Dave Serino Blogs

How Social is Your State DMO? - July 2011 Rankings

The July "How Social is Your State DMO?" rankings have been completed and published. And, for the first time in almost two years, we have a new number one.  Florida has edged out Michigan for the number one spot this quarter.  It is only the third different number one since the rankings began in July of 2009.  Pennsylvania ranked first in the initial ranking, followed by a run of 8 consecutive number ones by the state of Michigan. Now Florida leads the pack in the second quarter of 2011.

There were a few changes in the formula and weighting scale this quarter.  We did, and will continue to, place more emphasis on engagement.  The scale was also adjusted to accommodate the growing number of ‘Likes’ and followers being amassed by the leaders in the group.  Currently, six destinations have reached more than 100,000 ‘Likes’ on Facebook. Michigan, Colorado and Florida have surpassed the 200,000 mark.

Areas where engagement was measured included Facebook, Twitter and blog posts.  We utilized several different metrics to establish scores in those areas.   Also, for the first time, we attempted to score mobile apps in the Android and Apple platforms.

-The top 5 include: Florida, Michigan, Colorado, Virginia and a tie between Tennessee and Oregon.

- The “Movers” in the Top 25 include Tennesee,  moving to number 5, up from 7; Louisiana at 9, up from 20; Arizona at 11, up from 15; Illinois 13, up from 18; Idaho at 17, up from 28; and Missouri at 25 up from 41.

Please review the summary for specific changes in the measurement formula. To view the full rankings for July 2011 with a sharing friendly link, visit: http://budurl.com/HowSocialStateDMO10. Please keep the comments and feedback coming, as we will continue to consider them in future measurements.

The next state DMO study will be published in October.  Thanks again to @lbach22 for her hard work on the rankings.  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

How Social is Your State DMO? - April 2011 Rankings

The April "How Social is Your State DMO?"rankings have been completed and published. A few notes on the rankings:

-For the 8th consecutive time, Michigan has topped the rankings at the number one spot. They are followed by New York, Colorado, Florida and Pennsylvania.

- The “Movers” in the Top 25 include New York, moving to number 2; up from 7; Ohio at 8, up from 30; North Carolina at 11, up from 16; Georgia at 11, up from 23; Montana at 15, up from 27; South Dakota at 19, up from 36; and California at 23, up from 35.

There were no changes made in the ranking formula this quarter compare to first quarter of 2011; but we will continue to emphasize relevance and engagement. To view the full rankings for April 2011 with a sharing friendly link, visit: http://budurl.com/HowSocialStateDMO9. Please keep the comments and feedback coming, as we will continue to consider them in future measurements.

The next state DMO study will be published in July.  Thanks again to @lbach22 for her hard work on the rankings. 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

How Social is Your State DMO? - January 2011 Rankings

The January "How Social is Your State DMO?" rankings have been completed and published. A few notes on the rankings:

-For the 7th consecutive time, Michigan has topped the rankings at the number one spot.  They are followed by Colorado, Virginia, Oregon and Florida.

-The Top 10 continues to be very consistent and a majority of those states ranked there are truly the leaders in social media destination marketing.

- The “Movers” in the Top 25 include Oklahoma, now at 11, up from 27; Maine, at 13, up from 29; North Carolina, at 16 up from 24; Iowa, at 21, up from 43; Georgia, at 23, up from 36; and Mississippi at 25 up from 34.

We made a few changes in the ranking formula to begin emphasizing relevance and engagement.  As social media grows and evolves, it is no long sufficient to just participate, organizations must begin to effectively engage. We began the process by looking at the most popular social media outlets for tourism organizations: Facebook and Twitter. Here are some of the adjustments we made:

Facebook – We measured the timing of the last series of postings for relevance. There was also a review of most recent postings. They were each measured for number of likes and comments.

Twitter – We used the application, Klout, to gauge the measurement of influence from its listed score. We also used the application to check the number of re-tweets based on the a series of recent tweets - which we feel represents engagement and relevant content. We also looked how many times the organization has been listed on Twitter. The overall number of tweets as a measurement has been abandoned, as we feel that numbers no longer represent engagement.

For the first time, we included a Geo-location measurement in the study. As this is a new frontier for many, we are currently just applying a credit for participation with a geo-location link added on the front page of the web site. Due to the growth in mobile usage, we feel this will have a great social impact in the future and we will continue to develop updated measurement criteria.

To view the full rankings for January 2011 with a sharing friendly link, visit: http://budurl.com/HowSocialStateDMO8 Please keep the comments and feedback coming, as we will continue to consider them in future measurements.

