2012 brings a fresh start – I need to begin as I mean to go so here is my first blog of the year. It is a plea…

Can we please LISTEN – especially to our clients! The number of times this past year I had to rescue jobs that other agencies and consultants messed up (4 in the last 4 months) was, although good for my business, unacceptable from a professional and industry perspective. And in almost every case it was because they didn’t listen to what the client wanted.

While we are selected for our knowledge and expertise, we need to respond and delight but not demand what the client gets. In the end, the customer is always right (stop screaming – I know I know there can be some difficult ones). But they do pay us to deliver to their mostly reasonable expectations.

So if a client loves the colour purple but its not part of their brand or colour palette, find some way to include it. Or if you know they aren’t the twitter type or truly won’t keep it going, then don’t recommend it. And if they say they aren’t happy with the font you’ve used to design their logo or in their website, then change it. A happy client will love what you’ve done for them and be proud to show off their new site, logo, banner, business card, ad etc. And then they’ll tell lots of people about you and that’s how business grows.

For the opposite is not worth thinking about – you’ll lose their business and other potential business. That is of course unless you want me to have it – I’ll happily take the new customers!

And if you need a good case in point about listening, then read this story about Verizon. They thought they could just add a small charge for payment services until an online campaign of 50k+ told them what they thought of the idea – oops now the charge is gone. They listened – shouldn’t have done it in the first place but good on them for bowing to the pressure for the unpopular move.

So my plea is this: take a full brief from your client and make sure you understand THEIR requirements. They chose you so now make them happy. It will be so worth it!

It takes reminding now and then but I always come back to the fact that LinkedIn is probably the best business Social Media tool. Whenever I’m asked for my recommendations about which platform to go with, I always say at the minimum do LinkedIn.

It is simply a great resource and source of SEO if done correctly. I am amazed though at how often I see really poor profiles – if you start it, finish the job correctly. It could be the difference between lots of new business or losing work or a job.

Just the other day, I added new website details and changed a few words around in my LinkedIn profile. Within 2 hours I was contacted twice via LinkedIn – one from an old business associate asking to meet up to discuss how we could work together and the other was from a head-hunter asking if I was interested in in a top job with a large multi-national company. Both came firmly as a result of my profile updating.

If I can pass on a couple of simple things to keep in mind – keep it fresh and don’t be shy. If you don’t keep your profile up to date and aren’t prepared to shout about it, you are missing a trick.

Social Media doubters have little argument as to the benefits of LinkedIn but they try. These doubters are living in the dark ages and will be left behind. If you don’t want anyone to find you and know about your professional credentials, then you clearly don’t want new business.

Twitter is an evolving business – if you don’t keep up with the changes then you’ll lose out on the business opportunities and the fun.

So I thought it would be good to update and republish my own rules of twitter engagement – ‘Jeannie’s Twitter Guide’.

1. Do not swear. I don’t think it is clever, professional or mature and it’s a major turn-off.

2. Don’t carry on with too long a private conversation or joke in the public eye. If you know the other person well, DMs were invented for quick really private chats or pick up the phone or send an email.

3. Make sure your twitters are a mix of interesting facts & figures and some opinion about those facts and figures. Add some personal tweets about how your day is going or react to something good (or bad).

4. Don’t send a DM to thank me for following. If you must, do the ‘thank you’ in a public tweet. Don’t you think it is of interest to let your other followers know that you and I are worthy of following each other?

5. Exception to the last rule – a DM works for a company or business who has a genuine ‘twitter’ offer. So if I follow a restaurant group, you are more than welcome to thank me by sending a voucher for money off a meal or a free glass of wine. But make the offer open to twitter followers only (not a generic offer you make to anyone signing up for their website e-newsletter for instance).

6. Make sure your twitter profile is creative, short and clearly shows your website URL (if you have one).

7. Say thank you for retweeting – and do it publicly (not via a DM).

8. Remember that hashtag ‘#’ is one of the most powerful tools in twitter. It is used for trends & organising. It is especially useful in having a genuine complaint or moan about a service (e.g. ‘#RoyalMail lost a letter for me – not impressed!’ – that was a twitter from me)

9. A good business or organisation will read those ‘#’ and respond accordingly. You can right a wrong by being responsive. So check often and let the tweeter know you’ve heard them.

10. Automate as little as possible (or not at all). Genuine tweets = genuine followers.

11. If you can’t take the time to tweet regularly, yes that means a couple of times most days, then don’t tweet! If you are a business, Facebook & LinkedIn may just be a better avenue for your social media.

12. Don’t connect every single tweet to your LinkedIn profile. The odd interesting, business piece of news is fine but sending all twitters clogs up LinkedIn updates pages (and makes it very annoying). Use that #in hashtag wisely.

