Update - The Travel Blog Project
By George Oberle

The Travel Blog Project has just sent the 40^th issue of The Daily Post to the 213 participating travel agents. Travel Blog Project participants are from all around world with agents from the U.S.A., Africa, Argentina, Canada, Europe and the United Kingdom.

We have been creating blog posts around a weekly theme. In the beginning of the project, the themes dealt mostly with establishing the agent as a specialist in their travel niche creating posts about destination information. We have also been creating a library of blog posts critiquing hotels, cruise ships and destinations that are re-purposed on the agent’s websites and Facebook Fan pages. 

For the last couple weeks we have been conducting a SWOT analysis examining our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Our focus has been on turning negatives into positives. We have also dealt with communicating the value agents provide to the travel planning process.

We have spent quite a bit of time on search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. We began our SEO education by focusing on keyword phrases. We discussed how to research keyword phrases and what makes a good phrase to target. We discussed how to use them in the title and within the post to increase online traffic.

We have examined Facebook business fan pages and how to create a professional looking site. We have created custom “welcome” tabs and loaded sales images on the left column of the fan page. We have discussed posting techniques and ideas in the Travel Blog Project knowledge center.

Twitter has also been a major effort of the Travel Blog Project. We have discussed Tweeting techniques and how to use Hashtags and Retweeting to get more followers.

However, the best aspect of the project has been the collaborative learning and sharing the agents has done posting in the Travel Blog Project knowledge center.

We are now looking forward to the second half of Travel Blog Project motivating travel agents to participate in social media. Hopefully, it has been a good learning experience for the participants.

Enjoy the Journey,
George Oberle