buddahs

Facing budget cuts? Talk to your politicians on Twitter!

January 8th, 2009

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).





Name

State

Twitter Account

Rep. John Boozman

AR

http://twitter.com/JohnBoozman

Rep. Jeff Flake

AZ

http://twitter.com/JeffFlake

Rep. KevonMcCarthy

CA

http://twitter.com/kevinomccarthy

Rep. Mike Honda

CA

http://twitter.com/mikehonda

Rep. Nancy Pelosi

CA

http://twitter.com/nancypelosi

Sen. Barbara Boxer

CA

http://twitter.com/Barbara_Boxer

Sen. Hillary Clinton

CA

http://twitter.com/hillaryclinton

Rep. George Miller

CA

http://twitter.com/boblatta

Rep. Christopher Shays

CT

http://twitter.com/ShaysCongress

Sen. Chris Dodd

CT

http://twitter.com/SenChrisDodd

Sen. Joe Biden

DE

http://twitter.com/joebiden

Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen

FL

http://twitter.com/IRL

Rep. Kendrick Meek

FL

http://twitter.com/kendrickbmeek

Sen. Elect Matt Rector

GU

http://twitter.com/MattRector

Rep. Neil Abercrombie

HI

http://twitter.com/neilabercrombie

Rep. Tom Latham

IA

http://twitter.com/TomLatham

Sen. Charles Grassley

IA

http://twitter.com/ChuckGrassley

President-elect Barack Obama

IL

http://twitter.com/BarackObama

Rep. John Shimkus

IL

http://twitter.com/RepShimkus

Rep. Dan Burton

IN

http://twitter.com/danburton

Rep. John Yarmuth

KY

http://twitter.com/Yarmuth

Rep. Candice Miller

MI

http://twitter.com/candicemiller

Rep. Peter Hoekstra

MI

http://twitter.com/petehoekstra

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter

MI

http://twitter.com/ThadMcCotter

Rep. Keith Ellison

MN

http://twitter.com/keithellison

Rep. Michelle Bachmann

MN

http://twitter.com/MicheleBachmann

Rep. Roy Blunt

MO

http://twitter.com/RepRoyBlunt

Sen. Scott Rupp

MO

http://twitter.com/Senator_Rupp

Rep. Dennis Rehberg

MT

http://twitter.com/dennyrehberg

Senator Tom Udall

NM

http://twitter.com/tomudall

Rep. John Kuhl

NY

http://twitter.com/RandyKuhl

Rep. Bob Latta

OH

http://twitter.com/TomLatham

Rep. Jim Jordan

OH

http://twitter.com/jiminhofe

Rep. John Boehner

OH

http://twitter.com/johnboehner

Rep. Tim Ryan

OH

http://twitter.com/timryan

Rep. Bob Latta

OH

http://twitter.com/boblatta

Sen. Jim Inhofe

OK

http://twitter.com/jiminhofe

Rep. Earl Blumenauer

OR

http://twitter.com/repblumenauer

Rep. Greshman Barrett

SC

http://twitter.com/greshambarrett

Rep. Joe Wilson

SC

http://twitter.com/CongJoeWilson

Rep. Robert Inglis

SC

http://twitter.com/bobinglis

Sen. Jim DeMint

SC

http://twitter.com/jimdemint

Rep. Joe Wilson

SC

http://twitter.com/CongJoeWilson

Rep. Don Kopp

SD

http://twitter.com/Rep_Kopp

Rep. John Culberson

TX

http://twitter.com/johnculberson

Rep. Michael Burgess

TX

http://twitter.com/michaelcburgess

Sen. John Cornyn

TX

http://twitter.com/JohnCornyn

Rep. Eric Cantor

VA

http://twitter.com/EricCantor

Rep. Randy Forbes

VA

http://twitter.com/Randy_Forbes

Rep. Robert Wittman

VA

http://twitter.com/RobWittman

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 .

Which state gets the most out of Twitter?

January 6th, 2009

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.
 









