Spotlight on Destination Marketing

Utilizing Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Photos and Video to Market a Destination to both Gay & Lesbian Travelers and Locals as well
By Matt Skallerud

Traditionally, destination marketing has been divided into two distinct market groups - travelers coming INTO a destination and locals (or natives) already LIVING IN a destination.  With the continued shift of online marketing to social media and Web 2.0, the distinction between these two groups is becoming blurred.

Traditionally, when targeting a consumer using banner ads or direct e-mail, a destination worked with specific media either targeting the inbound gay traveler or the person living in that city or region.  The two media were very different, and yet crossover existed even then in the form of local event listings, restaurant specials and bar & club updates, all of interest to both locals and travelers alike.

Today, when promoting a destination on Facebook, a blog, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube, that crossover works to a destination marketer's advantage, as a more single and unified message can be delivered that appeals to both markets.  This advantage makes it even easier to work with a wider variety of local and travel media from which to share content with and partner with for an even more comprehensive and stronger destination marketing campaign targeting the GLBT community.

The formula commonly in use today incorporates a Facebook fan page, a blog, a Twitter account, a Flickr account, and occassionally a YouTube channel... all dedicated exclusively to featuring the best of a local destination.

Beginning with the Facebook fan page, the four example screen shots displayed here show in detail how a destination can develop a presence in social media that both allows that destination to put its best foot forward when communicating TO its target audience, and allow that destination to begin speaking WITH?its target audience in the form of status updates, blog postings, related article postings and more, all designed to keep the destination active in the Facebook “Wall” and thus the live feed viewed often by your target audience using Facebook.

How well your postings are doing, as well as how interactive they are, can all be measured and viewed by Facebook as well (see screen shot on accompanying page).  It’s a recent feature Facebook has launched called Insights, and it provides a detailed report on both the performance of your fan page as well as some detailed demographic information on its members.

Running a Facebook Ad for your fan page is incredibly easy to do as well.  The business model for a Facebook ad is very similar to a Google text ad, in that you control who sees the ad and how much you’re willing to pay per click.  Most companies can get away with a starting monthly budget of approximately $150 ($5 per day) and a cost per click to start with of $0.50.  You’ll receive full reporting details on this ad so that you can customize and fine-tune the ad based on how well it’s actually doing for you.  The ad can be targeted to specific age groups and regions, as well as key words a user may have in their profile, in this case, “travel”.

The case for doing a blog is easiest to justify for a destination.  The key to a good blog is having something meaningful to say... what we define as the “story to tell.”  For a destination, the variety of topics one can blog about range from hotel, bar and restaurant reviews, key event highlights, local attractions and their current updates... again, a wide variety of topics that can be focused on any one of a variety of key, niche markets, GLBT?included.

The beauty of a blog, when using software provided by Google, Wordpress or other free blogging software , is that it outputs an RSS feed (Real Simple Syndication).  This feed, plus the fact that a blog is very search-engine friendly, makes your content very viral online.  Whenever a user clicks through to read one of your myriad of blog postings, they will have direct links to your Facebook fan page and your website.  If photos or video are included in the blog posting, the links to additional photos or the video can take the user to your Flickr photo albums or your YouTube channel as well, where you are keeping that user both better informed about your destination as well as entertained.

Lastly, this blog integrates smoothly into your Facebook fan page and your Twitter profile (to be discussed later in this article).  Under the “Notes” section of your Facebook fan page, your blog can automatically update your fan page, thus automating the distribution of your content and the effort of keeping your fan page updated.

When it comes to Twitter, we’ve written some extensive analysis and case studies on the business use of Twitter (see previous Gay Business Reports from past few months).  With Twitter becoming such a strong player when it comes to getting information about your destination out there to the general GLBT?public, the key is to both ensure you have current Twitter updates as well as informative Twitter updates that have the key words you need in order for someone searching online to find you.

Again, this process can be automated in sevaral ways.  One, you can synchronize your destination’s Twitter account to your destination’s Facebook fan page (www.facebook.com/twitter) so that you only need to post something once, in Facebook, and have it automatically appear in Twitter.  You can also utilize such 3rd party tools as HootSuite.com or TwitterFeed.com to automatically “Tweet” your blog postings.

You can also use such programs as TweetDeck.com or Seesmic.com to also do searches of key terms related to your destination, in this case?“gay Stockholm”?and then RETWEET those key conversations going on out there that you’d like to be associated with.  This will incrementally drive more traffic to your Twitter page and thus your website, and it will conversely encourage others to ReTweet your postings that they may find of value.  The more ReTweets your postings receive, the higher your chances of being found in some of the newer search programs that are focusing on “trends”, including Google Trends, TweetMeme.com and OneRiot.com.

With your blog now working automatically for you, keeping your social networking world updated every step of the way, there may be some opportunities to further enhance and expand your reach.  First, having an account on Plaxo and being a part of the GLBT?Travel Group will allow you to integrate all of your social media accounts (blog, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc.)?and redistribute your postings to this targeted audience as well.  The same holds true for the GLBT?Travel Forum found in LinkedIn, but in this case your blog postings will need to be inserted manually.

There are a wide variety of GLBT travel networks online today, and not every one is right for you.  Ning.com has a variety of GLBT?travel networks you can repost your photos, videos and blogs onto, but again, much of this will be done manually and thus only when you’ve successfully mastered the more automated tasks described above for Twitter and Facebook.

The travel world has some unique social networks including TripWolf.com and more importantly, for reviews, TripAdvisor.com and Yelp.com.  As a destination, working with these and other travel social networks, for your own organiation and on behalf of your partner hotels and restaurants, can become an integral part of your social network marketing as well.  In the GLBT world, several online travel review sites have emerged, with the largest being GayCities.com.  OutAdvisor.com and PinkChoice.com are more recent contenders, with all three focusing on user reviews of destination highlights, including hotels, bars and restaurants that are gay or gay-friendly.

Utilizing these techniques for your destination is probably the most efficient online marketing your organization can do as we enter 2010.  This strategy keeps your destination at the forefront of the GLBT?community on Facebook, Twitter and subsequently search (Google, Bing, etc.).  In fact, search engine optimization (SEO) companies utilize very similar techniques when helping their clients enhance their search engine positioning.  Take this strategy outline, modify to best suit your destination’s unique needs, and adopt social network marketing as one of your top growth areas for marketing in the next decade.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results!

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