Every month we get question about the algorithm used to compile this list and every month we have to point to Twitter Grader – the 3rd party tool we use to compile this list. As Twitter Grader does not disclose their exact formula we also have only limited insight which factors influence the grade for a Twitter account. If you want to learn more check out this blog post.

And while we talk a lot about Twitter on this blog we think nobody should overlook the possibilities that Facebook offers. We have a ranking for destinations on Facebook as well (unpublished yet), the main downside being that there are no tools for Facebook that measure engagement in a more sophisticated way than just looking at number of fans. If there is interest in that list or if you know of a way to include other parameters let us know.

And while we talk about Facebook we also want to make sure than anybody who uses social media for marketing or PR has seen the huge changes Facebook launched today: the ability to search all public wall posts from all users. The search is not very sophisticated yet but count on Facebook to develop tools around that or give 3rd party developers to build tools. These tools will sit of course within the Facebook platform (unlike on Twitter where the API allows for data portability). Very clever – and very scary if you are a Facebook user and are not sure what your current privacy settings are.

As an example see this screenshot of a search for the term “vacation” within posts by everyone. I think some interesting information for the travel space could be found in these posts …

Of course the Facebook mechanism are different than the one from Twitter and connecting with somebody is very different than just following somebody on Twitter. But the changes in search show that Facebook is paying close attention to Twitter and adopting to be more competitive.

Here is the Twitter ranking for July 09 – as usual we rely on your feedback to add new accounts or delete inactive ones.

And as in the past we want to disclose that we work with several DMOs on their social media strategy (e.g. Travel Portland, San Francisco CVB) as well as tourism clients who are just in the process of launching their social media presence and will show up on the list over the next months.

Where are California or Boston for example? They have registered an account to protect their name and brand but are not using the accounts.

Did they miss the boat or are they just smarter than anybody else? What are tourism organizations getting out of Twitter? Some organizations have stopped using Twitter and shut down their accounts. Others are posting less often (and spending less time on Twitter).

In our ranking through Twitter Grader the top 4 positions remain unchanged but @nycgo picked up over 2,000 new followers in June to know rank Nr. 5. At the end of June six destinations had more than 5,000 followers. It seems that at least some DMOs are getting a good return for their time spend on Twitter.

Kissimmee became the latest destination to launch an official “Twisitor Center” where visitors can use Twitter to ask travel related questions and get answers in real time. And while they are not the first to use Twitter in this form as a tool for customer service, they still got good PR for it. Which proves that Twitter still has a buzz-factor that can be used for public relations work.

But at the same time a lot of organizations seem to be putting a lot of time into Twitter (measured by number of updates) without getting that much traction. It does not seem unlikely that over the next months more accounts will be shut down.

So what are your thoughts on this? Are you having success with your destination Twitter account? If so, how do measure the success? What do you think will the future hold for tourism and Twitter?

Our list of US/CA tourism organizations that have a presence on Twitter has grown to over 300. More than 70 destination accounts have over 1,000 followers. Here are the details (and as usual we used Twitter Grader on the last day of the month -in this case May 31st – for the ranking):

Since the end of May we found several new destinations using Twitter but as usual we rely on your feedback to complete our list.

We would also love to hear if anybody else is seeing Twitter and reactions from Twitter users change. If so, how?

We found over 100 new destinations on Twitter bringing the total to over 300. Thanks to @nathankam and his list of DMOs on Twitter – lots of destinations we had not been tracking.

Putting the list together is becoming a bigger and bigger project every month, with now over 300 accounts that have to be run through Twitter Grader it takes more than a day just to get the data (thanks to @allisonkpark for helping with this).

The month of April saw @BaltimoreMD returning to the top of the ranking again (no tattoo needed this time), @VisitChicago held it’s second spot. Both destinations have a high number of updates, besides followers an important factor in the Twitter grader algorithm.

(Disclosure as usual: we manage @TravelPortland and @OnlyinSF Twitter accounts and work with many other organizations on the list on social media projects).

Other major developments: @ExpCols launched a Twisitor Center using the hashtag #expcols. As you might know we are huge fans of using Twitter hashtags for visitor information and we hope more destinations will start using them. @iknowdenver just started on Twitter and is using not only one but four different hashtags to identify different information. You have to look at the Denver Twitter page on a web-browser to understand the concept as the information about it is embedded into the background of the page.

If you are still not convinced that using Twitter for visitor information is a good thing, consider this: the Twisitor Center we developed and operate for Travel Portland has generated media impressions worth over one million dollars. And that is just print, not counting social media like Twitter itself. @guykawasaki twittered about it and that tweet itself was re-tweeted multiple times reaching through this process almost half a million Twitter users.

So who else is in, who will be the next destination to use Twitter to identify and answer questions from visitors?

