only made it hard to develop for the iPhone, it also severely limited what could be done in general; leaving many to say that the iPhone would never be a killer device. Apple however soon saw the error of its ways and started to make SDKs that gave the company a tremendous market advantage in the app game.

It should be no surprise that Apple is continuing to push the envelope here. According to recent reports, it’s working on “a new digital content authoring tool [that] could make it simple for people without a background in programming to build their own iOS applications for the iPhone and iPad.”

For the “non-techie” small business owner, this could be huge. Strike the app development costs from the budget!

It turns out that Google has already beaten Apple to the punch here by releasing a similar “non-developer” toolkit. Google App Inventor (originally released in 2010 and now maintained by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) “allows anyone, including people unfamiliar with computer programming, to create software applications for the Android operating system (OS).”

Surprising? Hardly. The search giant has for years been diversifying its platform to include different planks: Think YouTube, Blogger, Gmail, Android, etc.

Parallels to Previous Times

There are a few interesting parallels here. First, back in the mid-1990s, one essentially needed to be a programmer to create reports and databases. Tools like Microsoft Access changed all that with more visually oriented programs that obviated the need to properly code. The notion of WYSIWYG allowed many people to do things previously not possible without months of studying.

Ten years ago, website design was much more arduous and not for the faint of heart. That has changed. For years, robust content management systems like WordPress allow non-Web designers to create relatively inexpensive, powerful, and visually compelling websites.

And a similar shift is taking place in the app world. While not quite the same as Web design (yet), there are already apps and services that let you create your own apps (metaapps, if you will). Case in point: AppCooker claims on its website that it lets you create you own iOS app “whether you are a pro or an amateur.”

Ultimately, whether Apple’s DIY app tools will have similar impacts to database development and Web design is anyone’s guess. Perhaps Apple will democratize and facilitate app development for the masses. It might take a few tries to get it right, but Apple’s track record these days is hard to bet against.

Phil Simon is the author of four management books. His fourth, The Age of the Platform: How Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google Have Redefined Business, is his most ambitious yet. @philsimon

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Earlier this year, I enjoyed a comfortable and relaxing stay at the InterContinental Toronto Centre as part of a Tourism Toronto-sponsored familiarization tour for some 25 association meeting planners and media. Upon entering my suite, the first good discovery was the breathtaking view of the adjacent CN Tower. The second was the inspiring, heart-warming note on the desk, saying that in lieu of a welcome gift, $100 was being donated on behalf of each FAM participant to Tourism Toronto’s “Relax, Recharge, Renew” (RRR) program.

As we would learn at a breakfast presentation the following morning, the award-winning program, launched in August 2008, provides area parents of special needs and medically fragile children with all-expenses paid local weekend getaways. In most cases, the children require round-the-clock care; the stories of devoted parents enduring endless sleepless nights and years without a holiday break were moving in the extreme.

“Relax, Recharge, Renew” is confidently, lovingly up to the task, though. With well over 200 local tourism partners participating, including most of Toronto’s hotel community, each weekend sees two families treated to Toronto’s top hotels, restaurants, theatre shows, sporting events and major attractions. The tailored two-night, three-day package includes limo service to and from home; the children are cared for in a high-quality, provincially funded respite care facility.

Along with sustainability and student scholarships, helping families in need is a pillar of Tourism Toronto’s commitment to contributing to the social, environmental and business welfare of the Toronto community. “Most programs help the children, for whom you can never do enough, but here we saw an opportunity to help the parents,” says Andrew Weir, vice president of communications for the association of some 1,200 Toronto-area hospitality and tourism members. “It had to be more meaningful than simply writing a check, though,” he continues. “The answer was to leverage all the assets of our local industry.”