Destinations City / State First tweet Followers 12/31/2008 Updates 12/31/2008
insidealaska Alaska 7/29/08 71 146
Total Alaska     71 146
   
ArizonaTourism Arizona 6/27/08 670 348
ScottsdaleAZ Scottsdale, AZ 10/2/08 420 114
VisitMesa Mesa, AZ 11/18/08 280 166
VisitFlagstaff Flagstaff, AZ 10/15/08 128 140
Flagstaff_CVB Flagstaff, AZ - 17 0
visitphoenix Phoenix, AZ 7/17/08  
Total Arizona     1515 768
   
MyVancouver Vancouver, BC 10/10/08 24 8
Total BC     24 8
   
discover_la Los Angeles, CA 9/4/08 246 325
InsideSonoma Sonoma, CA 7/3/08 189 372
ShastaCascade Shasta Cascada, CA 5/29/08 97 87
westhollywood West Hollywood, CA 11/10/08 84 21
Calistoga Calistoga, CA 9/2/07 56 180
SantaRosaCVB Santa Rosa, CA 10/1/08 37 24
MendocinoCounty Mendocino County, CA 10/1/08 29 6
ButteCo Butte County, CA 10/1/08 20 3
AnaheimOC Anaheim, CA 7/23/08 12 1
TriValleyCVB Tri Valley, CA 7/23/08 0 0
Total California     770 1019
   
visitflorida Florida 7/24/08 280 411
PensacolaCVB Pensacola, FL 5/20/08 123 104
MiamiandBeaches Miami, FL 12/29/08 2 3
Total Florida     405 518
   
VisitIdaho Idaho 11/4/08 74 70
Total Idaho     74 70
   
VisitChicago Chicago, IL 10/3/08 1272 516
enjoyillinois Illinois 10/15/08 482 235
choosechicago Chicago, IL 9/10/08 136 34
chicagonorthsub Prospect Heights, IL 12/3/08 121 18
chicagonw Woodfield, IL 12/3/08 107 25
gorockford Rockford, IL 11/21/08 71 264
ChicagoNShore Chicago North Shore, IL 12/3/08 70 8
VisitOakPark Oak Park, IL 12/3/08 50 6
Lislecvb Lisle, IL 12/3/08 49 4
StCharlesIL St. Charles, IL 12/3/08 40 2
ILMICanal I&M Canal, IL 12/3/-8 34 9
HeritageCVB Herritage Corridor, IL 12/3/08 33 10
GenevaIL Geneva, IL 12/3/-8 29 3
VisitGrayling Grayling, IL 10/3/08 26 16
LakeCoCVB Lake County, IL 12/18/08 26 14
VisitAlton Alton Riverbend Area, IL 11/17/08 14 5
DiscoverDupage Dupage, IL 12/3/08  
CSCVB Chicago Southland, IL 11/21/08  
VisitPontiacIL Pontiac, IL 11/17/08  
explorechicago Chicago, IL 1/6/09  
Total Illinois     2560 1169
   
VisitIndiana Indiana 8/27/08 257 487
Total Indiana     257 487
   
IowaTourism Iowa 11/11/08 4 1
Total Iowa     4 1
   
visitkc Kansas City, KS 9/26/08 113 56
Total Kansas     113 56
   
DestWorcester Worchester, MA 11/10/08 32 47
Total Massachusetts     32 47
   
BaltimoreMD Baltimore, MD 7/30/08 1157 759
MarylandTrip Maryland 12/31/08  
Total Maryland     1157 759
   
GrandRapidsCVB Grand Rapids, MI 9/29/08 185 67
BattleCreekCVB Battle Creek, MI 9/29/08 134 34
AnnArborAreaCVB Ann Arbor, MI 9/29/08 111 139
VisitJacksonMI Jackson, MI 9/29/08 80 8
VisitDetroit Detroit, MI 9/29/08 54 21
AlpharettaCVB Alpharette, GA 9/19/08 53 25
LansingCVB Lansing, MI 9/29/08 48 5
HarborCountry Harbor Country, MI 9/29/08 56 17
BenzieCounty Benzie County, MI 9/29/08 28 6
SouthHaven_CVB South Haven, MI 9/29/08 19 9
visitbigrapids Big Rapids, MI 9/29/08 17 4
Ypsilanti Ypsilanti, MI 9/29/08 20 13
BayCityMichigan Bay City, MI 9/29/08 18 5
HollandAreaCVB Holland, MI 9/29/08 18 3
Lenawee_Fun Lenawee County, MI 10/8/07 17 7
SaultCVB Sault, MI 9/29/08 0 0
ClareCountyCVB Clare County, MI 9/29/08 0 0
WMTA1917 West Michigan, MI 9/9/08 0 0
Total Michigan     858 363
   
