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

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.

As one of the first public events after 9/11, the timing could not have been worse for the opening of The Palms. Other challenges included an unthemed, off-strip location on an extremely tight budget. The team positioned the Palms and its ownership as the leaders who were bringing Las Vegas back to its deliciously sinful roots.

Additionally, we developed the grand opening event concept that included red carpet arrivals, live art and party vignettes.

Impact

The publicity program secured more media coverage in the first quarter of 2002 than any other casino in the world. The campaign positioned the Palms as the leader of Las Vegas’ trend back to its Sin City roots. An ongoing Hollywood outreach campaign attracted MTV’s Real World and many A-list celebrities to this off-strip property.

Ink Foundry secured more media coverage in the first quarter of 2002 for the Palms than any other casino in the world despite some monstrous challenges.

The campaign positioned The Palms as the leader of Las Vegas’ trend back to its Sin City roots. We also executed an ongoing Hollywood outreach campaign that attracted MTV’s “Real World” and many A-list celebrities to this off-strip property.

Media coverage included a front page USA Today story, hundreds of trade and consumer travel clips including Travel & Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler and many others.