Putting our monthly ranking of destinations on Twitter was slightly challenging this month as our trusted tool Twitter Grader was uncooperative and had significant down time. Usually we pull the data all on one day (the last day of the month) but because of the problems it took 3 days to get all data.

So, how many destinations in the US and Canada had a Twitter presence at the end of March 2009? We 24 new ones bringing the total we are tracking to 236 (new DMOs are marked in yellow).
We are probably missing some – let us know which ones.

24 tourism organizations now have more than 1,000 followers. Travel Portland added over 1,600 new followers as the buzz for the “Twisitor Center” continued.

And as usual we want to disclose that we work with several of the listed DMOs on various social media and social travel initiatives. Those DMOs are marked with a “*” behind their name.

February brought many changes to our ranking including a new Nr. 1: @BaltimoreMD put – literally – a lot of skin in the game, became the first destination with more than 3,000 followers and moved up to the top spot.

Congratulations to Tom and everybody else in Baltimore!

If you have not followed the “fail whale” tattoo story, you can read up on it here and also see a video of the “fail whale” finding it’s home on a nicely shaved leg. A must read for anybody who wants to see another great example of how to create a buzz with social media.

@VisitChicago and @TravelPortland (disclosure: we manage that account) also broke through 3,000 followers. @TravelPortland gained a lot more followers through the PR and attention created for the Portland Twisitor Center and @VisitChicago is just lucky to have somebody managing the account who really gets social media.

We will have a separate blog post later this week to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of trying to get as many followers as possible (a topic that has cause good debate in the past).

Overall we are now tracking more than 208 destinations in the US and Canada.

Here is the ranking for destinations as of February 28th. For some destinations grader did not return results so we estimated the grade (those grades are in italics).

As usual please let us know who we are missing, @anneh632 already found 5 new destinations on Twitter. Please keep them coming.

Also, if you destination is not yet listed on TwisitorCenter.com please follow the account so we can follow back and your destinations will show up on the map with destinations that twitter.

Highlights:

• We found 164 official Twitter accounts for destinations in the US & CA
• @VisitChicago is still the most followed DMO
• 10 organizations have over 1,000 followers
• Of the top 20, 3 accounts average more than 10 tweets per day (@ExpCols, @lehighvalleypa, @paadventure)
• All counts combined have over 36,000 followers and have posted over 22,000 updates.
• Combined the accounts we were tracking already in Dec 08 added more than 11,000 followers in January 09

As usual we used Twitter Grader to create the ranking. Changes in rank are for accounts we were already tracking in December 08, change is Jan 09 vs. Dec 08.

Three destinations appear to have stopped using Twitter: @TriValleyCVB, @SaultCVB and @WMTA1917.
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(Full disclosure: we work with Travel Portland on their social media strategy and are currently managing the Twitter account for @TravelPortland).

And a few brands are raising to the occasion and using their, shall we say assets, to gain attention in new, authentic and honest ways.  Whether or not you would deem these strategies effective or complete flops they are at the very least unexpected.

25 years and still red hot

The story and brand attributes of Virgin Atlantic are widely known, and that is precisely why this ad, celebrating what at times seemed like an impossible milestone, is so effective.  See for yourself:

Anniversary commercial

However, you do not have to take my word for it, Richard Branson, explains his airline’s success:

Who’d have thought 25 years ago that Virgin Atlantic would be the leading airline player it is today?

Now, we use 38 aircraft to fly six million people a year to 30 destinations around the world.

Our 9,000 staff have built an airline that, after 25 years, is still red hot; an airline that focuses on being the best, not the biggest, and injects customer service and innovation into its daily philosophy.

By emphasizing the same brand attributes that have engaged and intrigued audiences for 25 years, Virgin Atlantic created a spot that is both authentic and entertaining to consumers.

Philadelphia: a good sport with a sense of humor

All things considered it could have / should have been a really tough week for the great people of Philadelphia.

First of all their beloved Eagles lost to the Arizona Cardinals, which is rough enough, but to make matters worse their twitter account (@visitphilly) was forced to use a Cardinals logo as their avatar for the week.

This costume change was part of a friendly wager they engaged in with our friends at the Arizona Office of Tourism (@ArizonaTourism) prior to the game.  While this could have been a convenient time to take a Twitter time-out the account has been active all week, dressed as the Arizona mascot.

Then while minding their own business the City of Brotherly Love was the butt of some of political humorist, Jon Stewart’s jokes.

The original blog post is witty and well written; so there is no need for me to rewrite it for you, find all the details here.

Once again the city responded in stride, willing to let it go, but not before they got a couple of their own good-hearted digs out against Stewart. “Well, Jon, we’re used to this kind of thing and we know how to respond: Philadelphia, the city that bleeps you back.”

Proving that having a sense of humor and sharing your personality especially in the world of social media can only serve to boost your brand and inspire your enthusiasts to rally behind you.

No visitors, no problem

Ontario Tourism has created a contest that Algoma hopes will put it on the map.