The next state DMO study will be published in April.  We hope to add some additional measurements for geo-location presence in the next rankings. Thanks again to @lbach22 for her hard work on January rankings. 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

How Social is Your State DMO? - October 2010 Rankings

The October "How Social is Your State DMO?" rankings have been completed and published. A few notes on the rankings:

-For the 6th consecutive time, Michigan has topped the rankings at the number one spot.  They are followed by a tie for second with Pennsylvania and Colorado. The fourth spot is held by Virginia and Oregon rounds out the top 5.

-Just as we started to see some consistency in the top 10 during the last two rankings, we had some significant movement this quarter.  Vermont made a big advance from 25th to crack the top 10.  New York also cracked the top ten for the first time.

-All but one state has their official social media sites linked and visible from their homepage. This an improvement from seven in July and ten in April.

- All 50 states now have an official Facebook presence and all but two have an official Twitter voice.

-The current criteria for Google search rankings has been achieved by all 50 states. This means the official state tourism office web site appears in the top three results on a travel keyword search.

To view the full rankings for October 2010 with a sharing friendly link, visit: http://budurl.com/HowSocialStateDMO7 

Please keep the comments and feedback coming, as we will continue to consider them in future measurements.The next state DMO study will be published in January.  We hope to add some additional measurements for geo-location presence in the next rankings.

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 remind you about the Inaugural Social Media Tourism Symposium on November 17-19, 2010. It will be held in Loudoun County, Va. Visit the fan page at www.Facebook.com/SoMeTourism to learn more about the program. Registration information can be found here – http://sometourism.eventbrite.com

How Social is Your State DMO? - July 2010 Rankings

The July 2010 "How Social is Your State DMO?" rankings have been completed and they are published here. A few notes on the rankings:

-Michigan used an aggressive Facebook presence to break the April tie for the number one spot with Tennessee and separate from the rest of the top five. The current top five are: Michigan, Virginia, Tennessee, Oregon and Colorado.  

- We are starting to see stabilization in the rankings, as the biggest movement was only three spots- up or down - by a DMO.

- All but seven states had their social media sites linked and visable from their homepage.

- The measurement formula was tweaked a bit in July.  First we elevated the bar in terms of numbers for scoring and we also replaced the Hubspot tools for Twitter and Facebook with Klout and Virture scores.

To view the full rankings for July 2010 with a sharing friendly link, visit: http://budurl.com/HowSocialStateDMO6

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 October.  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 official location for the Inaugural Social Media Tourism Symposium on November 17-19, 2010. It will be held in Loudoun County, Va. Visit the fan page at www.Facebook.com/SoMeTourism to learn more about the program. Registration information will be posted this week on the Facebook page.  

"How Social is Your State DMO?" - April 2010 Rankings

 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.

"How Social is Your State DMO?" - January 2010 Rankings

 The January 2010 rankings of “How Social is Your State DMO?” have been completed and they are published here. 

A few notes on the rankings:

-For the third consecutive time, Michigan is number one followed by Tennessee, who moved up four spots. Oregon dropped one spot to number three, Virginia moved up from six to secure fourth place and Pennsylvania rounds out the top five.

- Movers of note include:  Tennessee, who is at number two from 6th place; Virginia, who moved from 7th place to 4th; and Colorado which is now ranked 6th, moving up from 13th place; New York has vaulted from 32nd  to 16th place; Oklahoma has gone from 37th to 24th place and Massachusetts from 46th to 33rd.

- Colorado gets acknowledged for being the most improved. The state has made the biggest moves since the rankings started in July of 2009.  They opened in the 29th spot, moved up to 17, then 13 and, in January they hit the 6 spot. Congrats!

To view the full rankings for January 2010 with a sharing friendly link, visit: http://budurl.com/HowSocialStateDMO4

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 April.  We haven’t seen drastic changes in the monthly evaluations, so we have decided to conduct the state tourism office evaluations quarterly. For more info be sure to follow Dave Serino on Twitter: @GammetGuy and fan Gammet Interactive on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/Gammet

"How Social is Your State DMO?" - September 2009 Rankings

The September rankings of “How Social is Your State DMO?” have been completed and they are published here.  We continue to receive excellent feedback and increasing interest in the rankings. And, we have seen several DMO’s enhance and improve their social position since the initial rankings- which is very encouraging.  Please keep the comments and feedback coming, as we will continue to consider them in future measurements.

Regarding the process, our statement saying that “social media is continually changing and evolving” was validated again this month.  So, in response to that evolution, we made the following adaptations:

-Panoramio changed the way that they count photos and display search results. In response to that, we incorporated Google Maps image display following a state keyword search into our formula on this report–replacing the original Panoramio scoring.  

-There were also some difficulties with the Hubspot Facebook Grader tool and we could not get consistent results.  Because we didn’t have an alternative, we eliminated it from the formula–hopefully for this month only.

In line with last month, the evaluations and measurements were done over a 4-day period 

A few updates on the rankings:

-For the second consecutive month, Michigan is number one followed by Pennsylvania and Oregon – both deadlocked at number two.