13. Quality not quantity is the name of the game for followers. Clean up your followers list often and get rid of those who look like spammers or those who haven’t tweeted in ages but are still following you (like those who have automated – see number 10)

14. To get followers, you also have to follow. Look at terms that are of interest to you and see which tweeters come up. Never hesitate to follow someone, somewhere or something that strikes your fancy – shyness doesn’t exist on twitter.

15. And finally, remember twitter is not private – you may think you are speaking to a closed audience of your followers but you are not. And you may just lose your job over it…

It may only be 140 characters but it shows the person or business you are so use the opportunity and time well. It can be such a powerful tool!

I’ve been in the US for 10 days now and I’m astounded at how interested they are here about the Royal Wedding. There is at least one story a day on each of the early morning and evening news shows. What the royal couple will eat, what Kate will wear and who will sing at the wedding are just some of the information Americans are eating up.

Just yesterday morning, NBC’s today announced they will have a ‘royal wedding week‘. They even have built a mobile app dedicated to the wedding . And Harry’s Ice Trek is a focus all over the news with some further link to the wedding. Apparently Harry is ‘the World’s most eligible bachelor‘ and American girls are flocking to the UK to snare him.

So what’s this all mean to the UK Travel & Tourism Industry? It means there is a golden opportunity to reach an already captivated audience and those UK product providers who haven’t considered targeting the US market now are missing out – you need to jump on the bandwagon. By all accounts, Americans have the UK on their mind and looks like they will be coming over to sample our fine attractions, hotels, restaurants, theatre and so much more. And budget should be no excuse – try doing it via social media. Whether its a PR royal-related story or an offer, twitter is perfect to get the message out. Get a Facebook page and keep in touch with what VisitBritain are doing there – they have been very successful using Facebook & Twitter .

You should also find out what VisitBritain has planned for campaigns in North America ; work in partnerships with other products and put together interesting ‘royal packages’.

I know that leisure visitor numbers out of the US have been in decline over the last couple of years but its still a vitally important inbound market to target. Its not too late take part – I think the Royal Wedding will have lasting returns out of here.

I had a very good day at the Best of Britain & Ireland Show at the NEC in Birmingham on Wednesday – all part of British Tourism Week. I met old friends and colleagues, made new acquaintances and business contacts and heard some very interesting comments and details during the Ministers Question Time.

Well that was my experience anyway – having spoken though to a number of ‘suppliers’ exhibiting there the good feeling was not necessarily shared. Remarks about buyer numbers being light and not enough traffic in general seem to be sentiments shared by quite a few. You have to remember that I am not a buyer of product or press so while my networking provided some interesting opportunities for me, it didn’t necessarily benefit the products and destinations who exhibited there directly.

Putting on a B2B event such as BoBI is not a cheap exercise neither for the organisers nor the attendees. I do have to wonder whether the time has come to call it a day on this particular event and look for new ways to market our great Britain.

There are very successful B2B tourism shows out there – I used to attend ATE, the Australian Tourism Exchange when I was buying product for a former employer (a Global Student Travel Company) and I understand it is still the place to be if you are involved in selling or marketing Australia. It was a packed week full of non-stop meetings all pre-arranged so you had your schedule sorted and homework on both sides could be done.

You had an average of 20 meetings a day over a 3-4 day period plus educationals and it was go go go. It was always a busy but fruitful week and the highlight on your calendar. Okay, Tourism Australia puts a lot of money into it as it is a mammoth exercise getting literally much of the world downunder (a few thousand perhaps). But they had a lot of help from industry partners – the flights and hotels are all covered by suppliers (who see it as a way to show off their product) and so many other industries who see the value of the professionals attending contribute too such as drinks (vineyards), entertainment and shopping companies.

VisitBritain doesn’t have the cash or resource to do it in that grand way. And that being the case, if you can’t do it really well then let’s find a new way to do it within the resources that are available. And to a lesser extent, perhaps BoBI is just tired.

We can’t ignore tour operators, travel agents and press of course but we can be smarter with our spend and time with them. For tour operators and travel agents, a series of regular regional educationals with short, concentrated B2Bs seems to me a great way to show off what great product we have here (and rally the industry to work more closely together particularly in light of what’s happening with many of the tourist boards).

And for Press and PR, I would be using the Social Media card and inviting best bloggers and tweeters over for their own event. VisitBritain has proven how good they are at Social Media having been named the Most Influential Tourist Board in the World so why not use the best tools and expertise available to do the job.

I know the message in this blog will not be popular with a lot of the industry and there will be a lot of flak for saying let’s do away with BoBI. But we need to be honest and despite what the Minister of Tourism says about the huge sum of money the Government is putting behind Tourism (let’s be real Mr Penrose, this £100m amount means tourism budgets have been severely cut further over the next 4 years), we have to be smarter with the little bit of money we do have. Change is good and with some creativity and online tools we can make a much better job of showing Tour Operators, Travel Agents and Press & PR how great we are so visitors come flocking back from overseas and domestically staycations and daycations grow and grow.