The destination marketing organization (DMO)’s role in promoting a destination is changing. As DMOs find their new footing in the holiday planning cycle, this will mean a significant shift from focusing on campaigns promoting a destination to instead connecting with a consumer across the full cycle.
In his presentation at the 2015 Social Media Tourism Symposium in Australia, Chris Chambers of Tourism and Events Queensland (TEQ) delved into Queensland’s Digital Marketing Strategy and shared the value of their digital efforts across multiple platforms. TEQ has embraced social media, overcome digital challenges and demonstrated how DMOs can effectively leverage social media.
Read these three key insights from Chambers’ talk, or watch the full presentation below:
1. Connect with visitors through the whole holiday planning cycle.
The development of the Queensland application was the first step in TEQ’s path to becoming a more connected destination. The app is a platform that puts the right destination stories in front of visitors at different stages of the holiday planning cycle. Most importantly, a majority of the functionality is built to be available offline. This addresses the fact that Queensland is a huge state and allows visitors in region to access information without a data connection.
2. Share authentic stories of consumers, influencers and advocates.
TEQ effectively uses their hashtag #thisisqueensland to inspire others and share more visitor stories. By actively promoting the hashtag online and via signage at key events and areas with high foot traffic, they have developed a solid content bank they can tap into to tell stories. TEQ also listens and engages with people across multiple regions and events in a consistent voice, even going so far as surprising visitors to create stronger advocates.
3. Work with experts and influencers who align with your brand.
Chambers stresses the need to find influencers who are a great match for your brand: “It should never be about size but the influence that individual has to tell the story of the destination.” Aligning the right influencers to specific experiences and niches is much more effective than mass reach in getting the attention of visitors likely to visit your destination.
Related reading: Consumer-led, experience-focused, destination-delivered. That’s Queensland.
All TEQ does is infringe upon copyright by using people’s photos taken fron Instagram and Facebook without license or permission. How is this smart marketing?
Hi Jill,
Thank-you so much for your interest in the work Tourism and Events Queensland does. We love connecting with visitors who are experiencing Queensland’s products, destinations and events and we appreciate so much that visitors enjoy their time in Queensland so much that they share with their family and friends using #thisisqueensland. We are seeing a great array of content shared on #thisisqueensland and there have now been over 600,000 images shared on instagram with the #thisisqueensland hashtag.
We believe content shared by visitors has a fantastic authenticity to it and the content augments beautifully the other content we create and curate. We do make a point of ensuring we have the right permissions to share content shared socially by visitors to with the people who are connected with us on the various social media channels we use.
If you would like to discuss further how TEQ uses socially shared content, I would be happy to do so. Get in touch with me through chris.chambers@queensland.com
Chris Chambers
Director of Experience Engagement and Digital Channels
There is other side of the story too. If you are not engaging your visitors appropriately, you are losing a large chunk of leads. We have to remember that not all visitors tend to buy your product. We need to stay in touch with them on a regular basis. Here are 5 reasons why your visitors might not be contacting you.
https://lucep.com/5-reasons-why-your-visitors-are-not-contacting-you/
This is a very insightful article or shall I say summary. Thank you.