MeetMinneapolis Minneapolis, MN 5/5/08 476 180
VisitBtown Bloomington, MN 11/17/08 49 39
Total Minnesota     525 219
   
SpringfieldCVB Springfield, MO 9/3/08 573 267
ColumbiaMOCVB Columbia, MO 10/10/08 205 157
VisitMissouri Missouri 9/25/08 114 31
Total Missouri     892 455
   
brandingmontana Montana   0 0
Total Montana     0 0
   
ashevilletravel Asheville, NC 3/12/08 332 423
Hillsborough Hillsborough, NC 2/20/08 195 251
ecacvb Elisabeth City, NC 10/1/08 36 9
AshevilleCVB Asheville - 19 0
Total North Carolina     582 683
   
fargomoorhead Fargo, ND 10/16/08 109 72
Total North Dakota     109 72
   
VisitNH New Hampshire 9/12/08 195 101
Total New Hamsphire     195 101
   
renotahoe Reno / Tahoe, NV 4/3/08 337 82
travelnevada Nevada 4/2/08 237 104
Total Nevada     574 186
   
visitfingerlake Finger Lakes, NY 9/3/07 129 413
Total New York     129 413
   
ExpCols Columbus, OH 5/18/08 705 1863
PositivelyCleve Cleveland, OH 5/26/08 748 396
flee2thecleve Cleveland, OH 5/31/08 183 166
WarrenCountyOH Warren County, OH 11/26/08 17 2
Total Ohio     1653 2427
   
TravelOregon Oregon 5/2/08 646 883
TravelPortland Portland, OR 12/1/08 226 126
WCVA Washington County, OR 8/4/08 118 84
southernoregon Southern Oregon, OR 11/15/08 72 8
CorvallisScene Corvallis, OR 12/16/08  
travelcoosbay Coos Bay, OR 12/28/08  
Total Oregon     1062 1101
   
visitphilly Philadelphia, PA 7/29/08 856 1032
lehighvalleypa Lehigh Valley, PA 10/10/08 852 551
paadventure Pennsylvania 10/13/08 841 221
WilliamsportPA Williamsport, PA 1/3/08 219 10
VisitVF Valley Forge, PA 7/23/08 112 19
Total Pennsylvania     2880 1833
   
ProvidenceRI Providence, RI 12/8/08    
Total Rhode Island        
   
ColumbiaSC Columbia, SC 11/12/07 330 151
MyMyrtleBeach Myrtle Beach, SC 11/12/08  
Total South Carolina     330 151
   
chattanoogafun Cattagooga, TN 10/10/08 76 20
Clarksville_CVB Clarksville, TN 10/9/08 46 5
kingsportcvb Kingsport, TN 12 0
Total Tennessee     134 25
   
GalvestonIsland Galvaston, TX 6/21/08 220 421
FortSmithCVB Forth Smith, TX 10/19/07 99 203
PadreDude South Padre Island, TX 7/17/07 42 37
Total Texas     361 661
   
UtahStateParks Utah State Parks 10/1/08 322 47
MeetInSaltlake Salt Lake City, UT 11/10/08 8 8
Total Utah     330 55
   
VisitVirginia Virginia 9/15/08 167 124
VisitFairfax Farifax, VA 9/2/08 175 93
VaBeachCVB Virginia Beach, VA 7/29/08 102 21
Stockton_CVB Stockton, VA 8/26/08 34 12
NorfolkCVB Norfolk, VA - 0 0
Total Virginia     478 250
   
VermontTourism Vermont 9/7/08 204 66
Total Vermont     204 66
   
whatcomcounty Whatcom County, WA 10/17/08 197 168
Total Washington     197 168
   
visitmilwaukee Milwaukee, WI 11/6/08 160 9
Visit_Madison Madison, WI 22 0
Total Wisconsin     182 9

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 …

Fastest growing destinations on Twitter

January 6th, 2009

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.

