How small tourism destinations can use social media for success with Kate Duffy

How small tourism destinations can use social media for success with Kate Duffy Welcome to Tourism Upgrade the podcast unpacking marketing trends from travel, tourism and marketing leaders. I’m your host Holly G and today we welcome Kate Duffy, Marketing Manager Consumer Engagement for Tourism & Events Queensland. Today on the Podcast we will we […]

The post How small tourism destinations can use social media for success with Kate Duffy appeared first on Holly G.

How small tourism destinations can use social media for success with Kate Duffy
Welcome to Tourism Upgrade the podcast unpacking marketing trends from travel, tourism and marketing leaders. I’m your host Holly G and today we welcome Kate Duffy, Marketing Manager Consumer Engagement for Tourism & Events Queensland. Today on the Podcast we will we drawing as much as possible from Kate on the topic of ‘How small destinations can use social media for success’.

 

HollyG: Although you work in a large destination now and you’ve had experience with even larger destinations when you work with the Canadian Tourism Commission, you also have had experience with smaller tourism destinations recently, and can you tell us a little bit about that?

Kate: Yeah sure, I am definitely very passionate about working in destination marketing and have had the pleasure of working at the country level with the Canada and the state level with Queensland. For about 14 months quite recently I was working at the Regional Tourism Organization with Tourism Tropical North Queensland, so it’s based in Cairns, heading out their destination content team and it’s certainly interesting to work across all I guess three levels of destination marketing organizations and pretty quickly better understand the challenges and the opportunities that each of the different levels presents.

Working regionally up with Tourism Tropical North Queensland, it was a smaller organization for me so there are about 25 people, and I’ve got to say I’ve never had less budget to work with or less resources in terms of staffs that I could tap into so the work was very hands on at the regional level but I guess to complement that as well, I would have to say it’s probably some of the most rewarding work that I’ve ever done. I just think being able to really see an immediate impact in terms of the work that I was doing was very rewarding.

HollyG: I am sure a lot of people that do work in smaller organizations and at the regional level can really relate to the whole you know, getting very hands on and getting your hands dirty for sure.

Kate: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. In that role, I had a lot of responsibility for all the digital so all about web presents, social media, and media relation so any of the journalists request to influence of visit, famil coordination as well and I also had our visitor information centre which is based in Downtown Cairns, underneath my responsibility as well. And thinking with that, we’ve distributed a lot of printed content through the visitor information centre so it was really broad that I was really responsible for and the other kind of interesting fact is it was the first time I worked where there was a Membership based, so part of our funding was coming through the actual tourism businesses to at the end of the day worked for, and they would pay a membership fee to be a part of Tourism Tropical North Queensland so we have about 450 organizations and I guess with that comes 450 different people who you’re really trying to please the work that you do so a lot of people were very interested in what you’re doing and very keen to see how they could were being represented into the work that I was doing.

HollyG: Yeah and extremely vested in the activities that are happening.

Kate: Very much,

HollyG: Yeah it’s interesting because I think you’re title there was something like Director of Content and as you say, it’s looking at ALL content that was being produced or shared or out there not just sort of an online content but looking at content from a whole perspective.

Kate: Yeah the way that I thought all about it was almost content that we created, content that we curated, and content that we inspired other people to create. So that was sort of how content played out across all of the channels i.e. digital and traditional and it was really good for me because I had more of social media background and it was kinda interesting to have a bit of a broad of view across all channels.

HollyG: I love that! Because you can relate to the stuff that you create yourself that you curate and also I like that that you inspire especially as a destination.

Kate: Yeah definitely, and even with the Famils that we coordinating that was all about how do we coordinate a famil with someone that’s going to inspire the best content out of them.

HollyG: So, what is your view on social media for tourism destinations?

Kate: Well, I am very bias because I am a social media geek and I am very passionate about this space but I certainly think it is really the biggest opportunity in my opinion for tourism marketing and that was just even more reinforced when I did start working at a smaller regional tourism organization. I pretty quickly realized, you know there’s only so much of the job I can do with one single person in a region, and there’s only so much I can do with an incredibly small budget and then incredibly team of small people that I was able to convince to be part of my team so the opportunity really with social media was around basically getting more people on board with my strategy to help me market the destination for me so that was really very focus and I really think that’s the biggest opportunity is if you can get your industry members trained and more engaged in helping you through social media, you can get visiting travelers who are coming to your region, out sharing photos having a great experience. If you can connect with locals living the region who are generally very passionate about where they live, if you can get all of those groups on board with helping you market the destinations and you just basically maximizing the opportunity for marketing and that to me is the paradox of social media. I think some people think it’s free – it isn’t. It does take time and effort but that was really I think you can do a lot through social media with very little and have a very big impact.

