GOGO Worldwide Vacations Becomes a Tripology Travel Industry Supporter: http://bit.ly/28QDYe

Are you taking advantage of free leads from industry suppliers?  Get started now: http://bit.ly/Tp59z

 

Everyone is talking social media. Everyone, including me.

Last week, Tripology, Edelman (the PR giant) and the US Travel Association held our first “Social Media in Travel” meetup.

Social Media in Travel - Chicago Meetup - Oct 22

 

 

I was worried, initially, about the weather.  The driving rain in Chicago was enough to keep anyone indoors and we did have a few cancellations due to the weather. The room, in its most basic configuration, holds 50 people and nearly every seat was filled.  In the audience were people from companies and organizations like TravelZoo, the Art Institute, eWaterways, Mayflower Tours, Chicago Office of Tourism, Skydeck Chicago, CruiseOne and many others.

The presenters were:

·         Michael Dalesandro, CEO of Where I’ve Been. Michael presented on his amazingly successful Facebook launch which lead to WhereIveBeen getting over 9 million members!

·         Phil Gomes, Senior Vice President, Edelman Digital presented ideas on using social media from a public relations perspective.

·         And I in addition to moderating, presented some tips, including some from Tripologists, on how selling “online” differs from selling face-to-face.

Some key take-aways were:
From Phil: 

1.       You have to be where your audience is, so if that’s “social media” you need to be there as well.

2.       “Everyone should spend 30 minutes a day searching online. Everyone can find 30 minutes.”

3.       You can’t be anonymous in social media and you can’t be some fictional character, you have to be you.

From Michael:

1.       6% of all time spent on the internet was spent on Facebook

2.       Friends and family are the most significant influencers in travel decisions.

From me:

Selling successfully online requires you gain trust from the consumer. Social media is a great way to build trust.

The Tripologists that have “nailed it” (read they made over $100k is sales this year from our leads) are the ones who know how to “hook” the client with their first email.  Trust is big and if you can get a person to start to trust you from your first email, you’ll win.  The trick is making sure the potential client understands you’re A) professional and B) a specialist.  If your website, your facebook page and your twitter posts scream “I’m a professional travel specialist and look at all these people that trust me” you’re more than half way there.

Everyone really liked my slide about my Top 5 favorite tools to use in social media, so here they are:

1. KnowEm.com – (visit www.tripology.knowem.com ) to protect your brand from Social Media identity theft .  This is an awesome service; they’ll register you on every single social media site out there.
   
2. Backtype.com - to see what people are saying about topics that interest us, in REAL time
3. SocialMention.com – Like Google Alerts but for social media.
4. Twitterfeed.com – Feed your blog to twitter and more!
5. Twitalyzer.com - Measure Your Impact and Success in Social Media

 The event lasted two hours ending with some great conversation with the presenters and the audience.

If you are in the Chicago area and are interested in learning more about recent developments in the travel industry and staying ahead of social media travel trends, please join our meetup to stay in the loop on future events at http://www.meetup.com/Tripology-Chicago-Meetup/.  If you are a reporter in the Chicago area, please let me know as we would love for you to join us.

If you are in the New York, LA and San Francisco areas, keep an eye out for our meetups coming to your area soon! 

Happy selling.

John

 PS - Thanks SOOO much to Edelman and US Travel for co-sponsoring.

Since I spend half my time in the tech world and half my time in travel, I love opportunities where both groups participate.

The technology industry has had a great deal of success sharing innovations and ideas through a series of Tech Meet Up events. I was so inspired by this that I’ve joined with the U.S. Travel Association and Edelman to create a series of Social Media Travel Industry Meet Ups for industry players to discuss what’s working and not working for them in the social media space. As you know, social media has a tremendous impact on the way consumers research, book and plan itineraries for their vacations and business trips. Message boards, blogs, Twitter, Facebook – the list goes on and on – all make an impact on the choices consumers make.  

The first event will be hosted in Chicago on Thursday Oct. 22 , from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at Edelman (200 E. Randolph 63^rd Floor).  Learn about trends within social media and the travel industry and ways to utilize social media to help consumers with their travel needs.

Joining us to lead the conversation will be:

·         Michael Dalesandro, CEO of Where I’ve Been (will discuss his successful Facebook launch to get 9 million members!)

·         Phil Gomes, Senior Vice President, Edelman Digital (who’ll present ideas on using social media from a public relations perspective)

·         John T. Peters, CEO of Tripology (I will moderate and discuss how selling “online” differs from selling face-to-face.)

If you are interested in learning more about recent developments in the travel industry and staying ahead of social media travel trends, please RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Tripology-Chicago-Meetup/.

If you’re in the Chicago area and want to join us, hurry, space is limited to 50 people.

Best,

John  

Travel specialists, have you registered for the free Tripology webinar taking place on 10/7?

The focus of this webinar is to: 
    * Provide you with a Tripology program update
    * Allow you to hear about how to make the Tripology program work for you by successful travel specialists
    * Inform you about a cost effective way to find new clients
Register now!  http://bit.ly/CP9g5

I have a feeling I’m going to catch a lot of heat for this post, but I have to tell you about my feelings about kids on planes.

For years, I’ve been traveling on planes listening to screaming, misbehaving and crying kids. I must admit something very dark; I hated kids on planes. Just the sight of them made me cringe.  I would spy them in the waiting areas and try to judge how misbehaved they’d be and what my odds were they would be sitting within one row of me or worse, next to me.

