Comments on: DMO Ranking on Twitter – May 09

By: katherine

katherine — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:05:14 +0000

I have to agree with Troy that i look forward to this list every month and start immediately checking after the 1st of the month. There truly is a competitive spirit among tourism entities and I find the twitterverse to be a place where a small organization can make themselves stand out.

With the increased influx of tourism entities jumping on board, I find i need to be even more careful about not crossing the line between pushy and helpful.

My most successful campaigns have been when I find a connection with someone to either have a lot of fun with them, or be helpful with tips that go beyond the usual stay here, go see this attraction. When I help them find true insider deals or little known secrets is when i get the most positive responses.

All that being said, there’s that ever present nagging doubt…is the return equal to the amount of time invested? For the time being the answer is yes, but as the competition increases, I wonder if that will hold true.

By: Celestino Ruffini

Celestino Ruffini — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:53:52 +0000

Great analysis. One question though: Accounts are listed multiple times on occasion, which therefore changes the overall ranking numbers. Is that a problem that is going to be corrected?

Thanks,

Celestino Ruffini @VisitGalena
Galena/Jo Daviess County CVB

By: Troy Thompson

Troy Thompson — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:18:28 +0000

Another nice post Martin.

As you know, tourism pros just love this type of competitive snapshot. Plus it is an Excel file! The perfect storm to create a popular post.

Anyway, your question about consumers withdrawing from Twitter, I would agree.

From my perspective, it follows the pattern of technology adoption in the general public.

Take email. When people first signed up for an AOL account, consumers were falling over themselves to sign up for anything and everything that would cause the ‘You’ve got mail’ sound to go off.

‘Honey, I just got another email!!…Amazing technology, this America Online.’

Fast-forward a couple years and email is not so amazing, and much more annoying. The inbox is a private space and we protect it like a junk yard dog…deleting anything that says ‘free’ in the subject line, screaming in anger if a company sends us more than one email a week and wondering why I am getting emails from Lands End! (Um, you ordered something from them)

Twitter is following the same pattern. New, amazing, only 140 characters! Quick, follow anyone and everyone you can.

Now, the general public is beginning to come to the realization that Twitter was not built so that you could follow the ramblings of every man, woman and child in America.

It was built to keep in touch with friends, family and subjects that you are interested in.

As a CVB, DMO, airline or hotel if your tweets, message and interaction on Twitter do not fall into that final category, expect to see your follower count go down.

- Troy