Thanks to Todd Lucier and his “Internet Marketing for Tourism” Blog for these:

• 91% of Cell phone users keep their phones within arms reach 24/7 (Mary Meeker - Web2 Summit, November ‘08).
• iPhone is already pushing over 50% of data on cell phone networks.
• One benefits of being on the good side of the digital divide? Revenue doubles in communities with access to high speed Internet.

PhoCusWright always has some good info:

• 67% of travelers and 77% of frequent business travelers with Web-enabled mobile devices have used the mobile Web to find local services and attractions. (Mobile: The Next Platform for Travel, April 2009)
• Location-based services are also expanding in use and popularity, frequent business travelers expect to receive services such as mapping, navigation services and city guides upon arriving at a destination. (Mobile: The Next Platform for Travel, April 2009)
• In the US, 30% of iPhone users say it replaces their laptop usage (PhoCusWright ITB Mobile Travel panel)

eMarketer:

• 69% of Americans using e-mail on their mobile phone use it daily

Some uses of mobile devices while traveling you may want to capitalize on:

• Strong local search, Yelp, SugarSpoon and TripAdvisor listings - people can find you on an iPhone app-mapping function gives travelers walking, driving or bus directions built into the device.
• Users taking a photo on their phone and immediately sending it to family & friends
• Downloading apps that make their travel easier (See - TripIt.com, Google Maps, Yelp)
• Downloadable audio quides to attractions - mobile-based walking tours

I will leave you with my own mobile travel story. A friend of mine and I heard about a great fish taco shack in Honolulu. But it was off the Waikiki strip. We found it on my Yelp app, then hit the “directions” button in the application. The iPhone jumped to the pre-loaded Google mapping function, which provided a) where we were currently located, and b) our walking path. We walked way off the strip and arrived, somewhere we never would have found had we been using a guidebook, in about 5 minutes.

The bottom line is that we never would have given that taco shop money if we had not had the mobile device. (PS - it was GREAT! South Shore Grill)

OK - I know this is a little scattered, but it is a capture place for some stats I have been seeing. What about you? Do you have a story of how using a mobile device while traveling enhanced your travel experiene? Let us know!

kristen :: May.08.2009 :: General Internet Marketing, Hot Trends, Mobile Travel :: No Comments »

A colleague shared a great article recently about QR Codes. I know some of you are wondering what the heck these are. Well, these are two dimensional bar code that are starting to sprout up in interesting places.

These bar codes are designed to be photographed by mobile devices and, as the technology evolves, passed to a variety of systems that can process the information contained in the bar code.

Note - for those of you who are not sure what a bar code does, traditional ones contain a variety of information than can be processed when scanned. A most typical example of these are the product SKU data, price, etc. contained in bar code on grocery items.

QR codes are not scanned, but when sent by a mobile device to a computer system these codes can be processed just as if they were scanned.

Why should you care? Well, consider the following examples of use, which at this point are not far off:

1. (Not quite there yet but potentially possible) QR Codes as as typical Bar Codes - Use your mobile phone and QR codes to purchase something at a store.
2. Used as a means for a consumer to redeem a coupon instantly
3. (In the linked article above) Used as a link to a YouTube video providing expanded info on a piece of art
4. A walking tour in your community with audio descriptions of highlighted locations around town. (Guide by Cell)
5. Develop promotional items with QR codes on them with your company’s info in the QR code.
6. Automated event registration.

Needless to say, if this system can be incorporated into automated e-commerce capability, there are some amazing things that can start happening spontaneously and immediately using a mobile phone with a camera and web access. The technology to capture these is still a fringe technology and not built into mobile devices, but keep an eye out.

Have you heard of QR codes before? Used them? Share your comments and stories!

kristen :: May.06.2009 :: General Internet Marketing, Hot Trends, Travel, Web 2.0, social networking :: No Comments »

Just saw on the Fairbanks Daily News Miner’s Twitter feed that Norwegian Cruise Lines announced it will be taking its last ship out of Alaska in 2010 to put it in more profitable European waters.

