Hospitality eBusiness Strategies will present during EyeforTravel's Social Media Strategies for Travel conference, to be held in San Francisco March 5-6. This will be the premier travel event in 2008 to be focused 100% on social media.

Max Starkov, HeBS' Chief eBusiness Strategist will present during the session: "Drive Traffic to Your Site with a Comprehensive Social Search Marketing Strategy." The session, also featuring top executives from Google and Farecast, will include a social media strategy presentation followed by a panel discussion. The panel will cover a range of topics including the importance of a social search engine marketing strategy and the status and future of search engine marketing and other Internet marketing formats in the new Web 2.0 environment.

"Social Media is the new frontier which is here to stay. There is an ideological clash between official web content and user-generated content that creates a lot of uncertainty and confusion among travel suppliers and travel consumers alike." said Max Starkov. "Web 2.0 has changed dramatically how travel consumers perceive the travel suppliers' marketing message, and has introduced a new reference point. Many hoteliers and travel suppliers are unsure about the implications of Web 2.0 on more ‘traditional' Internet marketing formats such as search marketing, email marketing, and display advertising. EyeforTravel's Social Media Strategies for Travel conference and HeBS together will offer practical, real-world advice on implementing social media strategies in the overall hotel Internet marketing strategy."

According to Helen Raff, Eye for Travel's VP North America, "Our industry is truly embracing social media and UGC and will soon be showing the rest of the business world how to make it pay. EyeforTravel is running this unique event to help travel companies from all sectors of the industry understand how they can monetize their web 2.0 strategies. A key part of this journey is understanding how to incorporate social media into your overall search strategy, and we are delighted that Max will be joining a key presentation and debate on this topic at the event."

HeBS, one of the pioneers in social media strategies and implementations in hospitality, creates and implements Web 2.0 strategies for its clients. HeBS' principals have written some of the most popular articles and research papers on the subject, including "Consumer Generated Media, a Threat or an Opportunity?", and "Web 2.0 vs. Search Engines: Are Search Engines Becoming Obsolete in the Web 2.0 Frenzy?"

In the conference, Max Starkov will discuss the role of search engines and their significance in the Web 2.0 environment, show how mastering this subject and developing a Social Media strategy is a must, and offer supporting data and case studies on how search engines remain of strategic importance long-term in online marketing and distribution.