Careful steps were required to get the program started. “For RRR to work, we knew that we needed widespread support from our partners,” explains Weir. “A small cadre would not have been effective—this needed to be a symbolic rallying point for the entire Toronto hospitality community.” Part of the strategy was not “cannibalizing” family help initiatives already in place at many of Toronto’s hotels. “We were sensitive to walking in and taking over,” Weir continues. “It was a matter of putting our stamp on a distinct new program.”

For Tourism Toronto’s part, RRR is a budgeted line item supported by significant staff time; securing partner support was never an issue.

“When Tourism Toronto reached out to us about their RRR Program, we didn’t hesitate to say yes,” says Mark Ive, general manager of the Renaissance Toronto. “Being a Marriott brand and having Marriott’s “Spirit to Serve” culture deeply ingrained in our DNA, we are proud and delighted to help those local families looking for a respite from the situational stress they are under.”

It’s a sentiment shared by Yola Marshall, director of sales & marketing for the InterContinental Toronto Centre. “Hitting home on a personal level with friends who have experienced the huge pressure of caring for special needs children, RRR was a quick draw for us,” Marshall says. “There’s also the bigger picture of a unifying CSR program that the entire local hotel industry could support as a common cause.”

The number and diversity of Toronto-area RRR participants is truly impressive, from hotels and restaurants to retailers, transportation companies, spas and museums. “Even partners that cannot provide a direct service, like audio-visual companies and meeting planners, have helped the program,” Weir says.

Among RRR’s biggest supporters is the Delta Chelsea Hotel. “We were introduced to the program at its outset, and immediately confirmed our participation,” says Tracy Ford, the hotel’s public relations director. “RRR parallels our Chelsea CARES program, which provides free guestrooms to qualified families visiting hospitalized loved ones at Mount Sinai, Hospital for Sick Children and University Health Network hospitals, all located within two blocks of the hotel.”

Sharing Toronto Tourism’s CSR ethos (really, the spirit of the city’s entire tourism family), the Delta has organized an annual charity golf tournament over the past decade that has raised over $600,000 for Special Olympics (2002-2007) and Habitat for Humanity (2008-2012). “It is very important to us to show our appreciation and give back to our community,” Ford says. “The RRR program provides us with another opportunity to do so, and we hope to welcome more families throughout this year.”

The strain on participating families is profoundly affecting. “Although we love our son more than anything in the world, we were so exhausted by having to constantly be on the lookout to ensure his safety and monitor his behavior,” wrote one set of parents.

“There is an old saying that ‘a change is as good as a rest,’ and for those RRR guests staying with us, I like to think the change of surroundings and the associated rest gives them the strength to return to their stressful situation,” says Ive.

In this regard, the program continues to prove vitally beneficial.  Consider this testimonial from another pair of parents after their RRR break: “Wow, what a fantastic weekend! We didn’t think that we would have so much fun and be pampered like we did. We are very appreciative of the fact that Tourism Toronto and Respite Services truly understand the needs of parents who have a special needs child. It is often the parents who sacrifice for their special needs child at their own expense. It is really nice to know that others understand our daily challenges and realize we need a break once a while to recharge and re-focus.”

Recognized by Destination Marketing Association International, IMEX and other industry bodies, RRR, while drawing outside inquiries and interest, remains localized in the Toronto area. “It is part of reinforcing our commitment to the community,” says Weir. “If our efforts inspire others in their own communities, we would consider that one more achievement and an even greater source of pride.”

Indoor booth space is nearly full for the 2012 Nebraska State Fair.  The deadline is fast approaching to enter the KNOW NEBRASKA competition.

“KNOW NEBRASKA” Tourism Competition for free booth space at the Nebraska State Fair August 24, through September 3, 2012.

Know Nebraska is an opportunity for your community to compete to win one of three prized and complimentary exhibit booth spaces in the 4-H/FFA/Commercial Building at the 2012 Fair. All Nebraska counties/communities/tourism operations are encouraged to compete for a (FREE!) KNOW NEBRASKA booth space at the 2012 State Fair! Three organizations will be awarded free exhibit booth space to use as display and distribution of promotional materials about the tourism attractions in each winning area.

