Pink Banana Media & LGBTBrandVoice.com

Check out the PDF of the upcoming article "New Face of Gay" from Refresh Magazine, out in newstands this week. As excerpted from the article: Matt Skallerud, owner of Pink Banana Media and founder of GayWired.com, has compiled one of the most comprehensive reports on the buying power of the gay community entitled the Gay Market Report. Included in the report, which helps businesses and individuals better market themselves to the gay community, is the fact that there is a $712 billion-a-year market with LGBT consumers. These results are some of the first available to modern-day business owners seeking to expand their market reach into this niche community. His figures come second to the research done by Witeck-Combs and Harris Interactive, which have conducted research into other areas of the LGBT community. Check it out at http://www.pinkbananamedia.com/pdf/rf56_New_Face_of_Gay.pdf

The first step in the social network marketing process is to develop your primary “Touch Points” , including a Facebook Business/Fan page and Twitter account (see this link for more information:  http://gaybizreport.blogspot.com/2009/04/social-network-marketing-updates-for.html ) . Touch Points need Connections/Friends in order to make them work for your business.  To get started, follow GLTBT travel individuals and businesses on Twitter (use the SEARCH function on Twitter to identify new connections to follow).  Also, invite GLBT travel contacts in Facebook to join your Facebook Business/Fan page.  You may also want to consider advertising with Facebook on a CPC basis (cost per click) in order to drive more traffic and get more people to connect with you on your Facebook page.  Your ad can target "gay" and then keywords such as "travel" and "vacation".  This ad can be set to target travelers in specific regions (thus focusing on your destination’s “fee...

We had a wonderful evening reception at the Custom Hotel in LA, hosted by an incredible staff. Over 75 people were in attendance for our first event bringing members together from LAGLCC ( www.laglcc.org ) and IGLTA ( www.iglta.org ) and sponsored by GayTravelocity.com A few words about the Custom Hotel... it's a gorgeous boutique hotel located very near LAX.  Every other Wednesday night is Crush, their local gay night they promote to the GLBT community living on the westside of LA. Links to photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattskal/sets/72157617138719277/

Help wanted.  Seeking energetic, enthusiastic and goal-oriented candidate for the position of Business Operations Manager for the Dallas and Houston Clubs ( www.theclubs.com ). Tasks  Oversee local management team in Dallas and Houston  Develop staffing programs to focus on and improve overall customer service  Ensure accounting processes established by company are implemented, verified and routinely audited  Oversee marketing initiatives from conception to implementation, based upon set marketing budgets  Interact with local organizations, contractors and local authorities Background 10 years of hands-on management experience Online marketing experience, including understanding of current social networking and Web 2.0 trends Staff training experience desirable, with the ability to motivate, evaluate and direct employees Accounting experience with Quickbooks Previous management experience in hospitality industry a plus Requirements  BS or greater, preferably in business, management and...

This question has come up several times over the past month... one client in particular recently wrote: "Is it dumb for us to have a business/fan page (as opposed to profile), because competitors could start emailing all our peeps…friending them (and a lot of people accept everyone) and the start marketing to out entire mailing list?" My response was as follows: So you know my overall position on this… I think that the net, overall good that comes to your company by creating a Facebook business/fan page far outweighs the possibility that a competitor can poach your online network of friends (aka, your e-mail list). First, Facebook discourages this.  If someone started going through your friends and “friending” them all, Facebook would catch it at a certain point and warn the person not to do it or risk having their account closed.  I know several people this has happened to, which then subsequently keeps them honest in the future.  Being “honest” means that most business user...

The concepts of Touch Points and Connections become even more poignant in this new age of Twitter and the recent Facebook updates There can be little doubt that social network marketing is becoming one of the fastest growing areas in the marketing world today.  Every day, we are inundated with new terms and forced to continue to keep up with the latest in social networking technology, including these new Twitters everyone keeps talking about, and the more recent updates Facebook has launched in order to both stay on top of the growth curve and counter this Twitter phenomenon. In addition, it is becoming more and more clear that the eyeballs and attention of online users worldwide are continuing to migrate and spend more time in social networking sites than ever before.  Facebook was at 100,000,000 users as of July 2008, and they are now surpassing 200,000,000 today, doubling in the span of just months.  To accommodate this growth, Facebook has made a variety of changes designed to try...

In This Issue Social Network Marketing Updates for 2009 The concepts of Touch Points and Connections becomes even more poignant in this new age of Twitter and the recent Facebook updates There can be little doubt that social network marketing is becoming one of the fastest growing areas in the marketing world today. Every day, we are inundated with new terms and forced to continue to keep up with the latest in social networking technology, including these new Twitters everyone keeps talking about, and the more recent updates Facebook has launched in order to both stay on top of the growth curve and counter this Twitter phenomenon.... Social Network Marketing in Gay Travel Content ideas for gay travel and destination marketing are quite varied, and can include: Events: you could focus on upcoming GLBT events in your area, including Pride festivals, film festivals and more. Club and Bar Reviews: you could run a series of blog postings highlighting GLBT clubs and bars in your area Restau...