Ink Foundry was able to triple traffic to the travel website by instituting a robust conversation listening and participation program on vertical sites; engaging fans via a customized Facebook fan page; robust Twitter activity and promotion; as well as actively targeting offline influencers.

Additionally, we helped the travel website fully optimize their content by changing the posts that were originally being deconstructed after a week into a blog engine with permanent links; hired an SEO specialist; created an ongoing link building campaign and developed a content distribution strategy.

The post also lists other helpful case studies and can be found at Zajon.com.

PHOTO: Ink Foundry Client, Palms Casino, Las Vegas
PHOTO CREDIT: Terran In Virginia

If your restaurant or hotel has ever provided any material compensation to an online influencer, such as a free meal or FAM trip and the relationship was not disclosed, that transaction may be in violation of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines on ‘adequate disclosure’ expected to be released this Fall. And operators could be held liable for non-disclosure.

Restaurants and hotels need to be upfront about any compensation between the brand and the blogger to avoid negative repercussions from the FTC and more importantly consumers. Additionally, if the blogger fails to disclose a freebie, it could violate reader trust.

For any restaurant or hotel this means developing a core set of principles which guide relationships with bloggers and influencers. Digitial hospitality influencers will also need to create and clearly communicate when any type of compensation which has been or will be accepted.

Key Considerations:

Disclosure on both the brand and the digital influencer sides are necessary and non-negotiable.

There will be an expectation of brands to monitor activity.

Advertisers/brands could be held liable for bloggers who fail to disclose.

The “influencer” who has or will receive some form of incentive/payment/gift has an obligation to their readers to disclosure the relationship.

If money or a product is either loaned or given with out the expectation of being returned (kind of hard to return that great fine dining experience!), then it needs to be disclosed in an obvious location on both the brand website and the influencer blog.

Nine Best Practices:

• For The Brand
  • Publish a clear, detailed ‘terms of engagement’ on the website, brand microsite or campaign site.
  • Make a commitment to work with third party influencers who adhere to clear disclosure best practices by creating a one page influencer agreement.
  • Request that all third party influencers link back to the brands ‘terms of engagement’ policy.
  • A brand’s integrity and reputation are its most valuable assets, only work with agencies who commit to high ethical standards.
  • Create site badges for recurring programs.

• For the Hospitality Food, Wine, Restaurant Blogger
  • If brands don’t have a ‘terms of engagement’ for working with bloggers, then ask that they create one.
  • Commit to working with brands who adhere to standard disclosure best practices.
  • Disclose in each post. (yes, even on Twitter)
  • Create a policy that is visible and easy to read on your website, blog or Twitter account.
  • Include brand affiliation and /or your likelihood that you will receive compensation in the future in your bio.

The pending FTC guidelines should not represent a dramatic departure from current best practices for disclosure for experienced social media marketing agencies and hospitality brands.

RESULTS (as of July 2009):

• Twitter is currently one of the largest sources of traffic to LocalGetaways.com
• Secured thousands of qualified followers in less than 30 days
• Tracked Twitter clicks through to sales
• Realized more than 20K website clicks in 2 months
• Generated national traditional media story
• Tweets trickled out to other social media sites, generating additional website traffic

TACTICS:

• Identified, followed and engaged other San Francisco and Bay Area influencers
• Create a consistent flow of information about Bay Area events, deals and attractions whether or not they are on the LocalGetaways.com website
• Track conversations regarding San Francisco and Bay Area travel and participated when appropriate
• Reduce character length to accommodate retweets
• Created three LocalGetaways.com accounts, @getawayguru; @LocalGetaways and @bayareagetaways
• Utilize Ink Foundry’s Twitter accounts where appropriate, remaining authentic to those accounts content focus

WHY TWITTER IS SUCCESSFUL FOR LocalGetaways.com:
This case study is a great example of how by just participating in a very basic way, the micro blogging service can drive traffic back to the site and generate sales. Granted, Local Getaways is a content-driven website with a generous amount of content to create a wide range of tweets that appeal to a diverse demographic.  And travel is also a high value social media conversation tool. However, we are seeing similar results with our other clients.

Ink Foundry is preparing to launch a full scale multi-channel promotion for LocalGetaways.com that will include Twitter and we will compare against the baseline that has been established.