HollyG: Yeah great! So I’d love to sort of dive into a couple of those things that you mentioned and see what if we can pull out practical advices about how small destinations can use social media.

One of the first things, and somebody asked me recently what I saw is one of the opportunities in tourism and I was talking about that ability to connect locals and to really get them on board. What are some of the things that you experienced in that space or some practical advice around small destinations using social media?

Kate: I think number one for me is it really start with having a very clear strategy and understanding why you are investing your time in social media – that was the first thing I did when I moved up to Tourism Tropical North Queensland, it was really getting clear and articulating a strategy; for me that strategy was an advocacy strategy that was all about getting other people to tell the story of the destination for me through content and I just hammered on about that and I didn’t waved that from that very simple strategy and I made sure I’ve got my CEO on board and then made sure I did got the whole organization on board then I rolled it out to some of the key big players in the region and then I rolled it out to the local tourism organization. I just sort of try to build a little group of people who were on board with the strategy – so that was first.

HollyG: I like the idea just on that, it’s not just sitting there yourself from thinking Okay, this is what I wanted to do you’ve got to get support from within the organization and then be really clear about what you’re doing it for. Not having mixed ideas about why you are using social media.

Kate: That was it was exactly. And I think being membership based, I did have people coming saying why you’re doing that, it sort of spending a bit of the time defending what I was doing but that’s really the key to get that in my own staff members, my own colleagues and my own CEO on board and just kept coming back to that and just kept it very simple. So that first and foremost was really the key.

The next for me and another practical tip when I went up there, the organization have two Facebook pages, two twitter accounts, lots of numbers of hashtags that they were using, they also have presence on Google+ and Pinterest and sort of they have definitely got a lot of presence in a lot channels. So I just really took the time of encouraging people to look at where’s your target traveler online? And what are the key channels you should be on to try and connect with them and just try and do a few things really well.

HollyG: I think that was such an important point. I was at travel expo this week and I had someone come up to me and say oh whatever you’re saying about content is great but I have this channel, and this channel, how can I doodle? And I am sort of like well, you can’t. 

Kate: Yeah, maybe you shouldn’t!

HollyG: Yeah that’s very true.

Kate: That was never more clear to me when I did go up, they don’t have the budgets to be paying agencies, you know that was really just me so I actually had a little sign up printed up put on my wall,

“keep it simple, do it well” says @Kate_Duffy #TourismUpgrade
Click To Tweet

 and I would just look at that every day because I was getting after luck by different people saying why aren’t you doing this? Why aren’t you doing that? It was just really important to me to just come back to that mantra to keeping it simple and do it well.

 

Another thing that was the key for me was just around being consistent as well so once I did all the consolidate all the channel we’re on, I just committed to being very consistent with posting. Facebook and Instagram were probably the key two channels and I made the commitment that you know I was going to post 4 photos on Instagram and I was going to post at least once a day on Facebook and I stuck to that using scheduling tools. So obviously when I took a break or when I took on a holiday I still committed to that schedule.

And then the next thing for me is connecting with those local content creators. So I was new to the city and I just made my mission to educate myself on the region and I personally connected with a lot of people out there, a lot of Instagramers and got to know them, got them using our hashtags, and just really build that group of local content creators, and bloggers and travel writers and just really tried to get them into my little family of people that were helping me market the destination and there’s no way I could have done it by myself. It was those people who really made a difference.

HollyG: Yeah, that’s sort of team of other passionate people and there are so many talented content creators out there and it’s almost like in full trading that’s seen to a certain degree to sort of learn who they are and how they see things through their eyes.