 

Rank Dec Destinations Change Followers Average updates / day Followers / Updates Ratio
1 paadventure 491 3.6 3.8
2 PositivelyCleve 392 6.1 1.9
3 VisitChicago 319 7.6 2.5
4 lehighvalleypa 307 7.6 1.5
5 SpringfieldCVB 229 6.1 2.1
6 TravelOregon 211 7.2 0.7
7 enjoyillinois 209 3.1 2.1
8 TravelPortland 208 4.1 1.8
9 ScottsdaleAZ 207 1.8 3.7
10 visitflorida 184 4.5 0.7
11 ArizonaTourism 165 2.8 1.9
12 BaltimoreMD 146 6.5 1.5
13 visitphilly 146 5.6 0.8
14 MeetMinneapolis 144 2.0 2.6
15 GrandRapidsCVB 138 1.5 2.8
16 ExpCols 106 12.1 0.4
17 whatcomcounty 105 2.2 1.2
18 ColumbiaMOCVB 103 3.5 1.3
19 WilliamsportPA 100 0.2 21.9
20 renotahoe 98 1.1 4.1
21 discover_la 97 2.7 0.8
22 VisitFairfax 87 1.3 1.9
23 flee2thecleve 85 2.4 1.1
24 VisitIndiana 84 4.0 0.5
25 ColumbiaSC 79 0.9 2.2
26 InsideSonoma 70 3.6 0.5
27 visitmilwaukee 69 0.1 17.8
28 VermontTourism 65 0.8 3.1
29 VisitNH 58 0.6 1.9
30 travelnevada 54 0.5 2.3
31 ashevilletravel 53 1.6 0.8
32 southernoregon 50 0.1 9.0
33 VisitVirginia 48 0.7 1.3
34 fargomoorhead 48 1.5 1.5
35 visitkc 45 0.6 2.0
36 VisitFlagstaff 43 2.5 0.9
37 UtahStateParks 42 0.1 6.9
38 WCVA 41 1.0 1.4
39 visitfingerlake 36 4.0 0.3
40 AnnArborAreaCVB 32 0.8 0.8
41 BattleCreekCVB 31 0.2 3.9
42 FortSmithCVB 29 1.5 0.5
43 VisitMissouri 26 0.0 3.7
44 VaBeachCVB 25 0.1 4.9
45 PensacolaCVB 24 0.7 1.2
46 insidealaska 21 2.2 0.5
47 Hillsborough 20 1.4 0.8
48 chattanoogafun 20 0.2 3.8
49 HarborCountry 20 0.1 3.3
50 VisitJacksonMI 16 0.0 10.0

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.

Destinations on Twitter - Ranking Dec 08

January 4th, 2009

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.

 

