Scottsdale-based digital marketing agency, Elixir Interactive, invites Arizona destination-marketers and interactive marketing experts to participate in an idea exchange about promoting Arizona as a travel destination of choice in tough economic times.

As a result of the recent economic downturn, the travel and hospitality industry faces stiff competition in reaching a market of travelers that continues to decline. To promote Arizona as a prime destination selection for online travel seekers, Elixir Interactive is hosting an interactive marketing workshop that explores the benefits of implementing social media strategies in digital marketing campaigns.

Elixir invites Arizona destination-marketers and interactive marketing experts to partake in the idea exchange and discuss the latest research about what factors influence online destination selection.

The event will provide best practice examples of the tactics and strategies for leveraging social computing and other interactive marketing techniques to reach and engage those online travel customers during these tough economic times. A panel of experts will facilitate discussions that include tips on using interactive marketing and social computing to advance common business goals. The workshop is an opportunity for Arizona tourism and marketing professionals to connect with peers.

The event will be held Wednesday, November 19, 2008 from 8 to 11 a.m., and will be located in the Scottsdale Plaza Resort. $25.00 minimum donation requested, benefiting the St. Mary’s Food Bank. For more information, visit http://www.elixir-st-marys.eventbrite.com/

Resulting from the economic downturn, the travel and hospitality industry face stiff competition to reach increasingly fewer travelers. Online travel consumers increasingly rely on social media to influence their destination selection. Noted Travel 2.0 blogger, Troy Thompson, recently reported a major finding in Forrester’s second quarter consumer poll showing that 75% of Internet users are engaging in some form of social media, up from 56% in 2007. Another Forrester poll showed that 57% of destination marketing organization website visitors read traveler written reviews: consumers are the most trusted voice. Moreover, nearly 40% of online travel consumers visit travel-related social networking sites to influence their destination selection. If travelers are turning to social media, then travel marketing professionals cannot afford to completely ignore it. The question is, “How do travel marketing professionals get started with social computing?”

Charlene Li, a Forrester analyst and writer, has codified a process she calls the POST process in her book co-written by Josh Bernoff, Groundswell. The POST process (acronym for people, objective, strategy, technology), informs marketers on the who, where, why and how of engaging online consumers through social media. Like any other engagement in social media, the main goal should be to change a relationship, ideally for the better. Successful social media participation can increase sales and brand equity by facilitating trusted relationships with social communities that influence search and purchase behaviors.

Travel marketing professionals that do open the social media doors, must be willing to hand over some control of their brand messaging (as if they really had control) to prepare to address and sometimes simply deal with negative feedback. Controlling the conversations is not the goal — listening and reacting to capture new opportunities is. Every conversation is a potential opportunity. The enabling connectivity of social media has given consumers control of brand messaging: your brand is what people say about it online. The increased transparency achieved by engaging online travel consumers through social media provides immeasurable credibility and can invigorate your brand loyalists to influence others, thus diminishing the relevance of a few negative reviews. Since Google seems to love to rank blogs, the link juice from these online conversations will also provide your CMO with the ROI he or she demands. As travel marketing professionals compete to reach increasing fewer travelers, engaging travel-related social communities can expose opportunities for improving brand messaging and achieving business objectives.

Although many organizations have achieved great short term results with PPC and display adverstising, nothing produces better long-term ROI than an effective SEO strategy that produces high organic rankings. As keyword prices continue to climb — some costing as much as $45 per click — the value of an effective SEO strategy also increases. Not only are organic “clicks” free, but surveys show that organic results are more trusted and that trust tranlates into more conversions.