Instagram takes another leap forward

By Steve Keenan

Instagram is looking impressive. Sharp on the heels of the Facebook-owned site adding video, the app has now introduced the ability to embed the video or an image into blog posts from a desktop.

Not much in the scheme of things but it’s another useful and handy addition, which makes Instagram every more appealing to users.

It’s very simple, too. Under the Like and Comment button on the right is a new share button - see the image below.

Click on that and the embed code appears and automatically copies it.

Then just paste the code into your blog and, voila…

I’ve been using Instagram for two years now and have noticed more traction, although my numbers are still relatively low. But today I introduced it to a social media client, Lower Mill Estate, and there is a hunger among other companies to start using the app.

After all, if you can embed the image - and video - into a post simply, then it has to be a valuable tool.

Lastly, I interviewed an impressive Instagrammer in Spain recently. Julio Estrela has 10k+ followers and we met up on an Instagram day out in Cadaques, Costa Brava, Spain and asked him for some tips. He had some useful suggestions. Enjoy the video.

Christine Walker quits as Sunday Times signals shift in travel

By Steve Keenan

Christine Walker, the legendary travel editor at The Sunday Times, is leaving her post after more than 38 years at the paper.

She will leave The Sunday Times in late July, marking the end of the longest-ever spell of a travel editor in traditional media.

It is believed that Walker took the decision to take early retirement after management signalled a change in direction for the section. The new focus would see the section adopt a digital and commercial imperative - with travel the first section to be addressed at the paper.

Asked whether rumours of departure could be true, Walker confirmed: “It can. It is…” But she declined to comment further.

Walker joined The Sunday Times in April, 1975, and has been the paper’s travel editor for the past 20 years. It was the first national newspaper to have a separate travel section, and Walker launched the travel writing careers of several journalists.

Her job has already been advertised internally and reads, in full:

“Christine Walker is leaving The Sunday Times after more than 30 years, most recently as editor of Travel. We value highly the contribution she has made and I know her many friends on the paper will want to join me in wishing her the very best for the future.

Consequently, we are looking for a new travel editor. The expanded role will involve not only overseeing the weekly section but also taking responsibility for finding new digital and commercial opportunities. The successful candidate will have a track record in these areas. A job description is available on request.

Applicants should send a brief cv and a covering letter explaining their plans for Travel, both in newsprint and digitally, to [email protected]. The deadline is 6pm, Wednesday, July 17.”

It is not known if the job will also be advertised externally. But with the paper stressing that applicants need experience of ‘digital and commercial opportunities,’ it seems highly likely that eyes will also be cast outside the paper.

It mirrors the more overtly commercial approach now taken at The Daily Telegraph travel section, a transition now four years in the making and which saw the departure of veteran travel editor Graham Boynton 18 months ago, to be replaced by Charles Starmer-Smith. It was notable that Starmer-Smith’s title became Head of Travel, as opposed to Travel Editor.

Since then, The Telegraph travel section has become overtly more commercial, with a booking engine for hotels, cruises and cottages. It also publishes selected deals from travel partners in the paper, alongside editorially chosen bargains.

The days of a section editor simply editing have disappeared - now they are expected to edit and publish a section while also operating with commercial and digital hats on.

Tour operators: Want more Likes on Facebook?

By Mark Frary

I am regularly asked about how travel companies can get more Likes on Facebook. You can understand why. When you go to your brand’s Facebook page, the number of Likes is front and centre. If it’s not going up then something is clearly wrong with your social media strategy, right?

Well yes and no.

Getting more likes is relatively easy. You can “buy” them. Buying them does not mean spending money with one of those companies that promises to get you more Facebook fans although they do work if that is what you are interested in. You can also spend money on a Facebook ad. In fact, Get More Likes is one of the default advertising options on Facebook. many companies use competitions and offers on their pages to gain likes although, in theory, Facebook does not permit the use of the Like button as a way of entering a competition.

