Taking off Travel blog

Drumroll, please! Park Ride Fly USA is now on Google+. We have a shiny new page where we will be sharing our latest blog posts and travel stuff for those who want to follow us there. And I also have a Google+ profile specifically for this account, under the name Sharon PRF to avoid confusion with my personal G+ account.

So why have we waited so long for a Google+ account, when they were available to some back in July? The truth is that we wanted a business page for the airport parking reservations business so we decided to wait till now and do them both together. We’ve tricked out the page with a few of our site photos to get started.

What can you expect from us on Google+? Well, it’s a work in progress. We’ll be sharing more of the travel stuff we find interesting as we already do through Twitter and Facebook. I hope to have the chance to connect with you there, too. All you have to do is click the profile button in our sidebar to go straight to the page or follow this link to find the Sharon PRF Google+ profile.. See you there!

(Image: Magnet 4 Marketing dot Net)

I’m still loving Google+ for connecting with other travelers and in the past few weeks, I’ve added some of my favorite travel and lifestyle people (mostly nomadic) to circles. Here are my picks (along with a description from their about page):

• John Bardos – Location Independent, Entrepreneur, Marketing Consultant, Blogger
• Corbett Barr – I write for adventurous entrepreneurs at CorbettBarr.com, and help people build thriving online audiences at Think Traffic.
• Jodi Ettenberg – Former lawyer currently eating my way around the world, one country at a time.
• Avril G. – Travel.  Volunteer. Teach.  Learn. Experience. Inspire Action.
• Christine Gilbert – Writer of almostfearless.com, filming the documentary The Wireless Generation and full-time traveler.
• Chris Guillebeau – Pursuing World Domination, Visiting Every Country, Writing Books etc.
• Andy Hayes – Managing Director of Travel Online Partners (TOP), a resource for small business in travel and tourism to get help with online technology.
• Juha Liikala – Location Independent Online Entrepreneur & Blogger.
• Cody McKibben – Entrepreneur, writer, permanent traveler, magician & casanova.
• Shannon O’Donnell – Active traveler, storyteller, lover of books, and vegetarian all rolled into one happy package :
• Sean Ogle – Currently doing the stuff most people just talk about doing
• Brian Peters – Currently traveling the globe after being playing the corporate game for way too long.
• Anil Polat – Digital nomad traveling the world indefinitely.
• Chris Richardson – An aussie with a desire to see the world.. cliche maybe but oh so true
• James Schipper – Blurring the lines between work, life and play!
• Lea Woodward – Brought Location Independent to life. Founding pioneer at Kinetiva. Forever connecting the dots to bring ideas to life. Yes, I’m a domain name addict. Happy just being me.

You’ll have noticed that there are only 16 names here, so why the +? That’s because I’m hoping to add to the list.  I’d love to find some more nomads and lifestyle bloggers to circle and connect with, so if you should be here or know someone else who should, drop a link to your (or their) Google+ profile and a one line description and I’ll make the addition when I update the list! (Oh, and if you’re looking for me, you can find me here till Park Ride Fly USA gets a business Google+ profile.)

Google+ (or Google Plus) has been in the social media news for the past couple of weeks. As a lover of shiny, new web stuff, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I liked it immediately and there are a couple of things that have made my life easier as a travel blogger.

1. Sparks

This is where Google lets you track your interests. It’s similar to having a saved search in Twitter, but infinitely more user-friendly. I set up searches for airport parking, travel news and business travel and found some inspiration for blog posts that had eluded me via the usual channels.  That was a definite win.

2. Circles

Circles are like friend lists, but better. You can put people into circles according to how you want to segment them. People can be in more than one circle, too. And when you share things, you can share them only with the people who will be interested, rather than with everyone. You can even share with a single person (like a message). My initial impression is that it is much easier to follow a conversation in Google+ than in its closest rivals.

3. Hangouts

At the time of writing, I hadn’t used this yet, but it’s a great way to connect with up to 10 people using video or IM. Not only would this be good for business meetings (business profiles for G+ are on the horizon), but just to get together and talk about the things that interest you. You could have a regular travel bloggers’ hangout, for example.

Although initially my heart sank at the thought of yet another social network, after using it for a few days, I’m hooked. I’ve set up a circle with all my travel buddies in it (or as many as I’ve found so far.) I’m finding that I’m conversing with people whom I’ve followed at a distance and that’s terrific. If you’re on G+, then check me out here. (I’ll set up a business profile for Park Ride Fly USA as soon as they become available.) How have you found it so far?

Social media is here to stay, and travel industry professionals had better get used to it and use it well. That’s the view of Buckhiester Management Limited president Bonnie Buckhiester, expressed at a recent webinar on the issue. With almost half of all consumers using social media when they are making purchases, it can’t be ignored. Ms Buckmeister’s tips for using social media effectively to increase business include:

• checking out how facilities and services score on consumer review websites
• recording and analyzing social media metrics
• offering value (which consumers will share with their networks)
• accurate forecasting of demand
• business mix manipulation
• distribution management
• optimizing social media ROI

Read the full story here.

There was an interesting piece on Travel Research Online titled Social Media and Authentic Creativity. It gives travel agents advice on social media which can also apply to other travel industry professionals. It explains the importance of humanity and personality in social marketing and connecting with your customers:

Have fun with social marketing. Be a human first and a marketer secondly. Facebook, Twitter and online forums are all about relationships. Don’t forget to inject every ounce of personality you can muster into your efforts, filtered by an intelligent professional persona – a balancing act but crucial. Know your demographic well and speak with it – not to it. Remember to engage clients in conversations, not one-way commercial dialogue. Give them a quick a reason to speak with you – remember it’s all about them and the benefit to them.

Good lessons, I think.