TBEGuide ORM2014 SEPT29 LINKED-compressed

TOURISM
BUSINESS
ESSENTIALS
O N L I N E R E P U TAT I O N
MANAGEMENT
The essential guide for tourism businesses on how to
manage online customer reviews.
Online Reputation Management
This guide explains how tourism operators in British Columbia can take control of, manage,
and generate more business from online reviews and social media commentary. As a tourism
operator, you will learn where reviews are being posted, when and how to respond to both
positive and negative reviews, which measurement tools are available to determine how your
tourism business rates online, and how to manage your online profiles to ensure information
is current.
Copyright
Second Edition, September 2014
© 2014 – Destination BC Corp. All rights reserved. No part of this guide may be reproduced
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from
Destination BC. This guide is produced to provide information to assist tourism operators
in British Columbia. Destination BC Corp. does not endorse, recommend or assume any
liability for any of the operations or organizations referenced in this guide. Super, Natural;
Super, Natural British Columbia; HelloBC and Visitor Centre and all associated logos/
trade-marks are trade-marks or Official Marks belonging to Destination BC Corp.
Online Reputation Management Guide
Table of Contents
1 Introduction to Online Reputation Management................................................4

Just How Popular is Social Media?...........................................................................................................4
A Few Definitions........................................................................................................................................5
About this Guide.........................................................................................................................................6
Key Learning Objectives.............................................................................................................................6
Key Principles..............................................................................................................................................6
Destination BC and Social Media.............................................................................................................7

2 Why Manage Your Online Reputation?.....................................................................10

BC Business Spotlight: Archipelago Cruises.........................................................................................12

3 Setting Up an Online Reputation Management Program............................13

Where to Find the Time and Resources.................................................................................................13
4 Managing Listings and Content........................................................................................16

Perform a Reputation Audit....................................................................................................................17
Social Media and Search...........................................................................................................................18
Three Types of Online Content...............................................................................................................20
Managing Social Media Channels...........................................................................................................21
Review Sites vs. Social Networking Sites................................................................................................22
Review Sites................................................................................................................................................22
Social Networking Sites............................................................................................................................25
Other Social Networking Sites.................................................................................................................27
Blogs............................................................................................................................................................28
Forums........................................................................................................................................................29
Your Website: Make It Social..................................................................................................................30
Mobile: Decisions on the Go....................................................................................................................31
BC Tourism Business Profile: Ziptrek Ecotours...................................................................................32
2
5 Monitoring Activity and Measuring Performance............................................34

Online Reputation Management: Delta Hotels and Resorts...............................................................41
6 Acting on Feedback.....................................................................................................................43

Tips from TripAdvisor’s Top-Rated BC Restaurants...........................................................................47
7 Responding to Reviews and Social Media Commentary...............................49

Responding to Reviews: Answers to Common Questions..................................................................49
Examples of How to Respond to Reviews..............................................................................................52
Facebook.....................................................................................................................................................54
Twitter.........................................................................................................................................................55
Protecting Your Brand..............................................................................................................................55
Handling Negative Online Feedback......................................................................................................56
A Social Media Crisis................................................................................................................................57
8 Building Communities and Advocacy.........................................................................58

Managing Expectations............................................................................................................................58
Generating Positive Reviews....................................................................................................................59
Building Communities.............................................................................................................................62
9 Summary..............................................................................................................................................64

Ten Key Takeaways...................................................................................................................................64
10 Additional Resources.................................................................................................................65
Appendix 1. Glossary.................................................................................................................66
3
1 Introduction to Online Reputation Management
Just How Do you ever “Google” your name? It used to

be considered a vain practice, but these days
Social media facilitates this process by
providing platforms for consumers to
Popular is it makes good sense. People regularly search exchange information and advice with other
other individuals online—before a meeting, consumers, via TripAdvisor, Facebook,
Social Media? an interview, even a date. If they Google Twitter, Yelp or another channel.
yours, you want to know what comes up,
because it will shape their impressions As a business, you have likely experienced the
of you. joy of a glowing online review and the sting
of a negative online comment. At times you
Increasingly, profiles on social networks such may feel frustrated or helpless; at other times
as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter appear grateful. In either case, the effect is amplified
within the results at the top of name searches. because a lot of social media commentary is
If you are active on these channels, you have public and, in some cases, permanent.
control over some of this content—but not
all of it. Some content is posted by others. Whether positive or negative, social media
It is probably important to you that the feedback is a valuable source for guiding
information is accurate and reflects you in improvements and can be a powerful tool
a positive light. If any negative information for spreading the word about a business.
appears, you undoubtedly want to address it.
Online reputation management is about
This is online reputation management, and adapting to changes in the way people
it’s crucial for your business. Online reputa- research travel and share experiences online.
tion now has a direct bearing on whether It is the process of monitoring and engaging
potential customers will purchase your on the social web to drive higher awareness,
product or service. The information people customer satisfaction and revenue. And it is
find will have a direct bearing on whether about harnessing the powers of social media
or not they purchase a business’ products to get customers talking about and recom-
or services. mending your business.
Consumer reviews, in particular, can make This guide will walk you through the steps
or break the reputation of a business. These involved in taking control of your online
days, there are reviews on everything from reputation.
cars to dentists to university professors to
potential employers.
Reviews are especially popular in the travel

Online Reputation
industry. Why? Unlike a car, which you can
Management
take for a test drive, trips are often booked
The process of monitoring and
sight unseen. And there is a lot riding on
engaging on the social web to drive
trips, including money, time and relaxation.
higher awareness, customer satisfaction
In the past, travellers may have been misled
and revenue to your business.
by glossy photos in brochures and exagger-
ated descriptions on websites. They want to
be confident they are making the right choice.
So they turn to the source they trust most:
other travellers.
4
Just How Just How Popular is Social Media?
Popular is According to an eMarketer survey, nearly one in four people worldwide used social
networks in 2013. That equates to 1.73 billion people, an increase of 18% over 2012. Of
Social Media? Internet users, 68% used a social network at least once per month in 2013. That figure is
predicted to rise to more than 75% by 2016.1
Canadians are some of world’s most frequent users of social networking sites. According
to a Media Technology Monitor survey, almost 7 in 10 Canadians used social media at least
once a month, and 63% of these people used it daily. Facebook is by far the most popular
social networking site, utilized by 93% of active social media users in Canada.2 Though
only one in five respondents reported using Twitter, this was an increase of 80% over the
previous year.
At the same time, review sites continue to gain in popularity every year. According to a
2013 TripAdvisor survey, 69% of travellers worldwide say they visit travel review sites as
part of trip planning.3
A Few Before we get started, a few definitions.

Social media refers to web-based and mobile
Twitter and Google+. Other social channels
include blogs, forums and imagery-based
Definitions applications used for social interaction and sites, including YouTube, Instagram and
the exchange of user-generated content. Pinterest. By communities, we refer to users
Social networking is the act of using of a social networking site or review site,
social media. including fans, followers and members.
User-generated content is content—primarily Googling refers to the act of entering

text, photos and videos—created and keywords and phrases into Google’s search
shared by consumers as opposed to engine to find information. The term also
marketers, journalists, experts and other refers to this action on other search engines
paid professionals (although they contribute (e.g. Bing, Yahoo!), but for the purposes
to social networks). Engagement refers to of this guide we will use the generic word
interacting with users and followers on “search” to refer to all search engines.
social media channels.
Throughout the guide, a key term appears in
For the purposes of this guide, social media boldface when it is first introduced. You will
channels are divided into two categories: find definitions in the Glossary at the back of
review sites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp, the guide.
and social networking sites such as Facebook,
1 eMarketer. (2013). Social networking reaches nearly one in four around the world.
2 MacLeans.ca. (2013). How do you compare? New report reveals stats about social media usage in Canada.
www.macleans.ca/general/how-do-you-compare-new-report-reveals-stats-about-social-media-usage-in-canada
3 TripAdvisor TripBarometer. (2013).
5
About this This guide was developed by Destination British Columbia in cooperation with tourism
businesses and regions across the province. It is written for owners, operators and employees
Guide of all types of businesses in BC’s tourism industry, from B&Bs to large hotels, from restaurants
to event venues, and from activity providers to attractions, as well as all destination marketing
organizations.
Key Learning The guide has three main objectives: media platforms. Rather, the focus is on
managing reputation on the most popular
Objectives 1. To help you understand and adopt the channels used by travellers for researching
basic trends, principles and tools of online trips and sharing experiences. These
reputation management. channels may change over time, but the
guidelines and best practices presented in
2. To provide insight into the challenges and this guide are intended to apply to any
opportunities presented by social media. channel, present or future.
3. To show you ways to manage customer If you require technical assistance, there is a
feedback in social media and use it to wealth of information online. To assist with
guide improvements and attract new your search, refer to the list of resources in
and repeat customers. Section 10: Additional Resources.
Note that this guide is not a comprehensive

“how to” manual for administrating social
Key Principles Three key principles govern this guide’s

approach:
including customer service, revenue
management, sales and marketing, human
resources and administration.
1. Reputation can be managed in-house.
This guide explains how to set up an in- 3. It is about being authentic and
house reputation management program, transparent.
prioritize channels and resources, and Reputation management is not about
respond to all types of feedback. trying to pass your business off as better
than it is. That will only get you into
2. Reputation management is a trouble. It is about being honest and
company-wide function. authentic about the products and services
Not just a marketing function, reputation you offer and using customer feedback to
management involves close cooperation guide improvements.
and collaboration among departments,
6
Key Principles Online Reputation Management Training Programs
Destination BC was early to recognize the importance of online reputation management.
The first edition of this guide was published in 2011 as part of the Tourism Business
Essentials program.
Later that year, Destination BC presented an accompanying three-hour Introduction to

Online Reputation Management. The workshop was presented. It has since been delivered
in communities across the province, garnering rave reviews from participants.
In late 2012, a one-hour online webinar featuring highlights from the workshop was
broadcast and recorded for on-demand viewing, and Destination BC introduced a
three-hour Advanced Online Reputation Management workshop.
For more information about these workshops and other resources offered by
Destination BC’s Tourism Business Essentials program, visit
www.destinationbc.ca/Programs/Guides-Workshops-and-Webinars.aspx
Destination BC Destination BC is a Crown corporation that

works collaboratively with tourism stakehold-
“We view social media as a place to build
and engage with a community of people who
and ers across BC to market the province as a are passionate about BC, whether they’re
tourist destination. Social media is a key part residents, frequent visitors or are just start-
Social Media of this mandate. ing to consider BC as a vacation destination,”
says Leah Poulton, Manager, Social Media at
Destination BC.
HelloBC Facebook Page www.facebook.com/HelloBC
7
Destination BC “The main objective of the program is to

inspire people to explore British Columbia
have become home to our most engaged
communities.” The YouTube channel has
and while encouraging them to engage in conver- attracted more than 2,400 subscribers and
sation about BC on social media channels,” 1,562,800 views.
Social Media says Poulton. “Rather than tell people why
they should visit BC, we prefer to show them How can the province’s tourism operators
via inspirational, experiential content such and communities get involved in Destination
as photos, videos and blog posts. We want BC’s social media efforts? “By joining our
people to be able to picture themselves here.” communities and participating in the con-
versation, answering questions and sharing
Destination BC is active on all major social images of your own or sharing our images,”
media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, says Poulton. “Subscribe to the Explore BC
Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube as well as our blog and keep an eye out for content from
own Explore BC blog. A key focus is user- your community or region.”
generated content. “We encourage people
to share their BC stories by featuring user- Poulton also recommends using the popular
generated content across our social media hashtags #exploreBC and #skiBC to connect
channels,” says Poulton. with consumers and ensure Destination BC
staff see your messaging.
For one recent campaign, the “Explore BC
Blogger Tour,” launched in the summer “If you are running a social media campaign
of 2012, four bloggers were sent on a or have some content you think would be
“fan-powered” adventure around the of interest to our community, reach out to
province. They shared photos and blog us by posting on our Facebook wall or by
posts from their trip in real-time, and tagging us on Twitter (@HelloBC),” advises
Destination BC’s Facebook community Poulton. However, she notes, “We are far
helped decide what they should see and do. more likely to share experiential or visual
content than special offers or other sales-
“The results exceeded our expectations,” says related messaging.”
Poulton. “Engagement skyrocketed, and the
supporting ad-buy grew our Facebook com- Click the links below to get social with
munity from 3,000 to more than 30,000 in Destination BC:
several months. We were also left with a pool
of great content from around the province • Facebook: www.facebook.com/HelloBC
that we are still using.” • Twitter: @HelloBC (consumer feed)
@DestinationBC (corporate feed)
Today, the Facebook page has more than • YouTube: www.youtube.com/TourismBC
110,000 fans and an average of over 50,000 • Instagram: http://instagram.com/hellobc
engagements (likes, comments and shares) • Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/hellobc
per month. • Explore BC Blog: http://blog.hellobc.com
Images are a key focus. “It’s no secret

that British Columbia is visually stunning,”
says Poulton, “and the channels that allow
us to best showcase photography of that
natural beauty—Facebook and Instagram—
4 A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a hash or pound sign (#) and used to identify messages on a
specific topic on social networking sites.
8
Destination BC Top 10 Social Media Tips from BC Destination Marketing Organizations
and • Educate yourself. Understand how social media can benefit your business and use the
appropriate platforms to assist in achieving your goals.
Social Media
• Build a personality for your brand on the social platforms you choose. Engage and respond
frequently. Do not be afraid to have fun with it.
• Social media is not free. Good content and engaging stories take time and human resources
to develop; be prepared to spend time building and managing your community.
• Make social media part of your daily routine. Create a plan and stick to it.
• To capture users’ attention and increase engagement, include imagery in posts as much
as possible.
• Supply imagery (or links to video) and content for regional and community social media
channels and blogs to help promote the region and related events, activities and festivals.
• Play your part by exceeding customer expectations, participating in discussions about your
region and encouraging travellers to share their experiences.
• Ensure your posts are engaging, informative, interesting and spark positive conversation.
• Include official Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) hashtags in relevant messages

