Examining good practices in digital content marketing: a study on Portuguese hotel blogs

Este estudo examina o uso do marketing de conteúdo digital por parte de hotéis portugueses nos seus blogues. São analisadas boas práticas que a literatura aponta que devem ser utilizadas em blogues para que estes sejam bem-sucedidos na relação com o utilizador. Estas boas práticas sustentam-se no uso de aspetos específicos que beneficiam a gestão do blogue. O estudo oferece uma visão do nível da adoção dessas boas práticas/aspetos por parte de 22 hotéis analisados. O estudo é motivado pela escassez de informação existente sobre hotelaria portuguesa e o uso que esta faz do marketing de conteúdo digital nos seus blogues. Foram encontrados estudos que evidenciam a importância do marketing de conteúdo digital e a sua estreita ligação aos blogues noutras áreas, mas verifica-se uma lacuna na investigação deste tópico aplicado à hotelaria. Desta forma, este estudo centra-se em analisar como o marketing de conteúdo digital é utilizado nos blogues de hotéis portugueses. Os dados foram recolhidos através de um website gerido pelo Turismo de Portugal, no qual foi possível extrair-se uma lista de hotéis de 4 e 5 estrelas. Desta forma, foram identificados 198 websites de hotéis de 5 estrelas e 795 websites de hotéis de 4 estrelas, de forma a registar todos os hotéis que incorporavam blogues nos seus sites. Após esta fase preliminar, foi reunida uma amostra de 22 hotéis com blogues, nos quais se analisou seis dos seus mais recentes artigos/posts. Para o efeito, foi realizada uma análise de conteúdo dos mesmos, com uma aplicação quantitativa. Foram reunidas e analisadas 11 categorias principais e em alguns casos subcategorias, nomeadamente 1) “conteúdo educativo” (webinars, infográficos e e-books), 2) “credibilidade” (nome do autor), 3) “utilidade” (viagens/férias, dicas, lugares a visitar, relacionado ao negócio), 4) “relevância” (categorias), 5) “consistência”, 6) “atual”, 7) “cativante” (podcasts, vídeos, áudio, animações e imagens), 8) “comentários”, 9) “dimensão do texto”, 10) “botões de partilha” e 11) “artigos sugeridos”. A análise permitiu verificar que existe uma escassez de hotéis de 4 e 5 estrelas em Portugal com blogue no seu website, de acordo com os critérios usados no presente estudo. Além disso, algumas das categorias analisadas, como “conteúdo educacional” e suas subcategorias, nomeadamente webinars, infográficos e e-books, não estão a ser utilizados pelos blogues dos hotéis analisados. Ademais, na categoria analisada onde se tenta perceber se o conteúdo é “cativante” (engaging), relativamente às suas subcategorias, nomeadamente podcasts, vídeos, áudio, animações e imagens, concluiu-se que esta última subcategoria (imagens) é a mais adotada pela grande maioria dos hotéis nos posts dos seus blogues. Verificou-se que dos 22 hotéis, 21 (95%) utilizam imagens nos seus blogues. O uso das outras subcategorias é quase residual. Embora a literatura aponte como importante exibir o nome do autor do post/artigo no final do mesmo como forma de dar mais credibilidade, apenas 4 blogues (18%) incluem esta característica. Relativamente à atenção dada ao grau de “utilidade” (value) dos posts para os utilizadores, verificou-se que apenas 2 dos blogues analisados (9%) fazem melhor uso desta característica de forma consistente. Cerca de 41% recorrem a esta boa prática mas não de forma consistente. Com respeito à característica que indica que o blogue deve dar a possibilidade ao utilizador de escolher entre diferentes categorias (relevância), verificou-se que apenas 7 hotéis (32%) fazem uso desta opção. Verificou-se também que é importante que os blogues façam uma partilha regular de posts/artigos. Nesta categoria foi verificada a sua consistência ao longo do tempo. Os resultados apontam que 7 blogues (32%) partilham posts de forma consistente. Analisou-se se os blogues partilham posts que sejam atuais e que estejam ligados a eventos recentes. Verificou-se que 16 blogues (73%) partilharam posts que aplicam esta boa prática de marketing de conteúdo digital. Relativamente à característica que se refere à possibilidade de os utilizadores deixarem comentários nos posts, constatou-se que apenas 2 blogues (9%) permitem que o utilizador deixe comentários, o que não é consistente com a ideia de interatividade esperada ao nível do marketing de conteúdos digitais aplicado aos blogues. Com respeito à dimensão do texto dos posts, a literatura enfatiza a recomendação de que estes devem ter um mínimo de extensão de 500 palavras. Nesta característica, “dimensão do texto”, verificou-se que apenas 2 blogues (9%) são consistentes em todos os posts analisados. Embora alguns blogues partilhem artigos que respeitam este número de palavras, estes não são consistentes em todos os posts analisados Analisou-se se os blogues dos hotéis incorporavam um botão (share button) diretamente nos posts que permitisse a que os utilizadores pudessem partilhar o post nas suas redes sociais. Aqui analisaram-se 3 redes sociais diferentes, nomeadamente Facebook, LinkedIn e Twitter, assim como a possibilidade de partilha via email. Constatou-se que 9 blogues (41%) permitem partilhar artigos diretamente no Facebook, seguido pelo Twitter, com 8 blogs (36%), LinkedIn com 6 blogs (27%) e e-mail com 5 blogs (23%). Os resultados indicam também se os blogues fazem a sugestão de leitura de outros posts relacionado no próprio post que o utilizador leia. Desta forma, observou-se que 16 blogues (73%) aplicam esta boa prática. Este estudo revelou que as boas práticas analisadas são importantes para que os hotéis possam otimizar os seus blogues a nível da estratégia de comunicação digital, por conseguinte, tornar a sua relação com os utilizadores mais próxima. Do que foi analisado, constata-se que nenhum blogue reúne todas as categorias e subcategorias examinadas. No entanto, existem pelo menos 2 hotéis que sobressaem em comparação com os demais, como aplicando o maior número de boas práticas de marketing de conteúdos digitais em blogues. De uma forma geral, a maioria dos blogues não segue as práticas recomendadas na literatura de forma consistente, não estando, dessa forma, a usufruir de todos os benefícios de uma estratégia de comunicação digital por via desta ferramenta. Este estudo contribui para a literatura de marketing de conteúdo digital com aplicação em blogues de hotéis. Preenche uma lacuna existente ao nível do conhecimento, investigando de forma exaustiva o uso do marketing de conteúdo digital no uso de blogues que geridos por hotéis de 4 e 5 estrelas em Portugal. A metodologia usada pode ser usada no futuro no âmbito de outras tipologias de alojamento. Além disso, esta investigação enfatiza para a importância do uso de blogues de forma consistente e estruturada. Recomendações de marketing são oferecidas com o foco na gestão de marketing de hotéis com recurso a blogues.The main objective of this study is to examine if companies such as hotels follow the best practices recommended in digital content marketing (DCM) literature in relation to their blogs. More specifically, it is intended to analyze if the content shared by Portuguese hotels on their blogs adhere to the elements that literature highlights as important for developing engagement with the audience. In so doing, 22 hotel blogs were compared by highlighting the ones that follow the best practices and the reverse situation. This study is motivated by the scarcity of existing research on Portuguese hotels and their use of digital content marketing on their blogs. A content analysis approach using 11 categories (characteristics identified in literature) revealed that the good practices analyzed are important so that hotels optimize their blogs and, therefore, improve their relationship with users. The findings show that no blog brings together all the good practices examined. Of all the hotels studied, 2 hotel blogs stand out in comparison to the others by implementing the characteristics that literature points out as relevant in a good digital communication strategy via blogs. In general, the majority of blogs do not follow the practices recommended in literature in a consistent way, and therefore are not optimizing their blogs as a communication tool. This study contributes significantly to the digital content marketing literature with application on hotel blogs. It fills an existing research gap, by examining the use of digital content marketing via blogs in a hospitality context, with a focus on 4 and 5 star hotels. As a result, this research offers marketing recommendations addressed to hotels, considering the use of DCM with regards to blogs

