In a Knowledge Economy, Create ‘Rivers of Information’

Many travel agents are focusing on the use of social networking/media tools as a way to communicate with clients. But the more powerful benefit may be in learning to leverage the concept of using these tools to build powerful rivers of information.  

Very few businesses have really institutionalized this powerful aspect of Web 2.0. That’s a shame, because there is zero cost and there are huge benefits to doing so – when it is done right.  

We live in a knowledge economy, and in this kind of economy the smart people win. This means that the smarter travel sellers have a better chance of prospering.

We get smarter by improving the volume of knowledge we can jam into our brains. If you will accept that simple formula, then you will understand that the Internet and social tools now supply the most powerful way to feed your brain that we have ever seen. 

Defining the river
According to Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO of Google, “Every two seconds the equivalent of 380 million 20-sentence news stories or articles of information are being created, filed and dispersed throughout the globe. If each news story were a single drop of water, this deluge of information would fill up Lake Erie every 13 minutes.”

We can safely assume this means there will be gigabytes of information created about the travel industry today, and every day going forward. The reality is that most travel sellers may only be able to harness 2% or 3% of this bounty and get it into their brains.

Most people agree with the statement that knowledge is power. In this context, that means 97% of the powerful knowledge travel agents could have is dropping on the floor instead of getting into their brains.  Bloggers, twitterers, vendors, governments, observers, consultants, and consumers supply this huge new flow of information, and it will only grow.

Not only is the volume of information increasing, the speed at which it is becoming public and delivered is increasing in velocity. Twitter now averages around one minute from the time an event happens to the moment it is delivered online. That is 29 minutes faster than any other form of traditional news delivery. 

If you want to succeed in a knowledge economy, your goal must be to institutionalize the ability to harvest as much information as possible about the travel industry and the trends that shape it, in real time. Additionally, you must become a filtering source for your clients so they can look to you as a contributor to their own rivers of information. Otherwise they will simply disintermediate you, and go get the information directly themselves.

How to harness your river
The following is a list of a few best practices that can get you started with building your own river of information, and then imbedding it into the culture of your business.

   – Use index sites like twellow.com and blogged.com to identify the top bloggers and twitterers in your space and follow the top 10 in each.

   – Find any online newsletters that pertain to your industry and sign up for them.

   – Learn to use alerts systems like Google Alerts, socialmention.com alerts, or alerts.com. Set up alerts for key suppliers, industry associations and any politicos that could impact travel industry practices so you know instantly if something has transpired with any of these sources.

   – Use aggregation tools like Google Reader, Netvibes,com, Tweetdeck, etc., to bring many of your streams of information to one screen.

   – Install applications like Flipboard for the iPad that turn your information streams into a magazine format that makes information easier and faster to digest.

   – Dedicate at least 30 to 45 minutes a day reviewing your river of information in order to grab the most important pieces.

   – Develop a list of news sources that you and your staff members should follow.

Allow me to repeat myself: We are in a knowledge economy where the smarter travel sellers will win, and actively building online-based rivers of information will help you to be smarter.

Scott Klososky is a partner in Future Point of View, LLC.  He speaks and consults for organizations worldwide on technology and trends and has written books on technology-infused leadership and social technologies. Connect with him at www.klososky.com.

Don’t miss a previous article by Scott Klososky, How to Create Your Own Personal eCommunity.