to ensure they see your messaging.
• Follow your local DMO on social media channels, share their content, and participate in
their contests and social media campaigns.
9
2 Why Manage Your Online Reputation?
Managing your online presence and reputation Social media has changed how travellers:
requires initial and ongoing investments
of your time. However, the payoff is high • Research trips. More travellers are using
for businesses that generate positive reviews, social networks to obtain trip information
high ratings and a stream of positive social and advice from other travellers. Reputation
media content. is quickly becoming as important as price
and location in influencing trip decisions.
Here are four reasons why managing online
reputation is a critical function for tourism • Communicate with businesses. Social
businesses: media has emerged as an important
customer service channel, fast becoming
1. Social media has changed as indispensable as email or telephone.
traveller behaviour. Increasingly, travellers turn to social
According to the Google and Ipsos networks to make inquiries of businesses
MediaCT Travel Study, the Internet is the and to provide feedback, and they expect
number-one source for planning travel.1 a quick response.
The same report found that nearly half
(46%) of respondents use social media to • Share experiences. More travellers are
share travel-related experiences. using social networks before, during and
after trips to share activities, impressions,
reviews, photos and videos.
1 Google and Ipsos MediaCT Travel Study. (June 2013).
10
2. Consumers trust other consumers influenced by sources they do not fully
more than any other advertising trust; they simply keep researching until
source. they are confident they are making the
According to Nielsen’s more recent Trust right decision. Rather, Nielsen’s survey
in Advertising survey, two of the top- suggests that to maximize effectiveness,
three most trusted advertising sources are marketers must shift more resources
personal recommendations and online toward getting people talking about and
consumer opinions.2 These sources are recommending their business.
more trusted than emails from marketers,
search engine results ads or print, radio It is important to note the second most
and television advertising. trusted source in the Nielsen survey is a
brand website (i.e. an official website
It is understandable that consumers trust created by a business rather than a third-
recommendations from people they know, party re-seller like an online travel agency).
but why such a high level of trust for Consumers are still highly influenced by
advice from strangers? Unlike marketers, brand website content, even though it
consumers are not selling anything, comes from marketers. Social media
and they do not stand to benefit from does not completely displace traditional
purchases. marketing activities.
This is not to say that paid advertising is

a waste of money. Consumers are still
Nielsen Trust In Advertising Chart, 2013
2 Nielsen Trust In Advertising Survey. (2013.) Under the Influence: Consumer Trust in Advertising.
11
2 Why Manage Your Online Reputation?
3. Business reputation is hotel room has steadily increased over time,

interdependent. as has the number of reviews they read.
In tourism, your ability to attract custom-
ers depends not only on the reputation of • According to transactional data from
your business, but on the reputation of the Travelocity, if a hotel increases its review
businesses around you, your community or score by 1 point on a 5-point scale (e.g.
region, and the province as a whole. When from 3.3 to 4.3), it can increase its price
everyone works together to strengthen by 11.2% and still maintain the same
reputation, individual businesses get occupancy or market share.
stronger, as do their home regions.
• A 1% increase in a hotel’s online reputation
4. Reputation drives revenue. score can lead to a 0.89% increase in price,
A recent study from Cornell University a 0.54 increase in occupancy and a 1.42%
indicates there is a direct relationship increase in revenue per available room
between online reputation, demand and (RevPAR).
pricing power. Here are some highlights
from a groundbreaking study conducted by • The benefits of a higher reputation score
Cornell University’s Center for Hospitality are not limited to online distribution
Research in 2012:3 channels, but also to reservations made
through other channels, such as telephone
• The percentage of consumers consulting reservations.
reviews on TripAdvisor prior to booking a
BC Business BC Business Spotlight: Archipelago Cruises

Spotlight: After years of hard work, Ucluelet-based Archipelago Wildlife Cruises has built a solid repu-
tation for personalized tours featuring spectacular scenery, wildlife and gourmet meals.
Archipelago
“When we started this business my husband and I had the same vision,” says Archipelago’s
Cruises Toddy Landry. “Our tours are unique, extremely personal, good value and we throw in a lot
of extras. When at first things did not go as hoped, we never took any shortcuts or strayed
from this vision, even when this meant borrowing (even more) money just to keep going
during our first three years in business.
“Despite spending a lot of money on advertising, it was our customers that turned the tide
for us, first through word of mouth but also through online platforms such as TripAdvisor
and travel blogs,” she says.
Today, Archipelago Cruises is ranked No. 1 of almost 1,000 activities in British Columbia
on TripAdvisor. Landry says that TripAdvisor has become the single most important part of
their advertising.
“Thanks to customer feedback, mainly on TripAdvisor, we are able to continue running our
tours exactly the way we envisaged from the very beginning, the way we enjoy running
them,” she says. “Best of all, it is free.”
3 Anderson, Christopher. (November 2012) The Impact of Social Media on Lodging Performance.
12
3 Setting Up an Online Reputation
Management Program
Where to Find Many businesses jump into social media

without having a clear idea of why they are
and feedback, monitor progress toward
achieving objectives, and ensure follow-up
the Time and doing it and what they want to accomplish. where needed.
This can lead to wasted time, confusion and
Resources missed opportunities. Set Reputation Goals and Objectives
A goal is a broad, far-reaching outcome
For the best results, take an organized, you wish to attain. It answers the question,
systemic approach to social media, focus- “Where do we want to go?” A strategy is the
ing efforts on where you will reap the most approach you take to achieve a goal, whereas
rewards: reputation management. an objective is a specific, measurable step you
take to achieve a strategy. A tactic is a tool
The time and resources you dedicate will used to pursue an objective associated with
depend on the size and nature of your a strategy. Strategies and tactics answer the
business, the amount of feedback you receive question, “How will we get there?”
and other variables. However, regardless of
how much time you dedicate, your overall To put it another way, goals and objectives
approach should be the same. identify what you want to accomplish; strategies
and tactics identify how you will accomplish it.
The key steps to setting up a reputation
management program: The primary goal of this guide is to help
businesses strengthen online reputation.
Assemble the Team The following objectives will contribute to
Decide who will be involved. If you run a this goal:
small business, it might just be you. If you
run a large business, an entire team may • Improve ratings and rankings on review
be involved. sites
• Increase the volume of positive reviews
For example, in a large hotel, the reputation • Decrease the number of negative reviews
team may include the social media manager, • Increase number of followers, and
front office manager, director of sales and consumer engagement and advocacy
marketing, public relations representative and
general manager. Representatives from food Be specific when setting objectives.
and beverage, human resources, corporate For example, specify the rating you
office and ownership may also be involved. wish to achieve on popular review sites
(e.g. TripAdvisor, Google+ Local, Yelp)
Appoint a leader to champion your efforts, and, as applicable, online travel agencies
keep everyone on track, chair meetings, liaise (e.g. Expedia, Booking.com).
with departments and ensure follow-up. This
should be a senior manager with the authority Here are the key strategies and tactics every
to implement change. business should implement to strengthen their
online reputation:
You will also need a social media administra-
tor to act as the “gatekeeper” responsible for • Manage listings and content on key review
monitoring, responding to and disseminating sites and social networking sites
reviews and feedback. This might be a • Monitor and analyze customer feedback
dedicated position, or duties that are added • Act on feedback
to an existing position. • Respond to feedback
• Build social media communities and
Regardless of individual roles and responsi- advocacy
bilities, managing reputation should be
a team effort. Plan to meet regularly with These strategies and tactics will be explored in
your group to discuss recent reviews, ratings the coming sections.
13
3 Setting Up an Online Reputation
Management Program
Where to Find Allocate Resources

Next, ask yourself what resources will be
traditional channels (e.g. brand websites,
online travel agencies, travel agents, voice
the Time and needed to execute the strategies necessary to reservations).
accomplish your goals. Many channels and
Resources tools in social media are free, but managing To help you decide where to allocate
them can be labour intensive. resources, the next section will review the
variety of channels, tools and resources at
You may have to reallocate resources from your disposal.
other areas. This means asking some hard
questions. Do current expenditures reflect the Create an Online Reputation
changes in how travellers research trips and Management Plan
make decisions? As more people go online to Draft a brief reputation management plan
plan trips, have you adjusted your marketing that identifies roles and responsibilities,
efforts to ensure you are still reaching them? objectives, strategies and resources. Include
it in your annual business plan and review it
At the same time, it is important not to over- regularly. You will likely need to make adjust-
compensate by shifting too many resources ments over time.
into social media. Social networking sites,
such as Facebook and Twitter, have yet to
prove themselves as significant direct revenue
channels. Most bookings still come through
Hiking, Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island
14
Where to Find Where to Find the Time and Resources
the Time and If you are wondering how to manage social media while juggling the needs and demands
of your guests, take inspiration from Victoria’s Abbeymoore Manor.
Resources
Despite having only a handful of employees, the seven-room property is highly active in
social media, with a blog, Facebook page, Twitter feed and Pinterest page. Innkeeper Ian
MacPhee says he also monitors reviews on Yelp, bedandbreakfast.com, iloveinns.com and
TripAdvisor—both for his property and for competitors.
How does he find the time? “It is very tough, but the results speak for themselves, so it is a
priority,” says MacPhee. “We use systems and tools to automate where we can. I try and set
aside some time each day. If I’m blogging I try and write several articles at once and publish
them at different times.”
To ensure a high level of service and a solid reputation, MacPhee says he invests more resources
in staffing and online marketing initiatives than most innkeepers. “Yes, it costs money,” he
explains, “but a great website coupled with a solid online reputation brings business.”
The hard work is paying off. At time of publication, Abbeymoore Manor was ranked No. 1
of 1,649 B&Bs and inns in British Columbia on TripAdvisor.
“The benefit is immeasurable in terms of driving guests to your website,” says MacPhee,
adding that he has also been able to command higher room rates.
However, he says, to reap the rewards you do not have to rank No. 1. Here he shares his
advice for tourism operators:
• There’s no use focusing on social media and online reviews unless you are confident the
reviews will be very positive. Be sure your property is the best it can be and go out of
your way for every guest.
• It all starts with your product. If you aren’t providing a truly excellent experience, do not
ask folks to share your mediocrity online. Reinvest and improve.
• Once your guest experience is solid, use tactics to increase review volume, such as
TripAdvisor review widgets and review quotes in marketing activities. Most importantly,
simply ask guests to take a moment and share their experience with the TripAdvisor
community.
• Don’t cheat or mislead. Writing your own reviews will get you in trouble. TripAdvisor
calls this “Organized Boosting” and they are very sophisticated when it comes to
weeding out those who try to “game” the system.
• Get involved with your local tourism organizations, destination marketing organization
and area accommodation group. Be collaborative and help others do their best so that
more tourists will visit your city.
• Typically guests look at the newest reviews, the worst reviews and the management
responses, so it is critical to craft an appropriate response to all negative criticisms.
15
4 Managing Listings and Content
When travellers research online trips and Online travel agencies (OTAs) such as
activities relevant to your business, you want Expedia and Travelocity rank high in both
them to find you, and accurate, appealing organic results and paid search results, which
information. are purchased by an advertiser and marked by
a shaded area or “Sponsored” label.
Review sites and social networks typically
rank high in search results related to travel To maximize your online presence, having
planning. Content, reviews and ratings from a brand website is no longer enough. It is
TripAdvisor, Yelp, Facebook, Google+ and important to maintain an active presence
Twitter often fall within the top-five organic on major review sites and popular social
search results. Organic search results are channels.
“natural” or unpaid results that are ranked
by the search engine using an algorithm In the next section, you will find the steps
according to relevancy to the search term. involved in optimizing your positioning on
social channels.
Google search result of Cuchillo Restaurant
16
Perform a To understand how your business is positioned online, put yourself in the shoes of the
traveller. Conduct a reputation audit by performing the following searches:
Reputation
• Your business (e.g. “ABC Rentals Whistler”)
Audit • Your top three competitors (e.g. “Whistler Recreational Equipment Company”)
• Your business type(s) and location (e.g. “ski equipment Whistler”)
If you do not have direct competitors, search for successful businesses like yours in
other regions.
Pay particular attention to the top organic results; most searchers do not look further.
Paid results are typically at the top and to the right of the page, are shaded, and are labeled
“Sponsored” or “Ads.”
Answer the following questions and make a list of items to follow up on.
• Is the information about my business accurate and appealing?