Spoken content retrieval: A survey of techniques and technologies

Speech media, that is, digital audio and video containing spoken content, has blossomed in recent years. Large collections are accruing on the Internet as well as in private and enterprise settings. This growth has motivated extensive research on techniques and technologies that facilitate reliable indexing and retrieval. Spoken content retrieval (SCR) requires the combination of audio and speech processing technologies with methods from information retrieval (IR). SCR research initially investigated planned speech structured in document-like units, but has subsequently shifted focus to more informal spoken content produced spontaneously, outside of the studio and in conversational settings. This survey provides an overview of the field of SCR encompassing component technologies, the relationship of SCR to text IR and automatic speech recognition and user interaction issues. It is aimed at researchers with backgrounds in speech technology or IR who are seeking deeper insight on how these fields are integrated to support research and development, thus addressing the core challenges of SCR

Generative Disco: Text-to-Video Generation for Music Visualization

Visuals are a core part of our experience of music, owing to the way they can amplify the emotions and messages conveyed through the music. However, creating music visualization is a complex, time-consuming, and resource-intensive process. We introduce Generative Disco, a generative AI system that helps generate music visualizations with large language models and text-to-image models. Users select intervals of music to visualize and then parameterize that visualization by defining start and end prompts. These prompts are warped between and generated according to the beat of the music for audioreactive video. We introduce design patterns for improving generated videos: "transitions", which express shifts in color, time, subject, or style, and "holds", which encourage visual emphasis and consistency. A study with professionals showed that the system was enjoyable, easy to explore, and highly expressive. We conclude on use cases of Generative Disco for professionals and how AI-generated content is changing the landscape of creative work

Pedagogical immigration to 3D virtual worlds: a critical review of underlying themes and their concepts

A contentious issue has been in debate for the past decade, over the extent of dependency of current generations of students on information and communication technology (ICT) for education. Despite this controversy, there is a generalisation amongst researchers that fundamental shifting of educational methods towards e-learning is deemed inevitable and beneficial to cater for emerging students’ skills and preferences. One of these newly emergent e-learning platforms is 3D Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) like Second Life. To the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to derive and critically analyse, using grounded theory, advantageous and disadvantageous themes and their sub concepts of providing e-learning through 3DVLEs

