Simon Sinek talk on how to engage fits perfectly with Social media. His Golden triangle Philosophy is made for Facebook.

The idea is to turn the normal approach to marketing upside down. This he says is an approach used by all successful people. The concept is to talk about WHY you do what you do before you speak about the what and the how. See this video and more about using Facebook in travel at http://hubpages.com/hub/the-facebook-business-model

Google will soon launch its new Social Media service called Google +1.  This is expected to be an optional browser extension which could make millions of consumers switch to Google. The new service will be available on Android and is expected to be offered on other Smartphones.

The move is in keeping with Google strategy to be a key player in the Mobile Social arena, where Smartphones and Social Media are  merging into a permanent new business secto and are already starting to redefine the travel landscape. Smartphones make connection social, instant and permanent and create new opportunities for e-commerce, dialogue and service.  See more about How Travellers use Smartphones.

According to most expectation Travellers searching the web with  Smartphones will outpace those using a laptop or desktop within the next few  years. This is why Google has made Mobile its number one strategy, and in my mind Mobile cant be separated from social - hence Google must tie them together, and pragmatically  the browser move make sense.

Will this move succeed where all other Google forays into Social Media like friends connect, buzz and wave have not. It may, because it is merging the areas where Google has strength; search, mobile & cloud computing, with the ability to parlay that into a new social universe. For Google the task is to get consumers to accept its new technology and its browser.

But it also may be flawed. A search on Google trends wil show Facebook has dramatically overtaken both YouTube and Google Search in number of searches. The thought is that more people are using Social Media to find references, reviews and word of mouth information on products, services and travel. The future looks more and more social, Google has not been good at creating a social platform.

Can Google incorporate " Word of Mouth" or the new clickable version of this "Word of Mouse" into search? If not Search as Google knows it may be on its way out. More of this to follow.

In the meantime hotels, destinations and tourism operators should have a sound social strategy. Facebook Hotel Tourism pages must reflect the brand effectively and provide the on-line services that guest are looking for. this is the road to building loyal Facebook fans, good guest reviews and Word of Mouth.
  
Build your Hotel and Tourism Social Brand with AXSES arcRes Publishing: Load and  manage travel & tourism rooms, products, images, content, rates bookings on 100's of sites and on Facebook:

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Facebook  has added email as a subset of communication. SMS, Chat, Facebook messages, status updates and calendars. Facebook plans to become the “interaction hub” of  the “communication” experience. see gigaom.

I like the idea, email is vital but has increasingly become isolated and corrupted by spam, its in need or an overhaul and facebook may just get it right. For travel the email hub is valid, if loyal guest like your hotel they open the door to direct communications and exposure to hundreds of friends. On average the facebook profile will have 100 friends but many have several hundred. Sharing is good for tourism. Add your hotel and tourism bookings to Facebook with arcResBookings.com  booking engine and content publisher  for Facebook

 World Nomads says Facebook accounts for  20 to 25 percent of revenue. with  37800 fans engaged with their FaceBook Page.
AirAsia says 12% of their traffic is coming via Facebook with the expectation for greater  growth. See PhocusWright article http://bit.ly/aqBUqP.

More on Facebook strategy see our HubPages

Publish your website, room, rates, Bookings to FaceBook Pages see http://arcres.com/facebook-offer-bookings.cfm

Facebook is aligning with Microsofts Bing to help serve searches with a flavor of social media. What does that mean? It means that when you search for something on Bing, your search results will try to be relevant  by using content from your Facebook friends, particularly their likes.

Good Luck!. It will not work very well for Hotel and Tourism operators who try to get as many friends and fans and often have little in common with them. This is true of many businesses and professionals so the idea of friends is rather loose.

But By giving Bing access to 500 million user profiles, Facebook may give  Microsoft an advantage over  Google  in online search for travel in other ways. Facebook is becoming a power house in travel with its reviews and votes (like button) for hotels etc. With bookings (http:/arcresbookings.com) now being integrated into Facebook it makes more and more sense for Tourism to use this channel. Bing Yahoo Facebook is a powerful force, Google dominance in search  is under attack!

Add in the new Windows Phone7 - will Facebook finally have a strategic partner in the mobile Space?. A new social mobile platform maybe. Perhaps, consider this - 20% of facebook users login in via a mobile phone, that s100 million mobile phone users loggin in to facebook.

By any standard  Facebook is important to travel, to hotels and tourism and to business. Nearly every major brand has a Facebook page which they promote on TV and all media.

So use Facebook, put your booking engine on it or get a Facebook engine - we are happy to help you install arcResBookings.com for Facebook. Put Facebook Like button on your hotel and tourism website.Travelers use these and it makes a huge difference. I know of one company that had 1900 visit before the added the Like Button, now that it is added the visits have gone up to 47,000 over the same period a year earlier year.

The revamped group is not going to work for travel sites as the old one did. In the old version anyone could join the group and the discussion. THe new groups is a tight membership by invitation and referral system, not at all suitable for the drop by crown of travellers. For that Facebooks wants you to use Pages. see http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20018796-36.html?tag=mncol;txt  - Get your hotel and tourism business on your  Facebook page now with our free trial: http://trial.arcResBookings.com

 Marc Krisjanous of New Zealand Business Blogs has just released a Facebook for Business eBook which contains over 130 pages of hints/tips for using Facebook as a communication and branding tool for your business.
Story on http://www.tourismindustryblog.co.nz/2010/08/facebook-for-business-ultimate-guide-ebook-to-diy/comment-page-1/#comment-1450 - - arcResBookings application will load and manage your hotel on Facebook - http://trial.arcresbookings.com

Facebook announces upgrades to its photo-sharing product: Offering  high-resolution photos, "tag" people in bulk, "and browse photos in a more streamlined fashion that doesn't load individual pages each time a new photo is viewed".  Get your hotel bookings and content on Facebook with http://arcresBookings.com -
Read more on Facebook hi rez at : http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-20018211-2.html?tag=nl.e776#ixzz11CS6vxvI

The power of Facebook is that it transcends affinity walls and bias. Corporations who try to emulate Facebook can not transcend the fact that they are a corporation, identified with a products and  services. Its good that they become more social but they are not independent and they cant be Facebook.