I recall one flight, I was sitting next to a man (he in the aisle and I in the middle seat – so I was already pissed) and the two little brats, er, I mean children behind us wouldn’t shut up. The man next to me continued to read his Wall Street Journal as if there was nothing wrong.  As the kids bounced and yelled, he kept reading.  Then the kids started playing “go fish” as they threw their cards and proceeded to slam the tray table connected to my seat repeatedly.  All the mother did was kept repeating “Calm down, you are bothering the nice man in front of you.”  (Ya think?) However, after one hundred times of saying this, I’m sure all the kids heard was “way to go, make more noise.” One last slam and I turned around and said to the mother “I normally am a nice man, but the fact you continue to sit there and do nothing while your children bang on my chair is unbelievable to me.”  Her response? “Sorry, but they’re only children.”

The slamming stopped for a few minutes and I commented to the guy sitting and reading his newspaper.  (Note: he hadn’t moved and, to my amazement, was still calmly reading.) “Do you believe this?”  His response? “I’ve got four kids at home. This is nothing. I honestly don’t hear a thing.”  I couldn’t believe his response and thought for a moment, he might have been their father; you know, a dad who travels with the family but acts as if he doesn’t know them.

As for me at the time, I never thought I could deal with kids on a plane. That is, until my wife became pregnant with our first child. I knew, at that moment, I was going to have to grow up and get with the program.  One thing I was sure about was 90% of a child’s behavior on the plane was in direct proportion to the effort put forth by the parents. Yes Mom and Dad, your children are your responsibility on planes or in hotels or anywhere else for that matter. Ignoring them in your own home is fine. However, ignoring them while they slam my tray table isn’t.

Fast forward at least eighteen years. I now have two children under three years old. Both are avid flyers.  My wife and I have, over many flights, put together a list of things we do and bring to make sure we have a good flight, not only for us, but for the people around us.  It’s not a foolproof plan, but it’s pretty good. So, here goes.

1. Kill Germs. Airports and planes are dirty. Bring disinfectant wipes and wipe down everything around your child on the plane; arm rests, tray tables, wall, window shade – everything. Carry Purell and wipe/disinfect their hands and yours regularly. OK, germs killed.
2. Bring extra supplies. The diaper bag has to be filled, complete with any supply that might ever be needed for any possible reason.  Extra diapers and supplies (30% more than you think you need – just in case of delays), paper towels, a cloth towel just in case you have to mop up a spill, plastic bags and ziplock baggies and an infinite supply of wipes.  Bring a little air-freshener too. Trust me, you may be used to your little-one’s spit-up smell, but everyone around you won’t appreciate it.
3. Keep ‘em busy. Children’s attention spans are short at a young age.  I plan the 15-minute activity list.  You should have one activity per 15 minutes. Keep  them busy and their less likely to aggravate you and the other people on the plane. Activities can be repeated, but only once an hour.  For us, these include: crayons on coloring books, regular hard picture book, sticker book, etch-a-sketch mini and one of those books with the special marker that reveals hidden pictures as you color.
4. Go ahead, watch TV. Here, television IS your friend. For longer flights, get a portable DVD player or something where you can play Barney, the Wiggles or whatever else you child likes.
5. Popping Ears. Infants cry during take-off and landing because their ears hurt.  So, make sure they’re drinking a bottle during those times to alleviate their ear-popping pain. It has worked like a charm for both of my kids.
6. Extra clothes. Bring extra clothes for the kids…and for you. Sometimes, children get sick, so plan for it. Sometimes children get sick on you which my wife learned on one flight when my son threw up on her. From then on, we’ve each carried an extra t-shirt with us, just in case.
7. Thou shall not kick. If your child is a fan of kicking the seat in front of them (why do they do this?), take off their shoes. One kick and it will hurt and they’ll stop doing it.
8. Hear no evil. No matter how well-behaved you think your kids are, they may cry. So, as soon as the flight attendant comes around offering earphones, offer to buy a set for each of your seat-mates.  On our last Continental Airlines flight, they were being offered at $1, so I automatically bought one for the five people around us.  One man kept saying “you don’t need to do that” but for a buck, it was a good insurance policy, just in case.
9. Thank you and Sorry! Sometimes your children are going to misbehave. It happens.  Yes, they are just kids (Okay? There, I said it.)  Or, they’ll be sick or something just won’t go as planned on the plane. You’ll make a few people miserable. You won’t want to, but you will. When we fly with our children, we carry a dozen gift cards (from Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks).  Most are for $10, but a few are for $50.  We use these as “thank-you” and “I’m sorry” for people that have either helped us (like the flight where my wife was flying alone with my infant daughter and flight attendant held my daughter when my wife had to use the rest-room.) On a flight that was delayed for three hours ON THE RUNWAY, our daughter spilled her drink on the man next to her.  It was just juice and she didn’t mean it, but she was fidgety. He wasn’t upset, but I felt I should at least pay for his dry-cleaning. He didn’t want to accept anything but was pleasantly surprised at the gift-card.
10. Dads – this one is for you. Your wife has enough to deal with so help her. Help her even more than you normally would. Take turns taking your children to the bathroom. Do more than your fair share. Traveling with kids can be fun. My daughter and I love to look out the window on take-offs. We love to look at the clouds.

As you can tell, I’m a firm believer in over-parenting on flights. It’s the right (and polite) thing to do. Your children and your seat-mates will thank you.  I acknowledge that things always won’t go as planned, so you should plan for that as well.  It won’t be easy all the time, but you have to make the effort. Traveling with children can be a great experience.

For those parents who think that ignoring their misbehaved children on the plane is okay and the rest of us should just deal with it – well, no. You deal with your kids.  At least, please, make a real effort.  We understand they’re just kids, but you are the adult.

For the rest of you on the plane, including people like the anti-child-on-plane person I used to be, people traveling with kids (especially single moms) need help, so offer assistance. Every little bit helps.  You’ll see how much they appreciate it.  My mother always says, “Be nice to people and they’ll be nice to you.”