Here is a little video we put together following our recent interview with the BBC correspondent, Malcolm Brabant about tourism and hospitality in Greece (read the relevant blog post).

We hope you’ll enjoy.

Since we’re on the subject, the Press Release on the BBC report (English and Greek) went out today.

The excellent podsafe track is ‘Your face is not enough’ by 3 Blind Mice.

So I’m having a catch up with a client today and we eventually come to the newsletter issue. They have progressed from the initial work we did for them and it’s time to keep in touch with their audience.

Normally I don’t support newsletters. However, each company is different and – crucially – the audience has different needs. So we analysed things a bit, I asked questions that needed to be asked and we decided on some next steps.

Newsletters are a tricky thing. I find that it pays to first think about what you want to achieve with them. Our client has genuine content and genuine updates that need to be sent out, which is why we think the newsletter is a good idea. (more…)

The Greek campaign is progressing and Theodora is doing her thing these days.

You will recall that we have started an outreach campaign aimed at Greek hoteliers. As part of that campaign Theodora is on the phones talking with small and medium hotel owners and managers up and down the country.

When we approached her to do the work she was a bit worried. “Is this about sales?“, she asked to which we most emphatically answered “No“!

The principles are simple. Introduce us, discuss, connect. The whole point of the campaign is outreach and engagement rather than sales.

| Introducing SoMaFusion |

We are a relatively new company and there is something intrinsically different about us when it comes to hospitality. Our hospitality services are specialised and offer the whole spectrum – from digital communications to pricing policy. Not something you find often.

(more…)

The work we do as SoMaFusion is a gift to us in more ways than one. But today, it’s important to talk about the special people we meet along the way. (more…)

I Has An IDEA! 4/52 Uploaded by Paul Glover on 9 Dec 08, 2.46PM BST

Here is one of those insightful blog posts that I just cannot do anything else but recommend them whole-heartedly.

Tom Murphy wrote on how the wide-eyed enthusiasm of the first days of social media is slowly turning into a one-size fits all box with big words and no new stuff to light a spark.

In effect, our social media gurus have left the world of plain speaking and morphed into the same old habits they decried five years ago.

(…)

Stay away from the light social media gurus. Turn back. Remember the old days (oh 3-4 years ago) when you railed against corporate-speak. Turn back. Rediscover your roots.

Stop inventing silly words and trying to add science where it does not belong.

You remind me of my dad.
(via)

It reminds me so much of what we discuss with Manolis whenever we have a chat about a new client who comes to us with words like synergy and social network.

And it brings a smile to my face when that client works with us to do something that truly makes sense and people enjoy using it.

That’s why we like what we do.

The nature of communication is something we discuss often at SoMaFusion.

Yesterday we spent the evening debating an old favourite of mine – content over form and the ways in which content and its presentation can cause an emotional impact. We ended up – to put it in simple terms – debating how people communicate better.

Manolis – I have to say – has a practical mind which he sets loose when it comes to discussions like these and he goes all theoretical on me. I on the other hand have a tendency to be convinced by examples and I need them in order to be able to visualise the argument. Being a words person I was insisting about the importance of the written word and how it can excite and help communicate. I don’t think we were in total agreement but Manolis was trying to find me a good example.

This morning he sent me this video (our first on YouTube by the way) and by way of an explanation the words below.

Berlin 2009. The ITB Berlin Travel Show – one of the biggest tourism exhibitions. The video is amateurish, accidental. The music is from my home. The people are from everybody’s home. Africa. How is it possible for a few notes to simply excite people’s body and soul. To mentally elevate them. What is the inner strength of this music that manages to stir us up. The Dionysian rhythms, the dances of the ‘possessed’.

Amazon, Palestine, Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Black Sea, Epirus and Crete and a handful of dancers with lyra and laouto. Astounding.

We talk about communications. What do you think they are doing?