In the meantime, keep on Tweeting but remember that if you want those same items to show up on your Facebook page, you’ll need to log in to your account on Facebook, and post them.

Want to know more? Here’s the link I found which has some steps for troubleshooting this issue.

• EverNote — keep all your notes in one place, and access them anywhere. You can install the EverNote app on your phone, and while you’re out of the office add new notes, or update existing notes. Later you can open the Evernote app on your computer, or through the web to get access to your existing notes or add new ones. You won’t have to rely on carrying around post it notes that you have to worry about losing any longer.
  • How we use it:
    • Sarah Bauman: I’m notorious for waking up in the middle of the night and remembering that I need to do something (whether it is picking up something from the store or some detail of a project I’m working on). I’ve setup separate “Notebooks” in Evernote for Work and Personal notes and whenever I wake up in the middle of the night remembering something I need to do (or any other time), I just open up Evernote on my phone, update the appropriate note and then I know it will get taken care of!
• Read It Later — store videos or articles to access later. Read it Later is also available accessible multiple ways. Install it on your iPhone or Android to store links while you’re on the go, then later access the web version, or the FireFox add-in.
  • How we use it:
    • Sarah Bauman: I find a lot of great looking articles that I don’t have time to read. What I do is simply add them to Read it Later and when I have time, I go back through and read the articles (usually when I’m supposed to be relaxing ), then I can mark them as Read.
• Awesome Screenshot Capture & Annotate — Capture all or part of a website, then add shapes and notes, and save it. You can then share it with anyone.
  • How we use it:
    • Tracy Trathen: To make some comparisons of different website layouts to send to Agents when I’m working on changing the look of their site from one template to another. Before I start making changes, I take a screenshot of what their site looks like in its current live state. Then I do a few changes, change the template, change a couple of minor details, organize their homepage maybe – and I can take a screenshot of the changes before published (preview). I try this out using several different variations, then send the screenshots to the agent for their decision.
• TripIt — Turn all your trip details into one simple itinerary. Then add maps, directions, notes, photos and more. You can even share your itineraries with other people.
  • How we use it:
    • Cynthia Juhnke: My favorite App when I travel is TripIt. I really hate printing up conformations, or logging in to different Web sites to find my itineraries, but with TripIt I have everything in one place. All I need to do is simply forward a confirmation email to plans@tripit.com and Trip It will automatically build an itinerary for my trip that I can access anytime, either online or from a mobile device.

      TripIt is handy because I can share itineraries with family and to keep them in the loop while I’m traveling and I also have maps and directions, travel notes, photos, recommendations and more. For anyone who travels TripIt is a must have App.

• Ski Tracks — Record your day of skiing.
  • How we use it:
    • Marilyn Macallair: Ski Tracks app allows me to record my day of skiing by tracking maximum speed, Vertical feet skied, how many runs I made, total distance skied, maximum altitude and duration of my ski day. From there I can break it down by run and chart the entire day. Then I can save it and do a recap at the end of the season which, if I had actually activated the app each time I skied, I would have a pretty impressive total of what my ski season looked like.

      Here’s an example. I skied Deer Valley on Saturday. Maximum speed: 38 mph; Vertical: 13385 ft; Runs: 13; Distance: 17 miles; Altitude: 9546 ft and duration of day 4 hours 45 minutes.

      It’s nothing but an ego trip for my friends and me. We love it!

      I think there’s one for biking too so that’s my next app.

Do you have any great time saving apps that you use? We’d love to hear about them, just leave us a comment!

She was most recently Marketing Director for Travelink American Express, one of just ten Centurion-level agencies in the U.S. American Express Travel Representative Network. She also served as Director of Sales & Marketing for the Corporate Vacations division, which provides exclusive vacation travel services for corporate clients of American Express.

For Travelink American Express, Jeanne developed and executed marketing programs for her company’s brick-and-mortar travel offices in various cities.

For the Corporate Vacations division, Jeanne was responsible for the sales and development of employee leisure travel programs for a large number of Fortune 100 companies, mid-level firms and small business clients.

Jeanne is a graduate of the University of Oregon, and received her MBA in Marketing and International Business from Fordham University in New York City. She worked for American Express for 15 years

Randy Goodrich is a pioneer in travel agency Internet marketing, helping to launch Passport Online more than 15 years ago. A long time travel industry veteran, Randy saw the need for website development and supplier content aggregation for travel agencies. Since the company was started in 1994, it has grown to service tens of thousands of travel agents, all the major consortia, many host agencies and nearly 100 of the industry’s leading leisure suppliers. Randy will remain on the board of Passport and will continue in the industry with his home-based travel agency business.

