Agree with many comments Darren, the newer mobile platforms for content delivery (and systems interrogation) such as IPhone / BBerry apps as well as new communication platforms like Twitter are going to provide massive opportunities for companies to better engage with travellers. And also for travellers to travel better.

I’m not sure how quickly many traditional style companies, whose balance sheets are likely hurting with the downturn and are likely being kept busy looking at their KPI’s, will adapt in the short term but there definitely some who are involved.

I also understand and do somewhat agree with many here who have commented that much in social media today seems to be a big time sink so I’ll add my 3 thoughts about the things i’d like to see for Travel Social Media;
- Meaning and Value
Give me relevancy, help me have meaningful interactions, about the things I want to talk about, with others in an easy, usable, timely manner. Give me tools to help me semantically read, tag and easily filter the fluff from the good stuff. I don’t know how people cope with a Twitter stream of even 200 followings.
- Aggregate my world.
Bring it all together, i want to be able to integrate my FaceBook conversations with my Twitter conversations with my TripAdvisor recommendations, with my Yahoo answers, with my Flickr pics, my blog, my frequent flyer profile and so on. I dont want to have to search for it, retype it or re-enter my preferences, I want to be able see it or share it all from one beautifully designed easy to use interface. This is a big one and I doubt we will see it soon for reasons of dataportability and security. FriendFeed is a start but it’s interface is pretty bland. Do you know of any others doing this?
- Cross platform and Convergence
Back to your IPhone comment (including BBerry, Android etc) i want my world to be converged and cross platform. If travelling I want to be able to ask a question from my phone to the internet (Twittersphere) like you did and get an answer from there as well as get the answers from trusted sources from my social networks (from what ever channel they might be on mobile/web) who are relevant to the question and be able to buy/book a relevant product (relevant as it knows my personal preferences) if need be all in the same session.

It’s a mouthful I know. Cheers Carl

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@ Joe

Thanks for the kind comments. Yes, the jargon was a bit of a problem for me, but, I learnt alot during ITB.

@ Julia

I am sure I read somewhere that the highest percentage of users of Facebook were females, aged 55+ – not sure if that is true but what I like about Facebook is that all generations are using it, and thats what makes it a powerful tool for travel companies.

Interestingly though, the word Facebook very rarely came up in any of the sessions during the bloggers summit. Last year apparently it was mentioned all the time. The word on the street was very much ‘Twitter’ but next year they will be something new for us all to talk about.

@ Clive

The advantage with Twitter is that you can interact with companies. Only today I was having an interesting conversation with someone from the Times. I would not have had that discussion without Twitter.

@ Happy Hotelier

Ha, I am feeling old at 36, but I think its a good point that the “younger generation” i.e those not yet purchasing holidays are active on Facebook, Twitter etc. So in the future companies will have no choice but to interact online, because they will expect it, and those that don’t interact will die off.

@ Peter

The point of Flip cams is a good one – forget those boring written hotel reviews and rants, people will be recording their own nightmare holidays, horrible hotel reviews, and ranting on video and uploading them for all to see.

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Good points above (and I’m sure you were great on stage…everyone gets nervous, perfectly natural.)

Curiously, did you use an iPhone / Android or another device to tweet from the road or your laptop?

Of the trends you mention, I think the future launch of Blackberry’s App Store will be a huge boost for consumers who want mobile applications without requiring a switch to a different carrier or platform.

I agree that Twitter will continue to play an increasing role in travel research and discovery. Similar to commenters above, I was very skeptical about Twitter in the past, but made a committment to use it consistently for a month. After a month, I realized how useful it is for uncovering content I otherwise wouldn’t have seen and become acquainted with people I otherwise wouldn’t have “met.” I’m hooked.

That said, I think travel companies will begin consolidating the volume of profiles they maintain on 3rd party sites to reduce the strain of managing them (and the corresponding distraction.) Facebook but not MySpace. Twitter but not Yammer. StumbleUpon but not Digg. You get the picture.

One other trend to throw out there, too, is the increase of low cost HD Flip Cams that will continue making travel videos of higher quality – and be able to be easily uploaded, well, everywhere!

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I was at ITB representing a Nova Scotia tour company in 1998 and it was 50 buildings full of travel trade showings. The enormity of ITB is beyond description and the internet wasn’t that big in tourism marketing at the time.

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It’s all becoming very Big Brotherish for my liking – who’s watching who (mostly doing very dull things). I think I am turning into a new breed of 21st century luddites.

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