As I’ve learned over the last few months, there are hundreds if not thousands of small to mid-sized tourism destinations that are out there and tweeting regularly. Some are using Twitter in very clever ways. Others are are doing the typical things that marketers do – and doing them quite well.
Here are some that really shine:
Coos Bay, Oregon
Coos Bay is located on the Oregon coast, about halfway between San Francisco and Seattle. It’s known for its spectacular beaches, world-class fishing, sand dunes, and beautiful scenery. Now, it’s also known for a great little campaign they did on Twitter.
Allan Jenkins and Lee Hopkins are bloggers and all-around social media gurus. When planning a trip from Seattle to San Francisco, they turned to their friends on Twitter to suggest places to see and things to do along the way. As all good tourism destinations should do, Coos Bay (@TravelCoosBay) was listening. They not only responded with suggestions, they literally won they guys over with a series of smart, funny, and increasingly convincing tweets.
For the whole story, take a look at the post that Allan wrote about the whole experience. Here’s a quick run down:
- Responding to Allan’s initial tweet, @TravelCoosBay tweeted in reply about dropping in for a night during their trip.
- When Allan (@allanjenkins) and Lee (@leehopkins) thanked them and made a little joke, @TravelCoosBay sent them a link to a Flickr group showing off the area’s spectacular scenery.
- Being no stranger to beautiful surroundings, Allan and Lee asked if the people in Coos Bay were as nice as the scenery.
- @TravelCoosBay responded with more pictures. This time, the pictures were of signs and electronic marquees from local businesses inviting Allan and Lee – by name – to Coos Bay. Local folks also starting tweeting Allan and Lee en masse.
- Still Allan and Lee didn’t commit. @TravelCoosBay kicked it up another notch by filming a series of “man-on-the-street” YouTube videos. Featured in these videos were regular Joe’s and Jane’s who could be seen in Coos Bay any day of the week. Each talked about a different feature of Coos Bay that Allan and Lee were sure to enjoy.
Well, after that, who wouldn’t go?
Hutchinson, Kansas
The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, located in Hutchinson Kansas, wanted to bring some PR attention to the town and the other tourist attractions located there. Most small towns (and big cities, for that matter) would probably host a FAM tour to accomplish this. A FAM – short for familiarization – is a short tour geared toward the press or travel trade to familiarize them with the attractions of a particular area. The hope is that after the tour the press will write stories and articles about the area, and the travel trade will begin to book tours there.
Not content to do things the old-fashioned way, Hutchinson Kansas hosted a travel blogger tour in mid-April. While the mechanics of the tour were much the same, this blogger tour differed distinctly from a typical FAM tour in the way word got out.
Nine travel bloggers went on the tour of the Hutchinson area. They hailed from towns throughout the Midwest, and had a particular niche or specialty area they tend to write about. Here’s a list of the bloggers on the tour along with links to their blogs and their Twitter profiles:
- Becky McCray – Blog: smallbizsurvival.com Twitter: @BeckyMcCray
- Sheila Scarborough – Blog: familytravellogue.com Twitter: @SheilaS
- Cindy Stanford – Twitter: @WichitaCindy
- Todd Vogts – Blog: toddvogts.com , Twitter: @ToddVogts
- Deb Brown – Blog: debworks.com Twitter: @DebWorks
- Naomi Shapiro – Blog: superdumbsupervillain.blogspot.com Twitter: @superdumb
- Bill Genereux – Blog: billgx.edublogs.org Twitter: @BillGX
- Jeanne Cole – Twitter: @OkieJ
- Patsy Terrell – Blog: www.patsyterrell.com Twitter – @patsyterrell
Most of them wrote blog posts during the tour, and they all wrote posts an articles once the tour was completed.
Just to add another dimension, these bloggers were also on Twitter. They gave their followers the opportunity to keep tabs on all the Hutchinson action with the #hutch hashtag.
Check out the blogs listed above and search for #hutch, and you’ll get a idea of the incredible amount of coverage and attention Hutchinson, Kansas got in return for a few days of hospitality.
Genius.
Have you heard of any other clever uses of tourism marketing using Twitter or other social media channels? Are there any other small towns that deserve some attention for their ideas? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
Filed under: Social Media Blogs, Social Media Marketing, Twitter
Wow!!! My google alert pointed me to your blog and you can imagine how excited I was to see our Lee Hopkins & Allan Jenkins story here.
The best part of this whole experience was how much fun we had with it. Lee and Allan will arrive here in 2 days and we can’t wait to meet them!
Thank you so much for the kind words : )
Katherine Hoppe
aka @travelcoosbay
Katherine,
I’m glad you liked the story! I try to give credit where it’s due, and you and @TravelCoosBay really do deserve it. You were clever, funny, and really showed your personality and that of Coos Bay, OR in general. I’m sure you’ll show Allan and Lee a great time, and that they’ll be thrilled about their decision to come visit you.
There will be lots of folks – myself included – that will be watching to see what you’ll come up with next. Keep up the great work.
– Sarah
Hi Sarah!