Destination  

Twitter name

Rank Dec 08 Rank Change Dec. vs. Nov TwitterGrade 12/31/2008 Followers 12/31/2008 Following 12/31/2008 Updates 12/31/2008
VisitChicago 1 0 99.3 1272 1642 516
BaltimoreMD 2 0 99.1 1157 2688 759
visitphilly 3 1 99 856 1075 1032
lehighvalleypa 4 3 98.9 852 1513 551
ExpCols 5 -2 98.8 705 668 1863
ArizonaTourism 6 -1 98.8 670 385 348
paadventure 7 3 98.7 841 1152 221
TravelOregon 8 -2 98.7 646 621 883
SpringfieldCVB 9 0 98.1 573 594 267
PositivelyCleve 10 4 97.9 748 1250 396
MeetMinneapolis 11 0 97.4 476 394 180
enjoyillinois 12 0 97.3 482 607 235
ScottsdaleAZ 13 5 96.5 420 485 114
ashevilletravel 14 -6 96.3 332 274 423
renotahoe 15 -2 96 337 197 82
VisitIndiana 16 0 95.3 257 169 487
ColumbiaSC 17 0 95 330 604 151
UtahStateParks 18 -3 94 322 531 47
visitflorida 19 10 94 280 342 411
VisitMesa 20   94 280 396 166
discover_la 21 -1 94 246 337 325
travelnevada 22 0 94 237 183 104
InsideSonoma 23 -2 94 189 39 372
VermontTourism 24 1 93 204 135 66
Hillsborough 25 -6 93 195 217 251
VisitNH 26 -3 93 195 124 101
ColumbiaMOCVB 27 7 92 205 295 157
whatcomcounty 28 5 92 197 257 168
VisitVirginia 29 -5 92 167 104 124
GalvestonIsland 30   91 220 238 421
GrandRapidsCVB 31 21 91 185 244 67
flee2thecleve 32 7 91 183 200 166
visitmilwaukee 33 4 91 160 36 9
visitfingerlake 34 -7 91 129 117 413
VisitFlagstaff 35 -5 91 128 43 140
TravelPortland 36 38 90 226 269 126
VisitFairfax 37 6 90 175 282 93
choosechicago 38   90 136 122 34
PensacolaCVB 39 -13 89 123 95 104
VisitMissouri 40 -8 89 114 46 31
WilliamsportPA 41 -3 88 219 405 10
BattleCreekCVB 42 -11 88 134 192 34
AnnArborAreaCVB 43 -7 88 111 97 139
FortSmithCVB 44 -3 88 99 77 203
chicagonorthsub 45   87 121 158 18
visitkc 46 -1 87 113 39 56
VisitVF 47 -19 87 112 108 19
fargomoorhead 48 -2 87 109 141 72
VaBeachCVB 49 -14 87 102 49 21
insidealaska 50 -2 86 71 30 146
WCVA 51 -11 85 118 132 84
chicagonw 52   85 107 143 25
chattanoogafun 53 -6 85 76 5 20
ShastaCascade 54 -10 84 97 360 87
westhollywood 55   84 84 9 21
VisitIdaho 56   83 74 11 70
gorockford 57   83 71 63 264
Calistoga 58 -16 83 56 23 180
VisitJacksonMI 59 -10 82 80 79 8
VisitDetroit 60 -7 80 54 36 21
AlpharettaCVB 61 -11 79 53 21 25
southernoregon 62 10 78 72 83 8
LansingCVB 63 -12 78 48 8 5
ChicagoNShore 64   77 70 83 8
VisitBtown 65   76 49 14 39
Clarksville_CVB 66 -5 76 46 31 5
HarborCountry 67 -7 75 56 51 17
VisitOakPark 68   75 50 19 6
SantaRosaCVB 69 -14 73 37 24 24
Stockton_CVB 70 -7 73 34 3 12
Lislecvb 71   71 49 58 4
StCharlesIL 72   71 40 19 2
ecacvb 73 -11 70 36 8 9
PadreDude 74 -20 69 42 53 37
MendocinoCounty 75 -18 69 29 6 6
BenzieCounty 76 -18 68 28 14 6
ILMICanal 77   67 34 22 9
DestWorcester 78   66 32 27 47
HeritageCVB 79   65 33 30 10
GenevaIL 80   65 29 10 3
VisitGrayling 81 -10 65 26 17 16
SouthHaven_CVB 82 -15 62 19 3 9
LakeCoCVB 83   61 26 17 14
MyVancouver 84 -18 61 24 7 8
ButteCo 85 -16 60 20 9 3
Visit_Madison 86   59 22 2 0
visitbigrapids 87 -17 57 17 6 4
Ypsilanti 88 -23 56 20 8 13
BayCityMichigan 89 -30 54 18 5 5
HollandAreaCVB 90 -22 54 18 4 3
WarrenCountyOH 91 -11 51 17 7 2
AnaheimOC 92 -19 51 12 1 1
AshevilleCVB 93 -18 49 19 0 0
Flagstaff_CVB 94 -16 46 17 0 0
VisitAlton 95   46 14 9 5
Lenawee_Fun 96 -20 42 17 0 7
MeetInSaltlake 97 -18 36 8 3 8
kingsportcvb 98 -21 30 12 0 0
IowaTourism 99 -16 19 4 0 1
MiamiandBeaches 100   9 2 3 3
TriValleyCVB 101 -45 6 0 0 0
SaultCVB 102 -21 6 0 0 0
ClareCountyCVB 103 -39 0 0 0 0
NorfolkCVB 104 -22 0 0 0 0
brandingmontana 105 -21 0 0 0 0
WMTA1917 106 -21 0 0 0 0

