When we were doing a social media workshop for Convention & Visitor bureaus in Michigan last year we had one participant who was very doubtful that Twitter would be useful for him. We discussed the various ways Twitter can be a useful tool. Besides using it to listening to customers and talking to them we pointed out that Twitter can also be a great tool to talk to media and politicians. Why? Because if you want to pitch a story to a newspaper or talk to your congressman via “traditional” channels, you face a lot of competition. If you use Twitter, you are – at the moment – one of very few using this medium. Hence you have a much better chance of being heard.

At our workshop we quickly did a search for Michigan politicians on Twitter (this was before Twittersearch was castrated) and wouldn’t you know it – the head of the Ways & Means committee for the Michigan house was on Twitter. Not an unimportant contact when it comes to state budgets.

Fast forward to today (Jan 7th): the Florida Tourism industry started a Twitter account to share their thoughts on the proposed 40% cut of the Florida tourism budget (see story here). Why are not more tourism organizations doing this? Get on Twitter and tell your story – economic impact, job creation, tax revenues etc. If you use traditional media you compete with banks, the automotive industry and – who knew – the porn industry (see story on CNN here) who are all lobbying for money and all have much deeper pockets.

Are you following your politicians on Twitter? Have you ever talked to them on Twitter? Why not?

To get you started I have prepared a (very ugly) list of some politicians who I found on Twitter (surprisingly there is no complete list anywhere, if you find one, let me know. The Twitter Fan Wiki lists many branches of the US government and their Twitter accounts but some of the accounts for politicians are fake).

Now go and find your local politicians and connect with them as well. Can you imagine 40 or 50 constituents contacting a politician on the same day to talk about a specific subject? Maybe also tell the press about it … I guarantee this would get noticed.
It will be interesting to see what Florida Tourism will make out of the Twitter account, it would be nice if they would add a description and a link to a website so people can find out more information. Oh, it would also help to follow some Florida politicians and media. But overall a great step in the very right direction.

Feedback and comments as always very welcome. Leave them on the blog or find me at @coldinpdx .

If you have any interest how other destinations are having success with Twitter make sure to read a very insightful comment from @paadventure on yesterday’s blog post. Thanks for sharing!

Based on your feedback we have added more destinations to our growing list of tourism organizations on Twitter. 
@travelynnmo pointed out a very good point: many destinations have several Twitter accounts “powered” by different staff members. While this is a very valid strategy we are tracking (at the moment) just the main Twitter accounts as otherwise this exercise would get out of hands. But please share with us all accounts your organization is using, then we can start a separate list.

So, are more and more tourism organization starting to chirp?

See for yourself:

The two phases for growth were certainly influenced by a hands-on social media workshop we did for DMOs in Michigan at the end of September and a workshop ChicagoPlus did for it’s member DMOs in December.

And for sure we are still missing many other tourism organizations that are using Twitter. To make it easier for you to tell us which ones we are not tracking we have prepared an overview per state (US & CA).

We have added new destinations over the last days to the list, however we do not have data for them for number of followers and updates, even if they joined before Dec. 31 of 2008. 

While the number of followers in itself can be a misleading indicator (quality vs. quantity) I find it nevertheless impressive that of the DMOs we are tracking @VisitChicago or @BaltimoreMD have more followers than all DMOs from Florida and California combined.
 

But these can’t be all! Who else are we missing?

We want to know, even if this growing list is becoming more and more work …

Yesterday we published our monthly ranking of US tourism organizations on Twitter. Over the next days we will analyze the data some more and see if Twitter is really having an impact on tourism or if it just a fad. 

In this post we rank the 50 destinations that picked up the most followers in December of 08.

Pennylvania picked up almost 500 new followers, followed by Cleveland and Chicagoland.

Soon several DMOs will have more than 1,000 followers and if you look at the average number of daily updates this means that it will be possible to make several thousand contacts with consumes every day.

And here is a quick look at the growth rates for the three most followed and three fastest growing destinations over the last 3 months.

Most followed:

Fastest growing:

Of course now we all want to know what @paadventure did on December 2nd when they picked up 200 new users in just one day. 

And don’t forget: if you work for a tourism organization and have not participated in the “Social Media in Tourism” survey then please click here and give us your thoughts. The survey will close at the end of this week.

Another month has ended – time to see which new destination have started using Twitter and time to again rank all destinations we could find on Twitter.

Queen Anne of Chicagoland was able to defend the Nr. 1 position, picking up over 300 new followers in December alone. VisitChicago and BaltimoreMD both have now more than 1,000 followers. But other are catching up, @paadventure is closing the gap very fast.

We added 21 new destinations to our Twitter list. VisitMesa made a very impressive entry capturing the Nr. 20 spot on the list. More detailed analysis of the data in the next days.

As usual please let us know which destination we are missing. Leave a comment on the blog or D us on Twitter @coldinpdx or @ariannap.

