Web 2.0 strategies OR is there life out of Google part 2

Long time ago I talked about web2.0 strategies for tourism companies and destinations. Today is a good day to end up what I left unfinished! As you remember, in this post I explained the importance to know and manage SEO and SEM. Those techniques are especially important when you start a business (or when you want to promote something new) but as you get the trust of your customers, as you learn what is important to them and consequently organize your processes to customize your services  you have to begin to combine web1.0 techniques with web2.0  ones.
One of Web 2.0 techniques is Your Own Butterfly Strategy (already explained in above link part 1), another one is the idea of OUR Enterprise.
Sometimes, I refer web 1.0 strategies as the yelling ones, basically because YOU try to get the attention of potential customers making noise (appearing on search engines, in e-mail or social networking sites ads…). On the other hand, I refer to web 2.0 strategies as the whispering ones, because are YOUR customers who quietly promote your business. How is possible that my customers promote MY business? Because is not YOUR business any more (unless you want to be out of web 2.0 era) is OUR business. 

This is the idea of OUR enterprise that I promise to develop in part 1 post.
All companies are focus on getting
    A steady customer base
    More frequent purchase cycles
    Higher profit margins
    A group of advocates who voluntarily market the firm
    A sense of community among members
Especially for the last two YOU need YOUR customers do things for YOUR company.
Why our customers will do something for us? Wrong question is not YOUR anymore is OUR.
They will do things as long is not “work”. People like doing things BUT NOT WORKING!!!!
Work is doing what others want, in the way that they want. Do things is do whatever you want, as you want and because you get auto realization and respect from the community. Welcome to the world of PRO-AM.
We as a Touristologist must excel in management of Virtual communities for fun or for work.
We have to learn how to gently pass from MY company where MY organization fix the rules and dictate sentence to OUR company where our customer help us to set the rules and decide the outcome!
How can you boost/power up whispering among your customers? You have to build up a sense of community and use or create the space and tools that make a community flourish.
There are basically two ways to achieve that. You can use Social Networking Site (SnS) as a member of your chain of value OR you can create your own SnS.
As you know any website, portal, blog… (if it wants to be successful)  has to provide the 3 C’s (content, commerce and community). Community it’s the start in this post.
The first approach is to use a SnS as a member of your chain of value. It’s very important to remember that you can define a generic chain of value, where the SnS will be also generic (facebook, Twitter…) BUT if your website is specialized you have to use and specialize one. For instance, for businesswomen battling for combine a successful career and a wonderful family you can use workitmom (thanks Maria for the information!!!).
You can make special offers inside facebook. In this way you will provide commerce to one of the leaders in social networking sites. You can also put facebook application inside your web adding community to your content and commerce.
I know that all of you know how to create a fan pages in Facebook but …
 

and, obviously, you know how to create different landing pages focus on different segments but…

and, I’m sure that you know plenty of hotels with good ideas about this topic but.. here
Remember, you can use Social Networking Site (SnS) as a member of your chain of value OR you can create your own SnS.
Ok! The first approach Use Social Networking Site (SnS) as a member of your chain of value it’s the flavor of the month is fancy, is cool and if-you-don’t-do-that-you-are-outdated! BUT to me the second approach, when you try to create and manage your own community inside your website, it’s business, at least so interesting as the first and the-one-you-have-to-develop-to-improve-your-bottom-line!
You can see this as a case in point or the initiative of starwood hotels here.
You can even sharp up this second approach when you create a portal for the chain of value and you create the 3C’s  (we talked about that here). 
Software selection, its configuration and first steps for this portal’s chain of value will the matter of another post!
Paraphrasing Alan Kay: People (Travel companies ) who are really serious about social media should make their own communities.
I love communities but overall I love the community I’m more proud of…                

Touristologists community!