1.  John logs into Agent SociaLink and clicks on “Get Started Now” under Build A Blog.

2.  John follows the prompts and fills in the blanks to customize his blog post.

3.   After filling in all the blanks, John hits the “Submit” button to get the fully crafted blog post.  He copies and pastes it over to his WordPress blog.

4.  Since John has integrated his blog posts to update his Facebook fan page, the post automatically appears on his agency’s wall and an update is sent out to all his Facebook followers.

5.  John is a NexCite customer, so we’ve automatically embedded links within his blog post.  Whether a customer sees his article from his blog or facebook, these links will drive the customer back to the Red Bird Vacations website, where they can contact John to book their next cruise.

We’re still looking forward to hearing all your feedback on Agent SociaLink and can’t wait to hear the stories about all our agents booking travel through their social media marketing!

Contact us for more details on Agent SociaLink and stay tuned for more examples!

Agent SociaLink is a proprietary website designed by Passport’s own marketing, customer service and support teams.  The new tool provides content from a variety of sources allowing agents to pick and choose information to add to social media outlets including Twitter, Blogs and Facebook.

The “Build a  Blog” feature, uses a simple fill in the blank format. Agents can create blogs on specific cruise ships, complete with ship photos and specific information preloaded and customize with their own comments and information.

Subscribers to Agent SociaLink do not have to be users of Passport’s VacationPort or NexCite agent-branded, consumer-facing website programs.  But for VacationPort and NexCite users, content created through Agent SociaLink can also be integrated with VacationPort and NexCite. So those agents who are already Passport Online customers will have links embedded to relevant deals within their system. Consumers will be able to click on those deals and be directed to the agent’s website.

With the Agent SociaLink program participating agents receive:

• Real-time, updated links to online popular travel related articles.  Quickly glance at a list of headlines to find a story that is interesting to you or your clients and with a click of a button you can share that story with all your followers on Twitter or Facebook. 
• “Build a Blog Post” to guide agents through the creation of unique blog posts within minutes.  Simply follow the prompts to craft an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) enhanced blog post, complete with links to corresponding offers on the agency website.  Once the blog post is constructed, click on the button, copy and paste the custom post over to your blog and publish.
• Access to our Supplier Guest Blogs.  These blog posts are provided to Passport Online from our top suppliers in all product categories.  Suppliers will deliver interesting informational blogs which can be customized to use directly on an agency blog or Facebook page.  For Passport Online VacationPort or NexCite customers, links to supplier offers on their agency websites will automatically be embedded within the posts.
• Customer support and training on how to most effectively use these new media channels.

Pricing for existing Passport Online customers is $25 per month. For non-Passport Online customers it is $45 a month. For further information on the new Agent SociaLink product, contact us today at socialink@passportonlineinc.com

Agent testimonials:

“The Build a Blog and Supplier Guest Blogs are outstanding! Fantastic topics to build on easily and most importantly you are able to quickly create new blogs in a short amount of time. Plus the option of choosing a specific supplier to blog on is impressive.  This is a Win!” said Jennifer L. Smith, Branch Manager, Wings Travel Group

 “I enjoy the the product – the ease of use, simplicity of functionality, and the choice of content,” said Dennis Miller, MBA, CEO and Director of Human Resources, DJM Travel & Cruise, Inc. 

 “ I love it.  I don’t have to think about what to post.  I just look at the topics and pick one in the am and maybe one in the pm.  I have had people tag on to some of them and even share one of them.  That was a first.  I like the link back to the web site,”

Joan Follmann, CruisePlanners

New Website Offers Content Database, Build A Blog, Facebook & Twitter Feeds

Our Focus Group members went straight to work using the SociaLink content to add excitement to their social media networks.  Joan Follmann used our Supplier Guest Blog tool to market Abercrombie & Kent on her blog and Facebook fan page.  Check out the screen shots below to see how she did it!

1.  Joan logs into Agent SociaLink and selects the A&K Guest Blog post.

2.  Joan copies and pastes the article into her own blog.

3.  The post is published to her blog, where it can get picked up by the search engines and viewed by consumers.  She also has her blog importing to her Facebook fan page, where all her followers will see it show up in their news feed.

4.  Since Joan is a Passport Online customer, Agent SociaLink has automatically imbedded links within the article to direct potential customers back to Joan’s website.  From there, they can contact her to book their next A & K vacation.

We’re looking forward to see what our Focus Group members have to say.  If all goes well, we will be launching Agent SociaLink to the public next week.  Stay tuned for updates!

Last week, Co-Founder Randy Goodrich and his lovely wife, Kris, hosted Passport Online’s Summer Barbeque.  Boasting a well-manicured lawn with flowers in full bloom and tomatoes on their way to ripening, the Goodrich’s backyard was the perfect setting to enjoy an afternoon out of the office.

