Dragonfly Media Curacao

Source:Businessweek.com

Here’s how to cope

The venom of crowds isn’t new. Ancient Rome was smothered in graffiti. But today the mad scrawls of everyday punters can coalesce into a sprawling, menacing mob, with its own international distribution system, zero barriers to entry, and the ability to ransack brands and reputations. No question, legitimate criticism about companies should get out. The wrinkle now is how often the threats, increasingly posted anonymously, turn savage. Even some A-list bloggers are wondering if the cranks are too often prevailing over cooler heads.

Most companies are wholly unprepared to deal with the new nastiness that’s erupting online. That’s worrisome as the Web moves closer to being the prime advertising medium—and reputational conduit—of our time. “The CEOs of the largest 50 companies in the world are practically hiding under their desks in terror about Internet rumors,” says top crisis manager Eric Dezenhall, author of the upcoming book Damage Control. “Millions of dollars in labor are being spent discussing whether or not you should respond on the Web.” (more…)

One of the main concepts of web 2.0 is the fact that the internet is/can be a platform just like windows/mac/linux are. Many sites/companies are very much in line with this concept when they create the tools you can find, and use, on-line. Just to clarify here: I’m not talking about the fact that you can (illegally) download software, music and all sorts of other stuff. I’m talking about tools like Google’s webmaster tools, personalised homepages and the likes.

To make our work a lot easier we use a lot of these tools to a) help our clients with the SEO of their website and b) to help us work more efficient. In this post I would like to share some of the tools we’re using and why we’re using them. (more…)

When building a hotel website our goal is to deliver a product that will convert a high percentage of visitors into online revenues The communication with our client is extremely important, and both parties (Client and Dragonfly) need to have a clear view of the process of design and development.

Keith Paulin is a leading online marketeer in the hotel industry and wrote the following article about ‘Hotel Website Design’ on hsmai.org that we like to share with you:

Hotel website design is one of the most subjective issues that hotel marketeers face. Here are some guidelines for briefing your hotel website designer…

So, you have finally read one too many articles about how 30.0% plus of your revenues should be arriving via the internet and that a further 30.0% are influenced by what they discover online about your hotel from your website…and the end of month reports show you are way short of those numbers.

You have taken an objective look at your website and you have decided its time to act…you need a new website for your hotel. You want to get it right this time but where do you start? (more…)

In the beginning of 2008 the newest hotel on Curacao will open its doors for guests. This new hotel will instantly become the largest hotel on Curacao and its amenities are impressive. Not only will it host a full-size shopping mall and a casino, but also a large movie theatre and parking garage. It’s an exciting venue! Before the Renaissance’s website will become part of the Marriott corporate website, MetaCorp (the project’s developer) will use the website to inform the general public and attract investors and shop keepers.

The original website for the Renaissance Curacao was built by Eureka, but the Renaissance now needed more content and functionality for the website. Besides this, the colors used in the original design needed to be changed to the Marriott Renaissance corporate colors. We gave the website a complete redesign in terms of colors and structure and we also added the functionality for them to be able to add, edit and delete vacancies. With a total of about 300 jobs that need to be filled before the end of the year this last addition was an abolute must.

You can find the new website here: www.renaissancecuracao.com and the official blurb is on our client list.

Niche Sites Invigorate Online Travel

Source: emarketer.com

New online travel sites are chipping away at some of the expertise that drives people to online travel agencies (OTAs), which are themselves already pressured by travel supplier sites run by airlines and hotels.

Recent offerings from Farecast and FareCompare help consumers determine the best time to book airline tickets. Travel social networking sites like Gusto.com let visitors share itineraries and trip information.

Capitalizing on the online video rage, travelervideos.com lets travelers upload vacation photos and videos and write their own travel blogs — all of which can be shared with family, friends and other travelers. (more…)

According to a new report from JupiterResearch many search marketers are satisfied with the return on investment from Search Engine Marketing (SEM). As a result they are willing to spend more on SEM this year.

Apparently 65 percent of advertisers expect to spend more this year, 7 percent want to spend less and the rest does not plan to do either. The two major concerns for marketers appear to be rising prices for keywords and measuring the offline impact of Search Engine Marketing.

For a more comprehensive article about this trend visit searchenginewatch or you can buy the report at JupiterResearch.

Our own expectation for Curacao is roughly the same as the conclusions in this US report. (more…)

Source: hotelmarketing.com

NEARLY every morning, over his second cup of coffee, Tom Brady, general manager at the Affinia Chicago, logs onto his computer and surfs over to TripAdvisor.com to see if there are any new postings about his hotel.

“It’s an obsession,” he said. If the review is positive he moves on. If it’s unfavorable — like the complaint posted in March from a guest who had received a $90 parking ticket because of a valet’s error — he’s on it immediately. In that case, he marched straight out to the valet to find out what had happened. After identifying the guest, he made sure that the company issued an apology and a reimbursement for the ticket.
“This is all over the world,” he said, describing his concern about any negative comment on TripAdvisor. “Everyone is looking at this. I’ve got to make sure it’s solved quickly, so God forbid someone else doesn’t have the same problem.” (more…)

Marie Howell of Bruce Clay Europe attended a session at the SES NY (Search Engine Strategies New York) about big companies and how they need to organise their SEO internally. Apparently the session was more about how you manage an SEO campaign than actually doing it.

The article is clear, concise and very interesting. You can find it at: http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/archives/2007/04/organic_seo_wit.html.

As you probably know, or not, Dragonfly Media is based in Curacao. This small South-Caribbean island, just off the coast of Venezuela, used to be a Dutch colony and is now part of the Netherlands Antilles. This will change next year when the Netherlands Antilles will be desolved and Curacao will get the same status that Aruba has now (independent, but still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands).

When Americans ask me where the heck Curacao is I usually say that it lies next to Aruba because it seems like everyone in the US knows Aruba, but not its neighbour Curacao. We feel that this really is a shame because we are really fond of Curacao and we like it even more because it is not as Americanised as most Caribbean islands (sorry guys). Luckily, on the internet spatial dimensions don’t mean as much as they do in real life so we would like to show people to some good sites and blogs about Curacao. Then, maybe, you will pay the island a visit before the rising tourism numbers make this island into another Jamaica, Bahamas or Aruba. (more…)

In our work we have a lot of different kinds of relationships. No, we’re not promiscuous, we love our partners and would not dream of being unfaithful. I’m talking about relationships with our clients, the relationships with the visitors to our website and the relationships with our clients’ visitors. Every time we get a new client we need to build relationships with them and their visitors. That’s a whole lot of relationships, I can tell you that.

Luckily, the way of dealing with the clients, our visitors and their visitors can be very similar. In this post I want to look at what makes a good (on-line) relationship. (more…)