Pedagogical immigration to 3D virtual worlds: a critical review of underlying themes and their concepts

A contentious issue has been in debate for the past decade, over the extent of dependency of current generations of students on information and communication technology (ICT) for education. Despite this controversy, there is a generalisation amongst researchers that fundamental shifting of educational methods towards e-learning is deemed inevitable and beneficial to cater for emerging students’ skills and preferences. One of these newly emergent e-learning platforms is 3D Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) like Second Life. To the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to derive and critically analyse, using grounded theory, advantageous and disadvantageous themes and their sub concepts of providing e-learning through 3DVLEs

GJR Volume 41 Number 1 Spring 2018

The Georgia Journal of Reading\u27s Spring 2018 issue includes: Letter from the Editor by Lina B. Soares (pg. 4) President’s Page by Ron Reigner (pg. 5) Give the Neurological Impress Method Another Chance for One-to-One Fluency Interventions by Melissa M. Mitchell and Dr. Vassiliki Zygouris-Coe (pg. 6) Building Comprehension through Explicit and Organic Vocabulary Instruction for English Learners by Marisa Gonzalez and Dr. Robert A. Griffn (pg. 13) Children’s Literature to Develop Awareness and Advocacy for Social Justice by Dr. Katie Kelly and Dr. Lindsay Yearta (pg. 22) Maximizing Learning: Embedding Phonological Awareness throughout the Day by Dr. Shawnna Helf, Dr. Lindsay Yearta and Dr. Kavin Ming (pg. 30)https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/gjrarchive/1008/thumbnail.jp

Podcasting mental images: Technological application of sport imagery

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine if podcasting can significantly increase FT shooting performance among high school basketball players. METHODS: The sample for the study included 36 (12 male, 24 female) Oklahoma high school basketball players. Subjects were assigned into four groups (script, computer, iPod, control group) and were tested in three phases (pretest, treatment, posttest). The treatment phase consisted of imagery training (via podcasting) and FT shooting for six weeks. RESULTS: A total of 200 FT shots for the experimental groups was analyzed and compared to a total of 50 FT shots for the control group. Surprisingly, there were no significant group differences found among the experimental groups at any of the six testing sessions. However, a comparison of group means and the grand mean for the six testing sessions did indicate that the iPod group (18.1) performed higher than the computer group (16.7) and the script group (16.2). Also, a one-way ANOVA of the posttest indicated that there were significant group mean differences [F (3, 32) = 3.221, p < .05, w = .40]. A Tukey post hoc test indicated that the true source of the significant group difference was between the iPod group and the control group. A comparison of posttest group means indicated that the iPod group (21.0) was the top performer, followed by the computer group (18.6), the script group (17.1), and the control group (15.8). Overall, the script group had the highest improvement (+ 3.8) and the control group had the lowest improvement (+ 0.7). CONCLUSION: Podcasting is a valid technological application of sport imagery that can improve FT shooting performance among high school basketball players. Podcasting is recommended as an adjunct to mental and physical training that can benefit sport psychologists, the coaching staff, and most importantly the athletes

Racial Equity and Ultimate: A Case Study in Sports Geography

Ultimate, sometimes known as Ultimate Frisbee, carries with it particularities that sets it apart from other sports. The players are heavily stereotyped as progressive, alternative, White athletes, the sport itself rejects the status quo by encouraging self-officiation of the game by athletes, and the idea of “Spirit” is written into the very rules that govern play. Ultimate requires minimal equipment, there is no substantial endowment put into the sport, and athletic success is not a way to produce income or gain an academic scholarship. These factors make it appear to be a perfect avenue for equitable access. Yet, while Ultimate was created in 1968, a few years after any legal racial segregation in the US ended, the population of the sport confirms its stereotype. In other words, the sport is very White and lacks diversity. Through mixed qualitative methodology including interviews and multimedia document analysis, this thesis examines the ways that the foundation of Ultimate has produced this homogenous landscape. Further, through practices common in the field of sports geography, this thesis looks to the ways that the constructed space of a sport reflects spheres of society. This research finds that issues of withheld knowledge, insidiously high financial barriers, inappropriately weighted identity of alternative members of society, and hidden networks for implicit biases plague the “progressive” sport of Ultimate

Untangling the Web: A Guide To Internet Research

[Excerpt] Untangling the Web for 2007 is the twelfth edition of a book that started as a small handout. After more than a decade of researching, reading about, using, and trying to understand the Internet, I have come to accept that it is indeed a Sisyphean task. Sometimes I feel that all I can do is to push the rock up to the top of that virtual hill, then stand back and watch as it rolls down again. The Internet—in all its glory of information and misinformation—is for all practical purposes limitless, which of course means we can never know it all, see it all, understand it all, or even imagine all it is and will be. The more we know about the Internet, the more acute is our awareness of what we do not know. The Internet emphasizes the depth of our ignorance because our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite. My hope is that Untangling the Web will add to our knowledge of the Internet and the world while recognizing that the rock will always roll back down the hill at the end of the day