• Am I happy with my ratings and rankings?
• What would I like to change?
• Where are my competitors listed that I’m not?
• How can I strengthen my online positioning?
It is important to regularly perform a reputation audit (at least once every three months),
because results can change frequently. Note that information can be displayed differently
on different devices, so perform your searches on both a smartphone and tablet, as well as
a desktop or laptop computer. Furthermore, results can vary by search engine, so check
the most popular search engines: Google, Bing and Yahoo.
17
Social Media The Internet is like the new telephone. People

enter into search engines the questions they
To effectively satisfy both travellers and
algorithms, publish content to your website,
and Search used to ask travel agents and businesses on the blog and social media channels that answers
phone. For example, phrases such as “Family the typical questions travellers type into
activities in Victoria in February” or “Greek search engines. For maximum effect include
restaurant Smithers” are routinely searched local information, add imagery and, when
on browsers. If your business is relevant to the uploading it, ensure it is tagged, or labelled,
search, you want it to appear in results, and with your business name, location and
the higher it appears the better. activity. To encourage sharing, add social
share buttons—icons from Facebook, Twitter,
To learn about popular search terms related Google+ and other social networking sites
to your business, visit Google’s Keyword —that visitors can click on to share with
Planner.1 their networks.
Online, there are two major audiences: trav- For example: if you publish articles on your
ellers and algorithms. In search marketing, website or blog, a calendar of events or a story
algorithms are formulas that determine which about the region’s history, add social share
content appears in search results and in what buttons so that visitors can easily share the
order. Google, Bing and Yahoo! run on information on Facebook, Twitter and other
algorithms, as do TripAdvisor and Facebook. relevant channels. Additionally, make sure
you promote these on your own social
Algorithms are updated regularly to deliver profiles.
the most relevant results to users. The details
of search engine algorithms are kept secret to This marketing tactic is sometimes referred
prevent businesses from gaming the system. to as inbound marketing. Traditional
However, there are typically two key ingre- marketing, also known as outbound
dients to algorithms: relevance, which is marketing, involves interruptive or “push”
partly measured by matching search terms tactics such as email blasts, direct mail,
to website content, and importance, which telemarketing, and TV, radio and print
is partly determined by the amount of traffic advertising. Outbound marketing tactics are
a website generates as well as the number of considered less effective today because people
links it receives from quality, popular sites. can easily block or ignore messages.
With many search terms, such as those related Inbound marketing is less about finding
to restaurants and hotels, location plays an customers than about being found by custom-
important factor in results. A user may not ers, primarily through search engines and
include a location in the search, but if they social media. It can increase your visibility
have allowed the search engine to use their in searches, and drive traffic to your website
location information, it uses GPS data to and social channels. It also helps build trust
provide results for nearby businesses. with travellers, can increase conversions
and, ultimately, will drive higher customer
Another relatively new factor in search satisfaction.
algorithms is the use of “social signals,”
which are reviews and ratings that indicate
the quality and popularity of a business.
1 Google Keyword Planner is a free tool that helps you determine the popularity of keyword search terms.
You will need a Google account to use it. For more information visit http://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
18
Social Media
and Search
Blog post: Example of Urbanmommies blog post of family activities in Victoria
19
Three Types of Online content can be divided into three

categories:
consumers trust other consumers more than
other advertising sources.
Online Content
Paid Content Traditionally, marketers and businesses have
This content is purchased by businesses. It focused on paid and owned content because
includes display ads, cost-per-click advertising they control the messaging. Messaging is often
and listings on online travel agencies. Marketers more aspirational than totally realistic. But in
control the messaging, but it has less influence online reputation management, the primary
on consumer decisions. (As noted in the Nielsen focus is earned content because it is more
survey in Section 2, trust in paid advertising influential. And it is free—aside from the
sources is lower than recommendations from time invested.
other travellers.)
With online reputation management,
Owned Content managing owned content is also important,
This is content that the business owns, such particularly listings on review sites. (Paid
as its website, Facebook page and Twitter feed. content is also important; however, it falls
As with paid content, marketers control the outside the scope of this guide.)
messaging, but it has less influence because
trust is lower than recommendations from For maximum reach, strive to combine
other travellers. all three types of content in marketing
campaigns. For example, if your business
Earned Content posts an item on Destination BC’s Facebook
This content is posted by other people. It page to announce a contest you are holding,
includes user-generated reviews and ratings, this is owned content. If you purchase an ad
photos, videos, media and blogger coverage and on Facebook to promote the contest, it is paid
social endorsements such as Facebook likes and content. And if other people like, comment
Google pluses. Marketers do not control the on and share the post, it is earned content.
messaging, but it has a higher influence because Working together, paid content can amplify
owned and earned content and vice versa.
PAID
CONTENT
EARNED
CONTENT
PAID
OWNED CONTENT
CONTENT
Google search result, Reknown, 2014

20
Managing The number of social media channels you
actively maintain a presence on will depend
Build and engage communities.
On social networking sites such as Facebook,
Social Media on the size of your business, your objectives, Twitter and Google+, creating a profile is
the resources available and the results you see. just the beginning. It is vital to build and
Channels Your reputation audit will help to identify engage a community of followers. This is
popular platforms. As a rule, go where your discussed in Section 8.
customers are.
Monitor and respond to feedback.
Your first priority will be to ensure you Ensure you track any mentions of your
are listed on major review sites such as business, and respond accordingly. The
TripAdvisor, Google Places and Yelp. You monitoring function is reviewed in Section 5;
might create a Facebook page, then a Twitter how to respond is reviewed in Sections 6
feed. After that, the sky is the limit. Bear in and Section 7.
mind it is better to have a strong presence on
a few key social media channels than a weak
presence on many.
There are four main steps to establishing a Additional Resources

presence on social channels:
Tourism Business Essentials
Claim your space. Destination British Columbia has developed
Register your business on a review site or FREE easy-to-use tools that provide specific
social network. This may involve creating a guidance on marketing issues for tourism.
new listing or taking control of an existing See the guides on Ads & Brochures That Sell,
one. Many social media channels automati- Culture and Heritage Tourism Development
cally create, or allow users to create, listings. and Travel Media Relations.
You may have a listing without knowing it.
By taking control of the listing you can For more information on other Tourism
ensure your profile information is accurate. Business Essentials guides and workshops,
visit the Guides, Workshops and Webinars
Next, go through a verification process to section of the Destination BC website.
prove you are the owner or manager of your
business. Even if you do not maintain an TOUR TOU
active presence on the channel, claiming your

TOURISM ISM RIS
M TO
TOURISM BUSIN BUS UR
BUSINESS ESS INE BU ISM TO
SS SIN UR
ISM BUSINESS ESSE NTIA ESS EN BU
TOUR ESSENTIALS LS TIA LS ES SE ES
S SI
IS
M TO
ESS ESSENTIALS NT IA ES NE
RIS
M BUSIN LS SE SS BU
U
RI
NT
TOU IA LS SI SM
INE
SS ESSEN TIALS ES NE TO
SE
BUS
space will protect it from being claimed by

SS
IAL S
N TI BU U R
A LS IS
ESS ENT ES
SI M
S EN N E S T
O
M U
IS T IA S B
R
UR SS LS
U
S IS
TO NE
ES
SE
IN M
SI N E
BU IA LS T IA S
S
NT
others.
SE LS
ES
RE
WOR S
ONL K I N T R ThA TVO U E A R M O S
E M P LOY E EI SN EF IRRTESRPTAV G
U TAT RWEI LT
e ess E R Th
entiaL I S
H lT Me esEM
CH U U
G U N STT
A D S & BThe O CThe
R essential UM
Hhuman EASN ATheGesseEntial TheEesseLntiaITOR
Rresources NA TunguItaiideH E D
sent
T The AA T F U
tour for Mguid l gui A D
E Oto developmouOIguA P E OI D I INN O N
ial
l guide for ism busi E N
mo
I S SMETourism e forT
R AU ERsusentialFguO
guide
TUHRAT L Operators.
L essentia ness to howtotoattr for BC tou n bikN S
how de ide es
ABBU D
S P O R TA T TT O I O Nguide manage tourism busines
market ingntainto de
bik velopT staIina
O S ideR I LR I S A M
sesinter e
and online custom natioto act
on how your rism bustourism , mana
and
ses on du e togur ing, m RbleMto opTh K E
to creating tourism ads
nding
P U l guide
er reviews nal visito hos ines pro gin
to understa
E R Eessentia
The
The essential
ENandTbrochures
BC.
tourism inthat attract customers.
. rs t media
. ct in an d anagStouris erae es
ism E TM E
IN M E T on how to
developG rke ing m tinseg ntan O
BUURN T A
sport
Complete your profile.

ing
ONL
BC. ma
ARGIETsmAbusin
prod
ucting an buthsin iaen
MAN Nrevie
esses t in d
E
He for Pe custo E
M mer ws. . ketintoin BCidone men SI S L
BC mar e es
BCs l guvir
gurism. to untally I NM S
touri
D guid
N tial O interestedn.in
L
TheAessen
V
L onlin
manEage
es eratio
in de
du rsta ES FO
A D E busin rism op ess stry nd
SE R
UR . in
LT R I S M for BC touherrismitage tou S
g
U
C OU ide or
tural
T ial gu
ent g a cul
Typically there is no charge to create a listing

ess pin
The elo
dev
and complete your profile on major social

channels. There may be an option to pay to
advertise or enhance your listing. By complet-
ing your profile, you will ensure that people
can find you and the information is accurate.
Depending on the channel, this may include
adding a description, location and contact
information, imagery and links to other
social profiles.
21
Review Sites As mentioned in the Introduction, social media can be divided into two main categories:
review sites and social networking sites. When it comes to reputation, review sites are the
vs. Social first priority. They drive direct business and provide invaluable customer feedback.
Networking
Sites
Review Sites TripAdvisor launched in 2001 and has since

become the most-visited travel site in the
Once you register your business, you have
access to the Management Center which
world, with 260 million unique visitors per provides a wealth of resources. There you can
month. TripAdvisor reviews and content are update your listing, respond to reviews, view
syndicated to millions of other websites. visitor and performance stats, and access
user guides and tip sheets. You can also
For travel businesses, TripAdvisor is undoubt- download widgets and badges to display on
edly the most important website (next to your website, Facebook page and at your
your brand website). A TripAdvisor presence property’s physical site.
can have an enormous impact on awareness,
website traffic and demand for products TripAdvisor also offers a variety of tools
and services. and resources to help destination marketing
organizations promote their areas. DMOs
TripAdvisor was originally an accommoda- can add Visitor Centre information, photos,
tion review site but has expanded to include videos and editorial content to destination
restaurants, activities, attractions, tour compa- pages. They can also integrate TripAdvisor
nies and retail outlets. In addition to reviews reviews and content on their destination
and ratings, the site features photos, videos, website and can choose from a variety of
maps, destination pages, traveller forums and paid advertising options.
paid advertising.
TripAdvisor Listing: Archipelago Wildlife Cruises

22
Review Sites HelloBC.com and TripAdvisor Reviews
HelloBC listing showing TripAdvisor review widget: Cedar Lodge
If you have visited the HelloBC website recently, you may have noticed a new feature on busi-
ness listings: a live feed of TripAdvisor reviews.
“We believe that displaying recent and relevant user-generated content is a consumer benefit,
making travel planning easier,” explains Kathleen Harvey, Manager, Product Services at
Destination BC.
“Once a tourism business enrolls in the HelloBC Listing Program we create a link to
their TripAdvisor listing,” says Harvey. The feed is integrated into listings for all sectors:
Accommodations, Activities & Attractions, Golf, Ski & Snowboarding, Transportation, and
Festivals and Events.
“The only exceptions are suppliers who do not yet have a listing or any reviews,” says Harvey.
Her team conducts regular audits to capture any enrolled businesses with a newly acquired
presence on TripAdvisor.
“We encourage businesses to ensure they have a TripAdvisor listing, to solicit reviews and to
comment on those they perceive to be positive or negative,” said Harvey.
For information about the HelloBC Listings Program, visit www.DestinationBC.net.
23
Review Sites Google Places

Google Places is an online directory of local
Yelp
Like TripAdvisor, Yelp features listings of all
businesses that features user reviews, maps, types of local businesses, including restaurants,
photos, videos and related information. All hotels, and retail shops. However, Yelp is
types of walk-in businesses are listed, includ- popular with locals as well as travellers. Listings
ing restaurants, hotels and retail shops. include descriptions, reviews, maps, photos
and related information.
Google Places is not a dedicated website like
TripAdvisor. Instead, its content—reviews, The recent integration of Yelp reviews and
ratings, descriptions and imagery—is ratings with Apple’s mobile maps application
integrated into a variety of popular Google has substantially boosted traffic. An average
products, such as Search, Maps, Google+ and of 108 million people per month visited Yelp
HotelFinder. Therefore, a presence on Places during the third quarter of 2013.
can increase your visibility throughout the
Google network.
Yelp listing: Norwoods Restaurant, Ucluelet
Google Places listing: Nicklaus North Golf, Whistler
Other Review Sites

While TripAdvisor, Google Places and Yelp are the three most important review sites for
travel businesses, there are many others that specialize in specific business sectors.
For example, VirtualTourist, Get Your Guide and Viator are popular for tours and
excursions, whereas OpenTable and DineHere are popular for restaurants. Online travel
agencies (e.g. Expedia, Hotels.com, Priceline) feature reviews and ratings for a range of
travel businesses. Your reputation audit will help you determine which reviews sites are
popular within your business segment.
24
Social It is not as easy to draw a direct line between
activity on social networking sites and book-
Recently, Facebook introduced several
features relevant to tourism businesses:
Networking ings as it is with review sites. However, social
networking sites are increasingly popular with • Graph Search. This feature turns Facebook
Sites travellers who enjoy sharing experiences and into a search engine for friend activities
making recommendations. and interests. From the search bar users
can search for destinations their friends
They can also be effective marketing tools have been to and businesses friends have
to build awareness and are important liked, checked in to, and tagged photos of.
channels for engaging communities, Because everyone has a different network
providing customer service, and building of friends, search results for every user are
customer loyalty and advocacy. different.
Social networking sites typically require To increase the likelihood of your business
higher maintenance than review sites; showing up in relevant searches, optimize
maintaining an active presence demands your Facebook content for Graph Search,
frequent monitoring and content much like you do when optimizing website
management. content for Google search.2 Complete
your About page with a good profile
description and applicable categories,
Facebook tag all of the imagery you upload and
encourage users to like, and check in to
and tag photos of your business.
• Ratings and Reviews. In late 2013,