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.

Social media: 5 deadly mistakes companies make

December 29th, 2008

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.

Which destinations have the most conversations on Twitter?

December 5th, 2008

Here is our updated list for the number of conversations US destinations are having on Twitter. 

 

A conversation on Twitter is not a tweet but a series of replies back and forth between two Twitter users. For destinations on Twitter conversations - together with retweets - can be seen as the best engagement with other users.

The ranking at the end of November by number of total conversations:

Rank Destinations City / State Total Nr. Of conversation
1 visitphilly Philadelphia, PA 169
2 BaltimoreMD Baltimore, MD 123
3 VisitChicago Chicago, IL 83
4 lehighvalleypa Lehigh Valley, PA 64
5 ArizonaTourism Arizona 46
6 ashevilletravel Asheville, NC 37
7 VisitIndiana Indiana 37
8 ExpCols Columbus, OH 34
9 TravelOregon Oregon 32
10 paadventure Philadelphia, PA 29
11 discover_la Los Angeles, CA 28
12 visitfingerlake Finger Lakes, NY 28
13 PositivelyCleve Cleveland, OH 26
14 enjoyillinois Illinois 24
15 InsideSonoma Sonoma, CA 22
16 whatcomcounty Whatcom County, WA 22
17 Hillsborough Hillsborough, NC 20
18 flee2thecleve Cleveland, OH 19
19 MeetMinneapolis Minneapolis, MN 18
20 travelnevada Nevada 17

 

And here is the number of conversations taking place in November - Philadelphia, Asheville and VisitChicago were far ahead of everybody else in that category:

Destinations City / State Total conversations 11/4 Total conversation 11/30 Nr. of conversations in Nov.
visitphilly Philadelphia, PA 132 169 37
ashevilletravel Asheville, NC 1 37 36
VisitChicago Chicago, IL 48 83 35
discover_la Los Angeles, CA 13 28 15
BaltimoreMD Baltimore, MD 111 123 12
enjoyillinois Illinois 12 24 12
ArizonaTourism Arizona 35 46 11
VisitIndiana Indiana 26 37 11
TravelOregon Oregon 23 32 9
MeetMinneapolis Minneapolis, MN 9 18 9
InsideSonoma Sonoma, CA 14 22 8
ExpCols Columbus, OH 29 34 5
ScottsdaleAZ Scottsdale, AZ 5 10 5
travelnevada Nevada 13 17 4
renotahoe Reno / Tahoe, NV 10 14 4
UtahStateParks Utah State Parks 12 15 3
PensacolaCVB Pensacola, FL 2 5 3
VisitNH New Hampshire 12 14 2
ColumbiaMOCVB Columbia, MO 5 7 2
FortSmithCVB Forth Smith, TX 1 2 1
VisitVF Valley Forge, PA 0 1 1

 

When looking at the conversations of destinations keep in mind that a significant number of conversations on Twitter is still taking place between different destinations and not with consumers or travelers.

We plan to track the growth of conversations over the next months to see if the number grows as the travel industry figures out better and better ways to use Twitter as a tool to talk to travelers.

Anybody interested in this?

Why don’t you have Google maps like that?

December 2nd, 2008

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?

Australia or Tasmania - which one is bigger?

December 2nd, 2008

Last week the fake Tourism Milwaukee clip on YouTube lead to a whole debate on Twitter about real and fake destination videos.

