Southeast Tourism Society Alumni become Social Marketing Rockstars!

Last week, Jennifer Barbee Inc. taught two days at STS Marketing College in Dahlonega, GA.  Boy, we had our running shoes the time we were there!  We started out by covering the movement of Social Marketing and it’s relevance in destination marketing today.  Little known fact that social marketing actually was born from the Can-Spam, Pop-Up Blockers and Do not Call lists.  When users are able to control the “interruptions” they experience, peer-to-peer marketing becomes the more authentic way to expose users to your brand.  But, it’s tricky.  We have to relearn how we market and make the transition to relationship building vs. direct messages.  We had to learn how to create inspiration thought viral link baits and a holistic “social strategy” rather than posting direct “click here, come here, do this” messages.

I learned that the trepidation and worry over social marketing for travel companies come from a few things:  the use of each medium fully (facebook widgets, twitter feeds, you tube options), and utilizing their time on the sites that are going to yield the most return.  We stressed the importance of playing in each medium – forms, fields and options are going to change on each social site.  Right after we finish showing you how to use notes, create fans, etc.  There will be shift.  The important factor on all social media – is thinking about the audience, what they like, what their interests are – and pushing that message through the variety of options for the message.

But, once we had the opportunity to play on a few of these sites with the students, and were able to illustrate how to extend their brand and create evangelists….they all kicked in with great ideas for their own destinations and travel companies.  I really love being able to show and tell what we do for clients, and illustrate that this marketing genre is not just for geeks anymore!  When we did a break out for each group to come up with their own ideas for a social promotion that was:  relevant, viral, multimedia and time sensitive — I was impressed!  Every one of the students attacked the project with open ideas and there were some unique ideas that you might be seeing on the web very soon.

I just want to take the opportunity to thank STS for inviting us and thank the students for being so interactive, asking questions and applying the strategies to their own places.  I’ll be sending out homework assignments for each of you soon, and I will be following your progress online. J  Call me a cyber-stalker – I have to watch my new social-stars!!!!

Check out http://www.southeasttourismsociety.org/ for all the recap of Marketing College and some fun photos of our class.  Continue to support the associations that are able to connect firms like us to the industry!

Off next week to talk about Social Media to Baton Rouge Hospitality Management Association.  Round two – and I am PUMPED!

Similar Posts

None Found

Comments

About Author