“Randy’s contributions to our business and to the entire travel agency community are enormous and we will continue the mission he started as we help move emarketing and ecommerce forward for leisure travel agents, agencies and suppliers,” said Greg Kott, President & CEO of Passport Online Inc.

“Jeanne Colombo brings to the supplier role at Passport Online a current travel agency user experience,” Greg said. “A long time Passport Online Advisory Board member and an active user of  VacationPort and the Tandem cruise booking engine, she understands the needs of today’s diverse travel agency community and the most effective way to aggregate and distribute supplier information through   the various agency marketing channels. We believe the addition of Jeanne to our management team will help the supplier community better understand the needs and opportunities available at the travel agency level and help us continue to innovate and create the best in class tools for the travel community.”

Jeanne joins Passport Online Inc. in the role of Vice President of Supplier Relations. She brings years of travel agency experience in sales and marketing to this role. In addition to her Travelink responsibilities, she is the Director of Sales and Marketing for the Corporate Vacations division which provides exclusive vacation travel services for corporate clients of American Express.  She worked for American Express for 15 years and for the last seven years has been with Travelink American Express.

As Randy leaves his daily responsibilities at Passport he returns to his roots as a travel agent and he sees such a significant message in this transition. “I was a travel agent and started this business to serve a need we had as a community. I return to my roots and continue my home based travel agency as Jeanne jumps in,” Randy said. “She brings experience as a working travel agent and professional to this role and continues to assure that Passport serves its customers because it truly understands the needs of the travel agency community. I look forward to using the Passport tools to help grow Goodrich Travel and I wish all my industry colleagues much success.”

Go in to your Facebook business page and you will see the area with Photos, Likes, and more.  To the right of that you should see a number with an arrow pointing down.

Click on the down pointing arrow and it will expand and show your additional page display options.  Once you have clicked on the down pointing arrow you should see something similiar to the following.

Now what you want to do is go to the top right hand corner of the like box so that you get the pencil icon:

Click on the pencil icon and you will get the ability to swap the position of your “likes”

Now if you choose something below the horizontal line your “likes” won’t be shown immediately on the page.

Sharing the virtual studio with me was our President and CEO Greg Kott and two of our best customers Jerry Vaughn of World Voyager Vacations and Barb Peet of Just Vacations Inc.

Greg stressed the importance of both unique original content and the absolute importance of supplier content in providing the best shopping experience for today’s travel customers. Jerry and Barb shared their own personal experiences and successes with our products.

Share in the replay of our webinar, or download the powerpoint from the webinar. Please forgive the rocky start, our consultant and friend Mary Pat Sullivan had a few technical issues at the beginning, but we promise not to disappoint as the webinar proceeds.

If you want more information after this, please let us know.

I’ve been receiving these messages and wanted to give our agents a heads up and let them know that messages like these are spam, are trying to phish, or trying to give you a virus.

Please do NOT click on the hyper-link: Simply delete the message. This is a false email notification and the link goes to a foreign website.

Hello,
Here with the Better Business Bureau informs you that we have been sent a complaint (ID 81612244)
from your customer with respect to their dealership with you.    

Please open the COMPLAINT REPORT below to view more information on this issue
and let us know of your point of view as soon as possible.    

We hope to hear from you very soon.

Kind regards,

Fernando Grodhaus
Dispute Counselor
Better Business Bureau

I say that so many times during the week that I really don’t think about it, but yet, that’s my true passion on the job. When you call, I want to know how I can best help you, and as quickly as possible (after all, if we can get this technology question wrangled, then you can get back to selling travel!). So just who am I? Let me introduce myself: My name is Tracy Trathen, and I’m a Customer Support and Technology Counselor at Passport Online, Inc.  I joined the Passport Online team in August 2011. 

“Wow, Tracy. That’s great,” you say. “But just what does that mean? What do Customer Support and Technology Counselors do?”  In one sentence: We assist Agents and Agencies with their social media and technology support and training needs. You name it, we do it – and we do it for you, our Travel Agents/Agencies. Daily the landscape is different for who I help and what I help them with, but I do everything from help people setup their websites (using our wonderful NexCite Website Building tool), to setting them up with VacationPort (our content tool, for those agencies who hire web developers to build a site for them). And one of my most favorite parts of the job is creating custom banners and graphics for agencies who want to spruce up their sites. I also help people with questions on how to work their websites using optimal Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools, and our wonderful Social Media product known as Agent Social Link (or ASL as we call it here in the office). We also assist agents with questions they may have about our Tandem booking engine. And this I just the tip of the iceberg for what we juggle on a daily basis, but whatever we do, we try to do it as quickly and efficiently, making sure you are happy customers and that your technology needs are being satisfied and kept in smooth working order.