Facebook began adding star ratings and
review boxes to business pages, allowing
visitors to rate and review the business.
Given the volume of Facebook users,
monitoring and managing Facebook
reviews is now an important part of
Facebook page:Valemount Visitor Centre reputation management.
The most popular social network in the • Nearby Places. This mobile application
world, Facebook has over 1.1 billion active allows users to search, check in to, rate,
users worldwide. By maintaining an active review and upload photos of local busi-
business page you will build awareness, nesses from mobile devices. Since these
promote products and services, and establish activities show up in the user’s newsfeed,
and engage a community of people who share they help spread the word about your
an interest in your brand. business to Facebook users.
The Facebook “like” button is now a standard

feature on brand websites. As discussed, it can
be used to encourage users to share content
throughout your website. Applications can
be added to your Facebook page to cross-
promote your presence on other channels
such as TripAdvisor, Twitter, Instagram
and Pinterest.
2 For tips on how to optimize your Facebook page see this infographic:
www.insidefacebook.com/2013/07/17/infographic-optimizing-your-small-business-page-for-facebook-graph-search
25
Social Google+ Twitter
Networking
Sites
Twitter profile: Grape Escapes, Penticton
Google+ Page: Echo Valley Ranch
Twitter is a social networking site that allows

Not to be confused with Google Places, users and businesses to create a profile, build
Google+ is a social networking site similar a network of contacts, and share content
to Facebook. Launched in 2011, Google+ and messages with other users. Messages,
now has more than 350 million active users, or “tweets,” have a 140-character limit.
making it the second most popular social
network (after Facebook). Twitter is the third most preferred social
network, with over 230 million active users.
Unlike Facebook, however, much of the It is especially popular on mobile devices and
activity on Google+ takes place outside the for real-time messaging—relaying what the
network. Google+ content is integrated into user is doing or thinking right now.
other Google products (e.g. Search, Local,
YouTube) and the “plus” button appears on These qualities make Twitter especially
many websites. important as a customer service tool. By
monitoring Twitter and responding quickly
Google+ offers a number of unique fea- when people mention your business, you can
tures including Circles, which allows you to connect with customers, find ways to enhance
segment your contacts into different groups, their experience and resolve issues before they
and Hangouts, which enables you to hold live escalate.
video chats with customers.
If you create a Google+ page, merge it with

your Google Places page.3 This creates a
central hub for your business on the Google
network, where users can find descriptions,
location and contact information, read
reviews, view imagery, and interact with your
business all in one place.
3 For help managing your Google Places presence visit www.google.ca/business/placesforbusiness
26
Social Foursquare
Like Facebook Nearby Places, Foursquare is a location-based mobile social networking site. It
Networking is particularly popular in North American urban centres. Users can browse local businesses,
check-in and share their location with their friend network. They can also rate businesses,
Sites share tips and earn points and badges.
Once you have claimed your space and updated your profile, you can monitor ratings, tips
and check-ins. Offering discounts, promotions and incentives to Foursquare users is a good
way to reward frequent customers and attract new ones.
Other Social There are countless other social networking sites, from photo-based sites (e.g. Instagram,
Pinterest, Flickr) to video sites (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, Vine). These sites combine two of
Networking the most powerful aspects of social media: images and sharing. They can also be influential
when travellers are seeking trip ideas and inspiration.
Sites
As with other social networking sites, you can create a profile, build followings and share
imagery related to your business and destination. Be sure to monitor imagery tagged with
your business name.
FourSquare Screen Capture
27
Blogs Blogs are popular with travellers seeking

information on specific topics such as travel,
Your posts can help travellers plan trips, learn
about your business and find answers to ques-
food and recreation. Blog content can be tions about your destination. You can show
more influential than other marketing content the personality behind your brand and share
because it is typically more personal and photos, videos and stories to get travellers
less promotional. interested in your business and destination.
Blogs are a highly effective inbound marketing As with your website and other social chan-
activity. There are two ways to manage repu- nels, be sure to optimize content with
tation with blogs: working with third-party descriptions, tags and keywords, and add
bloggers and administering your own blog. social share buttons to posts.
Many businesses manage blogger relations Maintaining a blog is a significant long-term

much like media relations. By engaging third- commitment. Make sure you have the talent
party bloggers, you can encourage them to and resources at hand to do it well, and plan
generate content about your business and in advance with an editorial calendar.
backlinks to your website.
A company blog can increase your visibility

in searches, and drive traffic to your website.
Blog: Abbeymoore Manor, Victoria
28
Forums A forum is an online community where people seek and share information and advice on
various topics. Typically, a forum is a section of a website where users post and answer
questions from other users. For example, TripAdvisor and Yelp have popular forums
dedicated to specific regions and topics.
Forums are a valuable resource to learn what questions people have about your destination.
Check them regularly for topics relevant to your business. On TripAdvisor, frequent and
valued contributors may be designated “Destination Experts,” and on Yelp they are designated
“Elite” status. Your reputation audit will help you find other forums popular in your sector
and destination.
When posting messages on forums be open about who you are. Do not directly promote
your business as it may be off-putting for other members.
TripAdvisor Forum, Kelowna
29
Your Website: Your website remains the primary channel

for promoting your business online. As noted
Make It Social in the Nielsen survey in Section 2, brand
websites are the second most trusted
advertising source for consumers.
To ensure your website stays relevant and

appeals to both travellers and algorithms,
keep content fresh and up-to-date. Add local
information, social sharing buttons, links to
social profiles and widgets showing followers
and recent activity. Consider creating a “social
hub” page—a single page where all of your
social media content is displayed.
Ensure the content on your website is

thorough, up to date, accurate and easy to
navigate. The expectations you create through
your web content will have a direct impact
on guest reviews.
An increasing number of businesses are

choosing to display TripAdvisor review
widgets on their website. This can keep
visitors from leaving your site in search of
reviews, add credibility through third-party
“earned” content, and increase conversion
rates. TripAdvisor offers a variety of free
widgets in its Management Center for
displaying recent reviews, ratings and
awards.
Social Website, Pacific Sands Tofino
30
Mobile: In recent years, the growth of mobile devices
has been explosive. Increasingly, people
navigate content and make a booking
regardless of the device they are using.
Decisions perform functions on smartphones that used This will help ensure mobile users do
to be reserved for desktop computers. This not abandon your site.
on the Go includes researching trips, searching for
local businesses, making bookings, planning There are two ways to approach mobile
mapping routes and sharing experiences. compatibility. First, build a separate site for
each type of device. This ensures a high level
Most social channels have a mobile applica- of customization and usability but can be
tion and website that make it easy to view expensive and difficult to maintain.
content on any type of device. Since informa-
tion can be displayed differently on different For most businesses, a more practical solu-
devices, it is a good idea to check them to see tion is responsive design. This is a process in
how your content is displayed. which a website is designed to read the user’s
device, and formats content to fit the screen,
For example, on TripAdvisor’s mobile appli- whether it is a desktop, smartphone or tablet.
cation, only the five most recent reviews of a It is less expensive and easier to maintain
business are displayed. Users can click to see than having a separate site for each device.
more reviews, but for people on the go this
may be all they need to make a decision. Regardless of the solution you choose, make
sure you have a prominent click-to-call
As for your website, a mobile-compatible option. Many people prefer to directly call
design will ensure that visitors can easily a business to make a booking.
31
BC Tourism BC Tourism Business Profile: Ziptrek Ecotours

Business Since opening in Whistler in 2002, Ziptrek Ecotours has established itself as a global leader
in zipline-based adventure ecotourism. Today the company ranks No. 1 in activities in
Profile: Ziptrek Whistler and within the top 10 of nearly 1,000 activities in BC on TripAdvisor.
Ecotours In this interview, co-founder David Udow and director of marketing Warrick Hubbard
share some of the secrets to their success.
How did you achieve top 10 rankings in BC on TripAdvisor?

David Udow, co-founder and director: For many years we didn’t have a TripAdvisor
strategy; our customers did it all for us. Our ranking is testament to having a really good
product and a critical mass of customers who want to talk about it. Great staff, great
product and great service lead to positive reviews.
Today, everyone in our company is aware of the importance of our TripAdvisor ranking.
We are incredibly focused on the guest experience. We’re hands on with guides and guest
services staff. Our policy is not to ask guests for reviews, but to allow it to be completely
organic. We have enough customers who love our product, so we do not need to ask them.
How has this ranking helped your business?

David Udow: Putting reviews and certificates from TripAdvisor, Yelp and Foursquare on
our website gives people the confidence to book us. As great as it is to be featured in the
New York Times or Daily Telegraph, people are really interested in hearing from users and
friends. People hear about us, check us out on a review site, and then book.
There are also recruitment benefits. People want to work with a winning team that takes
really good care of customers and has a strong reputation.
We also use reviews as a mechanism to reward staff—sometimes verbally, and sometimes

with rewards and prizes. On the rare occasion when we get a negative review, we have a
system in place to respond.
Which other social media platforms do you find to be effective?

Warrick Hubbard, director of marketing: We’ve focused our energies on the primary
ones—Facebook, Twitter and YouTube—but we also dabble in Instagram and Pinterest.
Facebook and Twitter allow us to broadcast messages and information instantaneously,
which is hugely beneficial. But they also allow our guests (both pre and post tour) to get
to know a bit more about what we’re all about.
How do you use video to promote your business?

Warrick Hubbard: We have our own YouTube channel. We typically upload content there
first and then embed videos in our site. We’ve produced our own “corporate video” to
promote and showcase the company, but we rely on user-generated content to profile our
tours for a more authentic view.
Our business lends itself well to video and photos. In previous years video helped people
visualize exactly what Ziptrek was all about (keeping in mind zip-line tours are only a decade
old in North America, we being the first!). Today, devices like iPhones make it all the easier
for people to capture content—and the quality has improved.
32
BC Tourism On sites like HelloBC and TripAdvisor, we take advantage of the option to showcase video
Business content. For any special events we’ve been a part of (Super Bowl, Grey Cups, Stampede,
San Francisco), we’ve uploaded video content early to garner exposure and awareness and
Profile: Ziptrek archive it on our main site for people to reference.
Ecotours How has your blog helped your business?

Warrick Hubbard: Our blog was started primarily to drive a deeper understanding of the
company and our offerings, but it also clearly has beneficial Search Engine Optimization
(SEO) aspects as well. Being a smaller, private, entrepreneurial company, we have some
resource limitations, but we want to publish relevant and quality content rather than a
bunch of random posts.
David Udow: Our blog is a vehicle for getting people interested in topics related to our
business such as sustainability and taking care of the planet. Even though they might not
visit us often, our fans and Facebook friends are receptive to and interested in these
types of topics.
Any advice to share with other BC tourism operators?

Warrick Hubbard: Look for ways your customers can be advocates for your company.
Social media is an obvious one. Encourage feedback of every kind—certainly on review
sites. But we also email out our own Net Promoter survey post-tour in order to acquire
feedback on the overall experience, perceived value, why they chose Ziptrek, best and
least favourite parts, and whether they would recommend us. A business can learn a
lot from listening to customers.
Find out more at www.ziptrek.com/whistler-canada.
33
5 Monitoring Activity and Measuring Performance
Sometimes we are so eager to get our 2. Utilize Timesaving Tools

messages out, we forget the most important There are three main types of social media
part of social media: listening. By listening management tools:
to and monitoring activity, you learn about
customer tastes and preferences, the strengths • Monitoring Tools. These tools help you
and weaknesses of your business and your track and organize mentions of your busi-
competitors, and opportunities to attract new ness and other keywords specified by you,
customers. It is also an opportunity to identify even when you are not logged on to the
and resolve issues, and enhance the customer social networks.
experience.
• Management Tools. These tools allow
Given the number of social channels and the you to administer multiple social networks
volume of content shared daily, monitoring and profiles from one dashboard. You can
activity can be a daunting task. In this section segment feeds, schedule posts and distribute
we review five areas to focus on to most content on multiple channels.
effectively monitor social channels and
measure performance. • Analytics Tools. These tools track,
measure and benchmark social media
1. Appoint a Gatekeeper activity by providing data and analysis
As discussed in Section 3, an individual related to followings, demographics,
should be designated the official “gatekeeper” customer sentiment, achievement of
responsible for monitoring social channels objectives and competitive performance.
and disseminating feedback to appropriate
staff. Depending on the size and structure of Most social channels, including TripAdvisor,
your business, this may be a designated social Facebook, Google+ and YouTube, offer free
media administrator, an administrative coor- basic monitoring, managing and analytics
dinator or a senior manager. features.
However, even a dedicated gatekeeper will

find it challenging to keep tabs on all social
media activity. Fortunately, there are tools
that help save time and create efficiencies,
from basic alerts to comprehensive reputation
management tools.
34
Alerts.
Alerts are the simplest, most popular monitoring tools. They notify you via email or text
message whenever your business or designated keywords are mentioned online. Rather than
you searching for mentions, they find you.
We recommend setting up the following alerts:
• Google Alerts. To be notified of public • Twitter Notifications. To be notified

mentions across the Web, including web- of activity on Twitter such as mentions,
sites, review sites, blogs and open forums. retweets, favourites and new followers.
You can set up a Twitter profile and alerts
• TripAdvisor and Yelp Alerts. To be even if you do not maintain an active
notified when someone posts a review of Twitter feed.
your business.
While alerts are free, they will not catch
• Facebook and YouTube Notifications. everything. It is still good practice to regularly
To be alerted to user activity on your page visit these channels to check for reviews
or channel, e.g. when someone “likes” your and mentions. You can also invest in a paid
content, posts to your page, subscribes to monitoring tool, which will do a more
your channel or sends you a message. thorough job of tracking mentions and
providing more in-depth analytics.
Google Alerts
35
Hootsuite feeds
Here are a few popular monitoring options:
• Hootsuite, SocialMention and restaurants. TrustYou also serves