- Movers include Nevada vaulting from number 10 to a new spot at 4; Illinois moving into 7th place from 16; and a big leap from Utah, jumping from 30 all the way to number 12.

To view the full rankings for September 2009, link to http://budurl.com/HowSocialStateDMO3

And, another item to note. When we did our first rankings in July, only 19 DMOs had links to their official social media outlets from their home page. In the September rankings, we found 31 DMOs with links or icons to their specific social media outlets – an increase of 63% in a three month period. Only 19 DMOs are left who haven’t recognized their organization’s official social media presence on the front page of the web site.  This is one simple enhancement that can make a world of difference for online consumers.

We will be posting the next ranking in early November – prior to DMAI’s Destination Management and Marketing Institute, November 11-13. The conference will feature a special e-Marketing/Social Media education track for the second consecutive year.  More on the conference can be found here.  You can still register to attend or follow the event on Twitter by using the hashtag - #DMMI09

"How Social is Your State DMO?" - August 2009 Rankings

The August rankings of “How Social is Your State DMO?” have been completed and they are published here.  We have had some great feedback on the initial rankings and we would like to thank everyone for their interest. Please keep the comments coming, as they will continue to be factors in future measurements.

Initial updates:

-The ranking formula weight was adjusted to recognize the continued growth of Facebook and Flickr. 

-In-links to the site were added as a measurement into the formula and we utilized the Yahoo search engine to measure them.

-All of the evaluations and measurements were done over a 4-day period 

A few updates on the rankings:

-Michigan is the new number one. The in-links measurement, growth in their Facebook Fan page and the addition of a blog all helped them vault from #7 to #1.

-Michigan lead with way with in-links back to its michigan.org domain with more than 250,000.

-Michigan has a large lead in Facebook, followed by Tennessee and Nevada.

-Arizona leads the way in Twitter, followed by Oregon and Indiana.

-Several states were tied for the number one spot in Flickr with a score of 18. We will continue to evaluate and adjust the scoring weight on Flickr as it is the largest in pure volume of content.

-Florida and Michigan were tied for the top spot on YouTube presence.

For the full rankings, link to - http://budurl.com/HowSocialStateDMO2   

Now, on to a few disclaimers:

-Gammet Interactive is a Michigan based organization, but does not directly consult on or work on any of the social media programs conducted by the state of Michigan or any of the other 49 states.

-If we missed a state’s presence on a specific social media site, the measurement may have come before the organization had a presence on that site or we could not locate the specific page or link. Please forward us the link and we will happy to include it in the next ranking.

This is also called social media for a reason. Your thoughts and comments are important as we tweak the process.  Looking forward to hearing from you! 

How Social is Your State DMO?

Over the past year, I’ve received countless questions about “Which tourism organization does the best social media marketing?”  After reviewing the social media presence of many state, local and regional destination marketing organizations, I could never reach a conclusion on who does it best.  What I found was, many organizations do some things really well, but there were very few organizations that do everything well.

In response to that continual query, I worked out a 12-point algorithm with more than 28 different categories to measure.  The primary points were chosen and weighted due to the social media outlet popularity and its impact on tourism.  

We then attempted to apply the algorithm to all of the official destination marketing organizations in the country. What we found was, without specific urls, page links on sites like YouTube, or user names on Twitter, the scale of that project was not realistic.  We were spending too much unproductive search time without accurate results.

We then chose a clear subset of data, the 50 official state tourism offices. Hence the title, “How Social is Your State DMO?”  Even though we had a clear target, many organizations still either did not have an official social media presence recognized on their web sites or did not have a presence on the social media outlets we measured.  In an effort to confirm the organization’s social media presence, we  set up a consistent, four-step search process with relative keywords in an attempt to find the “the official YouTube page of the destination”.  

After a measurement period of 21-days and a few weeks of checks and re-checks, we came up with our rankings.  If you follow this link- http://budurl.com/HowSocialStateDMO -you will be able to see the rankings we developed for the top 50 state tourism offices and see the scores recorded for each individual state in our “How Social is Your State DMO?” project.

Now, on to a few quick disclaimers.  If we missed a state’s presence on a specific social media site, the measurement may have come before the organization had a presence on that site or we could not locate the specific page or link.  It would be nice if we could begin developing a comprehensive list of all social media outlet pages that can be shared with colleagues and peers.  

We don’t claim that this is the one and only “report” or “ranking”.  We think it may be the first published comprehensive measurement for destinations’ presence on social media sites, but it is just the beginning.  Each time we do this, the algorithm will need to be adjusted based on growth and I am sure we will add or change some of the measurement criteria.  We have a lot of ideas on how this can be done with convention and visitors bureaus, hotels and resorts; but it can’t be done without your feedback and input.   It is called social media for a reason and your thoughts and comments are important as we tweak the process.  Looking forward to hearing from you!