There's something about those quirky, lively, fun places in great cities around the world that make them unforgettable places to visit and enjoy year after year.
Lincoln Road & Espanola Way in Miami Beach, Greenwich Village in New York, North Beach in San Francisco, The French Quarter in New Orleans; and that's just a handful of the cool neighborhoods in American cities that attract so many visitors and locals to go out and have fun and conduct business.
The small businesses - restaurants, cafes, bars, music clubs, and boutiques - in these fantastic places are what keep people engaged and coming back, and talking about their travel to their friends.
From a small business perspective, there may be a lot of people coming in and out, but how much do they spend? Rents are very high in these areas and there is a lot of competition to attract the same clients.
The situation repeats itself in the cool, trendy neighborhoods all over the world, wherever travelers want to go to discover the essence and personality of a great city.
Since attracting the right customer is a universal need for small businesses, and the world wide web provides the information and the infrastructure needed to get people to these destinations, the world wide web is also the marketing solution to the small business owner's dilemma of how to get people into his or her business, spend a lot money, come back again, and tell (or bring) their friends.
Everyone is touting the benefits of social media and the need to get into it right away in order to market one's business.
It is very true that social media marketing is helpful and a powerful tool to keep customers engaged with a business and keep the business involved and in contact with the customers.
The question is, how can a small business owner do this effectively while dedicating his time to the business that is his passion? There are many methods and networks, and the dominant ones are Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
I'll focus on these three because they offer the best ROI, they're flexible and easy to use, and they're what people pay attention to.
Basically we use them to attract customers and maintain their loyalty by offering, for free, something of value and establishing a sincere and long term connection with them.
Small businesses have the advantage here over big companies because the hip local businesses attract and keep people because of their singular personality; if a giant corporation wants to be my friend on Facebook, I know it is a shallow ploy.
In addition, a small business owner can personally ask them to "friend," and "follow," and "like" her page.
Giving the guest a card upon check in or with the bill at a restaurant are reminders that work.
Facebook is the most useful and customizable; and it just keeps growing too so you have to use it skillfully.
Depending on your business within the tourism industry, the application differs.
For any business though, a Fan Page is the way to go because it is the most customizable.
For example, it is possible to add a page where people enter their email address in exchange for a coupon.
And, make it a really good coupon too, not just a free dessert.
If you give them something of great value the first time you'll have their loyalty forever; and now you have their email too, so offer something great and follow through, make them feel special.
You can set the page view so that everyone goes straight to this section of your Fan Page, so make it an offer no one will refuse.
Reward people for telling their friends to "like" your page.
You never know when that friend might be going on holiday next.
Pay Per Click ads on Facebook are also a great option.
They are cheaper than Google AdWords and more targeted.
You can use them to get people to "like" your Fan Page or to go straight to your own website.
This is a great option for boutique hotels and tour operators because they can sell something before the travelers arrive and then establish the relationship with them upon their arrival.
Twitter is all the rage now too.
Its best use is to stay in the heads of people that already pay attention to your business.
Use Facebook and your website, as well as physical cards, signs, or reminders to subtly ask people that visit your business to join you online too.
With Twittter you can very easily retweet interesting content that you read on other people's blogs, websites, or news outlets.
This can paint the business owner as a knowledgeable, well connected source of information about her city and wanting to share what she knows with others.
So, an independent hotel operator in New Orleans would want to read everything he can about French Quarter history, as well as news and events leading up to Jazz Fest and retweet this to his followers that might plan to visit.
The owner of a small, hip bar in South Beach could retweet articles related to The South Beach Food & Wine Festival before the event and offer interesting tips for tourists in order to stay fresh in the mind of potential visitors.
Also, on slow nights or low seasons, business owners can tweet an instant gratification special for anyone paying attention and ready to commit on the spot to a great offer.
Everyone knows that YouTube is the world's go to video site.
What many business people don't consider is how easy it is to use and get traffic.
Hotels can record room tours to help people choose their stay, restaurants can make a montage of what a weekend night is like there to show people what they are missing, and bars & clubs can record videos of the typical weekend excitement to bring new people in.
You Tube also allows you to use other people's videos on your website or YouTube channel so there is a ton of content you can broadcast.
Creating your own videos once a month keeps it fresh and gets visitors to your channel.
Furthermore, links to and from YouTube are great for getting traffic to your own website and Facebook Page.
Now, what good is all this? It sounds great, but who has the time to run a business and be in front of the computer all the time? It is valuable because it keeps businesses and customers in touch with each other and loyal to one another by building a genuine and deep relationship.
From a purely technical standpoint, linking all of these sites together with hyperlinks to each other and back to the businesses' main website gets quality links and encourages activity from visitors, which in turn gets Google to elevate the site closer to the top.
Yes, it is time consuming.
If you don't have time to get into and do it well, it won't help the business much, and it might even make the business look haphazard.
So, hiring a local social media manager to do it well is a great idea and yields tremendous ROI.
Click this link to see a good example of utilizing Facebook to promote a Santa Teresa Costa Rica vacation rental.