SocialOomph offer a combination of destinations.
monitoring, management and analytics
functions. You can opt for a free basic • TweetDeck, owned by Twitter, is a free
version or pay to upgrade to a premium tool for monitoring and managing
version with advanced features. Twitter activity.
• Radian6, Sprout Social, Topsy, Trakur • Twellow and WeFollow are Twitter
and BrandWatch are paid tools that offer directories that help you find users by
a combination of monitoring, management interest, profession, expertise, region
and analytics functions. and other attributes.
• ReviewPro, Revinate and TrustYou • Klout, CrowdBooster and PeerIndex

are three tools that specialize in online assess social media influence.
reputation management for hotels and
3. Determine Keywords to Monitor

The number of keywords you can monitor Try different keyword variations to see which
on social channels is virtually unlimited, ones produce the best results. If your search
but you will need to do some experimenting term is too broad, such as “travel British
to generate the most relevant results. At a Columbia,” your inbox may be flooded with
minimum, monitor your business name and irrelevant alerts. If it is too specific, such
any associated brand names such as an affili- as “ABC whale-watching tours and excur-
ate restaurant, gift shop or rental company. sions Ucluelet BC,” you may miss relevant
mentions. A more fitting term might be
Additionally, track names of senior “whale-watching tours Ucluelet.”
managers, competitors, key clients and topics
related to your business, destination and
tourism in general.
36
4. Measure Performance
To assess your progress toward achieving objectives, measure performance over time. This will
determine which strategies are working and which are not. Demonstrating results will help you
gain buy-in from colleagues and approval for resources.
Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are the most important measures of a business’ success
in reaching its objectives. Here we look at KPIs for three main areas of performance measure-
ment in social media: Review Performance, Social Networking Site Performance and Website
Performance.
A) Review Performance
ReviewPro dashboard www.ReviewPro.com
37
By monitoring and measuring performance A social media analytics tool such as Revinate
on review sites, you will gain an understand- performs sentiment analysis, a process
ing of customer likes and dislikes, how you whereby review comments are analyzed for
are performing relative to competitors and meaning, and words and phrases are classified
local businesses, comparative strengths and as positive, negative or neutral. When
weaknesses and where there is room for a large number of reviews are analyzed,
improvement. patterns emerge to help you decide how
to act.
Review performance is fairly easy to measure:
review sites require customers to rate busi- For review performance, key performance
nesses as part of a review, typically on a scale indicators may include:
of 1 to 5. Some sites also allow reviewers to
rate attributes such as service, quality and • Ranking and rating on individual review
ambience. sites
• Aggregate score from combined review sites
(this data can be provided by a
Analyzing the commentary in guest reviews is reputation management tool such as
more complex. Like comments on social net- ReviewPro or Revinate)
working sites, text in reviews is freeform and • Department ratings
unstructured, often containing both positive • Volume of reviews
and negative remarks. You will gain insight by • Review sentiment (e.g. the number of
reading review commentary, but it is difficult positive and negative reviews)
to quantify this content.
38
B) Social Networking Site Performance
Facebook Insights
Measuring performance on social networking • Demographics and psychographics (where

sites is not as simple or straightforward as on your followers are from, as well as their
review sites. It is difficult to quantify progress activities and interests)
toward achieving broad objectives like aware- • Conversions (bookings and/or revenue
ness and customer satisfaction, and to draw a generated)
direct line between social networking activity • Campaign performance (the above
and revenue. measures tracked by campaign or post)
Numbers tell us part of the story, such as the The number of conversions or revenue gener-
number of fans and followers. However, fans ated might be low or even nonexistent. This
have value only if they are truly interested in is, in part, due to the difficulty of drawing a
your business. A more helpful metric direct line between social media activity and
is engagement. bookings, but also because social networking
sites are rarely used as direct booking
As previously discussed, engagement is a channels.
customer’s interaction with you on social
channels. It can be measured by the number However, social networking sites still have
of likes, shares, comments, mentions, value. By helping to build awareness, increase
retweets, favourites and pluses you receive, customer satisfaction and advocacy and build
as well as the number of people who check long-lasting customer relationships, social
in to your business from social channels. media generates new and repeat business and
contributes to the bottom line in ways that
For social networking sites, key performance are not always quantifiable.
indicators may include:
• Reach (number of fans and followers)

• Engagement (e.g. likes, comments, shares)
39
C) Website Performance
Google Analytics Social Referrals
Google Analytics is a powerful free tool For your website, key performance indicators
that can help you understand the interplay related to social media may include:
between your website and social channels.
It will tell you how many visitors each • Referral traffic from social channels,
channel drives to your website, what the including number of page views and
visitor activity is, and which content is shared visit duration
on social channels via sharing button activity. • Social plug-in activity
• Conversions (bookings and/or revenue
If you set up e-commerce tracking features generated)
on your booking engine, Google Analytics • Campaign performance (the above
can also track bookings referred by social measures tracked by campaign or post)
channels, the pages people visit on the path
to conversion, and the amount of revenue
generated. You will need to assign booking
and tracking codes to measure the results of
campaigns and overall performance.
5. Report Performance
Finally, once you have determined your key performance indicators in each area, set targets
related to your objectives and create a weekly or monthly report to track them.
Share the highlights with staff to cultivate the team approach to reputation management
discussed in Section 3. Integrate the setting of targets and performance evaluation methods
in your annual budgeting and planning.
40
Online Online Reputation Management: Delta Hotels and Resorts
Reputation In 1962, Delta Hotels and Resorts opened its first property at the Vancouver International
Airport; today they are one of the leading hotel brands in Canada. The company operates
Management: more than 40 hotels, including nine properties in British Columbia. It is fully Canadian-
owned and has been ranked as “one of the 50 Best Employers in Canada” by Aon Hewitt
Delta Hotels for 14 years.
and Resorts Online reputation management is an important part of Delta’s success. Here Ricardo
Nicholas, Director, Brand Performance, discusses the company’s approach.
Tell us how Delta Hotels and Resorts manages its social media and online
reputation management functions.
As a brand we have always encouraged guests to speak with us through numerous
channels (telephone, email, our website, electronic surveys, correspondence, etc.). We have
a longstanding program called the “Voice of the Guest” that allows guests to contact us at
any time through any of these channels. All guest feedback is a priority and is acknowledged
and responded to within a defined timeframe.
We have introduced a similar approach to managing social media, with individual properties
monitoring and responding to online reviews on a daily basis. As a safety net we monitor
reviews and comments to ensure that responses reflect the tone of the brand. All of this is
structured and measured to ensure compliance to our brand standards.
Do you subscribe to a reputation management tool?

While we have been responding to various online reviews over the last few years at the
property level, we were looking for a more structured and measured approach to manag-
ing this space. Social media now, more than ever, is a platform for consumers to share their
experiences (positive and negative) and this plays a key role in influencing and shaping travel
decisions and choices. As a brand we developed our social media program as a means of
better understanding and managing our reputation in this space.
Through extensive research, we sourced a management tool that would allow us to

accomplish a variety of objectives. We chose Revinate because, in addition to allowing us
to track and respond to guest feedback in a quick and easy fashion, we also have the
ability to measure public satisfaction and sentiment toward our brand while at the same
time monitoring the various trends of both our brand and our competitors. Our overall
objective was to be able to quickly and effectively engage with our guests within the social
space, creating a positive online reputation.
What are the benefits of a reputation management tool?

The tool we employ is user-friendly and easy for individual hotels to engage with mini-
mum training as well as to respond quickly to guests. The reporting features provide both
property-specific trending and direct competitor benchmarking. Revinate also provides an
overall brand perspective through its centralized dashboard as well as additional trending
and measurement features.
41
Online Do your hotels respond to online reviews?

Reputation Currently all of our properties are expected to respond to all online reviews within a
defined response timeline. This is based on the time the reviews first appear on Revinate.
Management: Our brand guidelines outline that a personalized response is required and not a scripted
response.
Delta Hotels
and Resorts Do you have any recommendations for other tourism businesses that want
to better manage their reputation?
Use every opportunity available to truly listen and honestly engage with your customers,
and utilize the feedback to create meaningful relationships and lasting improvements to
your brand.
TripAdvisor
42
6 Acting on Feedback
An integral part of your reputation manage- 2. Analyze Feedback to

ment program does not take place online; it Determine Action
takes place on-site, at your business. The way When reading feedback, answer the
you react to guest feedback will have a direct following questions to determine the best
impact on your ability to attract new and course of action:
repeat customers.
• Is the information accurate?
There are two aspects to responding to • Is this a one-off incident or is there
feedback. The internal response is how you a pattern?
communicate feedback to staff and determine • Who needs to know about this feedback?
which actions to take. The external response • What can we learn from this feedback?
is how you publicly reply to feedback. This • What actions can we take to prevent
section focuses on the internal response. The recurrence? Or, in the case of positive
external response is addressed in the next feedback, how can we encourage this
section. type of commentary?
Ten Steps for Managing 3. Share Feedback with Staff

Customer Feedback Depending on the nature of feedback,
Here are 10 ways to internally manage sharing it with staff can be an effective way
feedback in ways that increase customer to motivate them, and to show them ways
satisfaction, boost employee morale and to correct the type of behaviour that elicits
build guest loyalty and advocacy. negative comments.
1. Welcome Feedback of all Kinds Use positive feedback to recognize employ-

Social feedback provides valuable insight into ees for a job well done and motivate them to
ways to improve your business and stay ahead continue to exceed guest expectations. Make
of the competition. Businesses used to hire a copy of select reviews to display on your
mystery shoppers to evaluate services; now staff bulletin board, distribute them to staff
travellers do it for you and pay for the privi- by email and read highlights at staff meetings.
lege. Furthermore, review sites expose your When employees are mentioned by name,
business to a volume of travellers you could recognize them in person or by letter and
never hope to reach through your own mar- place a copy in their personnel file.
keting efforts—at no charge.
Sharing negative feedback is more challenging.
That said, raw feedback can sometimes be Staff need to hear what guests are saying,
hard to take. Social media gives voice to but it is important not to demoralize or
all types, from the easily impressed to the demotivate them. These matters must be
seemingly impossible to please. Sometimes handled with care and sensitivity.
criticism is fair, sometimes not. However,
there is always something to learn. Listen to As a rule, praise in public and criticize in
the feedback, take appropriate action, then private. However, rather than criticize, con-
let it go. structively use the feedback as a learning tool
to help the employee understand the guest’s
Most travellers do not expect perfection, perspective. Ask the employee how he or
but they do want to know what to expect, she might have prevented the incident and
and they want businesses to deliver on turned it into a positive outcome. If a behav-
those expectations. The occasional negative ioral pattern emerges, take corrective action.
comment is not likely to deter them. In fact, Document feedback and discussions.
a variety of feedback can add credibility and
filter out people who might not be the best fit
for your business.
43
4. Show Leadership the problem was brought to their attention.

When discussing feedback with staff, avoid Comments such as, “We told the front desk,
saying anything negative about reviewers; do but they didn’t do anything” and “They didn’t
not question their motives or denounce them seem to care” represent a lost opportunity.
as irrational or “impossible.” Staff will take
cues from your behaviour and may interpret A key part of reputation management involves
it as license to not take any feedback seriously. employee training and empowerment.
Demonstrate leadership by always being Do your employees understand your business’
professional and showing respect for shortfalls, why they cannot be fixed, and how
all reviewers. to explain them to guests? Are they empow-
ered to offer options to compensate for
5. Recognize and Reward disappointments and ensure guests do not
Offering incentives and rewards in cash or leave dissatisfied?
prizes is a great way to recognize staff achieve-
ments and encourage them to go the extra With expert handling, employees can over-
mile for guests. Recognize departments for come shortfalls, but it is particularly difficult
positive feedback and ratings to engender to overcome bad service. With training and
healthy competition among departments. empowerment, employees can prevent on-
Celebrate important milestones such as the property issues from escalating to online
achievement of your targeted TripAdvisor complaints.
ranking. Consider including reputation goals
as part of management incentive plans. 8. Use Feedback to Guide Decisions
As previously discussed, social media is not
6. Fix the Problem just a marketing function; it is a company-
In the age of social media, it is impossible to wide, brand-wide function that requires close
sweep things under the carpet. Issues need to cooperation and communication among
be addressed, especially if they elicit frequent departments. Every employee needs to know
complaints. Fixing some issues may be as how your business is performing and how
simple as changing policy and procedures, they contribute to that performance.
whereas others may require a significant
investment. Here is an overview of the role of key
departments in managing reputation:
If you do not have the resources to fix every
issue, prioritize them according to the • Sales, Marketing and Reservations
frequency and severity of feedback. Use the These employees play a key role in estab-
feedback to build a case with ownership to lishing expectations for customers. Ensure
provide the resources required to resolve you are setting realistic expectations in your
problems. promotional messaging, advertising and
marketing materials, and sales and reserva-
7. Train and Empower Staff tions communications. Use guest feedback
to Resolve Issues to adjust messaging as necessary.
Some problems cannot be fixed. You
may have recurring complaints about an • Operations
inconvenient location or outdated furnishings Whereas sales, reservations and market-
that you simply do not have the resources ing staff set expectations, operations staff
to replace. are responsible for delivering on expecta-
tions. These departments must work closely
Even then, all hope is not lost. Online together to ensure your business is under-
complaints are often less about the problem selling and over-delivering rather than
than about an employee’s response when vice versa.
44
Use customer feedback to guide 9. Create a Virtuous Circle
decisions related to staffing levels, By listening to guest feedback and using it
services and amenities, and quality. For to guide improvements, you will increase
example, housekeeping staff must be customer satisfaction, receive better reviews
alerted to cleanliness issues, and kitchen and attract more customers. In turn, you will
staff must be aware of comments related attract more revenue and, in turn, more feed-
to menu items. back. This creates a virtuous circle that can be
very healthy for your business.
• Revenue Management
As the Cornell study discussed in Section 2 Alternatively, if you ignore feedback, you risk
demonstrates, reviews have a direct influ- receiving negative reviews that will frighten
ence on demand for products and services. off prospective customers and decrease
If your business receives high ratings, you revenue. This creates a vicious circle that
can charge more. If you receive low ratings, can be very damaging to business.
you will have a harder time selling products
and services, even at a discount. If guests
complain about lack of value, you will need
to either improve quality or lower prices to
stay competitive.
• Human Resources
In addition to using customer feedback
to recognize employees and determine
training needs, use it to guide recruit-
ment decisions. If you are not confident
a job candidate will consistently meet or
exceed brand expectations—keep looking.
Moreover, many job-seekers check out
review sites before deciding where they
want to work. A strong reputation will
help you attract star candidates.
When orienting new employees, share 10. Respond to Feedback

