Yesterday Facebook launched Places. Facebook users can “check in” real world places on their smartphone. The idea is that you’ll be able to know where you’re friends are, get notified if they’re close by, and receive messages your friends left at a location sometime in the past.

If your familiar with Foursquare or Gowalla, you know the concept.

This is very important to tourism operators. Why? Because it’s word-of-mouth on the go. People ‘check into’ places (your business) to let their friends know and leave comments (reviews) about their experience.

When visiting a restaurant, a friend might have left a virtual message to recommend the ravioli. When visiting a bar, another friend might decide to also go.

People will also use it to find place to go and things to do. Because Facebook is creating a huge database of all possible ‘places’ people go in the process. What that will lead to can only be imagined, but watch out Google Maps, Yelp or maybe even Tripadvisor.

You can claim your ‘place’. This guide in the Facebook Help Centre explains how. If you already have a fanpage, you can merge it with your places page. Your fan/places page will now include a map with your location and ‘check-ins’ from people. Right now you can only claim your place when you’re in the US, but that should change soon.

Facebook places is going to change the world a little bit.  Facebook users can now check in anywhere using your mobile device. Updates now have locations and you can tag the people you’re with.  You can check in to locations and businesses.  You can see your friends who are near you.  If I’m in a bar or a restaurant I can see who else is there.  If I’m travelling, I can see my friends who are near me.  I could even see if there’s anyone I know on an plane.

The implications of this are huge.  Facebook is set to become the internet.  More than that, Facebook is becoming the new phone, the new email, the new photo album.  We used only to have our IP addresses.  We now have a Facebook ID that we will take with us as we cruise the web.

Facebook has launched with Foursquare, Yelp and Gowalla.  Those businesses didn’t really have a choice.  Its becoming a case of integrate or get left behind.

Facebook is getting over 35% of the internet’s traffic.  Imagine when 500 million people can check into a business on their phone, leave a recommendation and pay using Facebook Credits.

We already have application ideas for this new platform.  These are exciting times.

Equestrian guides don’t wake up at 6am in the morning to feed the horses because shareholders expect to see a return on investment.  Rafting guides don’t live in trailers near remote rivers because they’re in it for the money.   Scuba diving, sky diving, eco-tours and every other tourism business you can imagine probably started the same way.

The people behind tourism made lifestyle choices around their passion.  Their businesses grew through that enthusiasm and a natural demand for their services.  Cycles and trends sometimes cause natural demand to waiver.  Then passionate people are forced deeper into business to find new customers.

Marketing can be challenging when you’re already busy trying to run a business and don’t have the budget.  To many, social media sounds like a silver bullet because its free.  Never forget that online tools just trade advertising expenses for somebody’s time and skill in knowing how to use them.  Nothing is free.

How can you use social media to help your customers buy more of what you’re selling?

I recently started a non-profit organization with Laurel Eastman entirely on a Facebook page. It works because its targeted to an existing community of kiteboarders who are passionate about the cause. It lets us communicate much faster than email.

If I was in the business of marketing cruise ships, I’d start a community for every single cruise that went out. Cruises aren’t for me – I’m not that type of traveler – but my mum loves them. She meets amazing people and they share many days together at sea. People seem to bond when they’re stuck on a boat together. Often they lose touch when the party is over. Why not facilitate a community that allows passengers to connect and stay in touch when the trip is over.  People might share photos for all of their friends and family to see and those images may provide inspiration for others to try a cruise themselves.  Friends who met on a cruise could plan more cruises together.   As a group they could cause each other to book the next cruise.   Your product champions could market your cruises to each other, for you.   You could go even further and involve past passengers in the brand and ask them what they would like in future cruises.

Hotels and airlines have a tougher time in social marketing because they tend (and I’m generalizing here) not to be as unique or memorable as the travel experiences themselves.  Accommodation and flights are often treated as a means-to-an-end rather than an experience in themselves.  Generally, a plane flies you from A to B and a hotel provides you a bed.   How many hotels have you stayed at where you felt like you were part of a community?  How many amazing experiences have airlines provided to you?  When you only have a few hours on a flight or at a hotel, the experiences have to be quite remarkable to be memorable. There are always exceptions, where the service is the experience; Jet Blue and Virgin do a great job of this.  There are a number of hotels that are the destination themselves; the Banff Springs Fairmont, the Ice Hotel

Why would someone want to join your online community?

Airlines can communicate to passengers:

If you’re connecting with another flight, you could get real-time info on delays, gate changes, cancellations.  You can learn about loyalty programs, credit cards and flight specials.

Airports can communicate to passengers:

How long is the customs line if you’re flying international? What is the weather like when I land?  What do I need to know about the airport and ground transportation when I get there.

Hotels and tour operators can communicate to passengers:

People are already booking travel later and later.  Wifi on planes could amplify this.  I booked a flight for the biggest conference of the year in our industry just a matter of days prior.  I could be looking for the best rate on a hotel on the plane.  I could also be looking for things to do when I arrive.

Family can communicate to passengers:

Passengers could pass on information about flight delays. Family can also pass on pertinent information: “I’m running late to pick you up, the traffic is terrible.  Do you want to catch the train instead?”  Being disconnect can be concerning but we’re not cut off anymore: “I took little Johny to the doctor and he is feeling better.”

Passengers can communicate to the airline:

Airline PR departments take note. Complaints will be coming in real time. Passengers can give feedback about staff, about quality, about consistent delays and shoddy practices.  We’ve already seen the ramifications from one little youtube video about United Airlines. Now this can happen in real-time.