And please do not forget to participate in the survey about tourism organizations and social media. 10 minutes is all it takes, results will be shared with all participants. Click here for the survey.

Over the last 12 months we have talked to a LOT of companies and and organizations about social media. Most feel overwhelmed, some are scared and fewer and fewer are doubting that social media is here to stay and will change how organizations interact with customers, suppliers, partners and employees.

Here is our top 5 list of answers we heard most often when asking organizations about social media in 2008:

1. “We did not have time to look into that”
Under which rock are you living? It is almost the year 2009! Twitter is old news, Facebook even older. If your company or organization does by now not understand that you need to have a presence on sites like Facebook or Twitter than you can probably only hope for some sort of bailout down the road. At a minimum register accounts to ensure nobody is “brand-jacking” your social media identity.

2. “We are monitoring the space”
Or even better: “we are actively monitoring the social media space”.
Clearly you are not “monitoring” closely enough, otherwise you would see that to really understand the power of social media, one has to do it. So get your hands dirty, sign up for a Twitter account and see what happens.

3. “We let our interns handle social media”
Good thinking: let the “young” people handle this. Throw them a bone – after all they are not even getting paid. The only two problems: do you let your interns also handle your brand-campaign and press releases? No? So why do you trust them with your social media efforts? And problem number 2: even if you have an intern who understands your brand, your products, your customers, your competitive situation and your procedures (yes, these are some of the things to keep in mind when starting with social media), that intern will be gone after 6 months. And with him/her he/she takes the relationships and insights gained and so your organization will start all over again.

4. “We are just experimenting with social media”
This is definitely a step in the right direction. But the danger of “experimenting” is that the efforts are not taken seriously. Which makes convincing results less likely.
You need to integrate your social media activities into your overall strategy. That does not mean paralysis by analysis but the willingness to allocate resources (mostly time), to learn and adapt without loosing the overall goal out of sight.

5. “We do not have clear goals yet for our social media efforts”
How will you know whether you are successful or not if you do not set yourself some goals? So after the “experimenting” phase is over, think about what you want to accomplish and write down some numbers. How many followers on Twitter, how many fans on Facebook, how many comments on your blog etc.? And while numbers are definitely not everything (quality beats quantity) it is good help to understand how your social media efforts will help your organization achieve it’s overall goals.

So how should companies and organizations tackle social media?

It just takes four simple steps:
1.    Do it.
2.    Learn from it.
3.    Measure and benchmark it
4.    Repeat first 3 steps.

Did we miss a step? Are you hearing the same answers we are hearing?

GoSeeTell provides technology solutions, thought leadership and support for the social media space. Connect with us on Twitter @coldinpdx or @ariannap .

Thanks to andwat for the photo.

Do you have maps on your website? Check out this really cool implementation of a Google map.

“Senghor on the Rocks” is a book-as-a-website with an integrated Google map. The book is in German but to see how the map is integrated you do not need to understand German. The setting of the book takes place in Dakar (Senegal) and on each page a Google map shows the area the characters are moving through.

Click on a page to turn it over and go to page 9 to see a really great example: you can follow the characters of the book on their drive through the city. The Google map in the satellite view gives users a really nice feel for the city.

Using the Google maps API it is not complicated to animate maps, why are not more websites making use of this? Animated itineraries come to mind …

And why are not more destination websites showing Google maps in a satellite view instead of a map view? If you are just trying to get a feel for a city or region the satellite view or the terrain option tell a lot more than the street map.

The only tourism website I could find using Google maps this way is the Idaho Tourism website (which I just realized today is a website with some very neat features and design elements). For the map see for example the listing for The Coeur d’Alene Resort.

So who has the best maps out there? Which other travel websites have neat mapping features that really make you want to visit?

Another month has passed and so it is time again to publish our list of US destinations on Twitter. Did Baltimore manage to get to over 1,000 followers? Did VisitChicago continue it’s drive to the top of the list? Who moves up the list, who drops down? Will any newcomer manage to go straight into the Top 10?

We will publish a more detailed look at the top DMOs in the next days with some very interesting insights into e.g. conversations, followers vs. following, frequency of updates etc.

And then of course we are looking forward to see the results for end of December? Will VisitChicago defend the Nr. 1 spot or will Baltimore take it back? Will Columbus leverage the social media training the staff got or will Philadelphia use the power of it’s more than 700 followers? With the Top 4 so close together this could turn into a friendly competition that will make any football and baseball rivalry look really boring.

Here are the answers for November and some explanations about the table:

We use TwitterGrader to rank all US destinations that we could find on Twitter. We only list Twitter accounts are are (or at least look to be) “official”, e.g. we do not list accounts from individual DMO employees. 

The change in ranking we only show for destinations that we have tracked for at least 2 months.

As always please let us know if we are missing any destinations.

When we talk to tourism organizations about social media we point out the usual advantages social media provides. The key ones are obviously the opportunity to listen to, talk with and engage visitors – before, while and after they are in a city or region.

