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It has been tough in 2009 for marketers working within the travel and hospitality sectors in China (as in most sectors last year). However, it appears that the year of the tiger has started with a roar as the marketing spend for the travel sectors looks to be returning to pre 'Global Downturn' levels. Further, interest by hoteliers, airlines and tour operators is increasing in marketing areas like social media and search marketing... not as discrete channels but integrated into a single campaign. I know that this is something most of us have been pushing with our clients; fully integrated digital marketing campaigns. However,  for me I have not seen this level of interest for nearly 9 months in executing these.. 

So with the apparent tide turning in the favor for getting into channels like social media I thought it would be of value to outline a list of best practices for the travel sectors as a guide to these practitioners and those wanting to learn more. The following list (with inputs from Josiah Mackenzi's great blog) provides marketers working within the hospitality/hotel/airline groups some points to consider in your next social media adventure.... for those outside this sector then you will also some great points that can trans

And what a start to the year it has been. Wherever I turn recently I am being bombarded with news that many of the UK’s largest retailers enjoyed a roaring, and in some cases, record Christmas trade. The likes of Next, John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Gap and House of Fraser are just some of those reporting some mind boggling trading figures.

Whoop whoop and high fives all round because after a year of doom and gloom it’s both a joy and relief to hear such marvelous success stories. And the even better news, especially if you work in digital, is that the Internet played a defining role for most of these businesses.

So everything we have learned about building communities online can now be thrown out. I have visited a new site called, Chatroulette. A site developed by a Russian guy that is so simple in it's concept that it has become hugely trafficked and could re-define the way we look at 'engagement' from a sociological perspective online. Basically, you can run your camera in one window then click a button to randomly be partnered with someone else in another window.  A new face-to-face video conversation with a random stranger.

A quite surreal experience and although I only spent a short time clicking through 20 or so different 'video matches' I got the feeling that I was in some crazy speed dating game where within a second or two a new window would with a new stranger and with just a flash of their face the screen would go black and a new face would appear.... it seems that I must have not been the right gender or looked 'wrong' and my matched video partner had selected to move onto another random stranger..... Here is a little more about this site.. 

Have you ever wanted to know where the Chinese social media sites are located? - from Blogs to SNS and everywhere in between. Here is a great super link list from around the Chinese blogosphere for you to get a fast snapshot of the websites and their URL.