Dave Serino Blogs

"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 Michigan DMO?

Based on our “How Social is Your State DMO?” platform, we have compiled the first rankings for the state of Michigan.  

All 48 Convention and Visitors Bureaus in the state were evaluated and ranked.  One key item to conducting an accurate measurement is the window of time window which the evaluation takes place. We are working hard to improve efficiencies and have ranked this group in a 10-day period, compared to the 21-day period of the first state DMO study.  The future goal will be to complete the measurement in 3-days or less to be sure it is as accurate as possible.

As far as the Michigan rankings go, here are a few highlights:

- Grand Rapids – www.visitgrandrapids.org – has secured the number one spot, edging Detroit – www.visitdetroit.com - by 9 points.

- The Upper Pennisula – www.uptravel.com – has significant traction in terms of Facebook presence, soaring above all other state destinations.

- Grand Rapids - www.visitgrandrapids.org – and Lansing – www.lansing.org – lead the way on Twitter.

- Grand Rapids – www.vsitgrandrapids.org – and the Upper Pennisula – www.uptravel.com - both scored well on Flickr.

- Detroit – www.visitdetroit.com – has a commanding lead in YouTube videos.

- Sault Ste. Marie – www.saultstemarie.com – and Grand Rapids – www.visitgrandrapids.org - scored the highest in terms of blog presence.

To view the entire “How Social is Your Michigan DMO?” study and rankings, visit this link - http://budurl.com/HowSocialMIDMO .

UPDATE-8/19: The rankings for the Ann Arbor CVB were modified to recognize their blog presence through their news feed and updates section. We have acknowledged this information as adequate content with other organizations and want to remain consistent in this set of rankings.

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!

eMarketing Insight Conference, DayTwo - Martin Stoll, Social Networking and UGC

Martin Stoll of the GoSeeTravel Network gave us an excellent overview of Social Media.  Here are a few bullets:

- Social media is huge - 175,000 new blogs; 50,000 YouTube  uploads; 400,000 Flickr photos; and 100,000 new profiles on Facebook – each day.

- Online and social networking is all about choice.

- Don’t be brand jacked, register your profile and brand on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, etc.

- Learn Twitter now.  Principle for social media go beyond each outlet.  Twitter is a good application to enter the social media marketplace.

- Check out a “Tweet Up” – it’s a meeting of Twitter users in your local area.

- Be confident in your destination.  Provide the venue for your consumers to discuss their travel experiences and use that to help you market through social media.

- Use Tweetburner to track links on Twitter and TwitPics to upload images via Twitter.

The afternoon will be a scramble, as I will be delivering two presentations.  Check out Bill Geist's blog for more updates from today.

Twitter Trends Upward

It has been about a year, or so, since Twitter - a micro-blogging platform, has been on the radar.   See Wikipedia for additional details – but a quick definition is a basic, a one-sentence blog entry.

Now, according to some Hitwise data released earlier this week, Twitter is gaining some notable traction in the web’s 2.0 world.  Year on year, Internet visits to Twitter are up eight fold.  In addition, the past three months have seen site visits more than double, while traffic continues to climb - up 60% in the past month.

It’s obvious people are utilizing this tool, which I’m personally still having some difficulty grasping.  So, let's set aside my “Twitter Block” and see what people are saying and how travel related organizations are using it.    Here are a few takes from industry experts on Twitter:

Steve Rubel, Edelman Digital, Micro Persuasion Blog:

"It's becoming a front line for customer service. At a minimum, every consumer facing company should be monitoring the chatter. Even better, participating can cut problems off at the pass or even better foster evangelists."

Todd Defren, SHIFT Communications, PR Squared Blog:

"I can’t emphasize enough how valuable Twitter can be when you need a hand – an idea – or, reactions to an idea.  Twitter is an instant focus group, on-call 24/7, and comprised of some of the most brilliant and thoughtful people you’d ever want to meet."   

Both are very insightful comments.   The play I see in Twitter with the travel and tourism industry is the ability to create a buzz, along with reaching additional consumers via another social media distribution outlet. 

We all know that journalist’s are combing blogs and websites for new story ideas.  What a great way to post some teases and see what gets picked up.

In terms of reach, one current travel supplier who is currently Twittering happens to be Southwest Airlines.  They had some very interesting posts, as you can see in the screen shot to the left.  I captured it a few weeks ago.  Click on the image to enlarge it and look at the third post.  You will see it is a promo for Newport Beach.  It is part of an ongoing promotion with Southwest that the CVB is  participating in.

If you follow the link in the posting, you will end up on the page below.  It is a landing page on the Southwest Airlines' site that features flight options, hotels and things to do in Newport Beach.  This is part of Southwest’s “Featured Destination” program and another opportunity for consumers to learn more about Newport Beach – this time through Twitter.

