If there is anything I can’t stand, it’s the way the tourist industry has been dragging its feet about marketing. In my own county, the bigwigs are thinking about dismantling a local tourism group. And New York State hasn’t exactly been on the ball with its online marketing agenda. There’s been discussion that NYS may ditch its brochures, which is a wrong move IMHO, but the state tourism industry is really a lumbering dinosaur. I do 100% of my travel planning online, including shopping for travel products and maps. It is so convenient and time-saving. But again, unless a company gets the word out, I’ll never know they are there.
Online marketing is undergoing a tremendous change. Ten years ago, fewer then half of the households in America were online. Today, it is something like 85%?! And much of the Internet is going “social.” Social networking is all the rage right now. And advertisers would be very wise to be paying attention. I think a social media marketing plan is a terrific strategy. SocialSpark, for example, is the newest kid on the block, but CEO Ted Murphy has been on the social networking and online advertising stage for several years. Murphy wrote an article about some research he’d been doing, and claimed that the Longtail, not the A-Lister, rules the blogosphere:
While “A-List” blogs may be able to deliver high volumes of display advertising inventory, sponsored posts on hundreds of “longtail” blogs are capable of delivering advertisers a stronger value short term, and offer a long term value not available through any form of display ads offered by the A-Listers.
He has all these charts and calculations; it’s a compelling argument. Now, I am a blogger who gets paid to write posts. But I am also a consumer. And being on both sides of the fence, as it were, I can say that people do tend to turn off the banner ads and are more tuned in to a blogger’s opinions. I truly believe that this is the new direction of online advertising. Businesses, I encourage you to look into the new world on social media marketing. And I also encourage you to look up my blog when you do. 
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July 2nd, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Hello.. Yes, Botanical Gardens is still open and I hear it is very beautiful. I may go there next. I will def. post pics.
July 5th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Okay, if any of this is going to make sense to me I need some definition of terms.
1. What is an A-list blog? (It’s sort of self explanatory, but what specifically makes a blog an A-list as opposed to–well–B-list or something???)
2. What is a longtail? (other than a couple of my cats.)
Now I just blog because–well, I think it’s cool and I get a little rush out of people liking my photos and I want to share things that are meaningful to me and visit what’s cool to people around the world. I don’t understand getting paid to write blog posts. Are all of your blogposts paid for? How can I tell if it is a paid for blogpost or just ’cause you are interested in something? (There are some bloggers whose paid for posts are pretty obvious. I can’t say that about yours as I haven’t visited before today when you came by to c omment on my PhotoHunt.)
I learned many years ago that the best way to get information out about anything is WOMI–Word Of Mouth Information. Get people talking about something. Blogs have a lot of potential there.