Transcript:
Adam Stoker: [00:00:00] Okay guys, since we started the Destination Marketing Podcast, a little over a year ago, I've had several destinations reach out and say, "Hey, could you help me start a podcast?" And at first, we're kind of like, "well, no, that's not really what we do." But after enough requests, we said, "you know what, let's explore this." And we've created a turnkey program for destinations where we will produce, we will host, we will edit, and we will publish your podcast for your destination on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis. And all you have to do is show up and answer some questions. We're really excited about this program. We've got a few destinations that have been doing really, really well with their podcasts. And if you've ever thought about creating a podcast for your destination but you don't have all the equipment or you don't have the expertise or any of that type of stuff, let us take that off your hands. Let Relic handle your podcast creation and production. And all you have to do is show up and answer questions about all the amazing things there are to do within your destination. So let me know if you're interested. Email me at adam@relicagency.com and we'll get you set up on this podcast program. Welcome back everybody to the Destination Marketing Podcast. We're here with our friends from North Alabama, Melea, Beth, and Maryanne and we've been having a great conversation about social media and I want to keep it going. We're going to start with Melea, you have 16 destinations that you work with, which is great but also challenging at times. But you have 16 sources of content that you can pull from. So tell me a little bit about how you manage that.
Melea Hames: [00:01:52] Well, it's a challenge every day, it's a good thing to have because there's always content, so that's a good problem to have. One thing that we encourage our members to do is tag us in posts or use our hashtags, especially on Instagram and Twitter, and that way we're sure to see it and we can share and engage with it and react to it.
Adam Stoker: [00:02:16] Great, great. So those hashtags become pretty important for you. Now, Maryanne and Beth, how are you able to use those hashtags and support Melea in that effort?
Beth Ridgeway: [00:02:27] So, whenever we post, we always use our hashtag IHeartHsv. And then, if it's something that we know that people want to see, we go ahead and tag Melea too because like you said, people come and they might want to see something else. And we always do this hub and spoke. So, we don't always post on Instagram, all about Huntsville, Madison County. I've posted things about a place called Dismals Canyon and it is like the home of the Dismalites that glow at night, which is very cool.
Adam Stoker: [00:02:56] Wow!
Beth Ridgeway: [00:02:57] And then, I've posted about Cook Museum. I've posted about the Tennessee River. ...posted about a place called Unclaimed Baggage Center, which is about 45 minutes to the East of Huntsville. And, by the way, it goes, "Never eat Soggy waffles" is a North-
Adam Stoker: [00:03:15] Okay, so for those listening, it's really important, that if you can't figure out in what order to go North, South, East, and West.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:03:22] Never eat soggy waffles.
Adam Stoker: [00:03:24] There you go.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:03:25] So, to the East of Huntsville, about 45 minutes, there's a place called Unclaimed Baggage Center and it hosts all of the baggage that you leave at baggage claim. So, if you have ever lost your baggage, couldn't get it back, it's probably sitting in Scottsboro, Alabama.
Adam Stoker: [00:03:42] Okay.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:03:43] Just heads up for those of you who travel a lot.
Adam Stoker: [00:03:45] Yeah, there's a travel tip for everybody.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:03:48] It's an amazing place. So, we try to push out things like that and sometimes I draw inspiration from Melea's. And then, I think Decatur just had this beautiful new mural that just popped up, with this gorgeous horse and its just bright, vibrant colors. And so, art is important to, I call them viewers but our watchers, our people who look at us online. So things like that are great to post.
Adam Stoker: [00:04:18] Awesome. And then, Maryanne, my question for you is, okay, you've got the dynamic of content flowing between you guys and visit North Alabama. How do you lean on your stakeholders within your destination here in Decatur to generate that content so that you're not just constantly... You could be researching all day every day trying to find posts or you can build those relationships with stakeholders and be the curator of the content. So tell me how you do that?
Maryanne Floyd: [00:04:47] That's a really great question. One thing that I've started to do recently is to keep a social media content calendar each month that I use. And each month it's very similar but it'll have different themes and stuff like that throughout. Well, Friday is typically like my partner content day. So, a lot of our stakeholders know, "Hey, Friday's coming up, I should send this to Maryanne so she can share on her social media." But really, the Cooke Museum, the Princess Theater, Wheeler, they all do such a great job of when they have something exciting to share when they want me to share something they'll just let me know. And then, Friday or not, that's what we're here for so but that's been the thing that I've done recently, that seemed to really work and get people's attention.
Adam Stoker: [00:05:34] Great, let's... Go ahead.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:05:36] Yeah, I just want to jump in and say, you can create little groups on Facebook or you can follow pages and have a dedicated Facebook newsfeed of pages that you follow, which is one of the things that I do for all of my destination attractions. And then, I have a Twitter feed list that I look and so every day I can go through. And then, I know all three of us use a program called CrowdRiff and so-
Adam Stoker: [00:06:02] Love CrowdRiff, we've had them on the show twice.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:06:04] Yes, did you talk to, is it Amrita?