This sometimes creates an interesting reaction, usually from the convention side of the business. They phrase it nicer but it comes down to this: “We do not care that much about visitors once they have made the decision to come to our city”. Really? Did I just hear you say that?

Well, not so fast.

Have you had a more detailed look at your budget lately, Mr. VP of Convention Sales? Chances are a good chunk of money is spent on something called a “Visitors Center”. It is a place where visitors can go to get information during their trip – way after they have made their decision to come to your beautiful town.

Probably you will now say that that money is well spent. After all the visitors will have a much better time because they get guided to the right places. And then they can write in one of the books that are lying around at the visitors center and share with everybody how much fun they had. Everybody who reads the book that is.

You see, you do not need a “Visitors Center” – you need a “Twisitors Center”. A way for visitors to get the advice and recommendations they are looking for – no matter where they are. A place to share stories, photos and experiences with millions of people all over the world – before, during and after the trip. Tools like Twitter are cheap, offer great ways to measure success and are what more and more visitors are using to get – and share – their travel information.

So, what are you doing for your Twisitors?

Two destination blogs (re)launched last week that both integrate social media elements in a very nice way:

Travel Oregon Blog

Travel Oregon (full disclosure: we work with them and provide content to them) relaunched their blog last week.

The blog was already considered by many one of the nicest and most successful destinations blog around before the redesign. The new blog is – in my opinion – even more interesting.

Travel Oregon now integrates not only videos (from YouTube, Vimeo etc.) but also Flickr photos into the blog. The “Oregon Snapshots” come from the Travel Oregon Flickr group. The blog footer invites readers to follow Travel Oregon on Twitter, the sidebar now includes a polling module. All great social elements for a blog and best of all – they do not cost a lot. 

If you want to see best practices in action do not miss the RSS feeds offered for the blog – not only are different feeds for the different categories available, the feed page also explains how feeds work and offers good resources. We need more examples like this to drive RSS adoption to where it should be!

Experience Columbus

Experience Columbus launched their blog last week and while they are a little bit later to the party they for sure come in a nice dress. The blog includes several interesting social media elements.

In the sidebar all staff members (18!) who are on Twitter are shown with their Twitter icons.

Also listed are links to the Experience Columbus Facebook page, myspace page and Flickr group. Unique is the integrated delicious feed for websites bookmarked by staff on the social bookmarking site. This can turn into an interesting resource e.g. for journalists who are looking for background info on the city. The only thing I would like to see improved is an easier navigation back to the main ExperienceColumbus page, maybe in the top level navigation. 

While playing around with the main Experience Columbus site I found some great elements other destinations should have a look at. 

The individual listings for hotels, attractions etc. include nicely integrated Google maps. But other destinations offer that as well. What I have not seen anywhere else are events listings that are tied to the individual member listing and therefore tied to the map location. So if I look at the Motorcycle Hall of Fame I can see all events taking place at the Hall of Fame in an extra tab. 

The infrastructure should allow Experience Columbus to very easily do even more as the events data is tied now to geo-data. Example: A Google map that shows all events taking place during a certain time within a certain radius around a specific place: “Let’s see what events are taking place within a mile radius from our hotel for the weekend we will be in Columbus”. Events are also available via a different RSS feeds.

Oh, the possibilities …

Almost every session at the TIA Marketing Outlook Forum in Portland talked about social media. Luxury, millennial travelers, hotels, attractions, DMOs – it was mentioned in almost all presentations or panel discussions (and there were close to 30). This was not surprising given the fact that the conference deals with marketing trends and few would argue that social media is THE thing happening at the moment.

But another thing was very surprising: there seems to be a quickly widening gap between those that are involved in social media and those who are now trying to get on the train before it pulls out of the station.

When asked what they had the biggest success with in the last 12 months and what they would focus more on in the next 12 months those being already involved in social media said they would do even more. Those who are just getting started or have not even started to dabble in this space said they would focus on various other things.

The session about online marketing / social media for attractions was very interesting in that regard as well. While the presenters showed great examples for pretty sophisticated social media campaigns, the Q&A session revealed that many in the audience where feeling overwhelmed and close to panic. And who would not feel for them?

Imagine being a destination, attraction, hotel or organization that has no experience whatsoever in social media. No Facebook account, no photos on Flickr, no blog, no Twitter account. And at the same time you competitors have already thousands of followers, fans or subscribers. But even worse: they have already made their mistakes and (hopefully) learned from them. You still have this ahead of you while your “social” competitors are setting new benchmarks.

At Marketing Outlook Forum I saw a “social gap”. On the one side those who are already using social media to their advantage, on the other side those who look in awe and try to figure out a way into the game. The problem is that in social media there are no shortcuts. It takes time to build meaningful engagement. The longer you wait, the bigger this social gap will get.

Are you seeing this social gap too? Are there any good examples of organizations that started late and yet were quickly very successful? What should those do that are just getting started?

(Thanks to mwichary for the photo).