Time to look deeper into the mysterious world of destination videos. And what timing! Tourism Australia, a national tourism organization with slightly deeper pockets, just launched a new destination video titled – how appropriate – “Australia”. You will not (primarily) find it on YouTube but rather playing in the movie theatre closest to you.

All jokes aside: while Tourism Australia did of course not commission a 130 million dollar movie with Nicole Kidman as a marketing piece, they did align their whole new marketing strategy with the movie. The hope is to have the same benefits New Zealand had with “Lord of the Rings”.

They even went as far as to ask Baz Luhrman - the director of the movie - to shoot several inspirational trailers (which also can be found on YouTube) that use some of the themes of the movie. Cost for the campaign: 26 million dollars. The entire Tourism Australia website also got a makeover to match the new campaign (not all an improvement in my opinion, the site is now very text-heavy).

So a lot is riding for Tourism Australia on the success of “Australia”.

But now comes the fun part: all of Australia is taking the movie very serious. All of Australia? No, a tiny state in the South of Australia is daring to make fun of it!

Have a look at: “Tasmania - Bigger than Australia”.

Great idea, great execution. Have a look at the details on the website like the footer or the clip of the director talking about the stunt scenes. Somebody had fun with this project!

And of course the main video is on YouTube – over 40,000 views in less than 2 weeks is not too shabby.

But wait, it gets even better: over 100 people left comments on the video. Have a look here and be surprised / shocked / embarrassed how passionate/angry people get about this spoof and Tasmania claiming to be “bigger than Australia”. And be warned: some of the comments are NSFW, but I guess that is just how Aussies and Tassies are.

So my questions for you: what do you think of Tourism Australia basing it’s marketing strategy almost entirely on “Australia”? Do you think “Tasmania” is bigger than “Australia”? What about the comments about Tasmania on YouTube? Does this type of engagement help or hurt?

Destination Twitter Ranking Nov 08

December 1st, 2008

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.

 