Although traffic to Twitter is increasing rapidly, it is still really a very small niche in terms of social media site traffic – it ranked #439 among social networks and forums last week.   At this stage, it is worth exploring and learning more about, but I personally wouldn’t begin shuffling resources into Twitter as a marketing tool until it breaks the top 200.

And finally, more than you ever to need to know - Twitter: Why It’s So Great And How To Effectively Use It, courtesy of internet entrepreneur, Tibi Puiu at the Lost Art of Blogging.

Social Media with Josh Hallett at the Michigan Tourism Conference

Josh Hallett - an internationally recognized thought leader in the convergence of social media and corporate public relations & marketing – joined the largest contingent ever to attend Michigan’s Driving Tourism Conference to deliver his presentation entitled “Promoting Your Destination in the Age of YouTube, MySpace and Facebook”.

Here are few interesting points from Josh’s keynote on social media, delivered Tuesday morning from the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids:

• The audience now has control of your brand and can change its perception at will.
• 60% of journalists are using blogs and social media to find story leads.
• In today’s online environment, it is as easy to deliver content, as it is to consume it.
• “Marketing and advertising is the result of having a lame product.” (My personal favorite.)
• There are 8,000 Disney related photos loaded onto Flickr each day.
• 60% of online teens are contributing content and they are setting a very high bar in terms of future online expectations.
• For the tourism industry, everyday is a FAM Tour online. (Another favorite.)
• Use as much user-generated content as you can to support your current site content.

Following his very well received presentation, Josh was kind enough to catch up with me and answer a few questions. Here they are:

Q:  There is so much content available online right now.  Where is the saturation point for consumers?
JH: There is never going to be a saturation point because there is so much out there for an audience with multiple interests.  If it is relevant, they will find it and refer it someone else with a similar interest.    The referral networks are the key to sharing information; it is the power of peer-to-peer.

Q: State and local DMO’s have always been content distributors for their specific areas.  How do you see the role of travel DMO’s changing because of social media?
JH:  I see two things happening. First, they have to begin connecting with consumers who are passionate about the travel destination.    Then they have to realize that it is o.k. if the content is coming from 3,000 miles away rather than a local source.    When that happens, the sources will amplify the message.   We know that peer-to-peer content resonates more.

Q: Where would you recommend that a DMO, hotel, resort, attraction, etc. start if they have not explored any social media options?
JH: They really need to play off their specific product offering.  If they have a photogenic destination, Flickr would be a great place to start.   If they have a niche product that is engaging, creates interest and discussion, maybe a forum would be a good place.

Q: There is plenty of discussion about Facebook/My Space pages.  How can a DMO take advantage of this?
JH: It all comes down to staffing and time to be successful.   They need to leverage the existing communities and content that is already there.  MySpace has not been used real well in terms of destinations.   What they just need to remember is to contribute meaningful content.   They have to remember that everything must be interesting, engaging and compelling.

Thank you again, Josh.  Everyone in attendance appreciated your insight and time!

Conference Notebook: 
Fresh Message Matters – Trips to Michigan from a cluster of three traditional feeder markets increased 109% from 2006 to 2007.  The budget/adverting spend in each year were very similar.  The difference was the marketing message – the new, award winning Pure Michigan campaign.   IMO, the campaign radio and tv spots can only be described as “kick-ass” and they make me proud to live and work in the state of Michigan.  But, 109% is HUGE.  Lesson learned, it pays to keep things fresh.   Kudos to McCann Erickson and Travel Michigan. 

More Content Ideas – Echoing Josh Hallett’s mantra on content, the Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor Convention and Visitors Bureaus are syndicating content through the Issue Media Group of Detroit.  During the “Panel on Urban e-Marketing”, both organizations explained how they are spreading good news about their cities in the form of special interest stories and online video.   Not only are these groups using engaging content to inspire potential visitors to their destinations, but they are also driving search traffic to their web sites with algorithm favorites – fresh, keyword dense copy.

Go Gov! – Governor Jennifer Granholm was on-hand to fire everyone up about some additional tourism funding that is making its way through the legislature.   I know these speeches look like some typical political spinning, but she is, and always was, a big fan of tourism.  The Gov got it from day one.  Now, thanks to the hard work and lobbying efforts of TICOM, MACVB, and MLTA, the industry is gaining some respect in the house and senate.  I guess it doesn’t hurt when each travel ad dollar spent puts $2.82 back into the state treasury.

And More - Thanks to Rick Hert of the West Michigan Tourist Association for leading, and Dave Lorenz of Travel Michigan for organizing, a 5-mile running tour through the neighborhood streets of Grand Rapids early Tuesday morning.  It was a great way to start the day!