Sheila's Guide To The Good Stuff

Does your boss have a smartphone but isn’t really too sure what to do with it, or does he or she not have a smartphone at all?

Time for a teaching intervention, or you’ll never convince him/her about why mobile is so doggoned important to your future.

Some data:

**  427.8 million mobile units sold in Q1 of 2011, a 19% increase year-over-year.

**  By 2014, mobile Internet usage is expected to overtake desktop internet usage, and half of all local search is from a mobile device (Mashable.)

**  1 in 4 Hispanics who access the web do so through a mobile device.

Sometimes, though, a blizzard of stats doesn’t teach lessons as well as personal experience (and gnashing of teeth.)

Here’s how to get “Boss Buy-in” to the importance of mobile in your destination marketing, and the need to get moving on mobile-friendly content….

How to Help the Boss “Get It” About Mobile

1)  Start with having her open the browser on a smartphone and look at your destination/attraction website on it, plus some competitor websites. Bonus if they aren’t mobilized AND they have Flash stuff all over them; now she can see what a pain in the neck this is for visitors trying to quickly seek useful information.

2)  Have him type the words “downtown restaurants in Your Town” or “things to do in Your Town” on the Google homepage in the phone’s browser (as the average visitor might) and see what comes up. Imagine a visitor trying to sort through that.  Make a note to hold member/partner training about getting found in local search.

3)  Have her open the maps function on the phone. Try to get directions from somewhere on one of the highways through your town, to your most famous attraction or museum. Now, imagine a visitor doing that. Is it easy to do?

4)  Then have him look at one of your town’s major museum/attraction websites and try to poke around getting its operating hours, admission prices and directions. Notice how many “How to Get Here” buttons open to pages with useless maps, or a Google Map that you can’t easily manipulate. Imagine a visitor who actually knows the museum is in your town, but can’t figure out on his/her phone how the hell to get there, and giving up in frustration.

Now your boss will be newly-enamored of you and of your efforts to get people to understand why mobile is important, and that it’s not just a small telephone …. it’s a computer in everyone’s purse or pocket.

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How can you make a fun biker event even better? More effective integration of social media platforms.

Don’t bolt them on as an afterthought – tie them together and ensure that they feed off of one another.

I was traveling through Front Royal, Virginia recently before a short drive down to Luray. At the local visitor’s center (while putting up a TwitPic of the nice staffer helping my Dad) I noticed a poster for the Motorcycle Grand Tour of Virginia.

According to the website, bikers can enjoy….

“A motorcyclist’s dream tour of the Commonwealth! The ride includes stops at 82 destinations and tourism attractions all across Virginia. The more places you visit, the more fun you’ll have as you collect points for special prizes….The program kicks-off April 10, 2010, and official Virginia Grand Tour passports must submitted by Nov. 1, 2010.”

This year’s special emphasis is recognition of the 75th Anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

I’d been thinking about bikers and tourism because of Joanne Steele’s excellent post on her Rural Tourism Marketing blog – are motorcycles a good match for your rural tourism town?

What I like about Virginia’s tour is that social media channels are included in the communications effort.

What They’re Doing Right

There is an active Motorcycle Grand Tour of Virginia Facebook Page, with people who are excitedly talking about picking up their Tour passport stamps at various stops (there are over 500 registered riders,) telling stories about their experiences and uploading photos of their bikes in different towns.

There is a Tour Twitter stream at @MotorcycleVA, too, plus a Forum within the main website.

3 Suggestions for Improvement

The efforts would be even more integrated if the Facebook logo, link and feed activity widget were included on the website, so that people didn’t have to hunt around themselves on Facebook to find the Page. It’s the most mainstream social media channel right now, and if you want people to interact with your organization there, then cross-pollinate that presence on your other sites.

I’d love to see a much more interactive tour map, with photos and links back to at least the CVBs of each destination town….the current Tour map is a static JPG photo.  Again, Joanne Steele to the rescue with her RippleNW post about how to create a customized Google Map.

Finally, when I checked with my Android smartphone, I found that the main Tour website is not optimized for mobile users, which I’m sure includes a lot of those riders out on the road.

I’m not a biker myself, but I am certainly a fan of backroads and Virginia has some gorgeous ones. I wish the Tour great success!