Destinations and services can communicate to passengers:

For the last minute traveler, the destination that they are travelling to can promote things to do while they’re on the way.  The trend towards last-minute booking will only increase.  Imagine the special offers last-minute, customized by interest and season.

Passengers can communicate to work:

Passengers can now be more productive.  When I’m on a plane now, I’m as good as in the office.  Same goes for students.  If I don’t have anything pressing, I have access to the largest entertainment system in the world. In-flight entertainment just became redundant, especially the ones you have to pay for.

All of this increased access to communication saves people time, makes us more efficient and will ultimately save the consumer money.  I’m sure there’s lots more that I haven’t thought of.

Can you think of more implications?

Sitting in Atlanta airport, I also received a pop-up alert from Skype.  It turns out that you can use Skype credits to pay for WIFI at over 100,000 locations.  It’s not cheap (it works out to around $12 for 60 minutes) but it is convenient.

There are more Facebook users than any other online account-based product.  People who are active online travel frequently and often use more than one currency. Ideas spread quickly beyond national boundaries.

Wouldn’t it be great if we had just one account that we could use to pay for everything?  Wouldn’t it be great if that account didn’t sting you for expensive exchange rates every time you used it when you travel?

Rumor has it that Facebook is about to suplement their universal ‘Like’ button with a ‘Buy It Now’ button.

Why wouldn’t we pay for WIFI using Facebook credits?

Hood River is a small town on the bank of the Columbia River in Oregon in the United States.  Anyone who has been to Hood River will tell you that it is one of the windiest places on earth.  Everyone in tourism marketing has skeletons that they don’t want people to know and for Hood River its wind. Its unbearably windy, unless you like wind.

In the 1970s, Hood River became a mecca for windsurfing.  Windsurfers love wind.  Presumably, a handful of early-adopters figured out that Hood River is windy. Word of mouth quickly traveled to other windsurfers and all of a sudden a windsurfing community was born.

Some of those windsurfers stuck around after summer and needed something to do in the Winter.  Mt Hood is just nearby and skiing seems like a logical option.  When Spring arrives and the snow melts people turn to kayaking and mountain biking.. You start to see a natural overlap.  No one lives in isolation.  Some people who once windsurfed took up kiteboarding when it emerged.

Ideas flow fast within a community of passion.  Influencers are closest to that passion and they influence others.  Communities of different passions overlap. Passion is a shortcut to increasing tourism through word-of-mouth.

What passions do you have in your community?  What are you passionate about?

The panel was exciting for two reasons.  Firstly, I arrived in tourism by accident as a result of a passion for travel.  In a past life I studied environmental law at Oregon university in Eugene, just south of Portland. Second, there were many overlaps between the discussion and everything we’ve been doing in social media.  I’ve selectively chosen a few below.

Jeff emphasized the importance of having a focus and solid commitment to sustainability.  He briefly discussed a campaign that Travel Portland had built around a compassion coupon.  Success in social media marketing is entirely built around segmentation and micro-focus.  Less successful social marketing focuses on the tools first: “we have an iPhone app and started a facebook page’.  Focusing on your consumers and your objectives is key.

Scott talked about leading by example, keeping it small and aligning with people in the community who are already working on sustainability.  In social media, the best way to justify it’s value to stakeholders is to find the early adopters in your community and partner to run a low investment pilot campaign.  Keep the pilot campaign small and minimize the investment.

Steve Moore mentioned the Sheraton in Seattle and their industry-leading efforts to cut down their environmental footprint.  They allow guests to opt-out of room services and donate a portion of the savings.  Interestingly, I’d discussed exactly this with Kisha Post from the Sheraton when she was also telling me about what they were doing with TripAdvisor reviews.  I also received a personalized note in my room asking me to take the time to review their organization.  Progressive organizations tend to be progressive in both sustainability and social media.

Changes like these represent both a challenge and an opportunity.  Sustainable tourism and social media present a leadership opportunity and a chance to engage your community.

Communities used to form almost entirely around geography. We were limited by how far we could yell and how far we could walk.  Information was passed on to others around the camp fire.  Air travel and hyper-communication have accelerated how quickly a message can travel and how far it will carry.

When we’re socializing, we  talk about things we are interested in and in doing so we like to offer advice and appear knowledgeable.  This happens within our immediate surroundings, when we’re traveling or online.  The more passionate someone is, the more they will talk about a topic.

People can talk more frequently thanks to social media. Our conversations go much further. People talk most often and most convincingly about topics that they are passionate and knowledgeable about.

Can you prevent downloads of photos in Flickr?

You can set your download preferences and specify who can download original photos here (you’ll need a Flickr login to see the FAQ on this topic).

If you are concerned about privacy, you can also create sets of photos that are not public and then give “guest passes” (which are simple URLs that Flickr creates on an as-needed basis) to particular people who you would like to view the set. You can read more here.

Does Facebook Insights work for Facebook Groups?

Short answer: no. Unfortunately, Insights is only available for Fan Pages. If you are interested in reading a bit more about the difference between Fan Pages and Groups, this is a good article.

Can you have a Delicious icon on your website so that when people click on it, they can add your website to their list of bookmarks?

Short answer: yes! But it looks like you’ll need a bit of coding knowledge to make it happen – you might have to ask your web developer to implement this on your site. It is possible though! You can read more about it here.

Is there a paid service that consolidates all of your social media monitoring for you (rather than having to check bit.ly, google analytics, Facebook Insights etc stats separately)? Basically, is there a paid social media monitoring service?

Yes, there are a few on the market. We at Think! recommend Scout Labs. Additionally, Think! offers monitoring services – we would be happy to monitor all of the different tools that we cover during our training course and send you a consolidated report at regular time intervals. If this is something that might interest you, please get in touch and let us know!