Cool and interesting ways for tourism-related businesses to stick out in the social media sea. Slide deck created for short consultations at the Vermont Travel Industry Conference in Killington, VT, April 12-13, 2012. #VTIC

1. SOCIAL BRANDING FOR TOURISM
BRAND UP. STAND OUT.
Cool and interesting ways to stick out in the social media sea.
SOCIAL BRANDING FOR TOURISM

2. SOCIAL MEDIA IS EVERYWHERE
More than just Facebook and Twitter anymore. Your customers and visitors have adopted a variety of social
sharing websites and smart phone applications like photo sharing and location based games like Foursquare.
SOCIAL BRANDING FOR TOURISM

3. FACEBOOK APPS
Create custom landing
pages with or without fan
gates. Great for contests,
videos, other engagement.
“We wanted the app to fit into
our overall With Love,
Apps for Facebook. Philadelphia XOXO campaign.
These custom pages were created by an We also wanted to make sure
agency, but there are free tab page apps like our fans and visitors would be
Wildfire and ShortStack that let you pull in able to know what the prize was
your own html, images, run contests, etc.
every single day – which
wildfireapp.com involves manual updating inside
shortstack.com the app (Red Tettemer) and daily
Facebook posts and tweets
(Visit Philly).”
Take advantage of the
~ Caroline Bean, Director of
Timeline and pins.
Social Media, VisitPhilly.com
Tourism Australia highlights
fans’ photos in their timeline.
Making a fan famous for a
week in front of 2+ million
people.
SOCIAL BRANDING FOR TOURISM

4. TWITTER
The right avatar and
branded background.
This is valuable real estate to
send your brand home on
Twitter. Don’t settle for one of
the default backgrounds or plain
color. Add your logo, some
iconic imagery, and contact info
and make this page yours.
Keep the background simple as
there is already a lot going on in
the feed and information panels.
Your avatar should be more than
just your logo, unless your logo
is crisp and looks great in a
small size. Be creative with it.
This is a fun space.
SOCIAL BRANDING FOR TOURISM

5. FOURSQUARE
Claim your venue and keep
the info up to date.
Customers have probably
already started your
‘account’ for you just by
checking in.
The nice thing about Foursquare
for the tourism and hospitality
industry, is as it becomes more
popular, there will be more
content from people who
actually visit your city and
businesses, along with tips from
locals. You can tap into
Foursquare to read how people
really feel about your local
businesses and the area in
general.
Check your venue often.
See if you’ve been ‘listed’. Read tips about your
place. Find pics, who your Mayor is.
Post check in specials.
foursquare.com/businesses
SOCIAL BRANDING FOR TOURISM

6. PINTEREST
Collect the best images of
what you have to offer and
post them to designated
‘boards’ on Pinterest.
Visit Savannah has really taken
Pinterest to the nth degree. With
at least 26 different topic
boards, 1,700 photos and over
12,000 followers - they’re
showing the best of Savannah in
a beautifully organized format.
Get engagement, comments
and people sharing your
images, recipes, attractions,
what have you.
Pinterest allows you to segment out topics to
make them easy to browse.
Notice how Visit Savannah boards are topics
people can drill down in, like recipes, attractions,
culture and special events. Even celebrity chef
Paula Deen has a dedicated board - and 4,200
people following just that board!
SOCIAL BRANDING FOR TOURISM

7. FOODSPOTTING
Big exposure for local
businesses. Benefits locals
and visitors.
“In the first two weeks after we
launched in May, our
foodspotting.com/visitphilly
page got five times the amount
of Foodspotting’s other
partners’ page views that soon
after launch. Our followers
increased 755% in those first
two weeks. We’ve now grown to
over 1,000 followers and 22
guides.”
~ Caroline Bean, Director of
Social Media, VisitPhilly.com

8. INSTAGRAM
Facebook just bought
popular photo app
Instagram, which is
already a nice app for fan
pages.
Further taking a social sharing
application, integrating with
another one, tying them both
together for fans.
You can rearrange the tabs on
your FB page to highlight
certain apps.
SOCIAL BRANDING FOR TOURISM

9. THANK YOU!
Seattle Metronatural wrapped
float plane. Circa 2007.
SOCIAL BRANDING FOR TOURISM @deepdishcreates deepdishcreative.com