guest feedback and reputation goals to As discussed in the next section, respond-
demonstrate how customers perceive your ing to reviews and social media commentary
business and what your expectations are. shows that you are listening and that
customer feedback is important to you.
• Senior Management and Ownership
Support of upper management and owner-
ship is critical to convey the importance of
reviews to employees. Moreover, it is up to
upper management to make available the
resources necessary to achieve reputation
goals, whether through capital upgrades,
training, staffing, improved services and
amenities or technology upgrades.
45
WorldHost® Training Services

Some tourism operators are reluctant to invest in staff training due to the high turnover
that is typical of the industry. “What if I train them and they leave?” they ask. Well, what if
you don’t train them and they stay?
WorldHost Training Services, a division of Destination BC, offers internationally recognized

training solutions to meet the needs of the tourism industry. A variety of customer train-
ing products are available, from self-directed online learning courses to customized training
programs. Recently, WorldHost introduced a series of online courses entitled Remarkable
Service in the Age of Social Media.
For more information, visit www.WorldHostTraining.com.
WorldHost
46
Tips from Tips From TripAdvisor’s Top-rated BC Restaurants
TripAdvisor’s When it comes to managing reputation, restaurants have several unique challenges. Typically,
customers arrive with high expectations and stay for a short time, leaving a small window in
Top-rated BC which to impress them—or to turn things around if something goes wrong.
Restaurants With the popularity of mobile devices, restaurant customers often post comments, reviews
and photos on social networks while at the dinner table. In addition to TripAdvisor, Yelp,
Facebook and Twitter, there are dozens of restaurant review sites, including CitySearch,
Urbanspoon and OpenTable.
Given the challenges, we asked a few BC restaurants how they manage to stay on top of
social media and achieve top rankings on review sites.
“Hire good staff and keep them!” recommends Richard Norwood, owner of
Norwoods in Ucluelet, rated #6 of more than 12,000 restaurants in BC (#1 in Ucluelet) on
TripAdvisor at time of publication. “Use quality products and above all always put yourself
in the guest’s shoes. It is hard to screw up if you do that.”
Without his core group of staff, achieving his TripAdvisor ranking would have been impos-
sible, says Norwood. “We are a small restaurant (just 28 seats), so the setting is intimate.
Also the kitchen is completely exposed, which creates a certain honesty between guests
and the kitchen brigade.”
Norwood says that generating reviews for his restaurant is an organic process. “Having
guests submit reviews is not something we push.” However, he does keep a sharp eye on
review sites. In addition to TripAdvisor, he monitors reviews and commentary on
Urbanspoon, Chowhound, Facebook and Yelp.
At Allegra Restaurant in Cranbrook, staff invite customers to write reviews. “We do this
by including a TripAdvisor business card with the bill,” says owner Thomas Nay. “We also
encourage our customers to ‘like’ our Facebook page.” In addition, the restaurant displays a
TripAdvisor review widget on its website.
Nay says that success comes down to pleasing customers. “I don’t think the ranking can be
influenced in any other way than by providing an exceptional product and great service.”
47
Tips From Cedar House Restaurant in Golden, which often ranks in the top 20 of BC restaurants on
TripAdvisor’s TripAdvisor at time of publication, also displays a TripAdvisor badge on its website and
invites patrons to submit reviews. However, proprietor Darrin DeRosa attributes the
Top-rated BC success to exceeding expectations.
Restaurants “The food has always been incredible and we use as much organic [ingredients] as possible,”
he explains. “We all work as a team … I am involved in every aspect of the business,
including being on the floor serving and in the dish pit at the end of the night.”
How have high ratings and rankings affected revenue? “The effect on our business has been
substantial,” says Norwood.
Nay agrees. “The results so far are fantastic,” he says. “We get a lot of comments from
travellers who say they decided to visit our restaurant based on reviews. In the highly
competitive restaurant industry, social media is a way to help spread the word. I find it a
must to have as much exposure on such sites as possible. It might be a bit time consuming,
but it is worth it.”
Asked if he has any advice for BC restaurateurs who desire similar success, Nay replied,
“Above all, every customer needs to be viewed as a potential critic.”
Destination British Columbia
48
7 Responding to Reviews and
Social Media Commentary
The previous section reviewed the internal response to social media feedback. In this section
we will look at the external response.
Given the public nature of social media, responding to customer feedback can be a daunting
task. If you say the right thing, you will reassure travellers and attract business. If you say the
wrong thing, you may anger the reviewer and frighten prospects away.
In this section we address common questions that tourism businesses have about responding
to reviews, to give you the knowledge and confidence you need to respond effectively to feed-
back. Every business will have a different approach, so adapt the guidelines to fit the unique
personality of your company.
Responding Why should we respond?

Whether a comment is positive, negative or
Who should respond?
To show how seriously you take customer
to Reviews: mixed, responding will show that you are feedback, responses should ideally come from
listening and you care. It is an opportunity to a senior manager.
Answers to change impressions, to reassure travellers and
Common to highlight the positive. Which reviews should we respond to?
It is up to you, but you should not feel obliged
Questions Responding to negative feedback is especially to respond to all reviews. Reply when you
important. If you do not respond, travellers have something of value to add to the con-
will draw their own conclusions, and that versation. Prioritize reviews that call for an
may be “I guess it is true” or “Management apology, a clarification or a thank-you.
doesn’t care.”
In certain cases, such as when the reviewer
It is also a good practice to respond to positive is clearly irrational or vindictive, you might
feedback. This is an opportunity to show you choose to not respond. Travellers will read
are listening, to emphasize the positive and between the lines, and others may spring to
thank your advocates. your defence. In other cases you may want to
contact the reviewer directly, by email or tele-
In a 2012 survey of TripAdvisor users phone. If you do not have the contact details,
conducted by PhoCusWright, 57% of respon- TripAdvisor, Yelp and Booking.com allow
dents agreed that seeing a hotel management direct messages.
response to a review made them more likely
to book a hotel. In turn, 84% agreed that In any case, if you are sincere, reasonable and
an appropriate management response to a professional in your approach, the reviewer
bad review improved their impression of might revise or remove the review.
the hotel.1
Some review sites do not allow manage-
ment responses. At time of publication,
TripAdvisor, Yelp, Google Places, Expedia,
Hotels.com and Travelocity allow responses.
1 TripAdvisor. (2012.) Survey finds half of TripAdvisor users will not book a hotel that has no reviews.
49
Responding In any case, if you are sincere, reasonable and

professional in your approach, the reviewer
As the voice of your business, your responses
should demonstrate the same professional-
to Reviews: might revise or remove the review. ism and attention to detail that you provide
on-site. Avoid excessive punctuation and
Answers to When should we respond? capital letters, and watch spelling and
Common The sooner the better, ideally within 24 hours.
The longer a complaint lingers unacknowl-
grammar. Ask a colleague to proofread
your response before posting it.
Questions edged, the more travellers it may frighten
away. Investigate first to ensure you under- Show that you are a reasonable person who
stand what happened. If you are feeling angry is committed to customer satisfaction. Avoid
or bitter, draft a reply and sleep on it, then ask saying “It is our policy” or telling the reviewer
a colleague to read it over before you post it. what they should have or could have done.
Never offer compensation, as it might encour-
What should we say? age others to post complaints. Do so only in
Most reviews contain a mix of pros and cons. private communications.
If the negative comments are minor, focus on
the positive. If the negative comments are What if it is a personal attack?
significant, acknowledge the positive first, If an employee has been singled out, avoid
then the address the negative. mentioning the employee in your response.
Say that you have reviewed the issue with staff
Be brief, and focus on the key points. and, if appropriate, offer apologies. If you feel
Travellers skim reviews and may skip over compelled to defend the employee, you might
a lengthy response. Thank the reviewer for say something like, “I was surprised by your
the feedback, apologize if something went comments about our reservations agent,
wrong and indicate how you are following who is one of our best.”
up. If the reviewer was mistreated, readers
will be looking for reassurance that the same What if the review contains false
thing will not happen to them. Provide a brief information?
explanation if appropriate, but no excuses. Misinformation typically arises out of
misunderstandings and forgetfulness rather
Readers will be put off by “canned” responses, than deliberate maliciousness. If it will
corporate speak and overt promotion. Keep set expectations you cannot meet, post
a database of responses to save time, but a response to respectfully clarify the
personalize each answer by speaking to the information.
specifics of the review. Be careful not to say
anything to provoke, as the reviewer may take If the review is false and damaging, or
the matter up elsewhere. you suspect it was posted by a disgruntled
ex-employee or competitor, dispute it with the
How should we say it? host site. Review fraud is a controversial issue
Social media calls for an informal, conversa- in the travel industry. While it is probably not
tional tone, but always be professional. Use as common as some would like us to think, it
“I” to express personal concern and “we” does happen. Review sites take fraud seriously.
to express the collective concern of staff. For instance, TripAdvisor has a department
Personalize your reply with your name and dedicated to combatting such activity.
title rather a generic “The Manager.”
50
Responding Note, however, that review sites typically will not remove a review unless the business can
prove it is fraudulent or violates site rules. They may take the stance that the guest is entitled to
to Reviews: his or her opinion and suggest that you post a reply to provide your own perspective. If so, do
this politely and respectfully. Clarify the matter, but never accuse a reviewer of dishonesty.
Answers to
Common What if I can’t fix the problem?
Be transparent. Acknowledge that it is an ongoing issue you are trying to resolve or cannot
Questions fix, and apologize for any inconvenience. Complaints about pricing, noise, location, services,
facilities and other areas can help set expectations for other travellers and thereby reduce
complaints.
If you get a lot of complaints about the same issue, respond to select reviews rather than all of
them, which may come across as defensive. Rather than expend your energy on crafting clever
responses, focus on finding a resolution.
Destination British Columbia
51
Examples The following are examples of possible

responses to typical reviews. Adapt them to
our table for 20 minutes. The server seemed
rushed and impatient. By the time our
of How to fit your unique personality and brand. food arrived we were starving, but it was so
cold and unappealing we barely touched it …”
Respond to Value
Reviews Comments: “ … Parking cost almost half the
price of my room! Internet was $16 for 24 hrs
Response example: “… Clearly we were not
performing to our usual standards that evening,
and the connection was slow. RIP OFF!!! …” and for that I offer my sincere apologies. I have
reviewed your feedback with staff, and we have
Response example: “I am sorry that your implemented the following changes to ensure
Internet access was slow, which can happen higher quality and consistency …”
in rare occurrences when guest traffic is high.
Our pricing is comparable to similar proper- Service—Positive
ties in the area, and we feel we provide good Comments: “The young lady, Emily, who
value given our central location and exten- showed us around was so helpful and knowl-
sive facilities. Nevertheless, I appreciate your edgeable it really enhanced our appreciation
feedback and have reviewed it with my man- of local culture.”
agement group.”
Response example: “… I’ll be sure to share
Service—Negative your comments with Emily, who will be
Comments: “…. We had to wait a half-hour thrilled …”
before being seated, and then no one came to
52
Examples Medical Issue
Comments: “Staff went above and beyond
Response example: “… We are a limited-
service property and our rates reflect this.
of How to after my husband fell ill during the tour. Our kitchen had to close early that night
The guide, who was certified in First Aid, due to unforeseen circumstances, and I
Respond to attended to my husband until paramedics apologize for the inconvenience. It is other-
Reviews arrived, and later staff delivered our belong-
ings to the hotel. Then that night the owner
wise open until 10:00 pm. Front desk staff
are on duty 24-hours to assist with luggage
called to see how my husband was doing. and recommendations ....”
We will be back!”
Response example: “Thank you for your False Allegations

