The April 2010 "How Social is Your State DMO?" rankings have been completed and they are published here.
A few notes on the rankings:
-For the first time we have a tie for the number one spot between Michigan and Tennessee - along with another deadlock in the two spot with Oregon and Pennsylvania. Colorado grabbed the next spot to round out the top five.
- This month’s two big movers include Hawaii, who jumped 18 spots from 31st to 13th place and Wisconsin, who moved up 14 spots from 36st to 22nd. Both Montana and Texas moved up 8 spots in the rankings and Washington improved 7 places.
- We are seeing a great amount of consistency in the top 10. There have not been many changes in the top 10 over the last few ranking periods.
- When we completed the first ranking in July of 2009, only 19 states had links to their official social media presence on their web sites. In the April rankings, 40 states have their official social media presence located on their site.
- We have also located an official Facebook presence for all but two states and an official Twitter presence for all but five. In July of 2009, we were only able to locate 26 official Facebook fan pages and 26 Twitter accounts.
We have reached the point – in exactly 9 months - where a majority of the states have a significant social media presence. But the margin between those doing it, and those doing it well, is beginning to widen.
To view the full rankings for April 2010 with a sharing friendly link, visit: http://budurl.com/HowSocialStateDMO5
Please keep the comments and feedback coming, as we will continue to consider them in future measurements.
The next state DMO study will be done in July. It will be a great time to conduct a one year comparison and see how far each organization has come. For more info on social media and tourism, be sure to follow Dave Serino on Twitter: @GammetGuy and fan Gammet Interactive on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/Gammet
We would also like to announce the dates for our Inaugural Social Media Tourism Symposium on November 17-19, 2010. Visit the fan page at www.Facebook.com/SoMeTourism to learn more about the program and how your destination can become the host location.
