Yup hard goods and services are two sides of the paradigm. Well stated.

But there are certain subjects, hard or service that just drive passion and engender community. Travel certainly, but snow boards and a passion for the equipment that drives the sports as well.

Your statement that travel enables you to create group buying circumstances even though the people are not socially connected is interesting…and I think probably unique to your biz.

Thanks for sharing this info.

If Facebook ever/or when Facebook opens NFO (News Feed Optimization) so that it is no longer a black box but something that we can understand and utilize, a lot more tools will be given to us as marketers to better figure out how to reach new customers on Facebook.

Facebook is great to go deep and strengthen relationships; harder to broaden and make new ones.

“I do believe that mixing strong value and lesser value links or friends will actually increase the overall value of the community which will feed on itself and create stronger community ties.” — I never thought of it this way

I'm not a proponent of commerce at all costs nor the mandate to find measurements as justification for social media. You know my thinking and that is not me.

I do believe commerce has a place…and potentially a big one. But I”m not afraid of it becoming an 'imperative' because this is Facebook and the social graph and people have the ability to not accept and unfriend. That is why I think the brands that succeed will do so smartly and their communities will define the commerce bar. Those that don't will just fail and go away…at least in this environment.

I'm still not certain I'm there with your marketplace…but thinking about it.

As regards the value of a 'friend'. This thinking has precedence and is a carryover measurement thought from the value of a link on the open web. An SEO concept. I do believe that mixing strong value and lesser value links or friends will actually increase the overall value of the community which will feed on itself and create stronger community ties.

We should have a workshop on some of these topics. Would be fun and informative.

BTW-I”ll check out the video for certain.

this is super interesting because it uses personalized customer service to entice a sale and I imagine works well: “I can connect someone who is interested in traveling to say – New Zealand – to a travel expert of New Zealand in our contact center leading to much higher conversions rates than just a regular 'call this number to book.'”

“We've also used discussion groups to get random people together to book trips together and get a better group rate. Not only is it a great tool to sell, but it is amazing for our CRM.” — This is a really interesting example of social commerce, and would love to see it as a case study.

Rich

I recently watched a webinar put on by marketing profs showing that 70% of people become a fan because they do want a deal. Only 30% of these people were in it for the entertainment and community love.

Working with social media in the travel industry is much different than a industry selling tangible items. For example, we truly get to take advantage of being able to send localized updates to places where we have more competitive rates than any other airline. Also, I can connect someone who is interested in traveling to say – New Zealand – to a travel expert of New Zealand in our contact center leading to much higher conversions rates than just a regular “call this number to book.” We also use facebook and twitter as a great way to answer people's questions about hotel ratings, tour details, flight restrictions and eligibility, etc. We've also used discussion groups to get random people together to book trips together and get a better group rate. Not only is it a great tool to sell, but it is amazing for our CRM.

People who love to travel generally love to share their knowledge of their travels, stories, pictures, and more. So, we have a lot of people who are our fans just to get inspired through others to travel even though they may have never purchased from us, or even heard of us.

I could go on and on, but i'll leave it at that.

-David

Yup hard goods and services are two sides of the paradigm. Well stated.

But there are certain subjects, hard or service that just drive passion and engender community. Travel certainly, but snow boards and a passion for the equipment that drives the sports as well.

Your statement that travel enables you to create group buying circumstances even though the people are not socially connected is interesting…and I think probably unique to your biz.

Thanks for sharing this info.

If Facebook ever/or when Facebook opens NFO (News Feed Optimization) so that it is no longer a black box but something that we can understand and utilize, a lot more tools will be given to us as marketers to better figure out how to reach new customers on Facebook.

Facebook is great to go deep and strengthen relationships; harder to broaden and make new ones.

“I do believe that mixing strong value and lesser value links or friends will actually increase the overall value of the community which will feed on itself and create stronger community ties.” — I never thought of it this way

I'm not a proponent of commerce at all costs nor the mandate to find measurements as justification for social media. You know my thinking and that is not me.

I do believe commerce has a place…and potentially a big one. But I”m not afraid of it becoming an 'imperative' because this is Facebook and the social graph and people have the ability to not accept and unfriend. That is why I think the brands that succeed will do so smartly and their communities will define the commerce bar. Those that don't will just fail and go away…at least in this environment.

I'm still not certain I'm there with your marketplace…but thinking about it.

As regards the value of a 'friend'. This thinking has precedence and is a carryover measurement thought from the value of a link on the open web. An SEO concept. I do believe that mixing strong value and lesser value links or friends will actually increase the overall value of the community which will feed on itself and create stronger community ties.

We should have a workshop on some of these topics. Would be fun and informative.

BTW-I”ll check out the video for certain.