kind remarks. We are happy that we were Comment: “My wife’s purse went missing
able to be of assistance. We wish your during the event and we’re certain it was
husband a speedy recovery and hope to stolen by one of the employees named Mark.
welcome you both back soon.” When we complained, management said
they weren’t responsible. Stay away from
this place! Staff are thieves!!!”
Cleanliness
Comments: “… our cabin was another Response example: “Finding your wife’s purse
story, however. The closet shelf was caked became a top priority the moment it was
with dust, the whole place smelled like reported missing. We contacted the police at
smoke, and there were cigarette burns in once, but as you are aware they were unable
the carpet. It was supposedly nonsmoking!” to determine what happened. Rest assured
we have never had an incidence of theft in
Response example: “… Thank you for over 10 years of business. While we sincerely
bringing these items to our attention. I’ll regret the situation, we feel we did our best
get them fixed right away. Please accept under the circumstances.”
my apologies …”
Décor
Mixed Feedback Comment: “It felt like staying at my grand-
Comments: “Staff were warm and friendly, ma’s house – floral prints, doilies and trinkets
and our view of the ocean was magnificent. everywhere. The owner was always skulking
Our dinner couldn’t have been more perfect. around, and we could hear everything from
The only issue was the band was a bit too the guests next door – I mean everything!
loud, but they stopped at 10:00 PM.” Next time it is a hotel.”
Response example: “Thank you for your Response example: “We try to provide a
kind remarks. I am delighted that you homey, country-house environment, and the
enjoyed the view and your dinner. We antique furnishings reflect our local history.
look forward to welcoming you back.” We try to convey this clearly in the photos
and descriptions on our website, but perhaps
we could do a better job. In any case I’m
Services sorry the décor wasn’t to your taste.”
Comments: “There was no concierge, no
bellman that I ever saw, and the kitchen
closes at 9:00 PM! I expected more, and
won’t be back.”
53
Facebook The same basic guidelines apply when

responding to Facebook commentary as
The term “troll” refers to a person who
makes off-topic or offensive comments online,
to online reviews, with a few important deliberately intended to provoke a reaction.
considerations. Most conversations that take It is usually better to ignore trolls than to give
place on Facebook are private, so unless it is them the attention they seek. Most people
posted to your page or within your network, can easily spot a troll and will ignore their
you probably will not see it. Unlike review comments. As the saying goes, “Don’t feed
sites, which allow anonymous comments, the trolls.”
Facebook comments are linked to the user’s
profile, so typically you know who you are Facebook Response Examples
interacting with. Facebook comment: “Our heli-skiing tour was
awesome! We were up to our ears in powder,
When people post positive comments on your and the midday lunch break was delicious.”
page, post a reply to thank them. It shows
that you are listening, opens dialogue and Response example: “We’re so glad you had a
may encourage others to share. great time! I’ll be sure to pass your comments
on to our guides and kitchen staff. We hope
If someone posts a complaint, apologize as to see you back soon.”
appropriate and say you are looking into
the matter. After you have investigated, post Facebook comment: “We were disappointed
a follow-up comment. If claims are false, with the quality of the snow on our heli-tour.
respectfully clarify the matter. If the issue is Lunch was soggy and there wasn’t enough food.”
serious or sensitive, take the matter offline by
sending a private message or contacting the Response example: “We’re so sorry! While
person directly. we can’t control snow conditions, we can
certainly control lunch. I have shared your
Unlike review sites, Facebook allows you to comments with staff to ensure this doesn’t
delete comments posted to your page. Do so recur. And I’ve sent you a personal note.”
sparingly, and only if it is spam, offensive or
particularly damaging. “Sanitizing” a page is
frowned upon, and can trigger a backlash
of negative commentary. As with all social
channels, be open to all types of feedback.
54
Twitter When responding to comments on Twitter,
use the same basic guidelines as you would
As a general guideline, acknowledge posi-
tive tweets with a thank you. You might also
with online reviews and Facebook, with a few retweet the message. For negative tweets,
special considerations. attempt to take the conversation offline. If
the sender is not following you, you will not
Twitter is increasingly used as a customer be able to send a direct message. Start your
service channel, whether to make inquiries reply with the @username to limit how many
prior to a visit or to share impressions during people see it.
or after a visit. It is especially popular for
real-time commentary on mobile devices. Twitter response examples
Therefore, monitoring is particularly impor- Tweet: “What a fantastic stay at the ABC
tant. It will help you identify and resolve Lodge! Can’t wait to go back!”
issues before they escalate and find ways to
connect with customers and enhance their Response example: “We’re thrilled to hear you
experience. enjoyed your stay at @ABCLodge. We can’t
wait to welcome you back to #Smithers!”
Given the 140-character limit of tweets,
travellers do not usually go into a lot of detail. NEGATIVE
Tweets also have a short shelf life compared to Tweet: “Stood in line for 20 mins to check
reviews. The audience is limited to followers out of ABC Lodge. Won’t be back! #Fail”
of the person who sends the tweet, follow-
ers of anyone who retweets the message, and Response example: “@JohnSmith, we’re so
anyone who happens to be monitoring related sorry to hear we kept you waiting! Can we
keywords or streams. Typically tweets fade make it up to you? Please direct message me
away very quickly—unless they go viral and or email me at [email protected].”
cross over to other social channels.
Protecting Occasionally damaging content will come

from within a business, instead of an outside
• When using tools such as Hootsuite,
maintain separate accounts for personal and
Your Brand party. Whether it is an employee-made business profiles to avoid confusing them.
comment that offends others, or an employee • If employees represent your business
confusing his personal channel with a or comment on topics related to your
business channel, employee errors and business from personal accounts or blogs,
misjudgment can cause significant damage they should add a disclaimer to say that the
to reputation. opinions are theirs and not those of your
business.
To prevent and mitigate such issues, follow • Prevent hacking by using strong passwords
these steps: (alphanumeric, minimum 10 digits),
changing them regularly, and using a
• Be sure to have a social media policy in different password for each channel.
place that clearly defines employee rules of • Limit access to social accounts to those
conduct and emphasizes respect, openness responsible for sharing official content.
and transparency. If an employee leaves the company or is
• Encourage employees to read content dismissed, immediately change passwords
thoroughly and to think before posting, and cancel administration rights.
sharing and commenting. All content
should be considered public.
55
Handling What can you do if negative content related to your business comes up in search results? Each
situation may call for different measures, but here are some general guidelines to follow.
Negative
• Fix the problem. If you do not go to the root of the issue, it will probably come up again.
Online Make it a priority to resolve the problem.
Feedback • Go to the source. Search engines are rarely the originator of content; they pull it from online
sources. Find out where the information is coming from.
• Ask to have it removed. Depending on the source, you may be able to flag the content as
inappropriate or request that it be removed. Be polite and explain why. Do not be heavy-
handed—that may make things worse.
• Generate new content. If you cannot get it removed, push it down in results by adding new
content. Create profiles on major social networks, and generate news that will receive cover-
age on high-ranking sites and blogs.
• Pursue legal action. This should be a last resort, as lawsuits can be expensive, attract
unwanted attention, and success is never guaranteed. However, if content is false and
damaging, you may wish to consult a lawyer.
Google Search Autocomplete
56
A Social Media Sometimes an issue goes beyond a negative
review or damaging content to become a
• Publish an official response. People can
be quick to condemn but may change their
Crisis full-blown crisis that threatens to do serious mind when they hear your side of the story.
harm to reputation. It may be a labour issue, State your case with sincerity, be open and
an environmental crisis or mistreatment of a transparent, and speak to your company’s
customer that goes viral. The source might be track record. Use online and offline media
a disgruntled guest, an ex-employee, a com- to get the message out, but choose one
petitor or a complete stranger. In certain cases channel for your official response (such as
you might not know who is behind it. your website) and direct inquiries there.
A crisis needs to be handled at the highest • Do not fan the flames. Issues tend to die
levels and may require the counsel of a public off quickly in social media. Once you have
relations firm, lawyer or reputation manage- published a response, it might be better to
ment firm. Crisis management falls beyond go silent and wait for things to settle rather
the scope of this guide; however, there are a than risk drawing more wrath. Closely
few basic guidelines that can help you avert a monitor the situation and modify your
social media crisis and mitigate the damage if approach as necessary.
one occurs.
• Rally supporters. Ask for support and tes-
• Be prepared. Every business should have a timonials from your advocates, customers,
social media policy in place with guidelines employees and industry partners, and ask
for employee conduct and the steps to take them to help spread positive information
in the event of a crisis, including communi- and clear up misinformation.
cation channels and responsibilities.
• Act quickly. Information can spread

extremely rapidly in social media. If the
issue threatens to go viral, there is no time
for bureaucracy. Act quickly to contain the
incident, but not before you have consulted
professionals and understand the options
and potential consequences.
57
8 Building Communities and Advocacy
In this final section, we focus on how to strengthen reputation by preventing negative reviews,
generating positive reviews and building and engaging communities on social networking sites.
Managing
Expectations
When customers arrive at your door, they 3. Exceed expectations.

have certain expectations of your service, This creates very satisfied or delighted
facilities, amenities and staffing. You have customers who may become advocates.
three choices: Advocates will not only come back, they
will recommend your business to others.
1. Fail to meet expectations. Social media makes it easy for them to
This creates dissatisfied customers who may reach large numbers of people.
become detractors. Detractors are not only
unlikely to come back, they may warn others The gap between customer expectations
to stay away. Social media makes it easy for and results is where reviews and social
them to reach large numbers of people. media commentary are incubated: the
positive, the negative and everything
2. Meet expectations. in between. By consistently exceeding
This creates satisfied customers who tend expectations, you help create that
to be passive. Passives might come back, virtuous circle we discussed
but not if a better deal comes along. They in Section 6.
might write a review, but it will be lukewarm
or mixed. They will not be much help in
spreading the word.
58
Generating While the quality of reviews is most impor-
tant, volume is important as well. Travellers
2. Ask for Reviews
Positive want to see recent reviews to ensure they are

getting up-to-date information. According to
Reviews TripAdvisor, the three most important ingre-
dients in the algorithm that determine how
businesses rank on the Popularity Index are
the quality, recency and volume of reviews.1
This is why attracting a steady stream of

positive reviews is in your best interest. Here
are some suggestions for generating positive TripAdvisor Review Card
reviews and social media commentary:
Sometimes customers need a little nudge to
1. Be Transparent remind them to tell the world how wonderful
Setting realistic expectations means being you are. However, not every business is com-
honest and transparent about your offerings fortable with asking; it is really up to you. If
in marketing materials and communications. you do solicit reviews, here are a few options:
This includes pricing, fees, location, facilities
and condition of facilities. • Ask at departure. If customers rave about
the experience, ask them to share it on a
For example, if you are an accommodations review site and tell them how important
operator that charges for Internet access, be reviews are to your business.
upfront about this on your website and in
confirmation letters; this will avoid disap- • Give them a card. Upon their departure,
pointing guests. To appease them, you might attach a flyer or business card to a guest’s
offer free Wi-Fi in the lobby or a tiered system receipt as a reminder.
with free basic access.
• Send an email. A post-stay email is the
Other complaints are more challenging to most effective way to generate reviews
address. If you receive complaints about your because people receive the request when
location, you probably cannot move your they are at a computer or mobile device.
business but you can manage expectations by Make it easy for them by including a
being transparent about where you are. For direct link.
instance, on your website you may include
a detailed map, location description and TripAdvisor offers a number of resources in
distances to major attractions. its Management Center to help businesses
solicit reviews. These include order forms
for a limited supply of free business cards or
flyers, and a free email service called Review
Express.
While TripAdvisor encourages businesses to

solicit reviews, Yelp discourages the practice.
In fact, Yelp favours its regular users, and an
automated fraud detection system often places
reviews from first-time reviewers on a hard-
to-find “Filtered Reviews” page.
1 Reknown.com (2013.) Eight key strategies for climbing TripAdvisor Rankings.

