DMOs to the Rescue -- on Twitter

Since their earliest days, destination marketing organizations have helped planners promote their meetings by providing collateral such as brochures, maps and postcards. Now, many offer social media support as a powerful enhancement to their services.

"It has become a critical and growing part of the CVB toolbox," says Christine Shimasaki, CDME, CMP, managing director of Washington, D.C.-based empowerMINT, Destination Marketing Association International's marketing initiative to connect planners and DMOs. "It helps get planners engaged with destination happenings and enhances the experience for attendees."

Following, M&C looks at five DMOs that are at the forefront of social media support for events in their destinations.

Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau
When attendees converge on the city of Austin, Texas, they're greeted with a welcome tweet from the Austin CVB. This simple greeting is just one effort spearheaded by interactive marketing manager Katie Cook (pictured above, left).

The bureau's social media efforts initially targeted leisure travelers, first via Twitter and Facebook accounts, and followed by Flickr, Instagram, Foursquare and Pinterest. In 2010, Cook suggested adding meetings to the initiative and created a dedicated Twitter handle, @meetaustin, to reach planners and share news about the destination.

From there, Cook contacted planners who had upcoming meetings and conventions booked for the city, and asked what social media assistance might be helpful. The services provided have run the gamut from a quick consultation on how the group should use and/or improve their social media communications for the event, to providing resources like photos and interactive maps that planners can upload to their event apps. The bureau also created a Foursquare list of restaurants and suggested activities in the neighborhood around the Austin Convention Center.

"We're always looking at what planners want from social media, what they are using, and what they are interested in trying," says Cook.

The bureau's social media services currently are "gifted," according to Cook, to events that are large, prominent or important to the city.

Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau
"In our industry, we are past rates, dates and space," says Gathan Borden, director, brand marketing and advertising, at the Louisville (Ky.) Convention & Visitors Bureau. "Now, it's about how bureaus can make meetings successful for the planners and attendees."

To that end, the bureau has made social media support a major initiative. A 10-person social media team, tapped from departments including convention services, sales, group tours and communications, helps planners develop social media plans for their events, build attendance (via tweets about what to do in Louisville) and keep them in loop about what's happening in town during the convention. For example, the bureau used real-time tweets to alert attendees that a popular dining spot near the convention center was closed due to a burst pipe.

The DMO's social media support is available free to all groups, regardless of their size or number of room blocks booked, according to Borden.

One frustration his team has is that many groups don't want to use the bureau's hashtag (#asklou) because they prefer using only their own. "If we can get them to use ours too, it will alert local businesses that the group is in town and they can share special offers directly with the attendees," says Borden.

Plans are in place to create a social media command center to monitor tweets and provide custom blurbs for high-profile groups. "We're also talking to the University of Louisville about creating internships for students interested in social media applications. They'll get real-time experience and, at the same time, they can teach us some new ideas too," says Borden.

Visit Orlando
When 15,000 McDonalds franchisees descend on Orlando in April for the fast-food giant's Worldwide Conference 2014, members of Visit Orlando's convention services team will be monitoring their tweets in order to quickly resolve issues and answer questions such as "Where can I check bags in?" or "Are there any jogging trails in the area?"

"We provide the destination-level answers, so planners can focus on more important aspects of the meeting," says Danielle Courtenay, the DMO's chief marketing officer.

Throughout the four-day McDonalds event, attendees will receive tweets with destination highlights, special discount offers from spas and restaurants, and family-friendly activities in the area before and after the convention.

McDonalds is just one of many organizations that take advantage of Visit Orlando's free and extensive social media services. "They rely on us to give them messaging about the area," says Courtenay. "We have a bank of content with 120 characters, information that works at any time, for any group." Planners can choose the blurbs they want and stream them through any channel (Facebook, a blog on the meeting website, etc.). If more customized content is requested, such as updates on meet-and-greet services, Courtenay's content team will provide that as well.

The CVB is now developing customized websites where planners can pick the content they want to include. "We conduct digital-strategy meetings every year to determine what clients need and what the trends are," says Courtenay.

Visit Seattle
At Visit Seattle, social media support, gratis to any group, is intended to generate excitement about the Emerald City and build attendance, says Ali Daniels, vice president, marketing. The DMO launched its group social media services two years ago, with the creation of micro sites, branded for groups on request, on its own website. As planners and groups became more engaged, the bureau added a Twitter feed, populated with tweets, either pre-written or customized.

The tweets are written by a team of three on the bureau's staff who also handle postings on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts. "We want to make sure the voice of our destination is not just of one person. In fact, our tweets specifically identify who wrote them," says Daniels.

Requests for custom tweets, which come via the convention services department, are increasing. "We hosted a customer advisory board last September, and they asked for more of this assistance," notes Daniels. "Most don't have staff who can do that for them."
Daniels asks planners to share their meeting hashtag with her team, so they can be a resource and answer questions that arise during the event. To date, the organization has not had to use Twitter to alert groups of weather issues, strikes or other disruptions, but Daniels stresses that this is the perfect vehicle for such announcements. "It's actually included as an important communications tool our emergency plan."

The DMO plans to grow its social media offerings as customer interest and demand grows. "More and more planners are getting it; they now see it as a cheap and efficient way to communicate with their attendees, and as use grows, their expectations of the bureau grow," Daniels says. "The goal is to be as nimble as possible for groups and provide as much social media support as they require."

Greater Phoenix CVB
Until recently, the Phoenix bureau's main social media support has been tweeting messages with the event hashtag to attendees before, during and after the meeting, says Scott Dunn, the senior director of marketing and communications at the Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau.

"Examples of the sort of tweets we might send out are 'Coming to Phoenix for #hashtag? Download our FREE Travel Guide here: LINK' or 'Welcome to Phoenix #hashtag attendees! If you have any questions or need any recommendations during your visit, let us know,' " says Dunn.

To help communicate to clients the more robust range of social media assistance the bureau can provide now, the DMO launched a guide in December. "It basically lets planners know that, in addition to the aforementioned stuff, we can send out specific tweets that the planner requests; write Facebook content for a planner to post; and provide photos, blog content, etc., for planners to share on their group's social networks," says Dunn.

Nina Simmons, the bureau's online marketing manager, is looking forward to providing more real-time information tweets, such any events (marathons, construction) that might disrupt traffic around the convention center. Another new offering: She currently is creating a Pinterest board for an upcoming group. "I added some restaurants, attractions and even information about taking our light rail -- anything the planner thinks will appeal to the attendees," says Simmons.