SOCIAL NETWORK MARKETING: HIRING YOUR ONLINE SALESPERSONS FOR FREE! ZONGQING ZHOU, PHD PROFESSOR COLLEGE OF HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM MANAGEMENT NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, USA MARCH, 2010 BINATIONAL SPEAKER SERIES, CANADA WHO IS THIS GUY? The author of the first textbook on Internet Marketing specifically for Hospitality and Tourism industry, a book widely adopted worldwide.  Create the first Internet Marketing course for tourism major in the world.  Can be reached by email: [email protected]  Or find me at facebook  Lindedin  Twitter  Or simply google “zongqing zhou” or “周宗清” if you know Chinese.  WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?  A category of sites that is based on user participation and user-generated content.  social networking sites: facebook, LinkedIn  Messaging sharing site: twitter  Video sharing site: youtube  Photo sharing site: flickr, picasa  User rating/opinion site: yelp  Personal publishing: blogging (eg. Google’s blogger) SOCIAL MEDIA Why social media? Are you convinced? A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INTERNET EVOLUTION INTERNET MARKETING STRATEGIES Web 1.0 Web 2.0 Web. 3.0 Emails Word-of-mouth Marketing Mobile Marketing (24/7) banners Virtual communities Collective individualism Yahoo (directories) Google (dynamic links/SEM) One-click communication Web portals blogging What I click is what I want HTML/Meta Tags SEO Media Integration contents Social networking And only God knows … Push marketing Pull marketing Customized marketing IS IT A FAD? Who knows? You judge for yourselves FACEBOOK & TOURISM: AN EXAMPLE WHAT’S NEW  Google partnership with social media THE FUTURE IS HERE: FOURSQUARE  Social site FourSquare is gaining incredible popularity. The basis of this site is for users to use their mobile devices to check-in to places they visit. For example, if Joe smith goes to Starbucks, he would ‘check-in’ to Starbucks on his phone. This would automatically update Joe’s Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts. Joe would also accrue points for his check-ins. Eventually, when he has the most points per place he would then become the’Mayor’ of that destination.. THE FUTURE IS HERE (CONT.)  This is still in the web 2.0 phase. However, where it is beginning to cross over is it’s impact on real life. Companies can run promotions at their store and give away a gift to their ‘Mayor’. For example, Starbucks could give Joe a free cup of coffee each week just for being the Mayor. Joe promotes Starbucks to hundreds of his friends and followers on social media sites and Starbucks encourages sales through the point accruals. INTERNET MARKETING STRATEGIES: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH Website as a marketing tool (contents)  SEO and SEM  Social Media Marketing  Customized/user-generated social network marketing  ISSUES Privacy  Ethics  Legality  QUESTIONS??