The cruise line cited hostile Alaska tax legislation as the reason. This may be a part of it, but with a down economy and an Alaska cruise market that has essentially been flat despite worldwide growth, it is becoming a more challenging environment for cruise lines to operate up in Alaska.

Almost two thirds of visitors to Alaska typically travel via cruise ship. Many repeat visitors indicate that their first Alaska travel experience was via cruise. If this turns into a trend, it could dramatically impact the size and composition of the Alaska tourism market.

Are you involved in Alaska tourism? What do you feel is the impact of the NCL decision? Important? Not so important? Please share!

kristen :: Apr.27.2009 :: General Internet Marketing, Travel :: No Comments »

MarketingVox reported this morning that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a 2006 ruling on buying trademarked search terms. The decision means that buying trademarked terms could be a violation of law.

This is the first decision of its kind and will have a serious impact on keyword buying practices, particularly in competitive industries.

What it means to you: if you have been buying search terms that are competitor names, and those competitors have trademarked those business or product names, this decision could place you on the wrong side of the law.

What do you think about this decision? Is it overdue protection of commercial proprty? Or is is the start of a slippery slope that could imperil the keyword buying concept? Share your thoughts.

kristen :: Apr.15.2009 :: General Internet Marketing, Hot Trends, Pay-per-click :: No Comments »

Building forms on a website is a pain. It is hard to automate. And Google Docs has just made it a lot easier.

This small, simple, but free tool can be a boon to anyone who has felt, “If I could just pull together a quick form, it would save me a lot of time.” This includes very small businesses that don’t want to get charged another hour by their web designer, bloggers, community groups, and more.

You can create your form with text, paragraph, multiple choice, checkbox fields and more. You can send it in an email or embed it in your website or blog. And you can tally the responses in a spreadsheet or via email.

As a quick example of how easy it is, check out this form I made and loaded on my website in approximately 5 minutes.

Have you had frustrating experiences with forms? Have you tried out Google forms? What are your thoughts? Please share!

kristen :: Apr.01.2009 :: General Internet Marketing, Small Business Tools :: No Comments »

ComScore just released a study that indicates that the number of daily mobile web users has doubled in the past year, up to 22.4 million people through January, 2009. Factors explaining this growth include better handsets, like the iPhone, faster networks, and better user experiences.

The mobile web has reached a critical mass that even smaller businesses can no longer ignore. 

If you are a small business, you may have noticed that online search for local businesses is becoming more and more common. Soon a larger and larger number of these searches will be occurring on a mobile device, not on a computer.

Developers and designers - you can no longer design or develop just for computers, Consideration of how a website will look on various mobile devices will become standard expectations for your clients.

How many of you have accessed the internet from a mobile device recently? What did you use it for? How do you think it may impact your business? Please share!

kristen :: Mar.17.2009 :: Uncategorized :: 1 Comment »

In my professional life, I have recently been seeing more and more interesting examples of how people handle managing both their personal and professional live, views, and thoughts online.

In some cases, and though this is a generalization it is close to accurate, it seems that there is an age cutoff to two distinct attitudes about this. Anyone roughly under the age of 30-35 or so believe that the personal and the professional are the same, and that they constitute one brand.

Other a little older than this, however, consider these two brands to be very distinct, and in come cases struggle to keep them separate in an online world where there is pressure for them to meld.

Examples:

• Political or religious views carrying over into conversations usually reserved for professional topics.
• Decisions about how to manage a Facebook account or to have separate accounts.
• Sharing information normally reserved for fri4ends that gets distributed to professional contacts as well.

I struggle myself with how to present Apokrisis yet also how to enjoy social media personally. I have sought to separate my two worlds with mixed success.

How about you? Do you consider this a struggle or do you think it is just the ways things are today? Are you unafraid to share your thoughts even if it crosses over into your professional life, or do you find yourself self-editing online?

UPDATE: This article appeared in the Guardian recently and punctuates the point I am making here.

kristen :: Mar.03.2009 :: General Internet Marketing, Web 2.0, social networking :: 4 Comments »