Randy proved his grill skills with his spread of burgers, hot dogs, and veggie burgers.  Casey made us all feel a little guilty after over-indulging in her 7-Layer Dip and brownies.  And Greg Kott made sure all the Chardonnay was safe for us to drink.  Thanks to Passport Online for a fun afternoon, full of good food and even better people!

I’ll let our photos fill in where I left off:

John Starr, Greg Montgomery, Chris Gardner

Randy + Kris' Backyard

Greg White and his Thumb

Tony V, Greg M, Greg W, and Mike S

Party Time

Greg Montgomery and Greg Kott

Chris Gardner and John Starr

2.  Add a “like box” to your website.

3.  Include the Facebook logo and your page’s link in your email signature.

4.  Send out an email to your current email list and invite your customers to join you on facebook.  Tell them what they will receive by becoming a fan.

5.  Add the Facebook logo to all your print marketing. 

6.  Give people an incentive to “like” your page.  Provide great content that’s entertaining and informative.

7.  Let your customers know in person or on the phone that you’re on Facebook.  Tell them about all the exciting news they will hear about first if they are a fan.

8.  Leverage the NexCite Sweepstakes as a contest for Facebook.  Promote a week – month long contest where all of your fans will be entered to win $250 for their next trip.  At the end of the week, send them a message via facebook to your sweepstakes link on your nexcite. 

9.  Use Facebook Events to invite your fans to travel related events (i.e. Sandals Night, Destination Wedding Shows, etc).

10.  Stop selling!  The quickest way to lose your fans is to bombard them on a daily basis with deals.

Please note:  These updates do not impact the consumer shopping and booking features, but will greatly enhance the agent’s experience and efficiency.

What is Fast Sell?

The Fast Sell feature is a way for agents to find and book a product when they already know specific details about that product.  You must know sailing date, number of nights, cruise line, ship, departure airport, and number of passengers to be able to start a Fast Sell.

There is some flexibility if you get the number of nights incorrect, or don’t get the departure date quite right. 

The Fast Sell Process

1.  Start by clicking the Tandem Fast Sell option in the left hand menu.

2.   The Fast Sell screen will appear

3.   Begin to enter the cruise details in order.  Note that you cannot select Ship and City at this point, because those depend on the cruise line you choose:

4.  Once you select a cruise line, the list of ships will be populated.

5.  Continue selecting the ship, departing airport, mode of transport (cruise only or cruise+air), and specify the number of passengers.  All fields in the Cruise Info box are mandatory.  You must select at least one passenger from the three different passenger type drop downs to continue:

6.  Once you have entered values, the system will search for matching sailings.

7.  Matching and similar sailings will be shown in a list:

8.  Click the sailing you want to book to continue to the next step.

9.  Once you have selected the desired sailing, additional options will appear.  Everything from this point on is optional.  If desired, you can select a fare code, category, and a cabin at this point.   You can also pre-fill in all of the passenger information.  The more information you enter, the fewer screens you will have to see during the booking process.

10.  At this point, you will continue working through the Tandem booking flow. 

11.  Fill out payment information as normal, then confirm the booking, and you’re done.

These enhancements are now live and can be seen in the Tandem agent portal. Training documents are being updated and will be available in AgentPort for review this week. Please let us know if you have any questions or need additional training at tandem@passportonlineinc.com, or call the Tandem Help Desk at 503-270-5859.

New Website Offers Clickable Database of Social Media Content

Beaverton, Oregon – Passport Online Inc., the Internet marketing solutions company for leisure travel agents and suppliers, today announces Agent SociaLink–a clickable database of content to populate travel agent social media sites.

Agent SociaLink is a proprietary website designed by Passport’s own customer service and support team.  The new tool offers travel agents everything they need to produce successful social media marketing. This new resource will provide content from a variety of sources allowing agents to pick and choose information to add to social media outlets including Twitter, Blogs and Facebook.

“It is our role, as the technology solution provider for thousands of travel agencies and tens of thousands of agents, to support web-based marketing and sales efforts. As our customers began to explore the social media platforms, our customer support team began to build a repository of resources to help these agents succeed,” said Greg Kott, president and CEO of Passport Online Inc. “This new tool is designed to eliminate the time-consuming process of finding or creating interesting content to share. It provides our customers with simple, clickable ways to quickly update their social media platforms with new, exciting informational content that will engage their customers.”

