Alliance of seven award-winning, owner-operator travel companies embraces viral marketing

Trusted Adventures Blazes New Trails By Way of Facebook and Twitter

Coeur d'Alene, ID, Feb. 16, 2010 -- Trusted Adventures (http://www.trustedadventures.com/), an alliance of seven award-winning, owner-operator travel companies, embraced the world of viral marketing via Facebook and Twitter in October 2009 and in just a few months these social media platforms are evolving keys to the alliance's successful marketing strategies.

"We now have over 1,500 Facebook Fans and an industry best, 8,000-plus followers on Twitter, a number that's growing quickly.  I don't know of any single adventure travel company that has as many Twitter followers as our alliance does," said Brad Moss, executive director of Trusted Adventures.
Collectively, the seven member companies of Trusted Adventures report a 599 percent increase in Facebook fans going from 1,303 in October to 7,816 followers in February.

To help ignite the viral growth, alliance members waged a contest among themselves to see which company could attract the most fans to their own company Facebook page in an eight-week period.
The winning company accomplished 2,000 new fans and received $200 each from the six other members which in turn went to a Haitian relief charity (see end of release for individual company statistics). The Trusted Adventures Alliance has already seen a significant growth of fans to its Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/trustedadventures) resulting in part from this initiative.

"Social media platforms are allowing Trusted Adventures to engage their community of fans, attract new prospects, distribute news and drive more traffic to the TA site and more bookings to the individual members," reflected Moss. He attributes the growth and success of social media for Trusted Adventures to hard work, compelling content and a fair deal of "follow me and I'll follow you."

One proven means to build fans has to do with consistent and compelling content. Trusted Adventures' "Top 10 in Ten Days" follows a variety of themes from Top Ten wildlife destinations to the Top Ten family adventures. "Each day there's a new posting which never fails to generate a buzz of comments and site traffic. To maximize the impact we run the Top 10 simultaneously on Twitter and Facebook," explains Moss.

"People who are our fans on Facebook understand that we are the industry experts. People who are our followers on Twitter follow us because we talk about travel and offer sage advice. Our goal is to eventually have upwards of 10,000 followers," said Moss.

"Use it or not, social media is here to stay and those who embrace it have found it (Twitter and Facebook) to be a faster, more honest exchange of information and ideas than more traditional channels of marketing and advertising.  Trusted Adventures has seen an incredible growth of fans and followers and we now engage them in ways traditional channels couldn't," says Moss.

The Trusted Adventures' Facebook Page is at http://www.facebook.com/trustedadventures. The Twitter Page is located at: http://twitter.com/trustedtravel.

About Trusted Adventures
Recognized worldwide for uncompromising quality, exceptional guest care and sustainable travel ethics, the Trusted Adventures alliance is a partnership of seven distinguished, award-winning companies; Austin-Lehman Adventures, Wildland Adventures, Western River Expeditions, Myths and Mountains, The Wayfarers, ROW Adventures and Great Alaska International Adventure Vacations. United under a common mission to provide authentic, transformational travel experiences, Trusted Adventures offers the world‚s finest collection of active vacations showcased online in a richly textured, easy to use website: http://www.trustedadventures.com. 

The alliance helps individuals, families and groups find active walking, rafting, cycling and trekking trips throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. With a Trusted Adventures company you travel with the experts on carefully crafted itineraries designed to enrich your experience while preserving our planet and its cultural heritage.

About the Trusted Adventures Member Facebook Fan Competition
In the fall of 2009 the seven member companies of Trusted Adventures entered into a friendly competition to see which company could generate the most fans to their individual Facebook page. The winner would receive $200 from each of the other six companies which in turn was to be donated to the winner‚s favorite charity (in this case Haitian Earthquake Relief). The contest ran from October 2009 through November 2009 (8 weeks) and Austin-Lehman Adventures came out on top with just over 2,000 new fans.  Since then the companies have all seen significant growth in fan numbers.  These statistics show starting numbers in October and where they now are at the time of this release:

Trusted Adventures Alliance http://www.facebook.com/trustedadventures
    October Œ09: 50 fans / February ‚10: 1526 fans
Austin-Lehman Adventures http://www.facebook.com/AustinLehmanAdventures
    October Œ09: 155 fans / February ‚10: 2185 fans
Great Alaska http://www.facebook.com/pages/Great-Alaska-Adventure-Lodge/173720565414
    October `09: 0 fans / February '10: 211 fans
Myths and Mountains http://www.facebook.com/mythsandmountains
    October `09: 177 fans / February '10: 350 fans
ROW Adventures http://www.facebook.com/ROWadventures
    October `09: 66 fans / February '10: 1085 fans
The Wayfarers http://www.facebook.com/thewayfarers
    October `09: 7 fans / February '10: 341 fans
Western River Expeditions http://www.facebook.com/WesternRiverExpeditions
    October `09: 722 fans / February '10: 3082 fans
Wildland Adventures http://www.facebook.com/wildlandadventures
    October `09: 176 fans / February '10: 562 fans

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