Destination City / State Rank Nov 08 Twitter Grade 11/30 Followers 11/30 Following 11/30 Updates 11/30 Rank Change
VisitChicago Chicago, IL 1 98.7 953 1131 280 1
BaltimoreMD Baltimore, MD 2 98.5 1011 2748 556 -1
ExpCols Columbus, OH 3 98.3 599 388 1487 1
visitphilly Philadelphia, PA 4 98.1 710 930 859 -1
ArizonaTourism Arizona 5 96.9 505 324 261 0
TravelOregon Oregon 6 96.1 435 351 661 0
lehighvalleypa Lehigh Valley, PA 7 95.9 545 1001 316  
ashevilletravel Asheville, NC 8 93 279 230 373 -1
SpringfieldCVB Springfield, MO 9 93 344 333 78 32
paadventure Pennsylvania 10 93 350 596 109  
MeetMinneapolis Minneapolis, MN 11 92 332 341 117 -3
enjoyillinois Illinois 12 91 273 366 139 2
renotahoe Reno / Tahoe, NV 13 90 239 140 49 -2
PositivelyCleve Cleveland, OH 14 90 356 597 206  
UtahStateParks Utah State Parks 15 89 280 532 45 -5
VisitIndiana Indiana 16 89 173 121 364 -1
ColumbiaSC Columbia, SC 17 88 251 426 123 -8
ScottsdaleAZ Scottsdale, AZ 18 88 213 251 59 -2
Hillsborough Hillsborough, NC 19 86 175 163 209 -7
discover_la Los Angeles, CA 20 86 149 160 242 -2
InsideSonoma Sonoma, CA 21 86 119 28 261 5
travelnevada Nevada 22 84 183 136 89 -9
VisitNH New Hampshire 23 84 137 80 81 -6
VisitVirginia Virginia 24 84 119 50 102 -4
VermontTourism Vermont 25 84 139 105 40 47
PensacolaCVB Pensacola, FL 26 82 99 86 82 -7
visitfingerlake Finger Lakes, NY 27 82 93 86 289  
VisitVF Valley Forge, PA 28 80 103 101 14 -7
visitflorida Florida 29 80 96 39 271 -5
VisitFlagstaff Flagstaff, AZ 30 80 85 41 62 2
BattleCreekCVB Battle Creek, MI 31 79 103 155 29 -8
VisitMissouri Missouri 32 79 88 46 31 -1
whatcomcounty Whatcom County, WA 33 79 92 114 100 2
ColumbiaMOCVB Columbia, MO 34 78 102 144 48 -5
VaBeachCVB Virginia Beach, VA 35 76 77 1 19 -10
AnnArborAreaCVB Ann Arbor, MI 36 76 79 83 115 -8
visitmilwaukee Milwaukee, WI 37 76 91 35 6 12
WilliamsportPA Williamsport, PA 38 76 119 334 4  
flee2thecleve Cleveland, OH 39 76 98 105 93  
WCVA Washington County, OR 40 75 77 32 52 -18
FortSmithCVB Forth Smith, TX 41 75 70 14 156 -14
Calistoga Calistoga, CA 42 75 57 20 178 -12
VisitFairfax Farifax, VA 43 74 88 117 53 31
ShastaCascade Shasta Cascada, CA 44 74 96 361 82  
visitkc Kansas City, KS 45 73 68 37 38 0
fargomoorhead Fargo, ND 46 71 61 71 27 -13
chattanoogafun Cattagooga, TN 47 70 56 5 14 -13
insidealaska Alaska 48 70 50 6 77 -11
VisitJacksonMI Jackson, MI 49 68 64 79 8 21
AlpharettaCVB Alpharette, GA 50 67 48 20 19 -14
LansingCVB Lansing, MI 51 65 44 8 5 -13
GrandRapidsCVB Grand Rapids, MI 52 65 47 29 21 -1
VisitDetroit Detroit, MI 53 64 39 29 9 -1
PadreDude South Padre Island, TX 54 62 45 53 35 -14
SantaRosaCVB Santa Rosa, CA 55 59 35 24 23 -9
TriValleyCVB Tri Valley, CA 56 59 34 44 31 -1
MendocinoCounty Mendocino County, CA 57 58 31 6 6 -10
BenzieCounty Benzie County, MI 58 56 26 14 6 -14
BayCityMichigan Bay City, MI 59 56 18 5 5 0
HarborCountry Harbor Country, MI 60 56 36 46 14 3
Clarksville_CVB Clarksville, TN 61 55 34 31 3 -19
ecacvb Elisabeth City, NC 62 55 28 8 9 -14
Stockton_CVB Stockton, VA 63 54 26 3 8 -20
ClareCountyCVB Clare County, MI 64 49 23 10 4 -14
Ypsilanti Ypsilanti, MI 65 46 19 8 13 -9
MyVancouver Vancouver, BC 66 45 18 3 4 -6
SouthHaven_CVB South Haven, MI 67 44 17 3 9 -14
HollandAreaCVB Holland, MI 68 42 16 4 3 -1
ButteCo Butte County, CA 69 41 17 9 3 -12
visitbigrapids Big Rapids, MI 70 41 16 6 4 -6
VisitGrayling Grayling, IL 71 41 18 15 10 -6
southernoregon Southern Oregon, OR 72 41 22 44 4  
AnaheimOC Anaheim, CA 73 36 12 1 1 -5
TravelPortland Portland, OR 74 34 18 0 0 -12
AshevilleCVB Asheville 75 32 17 0 0 -21
Lenawee_Fun Lenawee County, MI 76 29 14 0 7 -10
kingsportcvb Kingsport, TN 77 26 13 0 0 -19
Flagstaff_CVB Flagstaff, AZ 78 22 11 0 0 -17
MeetInSaltlake Salt Lake City, UT 79 13 3 3 5  
WarrenCountyOH Warren County, OH 80 8 3 7 1  
SaultCVB Sault, MI 81 6 0 0 0 -12
NorfolkCVB Norfolk, VA 82 0 0 0 0 -9
IowaTourism Iowa 83 0 0 0 0 -8
brandingmontana Montana 84 0 0 0 0 -8

Do you have a Twisitors Center?

November 23rd, 2008

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?