Ontario Tourism Magazines for 2013 Summer Fun!

 

 

When it comes to having fun in Ontario during 2013 I always start with my top two favorite tourism magazines, the Grey Bruce Escape and Collingwood's Mountain Life Magazine.  Each are my keys to new found yearly memories full of exploration, adventure, and a deep connection with nature.

Both have a unique style of writing that will captivate readers with different core target markets in mind sharing magical things to experience across Grey Bruce counties.  One magazine is more family and friends oriented with the other a little more outdoor adventurer with each having a splash of the wow factor! I'll let you decide which is which. With excellent articles sharing fantastic adventures you'll soon be planning where you can take others four seasons of the year. I'll warn you, it's a magical area just a few short hours from major cities like Toronto, Kitchener / Waterloo and Barrie. Here is a Google map showing Grey Bruce counties where we are in Southern Ontario and how easy a day trip can be. Make sure to grab a copy of each at a local tourism centre, request one online or, download a PDF copy from the links below.


The Grey Bruce Escape magazine

Website (mobile device friendly, provided by yours truly):
Grey Bruce Escape magazine (2013)

Facebook page:
Grey Bruce Escape facebook page

Grey Bruce Escape magazine 2013


Mountain Life magazine

Website Url: Mountain Life magazine

Viewable Flipbook Mountain Life Magazine (Spring 2013)

Mountain Life Magazine Collingwood 2013


I also have to close this blog post by giving recognition to another local magazine that I think is a fantastic read for parents.   

Grey Bruce Kids

Website: Grey Bruce Kids magazine

PDF magazine download (Spring 2013)

Grey Bruce Kids Magazines

Grey Bruce Simcoe Tourism Mobile Website review

Make your Tourism Website Mobile Friendly

 

 

It's a no brainer that 2013 is time for everyone to have a website developed for mobile devices. 

Every website that I've worked with over the past three years has shown increases from 100% to 1000% in traffic arriving from mobile device users.

The main question for anyone developing for the mobile device marketplace: "Is my website mobile device friendly?" Here are my top qualifying factors that make a website mobile device friendly.

Tips to make your website mobile Friendly

  1. Does your website load fast?
  2. Is the main navigation simple?
  3. Is your website "thumb friendly?"
  4. Is the content easy to read and to the point?
  5. Is your contact information visible?
  6. Does your website consider Accessibility?

I've done a mobile website device test on iPhones showcasing Ontario tourism websites: BruceGreySimcoe, Bruce County Tourism, Grey County Tourism and Simcoe County Tourism (March, 2013).

Tourism Mobile Website Review on iPhone 5

BruceGreySimcoe

  • Rating = Excellent Mobile Device Friendliness!
  • Great Navigation
  • Content is easy to digest
  • Bonus points for offering web app download to iPhone Home Screen

 

Bruce County Tourism

  • Rating Above Average Mobile Device Friendliness
  • Excellent main navigation & search field
  • Bonus points for brand exposure
  • Contact information is easy to see
  • Great for people with Accessibility issues

 

Grey County Tourism

  • Rating Low Mobile Device Friendliness
  • Poor Content visibility as everything needs to be zoomed in to navigate 
  • Poor main navigation usability
  • Hard to find contact infomation

 

Simcoe County Tourism

  • Rating = Low Mobile Device Friendliness
  • Poor Content visibility as everything needs to be zoomed in to navigate 
  • Poor main navigation usability
  • Hard to find contact infomation

 

Remember, this isn't about being perfect, it's about creating small changes over time that help target markets visiting your website on mobile devices to gain access more easily to your content. If you're interested in a thorough Tourism Website Mobile Friendly audit to help development in 2013, please contact me at your leisure, but dont take too long. You could be losing website visitors as your reading this.  Please leave your opinions and comments below.

If you would like more information around the importance of mobile friendly websites, please read my friend Miranda Miller's article on "72% of Consumers Want Mobile-Friendly Sites: Google Research."

 

My Top 3 Social Media Search Engines

 

 

What are people saying about you or your business on social networks?   Social network search engines exist specifically to filter out common search engine results and show you what conversations are taking place around brands, people and topics across the world. Listed below are some of my favorite social network search engines that I use.

Yet, before I list them, why do you think these would be good to use?  Well, some of the reasons I use them are to do quick searches for a clients brand conversations or topics that are in alignment with a clients brand.  Think about it for a second.  If you knew there was an increase in social conversations on specific networks, wouldn't those be good candidates to increase your social media marketing efforts?  Well, in a quick review of a few of these top social search engines you can uncover brand influencers, track what people are saying about you, locate high engagment networks, determine reach of your brands social posts and so much more.

  1. Social Mention is a social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user generated content from across the universe into a single stream of information. It allows you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web's social media landscape in real-time. Social Mention monitors 100+ social media properties directly including: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google etc.  Oh, and you can set up "Social Media Alert" tracking that sends you updates through email!social media social search engine
  2. Kurrently is a real-time social media search engine that focuses primarily on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.   I like the simplicity of this one that makes it easy to switch results based on three buttons.  It will really blow your mind to see how much information is available to internet searches external of being logged into facebook.
  3. Topsy is last but definetly not least.  It's actually one of my power tools for real-time insights into online conversations.  It provides me not only with the most recent search results, but also very relevant search results based on the social influence of the online conversation.  This tool helps anyone attempting to do a social media audit a step in the right direction. But, don't get me wrong there are $100/month tools that can do similar.  I'm just suggesting you try this beast out for a while.  I'd recommend reading this blog post to learn more about How to use Topsy.

topsy social search engine
After you take a peek at a few of these social search search tools let me know what you think.  Does it seem useful, does it concern you, is there room to make it better?  Please leave your comments below!