At a recent gathering for some Chamber of Commerce staff, I heard one of them say that his boss is rather dismissive of any time spent on the Chamber’s Facebook Page, yet if the Chamber is not successful on Facebook, that is seen as a failure.
Rock, meet Hard Place.
I’d love to tell that boss that if Facebook is part of an organization’s communications strategy, then interacting with customers or prospects on Facebook is work. It is not “goofing off.”
Welcome to the modern world – Facebook for business is work. It is part of that Chamber communicator’s job to connect with not only Chamber members, but also people in the community who might become members, including hardworking entrepreneurs who may have never considered the Chamber as an asset for growing their business.
The Chamber should be the hub of business development and economic growth in a community, and one way to interact with the community is through social media channels like Facebook.
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Toward the end of the podcast recording we talked about Tourism Currents and which destinations, hotels or organizations do a particularly good job with marketing using social media.
Chris mentioned doing some social media CVB training when he was in Maui, and that local hotels, restaurants and resorts all sent representatives to learn. Smart.
We all gave a shout-out as well to Hawaii-based PR pro Nathan Kam, who does a bunch of tourism work on Oahu. He’s professional but also very personable and fun, and he reaches out to people online in a very un-market-y way.
Of course we left out plenty of other great examples, but still, that’s a pretty good list if you want to check them out.
I’m happy to hear about your favorite social media stars down in the comments, and have a listen to the podcast when you have a chance!
Update: Gary sent me the code to embed the podcast right here….
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You may have noticed that Facebook Pages have a different layout – they look more like personal profiles and you can do some new things while acting administratively as a Page.
Here is what intrigues me about the ability to act as a Page or a brand (representing a CVB, DMO or Tourist Board) and not as a person: the opportunity for better cross-promotion of your region’s offerings.
Here are a few examples….
** Heritage trails, wine trails, quilting/craft trails and scenic byways can highlight each of their stops and sights.
** Chambers of Commerce can interact more effectively as a Chamber with their member businesses.
** Regional DMOs can interact with the Pages for their towns, agritourism places, trails, attractions, hotels, restaurants, shops, parks and nature reserves.
** Economic development and downtown development entities can cross-promote their offerings.
Drawbacks?
The usual: we’ll see ham-handed, intrusive marketing and spammy info broadcasting by people who act like a thing instead of a person.
“Hi, I’m Fred’s Donuts! Buy me!”
Sherman warned about this on Mashable:
“Posting behind the banner of your brand is fine on your Page, but moving into other spaces as a brand can be invasive and unwelcome.”
What are you thinking about doing with your new powers on Facebook?
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The result of my musings was an article I wrote for the January 2011 issue of PCMA Convene (the magazine for the Professional Convention Management Association) and a guest post on the PCMA blog: “Small-Town, Not Small-Time.”
An excerpt from the post:
“Some tips on using a small town venue for digital gatherings:
1) Don’t make assumptions about which places can and can’t host. The 140 Characters conferences, for example, “are usually and most effectively held in theaters; in fact, the very first one in New York was based on the idea of [a Twitter-like] one hundred and forty characters gathering together in an off-Broadway theater,” said SmallTown’s lead organizer Becky McCray, who has also spoken at 140 Conferences in London and Detroit. “All we had to do was bring WiFi (wireless Internet) into Hutchinson’s Fox Theatre, and it was perfect.”
For the rest of the tips, see the full article about how an Art Deco theater hosted a bunch of modern geeks, in “Small-Town, Not Small-Time.”
So many small towns and rural areas fight the image of being backward, and they find it tough to draw and hold onto talent. The web and social media changes that, and consequently can have a big impact on economic development.
For more on that, keep an eye on the next 140 Conference Small Town, again in Hutchinson, on September 20, 2011.
So simple, so straightforward, but I don’t see it often enough.
Integrate your on- and off-line destination marketing efforts. Make sure that people can find you, wherever you have a presence.
This card is the brainchild of Sarah Page, a Texas Social Media Award 2011 nominee and the LCRA (Lower Colorado River Authority) economic development expert.