“Wow. You do a lot around there, Tracy,” you say, nodding your head thoughtfully. “So what did you do before you came on board with PPOL? And while I’m asking, do you do anything outside of work? It seems like you are always there when I call…” I am glad you asked! I’m currently a part-time college student, working on a Bachelor of Science degree in Graphic Design and Web Development. Although I’m currently going to school to obtain that degree, I have over 10 years of Graphic and Web Design experience, having worked in the past at a few graphic design houses in the Northwest, and Southern California, and having also done quite a bit of freelance Web and Graphic Design work. Additionally I have a background in Customer Service, having spent some of my initial years in the print industry, which necessitated wearing multiple hats in a small print company where I did everything except run the printing presses. Outside of work and school, I am the parent of an awesomely funny 10 year old boy – and I am wonderfully assisted in the raising of my son by my very supportive mother and equally supportive boyfriend, both of whom I could not be doing the working full-time and schooling thing if not for their most appreciated help.

Oh… and in closing, one of my other favorite work phrases: “. . . I’m glad I could help. Have a great day!”

My role here is the Manager of Customer Support and Training.  It’s an exciting opportunity to be working for a company with innovative ideas and helping bring our customers along on the journey with us.  I look forward to what the future holds and sharing new products and services with you.

Outside of work I have a blessed life.  My husband, George, and I have raised four handsome, smart and funny sons (they’ll thank me for that plug later).  We have 3 big dogs who apparently believe they own the furniture in our home despite our efforts to convince them to the contrary.  And there’s a feral cat out there that for reasons unbeknownst to us believes we belong to her.  Oh, and we love to travel.

First, what do we mean when we say “content”?  In the website world, content has many different definitions. You MUST have unique information about yourself on your website. You should tell your story, share your experience differentiate your value to your customers.  Your unique content will help you with both people visiting your website and with search engines.    You unique content tells people visiting your website why they should work with you.  It also helps maximize your ranking in online searches.  Unique content is imperative for any website.

 I also think you need to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. When you shop these days at a local retailer, don’t you like to browse? Don’t you like to do a little window shopping of your own before you engage with a sales person or take the next step? Your customers should have the same ability to look at available product offers from suppliers. Maybe scan the cruise sailings, the tour operator options, the hotel and resort locations.  We call this “supplier content”.  The best websites are those that have a combination of unique content and supplier content on their sites – having success with both consumer visitors and search engines.  It’s an absolute misnomer that having supplier content on websites hurts your site with search engines.  And if you don’t have supplier content on your site, your customers can simply go to an OTA to find it.

Passport Online provides supplier content to travel agency websites through our suite of marketing solutions.

With our supplier content, which we aggregate and update daily, your website would have accurate, sellable product content in your “virtual” store window, on your virtual store shelves. And this content would keep your customers on your site, not take them off   to a supplier site or any other potential buying option.

If you have consortia specials, those will all be updated and populated on your website. And you can preference the suppliers and control what your customers see.

Search Engine Optimization is a hot topic. And it is certainly an important area to consider. As a small to medium sized travel agency, I know you are not out there trying to show up ahead of Expedia or Travelocity when someone does a basic internet search. But there are many ways to get your website noticed in the search engines.  We have many travel agency client sites that show up on the very first page of cruise searches, tour searches, destination searches.. Ask Jerry Vaughn, World Voyager Vacations. Jerry runs a very successful home based leisure and meeting/incentive agency in Federal Way, Washington. All of his SUPPLIER content comes from Passport Online. All of his websites are built in a Passport Online NexCite program. Jerry works with SEO  every day, and is a very satisfied  customer.

With respect to who should build, manage and support your website that too is an individual business decision. There are options, such as WordPress or GoDaddy or other non travel industry options that work very well for some. You can add Passport Online VacationPort supplier content onto any of these website programs.

Our full service website solution, NexCite, is designed for the travel agency industry only. It integrates with our supplier content. It is easy to use, offers add-ons for social media and our customer service staff is available to help with anything you need along the way.

Whatever you decide to do in terms of building a website for your business, first ask yourself  “What makes ME different? That’s what needs to be on your website. What are your certifications, qualifications and what do you bring to the table?”

At Passport Online, we provide the tools. And our tools are evolving as your Internet marketing needs evolve.  For instance, this year we will be launching an iPhone application, and a facebook application, so you can reach your clients in the ways they want to interact, in addition to your website.  But our entire business is built on the fact that these tools simply facilitate discussion and information exchange. It is the sales person behind the tools that completes a sale, services a customer and empowers a traveler.

Join us on February 28 when we host a webinar on this very topic of Website Content for the Travel Professional Community. Hear from a few of your colleagues and our fellow travel agent customers. In the meantime, explore what we can do for your business at www.passportonlineinc.com and let us know if we can help you build your virtual presence!