Stuart MacDonald on the Social Startup

As I mentioned a few weeks back, I was asked to do a lecture on social media for startups to a class of entrepreneurship students at the U of O business school.  Stuart MacDonald, founder of Expedia.ca and the soon-to-be-launched TripHarbor.com agreed to lend his considerable marketing expertise to my lecture notes on what social media means to entrepreneurs.

Here then, are his answers to the questions I asked.

First of all, tell me a little bit about TripHarbour.

Tripharbour Limited (www.Tripharbour.ca and www.Tripharbor.com) is my new venture, and my first since I founded Expedia.ca and was CMO of Expedia.com. We are helping people find and buy the perfect cruise vacation by integrating eComm and community elements under one roof.

How are you building social media into the strategy of launching the business?

There is a basic social media element all through the concept. We will enable cruise fans and Tripharbour team members to meet and share with each other, to ask and answer questions, to share photos, ratings, reviews etc. As well, we are using online tools such as blogs, Twitter and Facebook as elements to introduce the new service across North America.

As Tripharbour launches, what role do you see social media playing in its success?

I see the community component, with the participation of our members and our team, as being a critical point of difference and business accelerator. Nobody is doing what it is we are building in the cruise vacation category, and as people increasing look online, and to “people like me” for answers, we believe we can build a service that will make people’s lives better and grow our brand.

Do you think it’s important for startups to be active in social media like Twitter, Facebook and blogging?

I honestly can’t imagine anyone starting or running a business without having a social media component to their business plan. I am not a zealot who thinks that it is some kind of cure-all and that traditional means of promoting a business are suddenly out of date. They’re not. But this and other online tools need to be a part of every businesses tool kit.

Are there any types of businesses you think should steer clear of social media as a marketing tool?

No.

When you started Expedia.ca, social media was barely a thought. Do you think you could have launched that business as successfully without taking advantage of social media channels today?

Well, there were many things that didn’t exist then that are basics today. Paid search for instance. But, we did recognize social media and user generated content as meaningful pieces of the puzzle early on, as evidenced by the fact that TripAdvisor became part of the IAC Travel (Expedia’s owner at the time) world in around 2003.

How does a company become part of a community?

With honesty and integrity, and a personal commitment to engage. Although it may be seen by many people, social media is essentially a 1:1 thing that happens in a semi-public forum. You can’t leave it to others – you need to get in and participate.

If you had one piece of advice to a room full of young entrepreneurs, what would it be?

Remember that business is essentially about solving problems and making people’s live better – in fact, that’s what good marketing is. It’s not a logo or an ad. Don’t try to do something cool; try to do something that’s profitable, sustainable and matters to customers. And dream big – Canada is a great place, but it is a small market. There’s nobody in the US or Europe who is only ever thinking about their local market.