The only change I’d make would be to add a QR code so that anyone with a smartphone could boot up links to any of the sites above.
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Whether it’s piles of clutter in your house, hundreds of unread emails, stacks of paper, folders of photos to edit or WHATEVER….
….the techniques for getting them under control are very similar to classic military counterinsurgency strategies of Clear – Hold – Build (some would add Sustain) plus a little inkblot spreading.
Find one part of the pile, no matter how small, and clear it.
Put practices in place to keep it sorted and clear (hold.)
Spread and grow the little “inkblots of order” until they connect, and you’ll have a tidy part of the desk or section of the room.
Build habits and create techniques that bring tidiness and order into your routine, and sustain them.
Move onto the next messy pile/room/email account and clear – hold – build – sustain. It’s even a tactic for downtown development.
To make it work, you need systems to sort incoming stuff, you must set aside administrative time to do the clearing and then have the self-discipline to hold onto your newfound orderliness.
One of my favorite references for organizational strategies is Julie Morgenstern – her blog features a recent post by a military woman in Iraq dealing with time management.
It takes planning to make even simple things go smoothly (or as I found while in the Navy, it also helps to marry a fabulous guy who shares the load.)
How do you attack clutter in your life, both digital and physical?
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Todd popped this video rant up on his site (direct link to it on Vimeo) and I think it’s a great way to illustrate his passion for dragging recalcitrant towns and businesses into understanding WHY they need to wake up to people’s desire to have simple Web access when they travel.
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I think this ties into all sorts of timely issues – how technology is making “flyover country” more visible and relevant in the modern world, creative approaches to economic and downtown development, the importance of rural broadband access in a connected world, the rise of the creative class outside of big cities and how Web connectivity lets you live anywhere you want to live.
I know the person in this short video below: it’s Cody Heitschmidt, the guy who makes things happen in Hutchinson.
He is much too modest and self-deprecating, but I’ll say it – he sees future possibilities for his town way before others do.
I very much look forward to joining him in Hutch on November 1, 2010 when the rest of the world gets to meet him, too.
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Connect the offline and the online, and you have yourself a more effective means of communicating with your customers.
Many of this sandwich/coffee shop’s clients sit in front of these napkin holders with either a laptop or a smartphone, or both. Why not show them where to go with that WiFi?
There is an exciting new development for anyone who has ever wondered how to attract buzz and interest to their small town or rural area….and I’ll explain what a pump jack photo (to the left) has to do with it.
The popular 140 Characters Conference series – about Twitter and other communications in the “State of Now” – has added a location to their event lineup that previously included gatherings in Los Angeles, Boston, Tel Aviv, New York London, San Francisco and Detroit.
If you’ve ever wanted to see how small towns and their economic development can benefit from technology, join me in “Hutch,” because I will not miss this one.
How did this thing end up in small town Kansas? Because of social media connections over a photo, and a blogger familiarization tour/press trip.
My Tourism Currents business partner Becky McCray posted a pump jack photo of her own onto Twitter Update: Becky says it was the other way around - Hutchinson business guy Cody Heitschmidt put up a pump jack TwitPic photo and Becky saw and commented on it.
Becky and Cody then kept up a friendly chatter on Twitter for months. When Cody said that he’d like to work with his local CVB and the Cosmosphere space museum to bring some bloggers to see his hometown, Becky agreed to be one of them….and convinced me to go, too, despite my general skepticism about blogger fam (familiarization) tours.
So, guess which town was top of mind when Becky started organizing 140 Conference SmallTown?
It was solid social networking by some of the Hutch townsfolk, pure and simple. They’re going to bring WiFi into the gorgeous Art Deco Fox Theatre, fill it with a bunch of blogging/Facebooking/video-ing/Tweeting geeks, and connect that town to the whole planet.
“Flyover country,” my hind end.
This is truly groundbreaking; it speaks to how the Web is starting to allow us to live where we want and connect with people worldwide from wherever we want to, as long as we have an Internet connection.
Want to attend? There’s still time – use code 140disc when you register here, and save $40 off of the ticket price.