Kate: Hundred percent! You want a person sitting in one office and then if you can connect with lots of locals all around the area that you’re representing, you’re going to get all of those people out and I sort of saw them as an army of content creators who are helping me and that was sort of flow I into I guess another tip for me was really all about putting the profile on the advocates and putting the profile on their contents. There was sort of something I could do for them, they were helping me out by getting out and taking photos and using our hashtags but what I was able to do was feature their photos on our channels. One of the few things I did invest in was a blog for the region and the blog was quite strategic. I wanted to have a platform where I could profile these people so that they can be contributors to the blog, I could curate their photos and feature them on the blog, so that then they could say I am a contributor to the Tourism Tropical of North Queensland blog and a lot of them since have really gone onto become quite influential in the space because there was something that I could give them in return, it wasn’t monetary I couldn’t afford to pay them but I think that’s another key thing is thinking about how you can help them in return for how they’re helping you.

HollyG: Yeah and it is interesting to think about a destination blog and not just putting content about “see this” or “do this” but about profiling these people and so they can showcase the destination through their eyes and tells so much more story about the destination.

They are some very super practical tips there, do you have any others for us?

Kate: I have got some pretty much tasks on the things that I really focused on. Keep it simple and do it well – that’s probably my main mantra. Be consistent, engaged of locals, focus on featuring their content, make sure you credit them and I guess the final piece is then continue to use that content and promote it to new audiences. So use all that great generated content that you’re getting coming through and if you do have a bit of budget, then promote that with some paid budget and target that to new audiences who you’re trying to attract to come to your destination.

HollyG: So how could you see, what were some of the signs of success I guess through these activities?

Kate: I think the biggest one, you know I just remember my CEO saying that every member that he spoke to was just saying really positive things about the work that they were seeing – that was huge having your CEO say that. He’s certainly wasn’t on our Facebook page or Instagram account but he was certainly taking the phone calls for members who would let him know if they were happy or not happy, that was very good. And then just building people’s careers that you can literally see people start getting invitations from all the destinations – that was a pretty great sign.

In terms of our own channels, Instagram was the key platform for me that I really focused on because that was the platform I was really seeing a lot of travels and locals sharing their photos so when I joined the organization we had 7K followers and then when I left for three months later we had 80K followers, so for 14 months, that was a pretty massive increase with the followers of that account. Building the blog and seeing people who at the beginning I was on hands and asking if they would contribute to the blog to 14 months later having people pitching us to say can I contribute to the blog so, they were some of the indicators that felt like it was moving at the right direction.

HollyG: Yeah great, not that I wanted to get a hang up on this sort of thing, do you have any like “must do” or favorite tools that you use across all your social media activities now or then?

Kate: We benchmark a lot, I do find a tool called Social Bakers, pretty handy for benchmarks and reporting, it’s probably a little bit of a more expensive tool that maybe a really small organization might not be able to afford and then in addition to Social Bakers and benchmarking, Hootsuite is a really great free tool for listening for conversation, we use that a whole lot at the regional level where we had a lot streams in key words say like, just landed in Cairns and we would regularly just jump into that stream and be able to jump into conversation and find travelers who were looking for help and looking for suggestions so Hootsuite is really a great one for that. And you know the Facebook scheduling capability, particularly for us when you are the only person, you still want to have a life. I encourage you to look at that scheduling capability within Facebook, it will save you a lot of time.

HollyG: And because it’s important when you go to curating or creating an amazing content, you want to make sure that it’s delivered at the right time to add that extra level of context.

Well it’s so great to talk to you, time goes super fast… what is the best way for people to connect with you?

Kate: Best way for me probably on Twitter or Instagram @Kate_Duffy.

HollyG: Now, are you up for the Bonus Question?

Kate: Always up for bonuses, yep!

Now it’s time for our thousand dollar bonus question!

Bonus Question: If you only have a thousand dollar marketing budget, what would you spend it on?

Kate: I would spend it on training my industry, training my operators on a strategy and then potentially doing some really basic session on the tools, you know like how to use Instagram for example, I’d probably print some posters that have the destination hashtag on it and give them to the operators and encourage them to put that up at their business and then put it at the back of their toilet door, on their charter that’s going out every day and then probably run some Instameets with locals and there are few things there that are little bit of cost associates with those things that I think would really activate that advocacy on that would help you do the job or marketing the destination.

HollyG: Awesome, now what if you only have a hundred dollars?

Kate: There’s a lot you can do for free in social and I probably put my $100 towards training, getting out and convincing people even it that was just the cost for my petrol so that I could get around and meet with people.

HollyG: Cool, thank you!

 

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The post How small tourism destinations can use social media for success with Kate Duffy appeared first on Holly G.