59
Generating 3. Be Remarkable
As discussed, the most effective way to
Temperature checks can help you identify
and resolve issues before the customer leaves.
Positive generate positive reviews is to consistently They also unearth minor nuisances that can
exceed expectations. Train and empower show up in reviews. For example, if a room
Reviews your staff to provide “remarkable service.” attendant asks the guest how everything is in
In the age of social media, the word remark- the room, the guest might mention a faulty
able takes on new meaning: it means “worth iron, a burned-out light bulb or a missing
remarking about.” room service menu. Temperature checks can
also present opportunities to turn a happy
People most remember negative experiences, guest into a delighted guest.
surprises (both good and bad) and emotions
(how you made them feel). Rather than 5. Build Reputation Across Channels
lavish gestures, it is often the little details TripAdvisor may be the most-visited travel
and special attention of staff that travellers site in the world, but it is not the only place
remember most. travellers go to seek opinions. As discussed
in Section 4, there are numerous review sites
Be careful not to impose. Be inquisitive and and third-party websites that carry reviews
intuitive, and tailor service accordingly. For and traveller recommendations. Do not
example, if a customer asks for a map, and put all your eggs in one basket; strive for
the employee provides a long and detailed positive reviews and high ratings on all
overview of local restaurants and attractions, popular review sites in your business sector.
that might be welcome for a leisure couple
visiting for the first time, but it may be off- 6. Do Not Cheat the System
putting for a busy corporate traveller. Inquire Offering incentives or rewards to guests for
about preferences and pay attention to verbal writing reviews, and asking employees to
and non-verbal cues. write reviews, is against the rules on review
sites. TripAdvisor and Yelp have posted
4. Perform Temperature Checks traveller alerts to listings of businesses
Despite our best intentions, problems still suspected of such activity, which can
occur. How you handle them can make the frighten off prospective guests.
difference between a positive or negative
review. Most businesses wait until departure Moreover, by falsely “stacking the deck” you
to ask guests how their visit was, but by then will set expectations you likely cannot meet,
it may be too late. which can result in a backlash of negative
reviews. You are better off focusing energy
As a preventative measure, train staff to on fixing problems and generating positive
perform temperature checks at various reviews organically.
points during the guest’s stay. Use open-
ended questions like, “How are you enjoying Also, note that encouraging guests to write
your visit so far?” and “Is there anything we reviews while on-site is not recommended;
can do to make things even more enjoyable?” numerous reviews from the same IP address
may trigger the review site’s fraud detectors.
60
Generating 7. Manage Threats from Potential Reviewers
What should you do if a customer threatens to write a bad review if you do not give in to their
Positive demands? Handle such situations with care. Take the threat seriously, but do not allow it to
cloud your judgment.
Reviews
Manage the situation as you would with any complaint. Do everything within reason to resolve
the matter. Few guests will follow through with the threat once calmer heads prevail, especially
if you conduct yourself calmly and professionally.
Afterward, record the details for future reference. If the guest does follow through, post a
response to respectfully give your side of the story. If the guest comes across as irrational or
abusive, readers are not likely to take him too seriously. If the claims are false and
damaging, dispute the review with the host site. TripAdvisor has a Review Blackmail form in
the Management Center that allows you to alert them of such situations as soon
as they happen.
Have clear guidelines in place so staff will know what to do in such a situation, and
have the confidence you will support their decisions.
61
Building
Communities
Facebook page, Royal Museum Victoria

Having a presence on social networking sites • Offer incentives and rewards. Travellers
is not enough. To leverage the power of social often follow social channels to gain access
media, build and engage communities of advo- to deals and promotions. Offer limited-
cates and people who share an interest in your time specials and exclusive offers to keep
business and destination and help spread the them engaged, encourage sharing and
word. This may include former guests, pros- reward their support. Note, however, that
pects, media, bloggers, event planners, DMOs, offering incentives or rewards to travelers
tourism partners and other influencers. for writing reviews is against the terms of
service of review sites like TripAdvisor
Here are some tips for building and engaging and Yelp.
communities:
• Hold contests. Contests can boost follow-
• Be likeable. So you just want to be liked? ings, but quality is more important than
Then be likeable. Be friendly, helpful, quantity. Target potential customers rather
responsive, a good listener and supportive than people who simply want free stuff.
of your community. Engage them in a meaningful way. For
example, ask them to tag imagery with your
• Call on your supporters. Ask suppliers, business name, take a quiz or vote on new
employees and tourism partners to follow service or idea.
you on social networks and share relevant
content. Be sure to return the favour. • Be relevant to brand. According to
Facebook, the biggest predictor of engage-
• Be curious. Interact with followers by ment is the relevance of posts to the brand.
posting questions related to your busi- Focus on content that is related to your
ness and destination such as “What’s your destination and the experiences you
favourite BC travel memory?” This will get provide.
them into a vacation frame of mind and
encourage interaction. Plus, it will be seen • Advertise. Most social channels offer paid
by their friends. options to increase and engage followings,
62
Building target users based on interests and location,
and amplify reach. If you have an impor-
• Be a local expert. Help travellers plan their
trips by sharing travel tips and destination
Communities tant post, consider boosting it with paid information. By positioning yourself as a
advertising. local expert, you will instill confidence and
increase conversions.
• Share imagery. Posts with visuals capture
more attention, occupy more real estate, • Find your voice. Your tone and diction
and are more likely to appear in newsfeeds should reflect the nature of your business
than regular posts. Create “social imagery” and convey authority and enthusiasm. You
by taking photos and videos of activ- can outsource social media management,
ity on-site and in your area. Always tag but the most authentic voice comes from
imagery with your business name, location someone who has a finger on the pulse
and description. of operations.
• Source content from guests. Encourage • Integrate and cross-promote. Integrate

customers and followers to share imagery social media components into marketing
and stories related to your business and campaigns and vice versa. Cross-promote
destination. Search the web, YouTube and social channels and promote them on your
photo sites for content, ask for permission website, in marketing materials and on-site.
to use and give credit.
Destination BC Facebook Page
63
9 Summary
The many demands of managing your online reputation may seem overwhelming at first,
but it will get easier over time. The key is to invest time at the beginning to whip your online
positioning into shape. After that, it is a matter of keeping information up to date, building
and engaging your followings, and monitoring and responding to feedback.
You will not be able to do everything, so focus instead on the activities that produce the
greatest returns on objectives. As previously stated, it is better to manage a few channels
exceptionally well than do a mediocre job of a lot of channels.
By dedicating time to familiarizing yourself with popular tools and platforms, you will be
better positioned to adapt to changes over time.
Most importantly, you will be able to take advantage of the opportunities social media
provides to drive higher awareness, customer satisfaction and revenue.
Ten Key 1. Perform a reputation audit.
Takeaways 2. Set reputation goals and objectives.
3. Develop a social media policy and guidelines.
4. Complete your profile on key social channels.
5. Track and measure performance and share with staff.
6. Respond to customer reviews and commentary.
7. Set realistic expectations by being authentic and transparent.
8. Train and empower staff to resolve issues and recognize their successes.
9. Build and engage communities on social networking sites.
10. Be remarkable. Make sure your business earns a positive buzz.
64
10 Additional Resources
There are numerous online guides, how-to articles and news sites dedicated to
social media including:
• Destination British Columbia Programs and Resources www.DestinationBC.ca
• Destination British Columbia Regional Destination Marketing Organizations

www.DestinationBC.ca/Programs/Regions,-Communities-and-Sectors/Regional-
Tourism-Programs/Regional-Partners.aspx#.Uv_KY0JdXUc
• WorldHost™ Training Services www.WorldHostTraining.com
• Social Media Explorer www.socialmediaexplorer.com
• Social Media Examiner www.socialmediaexaminer.com
• Social Media Today www.socialmediatoday.com
• Tnooz www.tnooz.com
65
1 Appendix: Glossary
Alerts Googling
Notifications of mentions of your business Using an Internet search engine to find
or specified keywords on social channels information on a given word or phrase.
sent by email or text message. Typically refers to this activity on Google.
Algorithm Hashtag
In search marketing, a formula that A word or phrase preceded by a hash or
determines which content appears in search pound sign (#) and used to identify messages
results, and in what order, based on factors on a specific topic on social networking sites.
such as relevancy of the search term and the
importance of the website. Inbound Marketing
A marketing technique that focuses on being
Brand Website found by customers (rather than primarily
The official website created by a business finding them), by publishing helpful, relevant
rather than a third-party reseller like an content on websites, blogs and social media
online travel agency. channels.
Claiming your space Internal Response

Registering your business on a social How a business responds to feedback
media channel. internally, such as sharing it with staff,
reviewing policy and procedures and
Communities using it to guide improvements.
Users of a social networking site or review
site, including fans, followers and members. Key Performance Indicators
The most important measures of a business’
Cost-per-click Advertising success in reaching its objectives.
An internet advertising model used to
direct traffic to websites, in which advertisers Location-based Social Network
pay the publisher when the ad is clicked. A social network designed for use primarily
on mobile devices, it allows users to “check
Engagement in” to establishments, share their locations
Interaction with users, followers and with friends, post comments, and earn points,
communities on social media channels. badges and incentives from businesses.
External Response Objective

How a business externally responds to A specific, measurable step to achieve
customer feedback, such as posting a a strategy.
response, sending a private message or
contacting the customer directly. Online Reputation Management (ORM)
The process of monitoring and engaging
Gatekeeper on the social web to drive higher awareness,
The individual responsible for monitoring customer satisfaction and revenue.
social channels, disseminating relevant
information to staff and posting official Organic Search Results
content on behalf of a business. “Natural” or unpaid search engine results
that are ranked by the search engine using
Goal an algorithm according to relevancy to the
A broad, far-reaching outcome a business search term.
wishes to attain. It answers the question,
“Where do we want to go?”
66
OTA (Online Travel Agency) Sentiment Analysis
Short for online travel agency, an OTA is A process whereby reviews are analyzed for
a website where consumers can plan trips meaning and words and phrases are classified
and book flights, hotels and activities; as positive, negative or neutral.
companies pay a commission on bookings.
Social Media
Outbound Marketing A broad term that refers to web-based and
Traditional “interruptive” or “push” mobile applications used for social interaction
marketing techniques such as email blasts, and the exchange of user-generated content.
telemarketing and TV, radio and print
advertising. Social Media Administrator
The individual responsible for managing a
Paid Search Results company’s presence on social media channels.
Search engine results that are purchased by
an advertiser and marked by a shaded area Social Media Analytics Tools
or “Sponsored” label. Applications that track and organize
feedback and content on behalf of a business
Real-time Commentary and provide data to help measure perfor-
Social media commentary that concerns what mance and understand customer feedback.
the user is thinking or doing right now.
Social Media Management Tools
Remarkable Service Applications that allow users to administer
Service so unexpected, special or memorable multiple social networks from one dashboard.
customers feel compelled to remark about
it on review sites and social networks. Social Media Monitoring Tools
Applications that track, organize and score
Responsive Design feedback and commentary on review sites
A process by which a website is designed and social networking sites.
to read the user’s device, whether desktop,
smartphone or tablet, and display content Social Media Policy
formatted to fit the screen. A code of conduct to guide employee social
networking activity related to the company.
Review Site
A website on which users post reviews Strategy
about businesses, products or services, as The approach a business takes to achieve a
opposed to professional reviews from goal. It answers the question, “How will we
experts and the media. get there?”
Sanitizing Tactic
The frowned-upon practice of brands A tool used by a business to pursue an
deleting negative commentary from social objective associated with a strategy.
networking sites such as Facebook.
Temperature Check
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Checking in with a customer at key points
Formatting a website’s content and design in during their visit to see how everything
order to increase visibility in relevant organic is going.
(unpaid) results in keyword searches on
search engines.
67
1 Appendix: Glossary
Trolls
People who make off-topic or offensive
comments online with the deliberate
intention of provoking a reaction.
User-generated Content
Content created and shared primarily
by consumers rather than marketers,
journalists, experts and other paid
professionals.
Vicious Circle
In reputation management, the process
by which a business does not act on
customer feedback, which could lead
to more negative reviews and frighten
prospective customers away.
Viral Content
Content – such as a video, photo or
tweet – that is shared broadly and rapidly
on the Internet and social networks.
Virtuous Circle
The process by which a business uses
customer feedback to guide improvements,
creating satisfied, loyal customers who
write positive reviews.
68
Destination British Columbia 12th Floor, 510 Burrard Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6C 3A8
69

TBEGuide ORM2014 SEPT29 LINKED-compressed

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

TBEGuide ORM2014 SEPT29 LINKED-compressed

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

TBEGuide ORM2014 SEPT29 LINKED-compressed

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

TOURISM

1 Introduction to Online Reputation Management................................................4

4 Managing Listings and Content........................................................................................16

7 Responding to Reviews and Social Media Commentary...............................49

8 Building Communities and Advocacy.........................................................................58

Just How Do you ever “Google” your name? It used to

Reviews are especially popular in the travel

A Few Before we get started, a few definitions.

User-generated content is content—primarily Googling refers to the act of entering

Note that this guide is not a comprehensive

Key Principles Three key principles govern this guide’s

Later that year, Destination BC presented an accompanying three-hour Introduction to

Destination BC Destination BC is a Crown corporation that

HelloBC Facebook Page www.facebook.com/HelloBC

Destination BC “The main objective of the program is to

Images are a key focus. “It’s no secret

• Include official Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) hashtags in relevant messages

1 Google and Ipsos MediaCT Travel Study. (June 2013).

This is not to say that paid advertising is

Nielsen Trust In Advertising Chart, 2013

3. Business reputation is hotel room has steadily increased over time,

BC Business BC Business Spotlight: Archipelago Cruises

Where to Find Many businesses jump into social media

Where to Find Allocate Resources

Hiking, Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island

Google search result of Cuchillo Restaurant

• Is the information about my business accurate and appealing?

Social Media The Internet is like the new telephone. People

Blog post: Example of Urbanmommies blog post of family activities in Victoria

Three Types of Online content can be divided into three

Google search result, Reknown, 2014

There are four main steps to establishing a Additional Resources

active presence on the channel, claiming your

space will protect it from being claimed by

Complete your profile.

Typically there is no charge to create a listing

and complete your profile on major social

Review Sites TripAdvisor launched in 2001 and has since

TripAdvisor Listing: Archipelago Wildlife Cruises

HelloBC listing showing TripAdvisor review widget: Cedar Lodge

For information about the HelloBC Listings Program, visit www.DestinationBC.net.

Review Sites Google Places

Yelp listing: Norwoods Restaurant, Ucluelet

Google Places listing: Nicklaus North Golf, Whistler

Other Review Sites

• Ratings and Reviews. In late 2013,

The Facebook “like” button is now a standard

Social Google+ Twitter

Twitter profile: Grape Escapes, Penticton

Google+ Page: Echo Valley Ranch

Twitter is a social networking site that allows

If you create a Google+ page, merge it with

3 For help managing your Google Places presence visit www.google.ca/business/placesforbusiness

FourSquare Screen Capture

Blogs Blogs are popular with travellers seeking

Many businesses manage blogger relations Maintaining a blog is a significant long-term

A company blog can increase your visibility

Blog: Abbeymoore Manor, Victoria

TripAdvisor Forum, Kelowna