The Great Ontario Outdoors Adventure of a Lifetime contest will hand out a week-long adventure for four through Algoma’s wilderness and along Lake Superior’s northeast shore.

And the big winner will be the area’s tourism industry, says the executive director of Ontario’s Algoma Country.

It is the lack of visitors, serene surroundings and available excursions that make Algoma the perfect location for this adventure seeker’s dream vacation. While it is yet to been seen if this promotion will be enough to put Algoma on the map, as they hope, the honesty regarding their tourism is refreshing.

Additionally, Ontario has turned what most deem as a negative, a lack of visitors, into the centerpiece of their promotion.  In the current economic climate there is no better time than the present to position negatives as positives.

Rather than try to recreate the wheel with your marketing efforts try using attributes, situations or even perceived weaknesses that your brand currently possesses and repackage them in new ways in order to gain attention and build authenticity.

What do you think, are there other great examples that we missed?  Please let us know.

Thank you to MPR529, Rubenstein and mike_miley for photos.

Tourism Queensland yesterday launched a big user-generated-content campaign: the Australian version of “Island Idol”. Visitors are invited to submit a casting video on www.islandreefjob.com and apply for the job of Island Caretaker in the Great Barrier Reef:

The Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef is a newly created position. There are a few minor tasks that need to be taken care of, but the most important duty is to report back to Tourism Queensland (and the world) and let us know what’s taking place on the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef.

The promotion was launched on a very nice (but flash heavy) microsite and supported by a very clever PR campaign.

Videos are submitted to the site but hosted on YouTube. About 30 videos have been submitted so far. Tourism Queensland will select 10 candidates and the public can select one wildcard candiate. All will be flown to Queensland where the final selection will be made. And one lucky winner will get to live in the Barrier Reef for 6 months and be paid to go sailing, snorkeling etc. and blog about it. Oh, the salary: A$150,000 for six months.

Another destination that launched a video contest today was Discover LA. For the launch of the new “That’s so LA” campaign consumers are asked to submit a video (or a photo) for a chance to win one of 5 LA weekends and $1,000 in cash. Videos are uploaded on the site and also hosted on DiscoverLA.com. Very few videos have been submitted but some of the ones that have been uploaded look like they might infringe on copyright for music used in the background (but then – I am not a lawyer.)

And the third destination to launch a YouTube video contest is CapeTown Tourism. The contest does not indicate whether it is the work of the official Capetown Tourism organization or somebody else. Users can submit a video to win 2 tickets on a cruise that departs on Feb 14th. Winners for the contest will be announced just 2 weeks before on Feb 2nd. Does not give the winner a lot of time to pack …

Overall thoughts:

The Tourism Queensland campaign is not cheap but beautifully executed. Great idea, great website, great YouTube integration, great PR. They will get their money’s worth, even with the high cost involved. By hosting the videos on YouTube Tourism Queensland minimizes the risk of copyright infringement plus benefits from the power of YouTube – the YouTube channel for the contest was the 4th most watched channel in Australia today. By hosting the videos themselves Discover LA misses out on the viral opportunities YouTube offers.

But YouTube alone is not the way to go as the Capetown contest shows. I challenge you to find the information about the rules and the prize on the site. Without a microsite to support it is hard to run a video contest on YouTube.

The biggest challenge for video contest is the high hurdle for engaging people. If you do not get a lot of people really excited about the idea and/or about the prize you will not get a lot of videos.

So don’t do a video contest it if you can not do it right.

Anybody wants to guess how many videos will be uploaded on
- Feb 2nd when the Capetown Tourism contest closes
- Feb 22nd (or earlier if more than 30,000 applications are received) for the Queensland contest
- June 1st, when the Discover LA contest closes?

Your thoughts on video contests in general?

Quite a few destinations therefore conduct follow-unfollow campaigns to grow the number of their friends.

But this is also time-consuming and has to be done right as Twitter will shut down accounts that have a big imbalance between followers and being-followed.

We use the followers/updates rating as a metric that we track each month for the accounts we manage. It tells us how successful we are in creating good content and in growing our following. We only looked at destinations that were on our list on Dec. 31st and had posted more than 10 updates.

Comparing these ratios between different accounts is not as meaningful when you look at them only as a snapshot and not as development over time.

Here is how to read this: WilliamsportPA twittered 10 times and got 219 followers. GoRockford on the other hand twittered 264 times and had on 12/31 only 71 followers. The ExpCol account that is fed by an RSS sent 1863 updates and had 705 followers. Paadventure has more followers and got there with only 221 updates.
(Full disclosure: we are working with TravelPortland – Nr. 34 on the list – on developing and implementing their social media strategy which includes Twitter activities)

So the learning form this? You need to spend time on tweets and on growing your number of followers. And you need to develop metrics to measure the efficiency of your twitter efforts over time.

What are your thoughts on this?