Is there such a thing as a secure password? It seems like every month or so there is a similar announcement. Last month Yahoo! was hacked, with hackers exposing something like 450,000 user passwords. The month before that, it was LinkedIn where 6 million user passwords were exposed. And these are just the latest episodes. You (the user) has no control over the security (or lack of it) by an online service such as Yahoo!

Yesterday (16 July 2012) Google’s Webmaster Central Blog published a post explaining “semantics”(more about that in a moment) of web pages, urging sites to use semantic markup (specific types of HTML), and several “Do’s and Don’ts”. Could this be a signal of an upcoming algorithm change? A Bit of Background This will be the geeky part, but a bit of background will help understand what may turn out to be significant about the Google Webmaster Central post mentioned above.

Landing Pages are the doorways to your website Landing pages are the doorways to your website. We tend to think of our site like a book – people start at the front (the home page) and work their way through the content in a logical sequence. In reality, however, people use a search engine to find a page that matches their search results (which may not be what you expected), and enter your site through that page.

Several weeks ago we posted our concerns over the significant drop in BBOnline traffic (referrals) following their site redesign late last year. When we heard from BBOnline, the response was disconcerting, so we posted further concerns. More recently online innkeeping forums (both public and private) have had active discussions about the drops in BBOnline traffic to inn websites. Significantly, while the exact amount of traffic loss varied from inn to inn, no innkeepers reported gains or traffic staying constant from year to year.

We received word over the weekend that a very, very, dear friend, colleague, innkeeper, and wonderful person had passed away on Friday. She was a very private person, despite being an outgoing, warm and cheerful innkeeper. She and her husband made everyone feel at home in their lovely Select Registry B&B, where the rooms are comfortable, home-made cookies were always available, and breakfast was always delicious. Because she was so private, she asked that people not be told when, very unexpectedly, she was diagnosed with a rare and fast-acting cancer.

This isn’t a rant against Google. Really, it isn’t. But it is an interesting customer service lesson for small businesses, taken from large businesses. Most people who are in business can see first hand the value of good customer service. For small businesses, especially those in hospitality, this is particularly true. In the hospitality business, good customer service can lead to good reviews on TripAdvisor or other services. It can also lead to instant gratification when you see the smiles on the faces of your guests/customers, hear the sincerity in their voices when they thank you for the time they’ve spent at your establishment, and promise to return.

Just over 2 years ago we posted instructions for creating a booking form app for Facebook. That method used Facebook’s FBML app as its base. Of course, as some readers have noticed, Facebook later discontinued the FBML app (existing apps based on it continue to work, but no new apps are permitted to use it), so it is time (past time, some might say) to update the steps using newer methods that Facebook allows (at least as of this writing!

Transitioning from our recent posts on measuring social impact with Google Analytics and Using Google Analytics’ Multi-Channel Funnels, we presented a webinar for the Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII) discussing ways to measure the results of using social media, and tools to help make the best use of your time. The presentation is below, with general commentary (not a transcript) below. What is our objective? Without defining a goal for social media, we can’t really tell if it is of any value.

In our prior post on Measuring Social Media Impact we briefly mentioned Multi Channel Funnels and promised to discuss them soon. This post will discuss Multi Channel Funnels and what they can tell innkeepers about reservation sources. What are Multi Channel Funnels? A significant number of visitors make multiple visits before booking. That, alone, should make us pause before we draw conclusions about the value of a referral source only from the number of visitors it sends.

A month ago Google’s Analytics blog announcednew social media reports in Google Analytics. Last week they discussed how to use them, and analytics experts have been posting similar articles ever since. If you’re thinking this is the same “Social” report that measured “Engagement” and similar items (under the Audience tab in the new Google Analytics), it is not. This is an entirely new section, located under the Traffic Sources section, and has far more information (and more useful information) than the Social reports in the Audience section.