With the Agent SociaLink program participating agents will receive:

• Real-time, updated links to online popular travel related articles.  Quickly glance at a list of headlines to find a story that is interesting to you or your clients and with a click of a button you can share that story with all your followers on Twitter or Facebook . 
• Use our blog post generator to guide you into creating a unique blog within minutes.  With the easy to use, fill-in-the-blank format, you don’t need to wait for creativity to strike.  Simply follow the prompts to craft an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) enhanced blog post, complete with links to corresponding offers on your website.  Once you have constructed your blog post, click on the button, then copy and paste the custom post over to your blog and publish.
• Access to our exclusive Supplier Guest Blogs.  These blog posts are provided to Passport Online from our top suppliers in all product categories.  Suppliers will deliver interesting informational blogs which can be customized to use directly on your agency blog or Facebook page.  Links to supplier offers on your website will automatically be embedded within the posts.  This content will not include promotions, specials or sales but rather entertaining, informational updates from various suppliers.
• Customer support and training — In addition to the content for a successful social marketing campaign, you will also receive customer support and training on how to most effectively use these new media channels.

Our social media training and support includes:

• Passport Online’s travel agent specific Social Media Toolkit.  Read step-by-step instructions on how to set up Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress blog accounts.  View examples and learn the most important tips on how to use these platforms.
• Live customer support via phone or email.  Contact our dedicated staff with your social media questions M-F 7am PST – 6pm PST.  Facebook won’t answer your phone calls, but we will!
• Monthly social media webinars discussing the latest trends, best practices, and open question and answer session.
• Access to our video library of tutorials, tips, and how-to’s regarding all things social. 

For pricing and further information on the new Agent SociaLink product, contact us today at socialink@passportonlineinc.com

•  Traveling is good for the soul and spirit. If you are ready for your next travel experience, we are here to make it happen.
• Window shopping is fun no matter what you are shopping for! So if today you are shopping for travel, we’re here to tempt your senses and help you dream. And if you want to move from shopping to buying, we’re ready to make your dreams reality.
• Travel is experience. Put our experience to work for you. We have been around the globe. We’ll help make your next trip a life time experience.
• So glad you came here to begin your next travel experience. We love using our expertise to help our customers truly see the world.
• Welcome to our digital travel store. We are so glad to have you exploring the world with us today. We want you to know we have live travel experts ready and waiting to share their experience and create your next vacation. Click around and explore, and we’ll do the rest!

According to tnooz, the study (of nearly 2,800 US travel buyers in the US) found that 57% will only wait three seconds before abandoning a site if it has failed to load properly.  TravelPulse cites that Sixty-five percent of 18 to 24 year olds expect a site to load in two seconds or less. A third of travelers would be less likely to visit a site after experiencing technical problems like slowness or errors on the page.

Making your website easy to navigate and quick to load is absolutely essential to retain your customers.  Here are a few quick tips on how to ensure your NexCite runs up to speed:

• Make sure you are using less than 20MB of space within your Images and Files storage inside your NexCite admin
• Only use one slide show per page on your NexCite
• Make sure your banner image is less than 50KB
• Don’t litter your pages with flashing 3rd party ads (one of the biggest culprits for increasing page load time)
• Create pages with your customer in mind and don’t make them think.  Direct call to actions and logical navigation will allow them an easy shopping experience, one that leads to more booking.

NexCite is designed to run light and fast.  Follow these tips and you won’t need to worry about your customers abandoning your website.  As always, we are here to help.  Get in touch with our Support Team if you would like any other suggestions on how to keep your site optimized for the travel consumer.

Since the home page is valued so highly, it also tends to be the page that is most easily destroyed.   Many times the home page turns into a catch all for supplier brand logos, miscellaneous ad style banners, and random phrases hinting at something but never fully explained. 

Do you ever find yourself saying “This button is important, but I don’t really have any place to put it… so I guess I’ll just put it on the home page.”?  That is a slippery slope and one that leads to homepages that look like this:

Without a clean, concise homepage, your customer will be confused by what to do next and you may lose them before they even have time to discover what your business is all about.  It’s time to stop hoarding on your home page and give it the make-over it deserves.

4 Key Concepts for a Clutter-Free Homepage

Answer the question: Why do people want to book travel through you?

• What’s the benefit in using YOUR agency over another?
• Most people have become accustomed to booking their own vacations, take some time to explain exactly what the consumers receives when the book through a travel agent.

Get Personal

• People want to connect and build relationships, give them a little personal flavor so they can accomplish that.  A quick sentence about why you’re in the travel industry or how the agency got started works well.
• If you don’t want your website to show your personality, add links to your social media accounts (like facebook and twitter) so that your customers can get their fun, personal fix from your company there.

Call to Action

• Don’t make your customer think.  Tell them what they need to do.  
• Use call to actions like “Book your Vacation Now! Call for the best rates! Plan your next trip!  Search our Vacation Offers!”
• Make sure your call to action appears on the first screen, above the fold.

Establish and Reinforce your Expertise

• Add a customer testimonial, credentials, years in business, etc.
• People want to know they are buying from a trusted expert.

Need an example?  Take a look at these homepages for inspiration:

If you need a refresher on how to edit pages and make changes to your website, take one of our weekly NexCite Orientation webinars.   As always, feel free to contact us in the support department if you need any help.