As the flags are removed from windows and cars, the nation comes to terms with the fact that England are out of the World Cup after suffering the devastating 4-1 defeat to Germany. However, as the country calls for an inquiry into that missed goal, there is an industry that is quietly celebrating. Months ago, those working in the travel industry had braced themselves for the expected downturn in bookings during the tournament. Tour operators for South Africa were busy with fans traveling out to watch the matches but the majority of travel agents expected the month of June to be worryingly quiet. Booking trends show that many Brits suspend their holiday plans until the big football tournaments are over. This year was no different and the start of June remained slow with England fans determined to stay home and venture no further than their local. Read the rest of this entry...

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Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, LinkedIn, whatever you or your clients subscribe to or depend upon, there is an increasing use of social networks for successful PR campaigns. Here at Propellernet, we manage social media campaigns to build relationships with the media and strengthen the overall communication strategy for clients. We recommend that your target market is identified first and then a strategy put in place to communicate with them. Over the past 18 months we noticed the media were often  writing about tweets they had seen and even having real-time debates on social networks that would appear in the press the next day. Also a whole new concept of writing was born when travel writer, Benji Lanyado, piloted the first TwiTrip – a travel adventure powered simply by twitter users recommendations. We already have clients with pages on Facebook and we use the likes of twitter for our own PR, but some clients have been fearful of joining social communities. They had seen...

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We are increasingly aware of how customers are looking to get the best price for the best product, but how can us online marketers ensure that we reach these potential purchasers and get under the skin of what really motivates their buying habits? We need to go back to basics and forget about the traditional demographics which have influenced marketing campaigns for years. Of course age, sex, income and marital status are important but what you really need to think about is who are your target customers, what influences their spending decisions and which sites do they visit during their spending journey? Its time to get personal and the answer lies in creating personas... Personas are fictional characters. They take on identities and represent your customers by their buying trends and search habits. The persona will put a human face to data and create something that can seem real and familiar. Ideal online customers are no longer just ABC1’s, they are individuals sat in...

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