Geeks like geeky things. I’m also an organizational fanatic so you can only imagine the excitement I had when Katie Cook pointed out this Social Media Directory for The University of Texas at Austin. All of the blogs, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube accounts for various colleges and schools within UT are listed here as well as those accounts for administrative offices, libraries and museums. It’s massive and it’s beautiful.
Would this be a good for destinations? Of course! In fact, two destinations already have something similar.
Experience Columbus has a page on their blog that links to the twitter accounts for area restaurants, attractions, shops and hotels. They also created twitter lists for these categories so users can follow the entire list while planning their trip.
Visit Mesa also has a Get Social page that features social hotels, transportation, attractions, restaurants as well as twitter accounts for local news, government and sports.
Creating these directories are a great first step but you can take it even further by promoting your partners and CVB members online within the specific network.
- Blogs: add a blogroll/list of other blogs
- Facebook: add partner’s pages as “favorite pages” to your CVB’s page and frequently tag them in your posts
- Flickr: add partners as contacts and consider featuring them in your profile
- Twitter: create Twitter lists and promote your partners in #FollowFriday tweets
- YouTube: subscribe to your partners’ channels, add them as friends and “favorite” some of their videos
Following these steps make it easier for visitors to find your partners on their preferred networks. A Flickr user will know to look at your profile or list of contacts to learn more about your area but they probably won’t know to search your site to find a social media directory. Do the work for them so they can connect as they plan their trip as well as during their stay and after they return home.
Have you seen other destinations with social media directories?
Dr.Niki
Stephanie Molina