As we engage additional layers of social media participation for this client, we anticipate Twitter may lose some of its rank against other social media outlets. However, we believe that Twitter will sustain its importance as a vital communication launch pad for outbound messaging.

We will continue to share our social media marketing for small business results as they become available.

Additional Twitter Articles:
11 Top Tips To Build Your Twitter Following

Top Twitter Trends To Consider

Impact
Roy’s Private Preview kicked off with an appearance on FOX’s Good Day LA and became THE gathering place for members of Pasadena high society by sundown. Featured on all of the community’s society pages, the event raised more than $20,000 and won the hearts of the local community. The event was followed by feature media coverage, including glowing reviews by top restaurant critics and residents alike. Roy’s is currently featured in Pasadena Magazine’s November Food & Wine issue as the city’s premier destination for fresh fish and seafood.

Ink Foundry reached out to local charities and social organizations in each participating market, and the groups, in turn, invited their supporters to attend and participate in these educational wine-tasting experiences.

Impact

Based on the initial success of “Wine Down Wednesdays,” Ink Foundry produced a turn key event series easily replicated by any in house staff at Fleming’s locations nationwide. The individual Wine Down Wednesdays garnered coverage in both traditional media and social networking and niche blog sites. The events also resulted in repeated return visits by event attendees who had not previously dined at the restaurant.

To launch Lawry’s off-site catering program, Ink Foundry created an informative luncheon at the historic restaurant that was attended by a select group of Los Angeles’ most prominent event, meeting and wedding planners. The luncheon demonstrated Lawry’s ability to provide the highest level of service and fine cuisine while presenting the new services extended to Lawry’s patrons beyond its traditional menu.

Impact
Filling the grand dining room, the luncheon started the community talking and resulted in a successful word-of-mouth campaign that generated bookings and inquiries for the new catering services.

Ink Foundry also secured online word of mouth from members of the Association for Wedding Planners International and the National Association of Wedding Professionals by providing a preview of Lawry’s The Prime Rib catering offer.

Premiering on TLC, “The Messengers” was a reality show searching for America’s next inspirational speaker. Ink Foundry created a multi-city publicity campaign for the inspirational reality drama to drive interest in auditioning, and create buzz among its faith-based target audience. It was important to reach multiple religious groups with out alienating any one of them.

Impact

In addition to generating national and regional mainstream media for the series, Ink Foundry was able to generate feature stories in a diverse group of religious publications.

The two-part campaign focused initially on driving traffic to the auditions which resulted in hundreds of hopefuls arriving for their shot of fame at cities across the country. After the show was cast, Ink Foundry focused on pitching the inspirational stories of the starring cast members with local show slice-of-life vignettes, “Ask the Expert” columns, and how “The Messengers” influenced regional communities in which they lived.

Ink Foundry captured the “story behind the story” adding depth, meaning and a greater dimension to the first season premiere.

Ink Foundry makes history. Literally.

Ink Foundry helped the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians by creating a historical document that was adopted by the United States Congress as the tribes official timeline.

Impact

Media coverage included an Associated Press story that ran in numerous markets as well as trade and consumer travel coverage on the grand opening.

Ink Foundry helped launch CarMax, a Fortune 500 automotive retailer, into Southern California. Ink Foundry created a launch campaign that would help CarMax break through the clutter and link the company to the California car culture.

Ink Foundry secured five emerging California artists to paint a fleet of automobiles representing Los Angeles personas. The artists re-imagined the Hollywood car, the Surfer mobile, The Soccer mom, the Tuner phenomon and the Graffiti car.

A product seeding campaign strategically placed cars in high traffic areas and the at the hottest locations through out the southland.

Each car was donated to a charity helping to raise much needed funds for the neediest Angelenos and secure additional media coverage.

Impact

The campaign secured numerous broadcast hits including CNBC, KTLA Morning News, KCBS-TV, KCAL-TV, as well as ink in art publications, Reuters, a front page business story in the Orange County Register and more.

Ink Foundry convinced a foreign governmental tourism agency to name Ralph Rubio of Rubio’s as an expert on the region.

Impact

Ink Foundry secured coverage on every morning show where the client has critical mass.

By creating “Ralph’s Private Recipes” Ink Foundry was able to secure food pages coverage, unheard of for a fast casual restaurant. Did we mention that we can cook?