I wanted to thank you for the article as well…
As a native to the area, we often take for granted the things in our own backyard but with Social Networking, I am learning to share what we have here with others.
If you or your readers are still in doubt as to the scenery, you can watch any of the videos (almost 20 so far) of our local beaches at my site: http://www.oregoncoastescapes.com. Just click on any of the photos marked “Click for Video” and enjoy the beach!
Jay
Hi Jay,
Thanks for sharing your videos of your local beaches. The scenery there is simply stunning! Even in a place as beautiful as the Oregon Coast, it can be easy to take your surroundings for granted if you see it every day. I tell the communities in my area that all the time.
I’m glad you’ve decided to share your home with others. It’s far too beautiful a place to keep to yourself. Can’t wait to take my family there someday soon. Thanks, Jay!
–Sarah
Great article. I just thought you should know that I’ve released a free guide to social networking and social media for the tourism industry.
Check it out on my blog.
Thanks Barry. Your guide provides a thorough overview of social media and social networking, and how those tools can be implemented for tourism promotion. I hope you have great success with its distribution.
I enjoyed reading about Hutchinson’s unique blogger idea. Kansas Travel & Tourism has also done a wonderful job of using social media.
Our company, Go World Productions, speciliazes in marketing video for the tourism industry. We produced a unique series of “Ready-Made Adventures” videos for Kansas, which show travelers all that is available just off the beaten path (see them here https://www.travelks.com/s/index.cfm?SSID=54).
Kansas Travel & Tourism took that series and has used it all over the internet. They even have a Facebook game, which offers a personality profile to pick the perfect “Ready-Made Adventure” for you. http://apps.facebook.com/readymadeadventures/
Just goes to show that you don’t need a lot of money to be successful using social media!
Janna,
Thanks for the kinds words, and I’m glad you liked the post.
Hopefully, more communities will follow Hutchinson’s example and host blogger tours of their own.
Love your Ready Made Adventures videos! Thanks for sharing them here.
The Iron Range Tourism Bureau is using social networking successfully to market some of their niche market efforts. See: http://ironrange.org.
Thanks for a great post!
It’s wonderful to see how small/regional destinations use social media regularly. It’s a great marketing solution, especially when the budget isn’t sufficient.
Jaimie,
Thanks for sharing the example about your efforts in the Iron Range. This is exactly what I had hoped to see in the comments when I wrote this post.
Isaac,
You nailed it! Social media provides outreach/marketing opportunities to small DMOs that are effective and affordable. It’s encouraging to see so many of them doing it. Please feel free to share examples from Israel or other international destinations.
Thanks to you both!
– Sarah
I was just doing my homework – searching google to see what my alerts may have missed – and found this article. Great job! Now I have some more things to go research.
On a side note, June 1 is my birthday – so I feel like this is a great belated birthday gift!
And ….one more thing… we are going back to Hutchinson! Small Business Social Media Summit — June 4 through June 6. A conference designed just for small businesses. Email if you would like more info – deb@debworks.com
thanks again for the mention and I look forward to seeing what you are doing in the field.
@debworks
Hey Deb,
I’m so glad you found the post! I was very impressed with the work that you all did in Hutch, that I just had to share it. As you can see from the comments, others are too.
You’ll be hearing from me about the small business conference for sure! I trust that this is just the beginning of the great things we’ll be seeing from Hutchinson, KS.
Happy belated birthday!
– Sarah
[...] turned out to be a smashing success and an example of great tourism outreach (plus how else would I have gotten to see artifacts from Liberty Bell 7 at the [...]
West Yellowstone Montana is a small, remote destination location located along the western border of Yellowstone National Park. We struggle each year with how to spend limited marketing dollars to penetrate both domestic and international markets. After the past two years, we are total believers in social media as an effective marketing strategy that has brought us documented success. We have small groups of local business and organizations that have chosen the the path they are most comfortable with (Facebook Twitter, Trip Advisor, Blogger) but we all work together to raise the awareness, build a sense of community, and project a strong social media presence. We have a long way to go, but the restuls have impacted local businesses and occupancy. The best recent example is National Geographic Traveler ran a social media poll on Top 10 Winter Towns for Fun in the world. Our small handful of volunteers (and those in our ‘virtual community’ who support us on Facebook & Twitter) generated enough buzz that we were lised #8. Not bad, when the other cities included New York, Washington, Lake Placid, etc. The resulting mediia inquiries have been wonderful. I would encourage any small tourism community to craft their own strategy!
Jan,
Thanks so much for sharing this great case study with us! You’ve provided proof that marketing with social media can have a significant impact to a destination and its local businesses. I also love how you’ve organically begun working together (through your independent) channels to present a cohesive message to prospective visitors. Good on ya!
[...] 'http://wp.me/pt7a0-bK'; tweetmeme_source = 'pagetx'; Back in June of 2009, I wrote a post about The Ones To Watch. In it, I highlighted two smaller communities that were using social media effectively to help [...]
[...] in June of 2009, I wrote a post about The Ones To Watch. In it, I highlighted two smaller communities that were using social media effectively to help [...]