Winning entries will be chosen by Nebraska State Fair Board Members based on how the county proposes to use their space to enhance the Nebraska State Fair Mission Statement.

The mission statement is as follows. The purpose of the Nebraska State Fair is to educate and entertain; recognize individual achievements; celebrate excellence in agriculture, industry, commerce, education, arts, sciences, and technology; and reinforce a sense of community and shared culture for the citizens of Nebraska. –Nebraska State Board of Agriculture, March 15, 2000.

To participate in the Know Nebraska competition for one of the three Know Nebraska display booths, please complete and return the attached application form before May 4, 2012. To allow winners ample time to schedule State Fair booth staffing requirements, the chosen counties and/or attractions will be notified the week of Monday, May 21, 2012. All booths are required to be open and staffed from 9:00am-9:00pm August 24-September 2, and from 9:00am-7:00pm on September 3rd.

For more information about the Nebraska State Fair, visit www.statefair.org or contact Jaime Parr.

Jaime Parr, Facility Director

Nebraska State Fair Park

308-382-1606

jparr@statefair.org

Friday, April 20, 2012

If you have invested in marketing in the past, you probably had the experience many other business owners have had: inconsistency. Maybe one month your marketing is blowing the doors off your hotel, but the next month it’s nothing more than a waste of budget.

You are certainly not alone. As I said, many business owners have experienced the exact same situation and it leaves them wondering whether marketing is really a good investment.

But what if I told you there is a way to get consistent results from your marketing? If you could be sure that your marketing was going to produce profitable sales, would that make it easier to pull the trigger on a larger marketing budget?

I have a simple, 3-step process that can help you see consistent, profitable results from your marketing. It’s no gimmick. It’s just solid marketing theory that works.

Here are the 3 steps to getting consistent marketing results for your hotel…

1. Identify Your Target Market
I said that this is going to be solid marketing theory, and the best way to illustrate this point is by painting a picture. Imagine that you have the top minds in advertising copywriting and design working for you. They come up with the perfect advertisement that hits all the right buttons and drives the prospect to book a room.

Now, imagine that your perfect ad runs in Seventeen magazine. At this point, does it matter how well the ad was written and designed? No, because a seventeen-year-old girl won’t respond to your ads no matter what they say. Seventeen-year-old girls are not your target market.

Your target market is a group of people with similar characteristics who are most likely to respond to your advertising. Once you have identified this group, even a mediocre ad will be effective, because they already have an inherent need or desire from your product.

To identify your target market, go back through your customer list. There are software programs that can help you with this, too. Look for what your customers have in common. Are they mostly businesspeople? Honeymooners? Vacationing families? What are their ages? Estimated income level? The more specific you can get with your target market, the better the response to your advertising will be.

One market you could reach easily is your previous guests. Recently, my husband and I went back to a lovely bed and breakfast that we remembered from five years ago! We always meant to go back, but never seemed to have time. However, if they had contacted us with their marketing, it would have reminded me to book the vacation and we probably would have gone there many more times over the past five years.

2. Promote to Your Target Market
Now that you know who your target market is, you need to find a way to get your ad in front of their eyes. Most marketing mediums have a way to target, though some are more effective than others.

Using pay per click, you can target online searchers. Television lets you target by program and time. Direct mail lets you target by age, income level, number of kids, geographical location, etc. The key is to find the medium that best penetrates your target market.

Then, once you have that. Pump your ads into that target market — consistently. Having the right target market will produce results, but consistent outflow of your marketing is what produces the consistency. If you are not consistent, do not expect your results to be consistent. People respond to what they keep seeing, not what they see. The more you send marketing out, the more reservations you will get in.

