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Social Media sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter have long been thought of by businesses as places for teenagers and geeks. That may have been true two or three years ago but now these sites have become places for adults. The appeal of these social networking to reconnecting with old friends, have your own “place” online, and have the ability to find new and interesting people and events makes social networking even more appealing. I have reconnected with a number of friends from high school and college, and use the space to post photos, and keep people updated with what I am doing. From a marketing perspective, these sites offer so much more. Facebook in particular has some nice features any online businesses can take advantage of.

While adults are getting onto these sites at an ever increasing rate, especially well informed and educated adults, teenagers still the majority. For the hospitality industry, this is a unique chance to target a very influential demographic. While teens are not usually the ones who make the final decision on vacation plans , they offer a huge amount of influence over the decision making in most every family. Forgetting to bring a lodging property to the attention of these voices can be a huge mistake. Imagine that sulky teenage girl on your next family vacation - completely irritated because you’re staying at a resort full of “old people.” Instead of trying to entice a younger demographic to your site through typical marketing techniques, why not attempt to draw them to your site by engaging them where they already are. A Facebook business page is a great way to bring your business to them.

Facebook business pages offer a number of built in functions that can help you realize your goals:

• Brand your page by placing your logo at the top of the page
• Entice the teenager by emphasizing things they’re interested in like “free wifi” and “pool scene.”
• Supply basic business information like website address and physical location.
• Very easy to upload photos and your clients can upload photos as well
• Engage your clients in a conversation using the discussion board or “The Wall”
• Post events that are happening on your property as well as the area
• Add notes, which act just like blog post or you can link your blog to the site easily
• Uploading videos could not be easier. The quality and speed of playback on videos is very impressive
• Most important is other users can become fans of your company

These tools, when used effectively can engage your audience and give them a chance to learn more about your location as well as your business in general. Give them a place to ask you questions about your property and a way to let easily people know that they really liked staying with you.

Facebook has made it even easier to promote your page by placing a recognizable image link on your main website. This may drive traffic to your Facebook page but you still are able to control the message and attract bookings on your site.

Your Facebook page:

• Lets teens know that you care about their ability to influence their parents’ decision.
• Gives everyone another place to find your property, while still linking back to your site.
• Gives you one more opportunity to win over potential clients by showing them more about your area in order to make an informed vacation decision.

By quickly searching Facebook I found resorts with over 200 fans quite easily. There are not that many resorts, hotels, or vacation rentals listed on Facebook, yet. You’re going to change that! Building a Facebook profile now is a great way to get in on the bottom floor and start attracting those customers who are looking for places to stay that are willing come to their online neighborhood to engage and appeal to their vacation whims.

For an example of a Facebook business page please look at our new Blizzard Internet Marketing page on Facebook. For an Example of a personal Facebook page visit Trent Blizzard’s profile (you will have to sign up to see Trent’s profile but our business page anyone can see). If you do sign up feel free to become a fan of Blizzard. You may even find and Account Manager or another employee that you know and want to add as a friend.

I’m a geek and I admit it. For Christmas I asked for (and actually got) a Kindle from Amazon. Its billed as an e-book reader on steroids. The basic idea is that you can get your books on this electronically and have them in one handy and portable device. In the past, I have avoided e-book readers because they were hard to use, had horrible glare off the screen, weighed about as much as a laptop, and quite frankly, they distracted from the enjoyment of reading. Amazon seems to have gotten it right with the Kindle, though, plus they added a number of great features.

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There are many things a hosting company can do to optimize your website for search engine performance. Blizzard Internet Marketing is taking all of these practices and rolling them into one package, the Hosting Level SEO package. This grouping of services encompasses all of the latest optimization best practices for hosting. So the real question is, what are these services and what will they do to help your site gain exposure, traffic, and search engine rankings?

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Any number of times, I have had co-workers, friends, neighbors, and complete strangers ask me for advice on the best computer or other electronics to get. I have even had a few Blizzard Internet clients ask for recommendations. I could never really give the advice I wanted to, though. There are so many choices and options for each type of equipment, and those choices change every six months. Staying up on the newest technology as well as the different options was almost impossible. I did my best but never really felt comfortable, pointing people to websites like CNET.com, which really never fulfilled the need. Thankfully a new website, Tech Selector, has given me a place to point people.

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Google’s Matt Cutts recently announced that Google is wanting people to start reporting links to their site that they have paid for. They have also asked for people to start “reporting” others who are buying links. While Google has always been the proponent of do no evil this seems a bit…well..evil. Any Blizzard clients should breath fairly easily, though. We have always done things the safest way. We believe that the paid links Matt is referring to are more along the lines of link networks that buy links on a number of sites for webmasters. These paid links most likely are not the links that show up in Yahoo Directory or MSN Small Business.

We believe that our clients will not feel any adverse effects by this fishing expedition because our promotion techniques are ethical and follow Google’s standards. In fact, some websites may see this help them in the long run, as competitors who have not followed the Google Webmaster Guidelines start to get hit.

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While Blizzard Internet is all about giving you a great return on your investment with us, we also have quite a bit of experience with search engines and how an end user can get more out of them. In that vein, I will be creating a series of “How to Google” that will gives our readers a chance to learn and use the handy things that are built into Google Search and Google Tools. Hopefully, if you readers find it useful, I will move on to explain Yahoo and MSN LIVE. There is a lot to Google, so it may take a while to get through it.

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As it is the end of the year it is time to list our must read articles from 2006. With hundreds to choose from I narrowed it down to under 30 articles (barely). While you may not want to read them all. All of them have something important to say. I tried to get a good cross section of our articles to give you an idea of what you can find as well as giving you some of the most important news from the year. From the oldest to the newest here is the list.

1. Why Blog for Business
2. New Years Resolution for 2006
3. What is Vertical Search
4. Big Daddy Google Update
5. Website Phone Call Tracking
6. Link Baiting - What is it
7. International Marketing
8. How Innkeepers Can Handle the Gas Crisis
9. The Power of a Press Release
10. Profiting from a Local Listing
11. Online Success Magic!
12. Five Reason to Use Press Releases
13. Creative Site Content Brings Visitors
14. Tips to Make the Sale
15. Domain name Essentials
16. Online Video Explosion
17. Responsible Internet Advertising
18. Google Map Mashups
19. Top 10 Important Design Tips
20. Online Media Rooms
21. Internet Marketing 101
22. Become A Travel Journalist
23. The Future of Local Search
24. Google Base for Vacation Rentals
25. Internet Marketing Games
26. Online Reputation Management
27. Investing in Something Intangible Part 1
28. Investing in Something Intangible Part 2
    

The most important category for the year is WWW Simplified. In it we explain everything you need to know about the world wide web and its workings.

Josh Green - Blizzard Internet Marketing, Inc.