But do you really want more likes? If you have “bought” your fans, how loyal are they going to be and do they really have a deep connection with your brand? I would argue that you should not be seeking more likes but rather more engagement i.e. a good relationship with your fans no matter how few of them you have. Facebook lets you measure engagement relatively easily.

It launched a measure called PTAT in October 2011. PTAT is short for People Talking About This and if you run a travel business or manage a page on their behalf, you will recognise this wording. It appears at the top of your page next to your Likes figure.

What PTAT represents is not obvious. It shows the number of unique users who do one of the following things:

• Like your Page
• Post to your Page’s Wall,
• Liking, commenting or sharing one of your updates
• Answering a question
• RSVP-ing to an event
• Mentioning your Page (but not just by name)
• Tagging a Page in a photo
• Liking or sharing a deal
• Checking in at a Place
• Writing a recommendation

These are all signs of engagement between your brand and your fans and so a higher PTAT score will mean higher engagement.

Regular users will also notice that PTAT can fluctuate wildly. That is because it is a dynamic figure that represents the number of unique users doing those actions over the previous seven days.

I actually prefer to use PTAT to calculate something even more useful - engagement rate. This is PTAT divided by your total number of fans and is expressed as a percentage. So what is a typical engagement rate? Coca Cola has 68 million likes and a PTAT of just under a million, translating to an engagement rate of 1.4%. Cadbury has 391,947 likes and a PTAT of 14,052 - an engagement rate of 3.6%.

In fact, engagement rates are typically in the low single digits and anything higher is commendable. I decided to do a short survey of 20 UK tour operators and their figures are as below:

Note that having a large number of likes does not correlate with engagement rate. Those at the left are doing best at engaging with their fans. So how do you do that? Use great photos, ask questions - anything that gets people to respond or share.

That’s all very well but why is it important. Higher engagement rates mean that your page posts will appear more often in the newsfeeds of your fans and of their friends. It is those last four words that are crucial.

So when someone says they want more likes, say yes but only after they get their engagement rate up first.

Every second counts in social media

By Steve Keenan

It wasn’t long ago that most people, if asked in a survey, disparaged the idea of allowing mobile calls from a plane.

How quaint! Now, the boundaries of mobile/social free zones are being pushed back daily - privacy, or quiet zones, are being marginalised.

Indeed, commercial concerns have barged in to push back those boundaries in the imperative to grab an advantage. The Wild West of social media continues unabated.

The main travel battleground is in the airport, where many owners have worked out that free wifi attracts more positives than charging a pittance to annoy travellers. But it’s a slow process - just four out of 25 UK airports offer free, says a report in the Daily Telegraph.

Aberdeen, Birmingham, Edinburgh and London City airports are the honourable exceptions, joining long-time European heroes Dublin and Vienna. Other ‘freemium’ airports are listed on a very handy checklist from Cheapflights.

Yet the first 1m check-in total on foursquare was at an airport, Atlanta. People check-in at an airport readily, if only to mark the beginning of a journey (or the euphoric end of one, on the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow).

And as airports (and hotels) become more user-friendly, so have airlines. On Monday, British Airways takes another giant step when to becomes the first airline in Europe to allow customers to switch on mobiles and other handheld electronic devices after landing.

Every second counts when it comes to access, particularly on 3G/4G when no free wifi is available. Perhaps BA is thinking more of its business customers, gagging to check work emails.

But BA recognises the thirst for access across all classes of customer. Previously, customers have had to wait until their aircraft is at the gate to log-in. From Monday, it will be when the aircraft leaves the runway - minutes only perhaps, but we all know the demand is there.

“British Airways has now demonstrated to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) that their customers can safely use their handheld electronic devices, once their aircraft vacates the runway,” said a spokesman. The new move applies to every BA flight landing around the world, not just in the UK and Europe.

And so the race for complete coverage continues, from incremental moves on runways to free terminal access and, eventually, Cloud coverage for free. We’ll look back on this period and laugh - but be pitifully grateful in between.