3. Follow Up with New Leads
When your marketing goes out (assuming you have targeted the right market, and are promoting consistently), you will get leads in. That’s how it works. The trick is that you’re not done yet. A lead isn’t a sale or reservation — it is a lead. That lead needs to be converted into a paying customer, and you do that with follow-up.

The easiest and cheapest way to follow up is with email. When a lead gets to your website or calls in to your hotel, make sure you have a way to get their contact information, specifically, their email address. There are email marketing programs out there that can help you set up an automatic follow-up system with email “autoresponders”. These are emails that get sent to prospects automatically when they are entered into your email database. You should also send out a monthly email newsletter. This helps you stay in front of prospects and warms them up into a sale.

It is truly a simple process: target, promote, follow-up. The key is perseverance. Don’t give up if there are slight fluctuations in your results, this is normal. Over time, you will see that the results are actually very consistent and profitable. And if you keep tweaking your target market and optimizing your ad designs, your response will only get better and better.

About Joy Gendusa:
Joy Gendusa is the owner and CEO of direct mail marketing firm, PostcardMania. Joy began PostcardMania in 1998, with nothing but a phone and a computer, never taking a dime of investment capital. Joy originally started PostcardMania as a full-service postcard marketing company helping clients create turn-key marketing campaigns with graphic design, printing, mailing list acquisition and mailing services. Since then, PostcardMania has expanded to offer its clients more services including website and landing page design and development, email marketing and full marketing evaluations — all while continuing to educate clients with free marketing advice.

Responsible Travel Report
Vol. 11, No. 4/April 2012

Pitching a bylined article is a pretty straightforward affair. Yet, it can produce one of the most powerful PR placements imaginable.

After all, you get to tell your story, your way in a publication that’s important to your key audiences. Even better, you can usually order a reprint and place the article on your own website and, perhaps, email it to customers and prospects.

So, the payoff is big. To be successful, however, you’ve got to get your idea — and article — accepted for publication. Here are some thoughts on how to do just that.

Pitching Your Bylined Article

1. Think about originality. Is it possible to think of something that has never been thought of before? Not likely. But try. A pitch with an unusual angle or new twist on an old idea has a far greater chance of catching an editor’s attention. At the same time, make sure it’s relevant to the publication.
2. Try your idea on for size. The best ideas seem great when they’re circling around in your head. The real test comes when you try to explain them to someone else. Share your ideas with colleagues and gauge their reactions. Blank stares will demonstrate the real truth, even if your colleagues are being polite.
3. Craft a succinct pitch. Length is important. Keep your pitch short and to the point. A telling detail, like a powerful statistic or quote, can add instant credibility and interest, especially if it’s counterintuitive or newsworthy. Your goal is not only to grab the editor’s attention, but to get him or her to want more.
4. Target the right publications. These publications are likely the same ones you pitch with press announcements. Some byline-specific thoughts, though. Make a realistic list in order of preference and pitch one at a time. Trade and smaller circulation outlets are more likely to take your bylines. Top national publications solicit much of their material, so don’t be disappointed if you don’t get into The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times.
5. Leverage your relationships. If you know a reporter or editor at a publication you’re targeting, even if it isn’t the person responsible for bylined submissions, ask for his or her help. If this person can place your idea in the right editor’s hands, you’ve got a better shot at being accepted.
6. Stay within the required length. Typically, when your pitch is accepted the editor is going to give you a word count. Make sure you stay within it. If you turn in a 1,200-word piece for a 500-word space, you’ve just created a lot of trimming work for the editor, if they’re even willing to do it.
7. Be professional. Turn your article in on time. Make sure you’re proofread it so there are no typos and misspellings. Send it to the editor in an easily editable format, like a Word doc. No PDFs. And if the publication has asked for a photo, make sure it’s the right quality and resolution for publication. Don’t make additional work for the editor.

The keys to successfully pitching a bylined article are coming up with a good idea, targeting the right publications and executing your piece flawlessly. Do this, and you’ll not only place the byline — you may well be asked back for more.