Adam Stoker: [00:06:06] Amrita Gurney.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:06:07] Yes, she's amazing and so in any case, we use that, it is a great way to grab UGC and we know what our partner hashtags are and they have a way for everything to kind of come into the system so we know when Instagram people talk about them.
Adam Stoker: [00:06:22] That's great. That's great. So I want to get to CrowdRiff in just a minute because I want to go deeper there. I'm going to go back to Maryanne just for a second. So you talked about how people are actively sending you content. One of the things that I feel like I see destinations doing a lot, is you've got the marketing director for the destination. And I think most people within the office defer to that marketing director to build the relationships with the stakeholders when in reality, in a lot of cases, the marketing director of the stakeholder organization is going to communicate with the marketing director of the DMO and it doesn't get passed on to the person that's actually going to do the posting, right, like Maryanne? And so, I would imagine you're building relationships with the actual social media manager of the stakeholder organization. So it's not just on the marketing director to build those relationships, right?
Maryanne Floyd: [00:07:18] Right, that's correct. Our CVB is a little bit smaller in that we only have six employees so we all wear a lot of hats. So, whereas, I am the communications director, I also do our social media. So I talk with the marketing director at the museum. I talked to Mike on a regular basis. I'm pretty much talking to the princess every other day.
Adam Stoker: [00:07:42] So you're the one building all the relationships.
Maryanne Floyd: [00:07:44] Everyone in our office has their thing and we're all so involved, even our hotel relations, our president and CEO. We're all actively involved in what's going on in the community and that's one thing that I think makes our organization really special in that we all wear so many hats. So, it's really a group effort from our office. So I don't think that there's a single stakeholder or partner, for a better word, in our county that doesn't know all of us by name, which is special.
Adam Stoker: [00:08:14] Well... and really helpful, right, that everybody in the organization has that relationship because the other problem is if one person owns those relationships and let's say they move on to another organization or whatever, well, everybody's starting at scratch or you all build the relationships and you're in a much better place. Awesome, let's talk CrowdRiff, Beth, are you ready?
Beth Ridgeway: [00:08:34] Yes, I'm ready.
Adam Stoker: [00:08:36] So I love CrowdRiff because of the ability to curate that user-generated content. Right? So, tell me... I want to get a little bit of nuts and bolts into your strategy for using CrowdRiff for that. Do you use it for your website? ...for your social media pages? How do you share the content from CrowdRiff? Let's get little nuts and bolts here.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:08:58] All of the above. So, I usually start my day and I go through CrowdRiff and what I like to do is, I have assets over 75%. I want the pretty pictures in the nicest way. I weed out all of that text. I don't need it. So, I go through and I pick out photos. When we were redoing our website a couple of years ago, we've added galleries to it and as I do blogs of things to do during the fall or things that you can do during the holidays, there are always so many amazing photos. And so, to be able to gather all of those and show skating in the park is not just for kids. It's for couples. It's for teenagers. It's for little old people who just want to try to skate in the park. ...and see that hiking this one trail is not just for those really hiking people with their protein packs. This child three years old is also hiking this trail barefoot. No, I mean, not necessarily barefoot but it's family-friendly. So to show all of the aspects of an attraction or something like that is great for CrowdRiff, for galleries.
Adam Stoker: [00:10:08] Yeah, so outside of CrowdRiff, normally what you have to do is create a photoshoot where you have to pretend that people are participating in these experiences. And I shouldn't say pretend because if you're doing a good photoshoot, it should correctly represent who's doing what, right?
Beth Ridgeway: [00:10:25] Right.
Adam Stoker: [00:10:25] But CrowdRiff is a little bit more credible because it's already happened. This is proof that you can do it to your point, right?
Beth Ridgeway: [00:10:34] Right. And it's one of those things that we really like to be able to... We can toot our own horn all day, every day. But to have other people toot our horn and sing our praises and say, "Huntsville is really a cool place to go," or, "Hey, did you know that there's more than just rockets there?" is a great statement for anybody to use for user-generated content. I think that's probably why UGC is so important to destinations, just having somebody else go, "Toot, toot. It's for you man.
Adam Stoker: [00:11:05] Melea, Do you utilize CrowdRiff as well?
Melea Hames: [00:11:07] Yes. And what Beth said times a million. I use it for... We use it on our website. And I use it to find content for social. And then, I write our blogs too. And so, I do what Beth was talking about, to find galleries to put on the blogs because typically you've got one picture and you think, "But there are so many more angles that you can use." And so, CrowdRiff, I love it. And Emily is my person. So, if she's listening, I love her, she's great.
Adam Stoker: [00:11:39] Good. Emily, that's quite the shout-out there. Make sure your boss listens to this, Emily. Okay, let's talk now about, I'm going to ask you a little bit of a personal preference question. This Isn't necessarily a strategy question but I want to ask what's your favorite social platform to work within and why?
Melea Hames: [00:12:01] I love Instagram. I love Instagram personally. I love Instagram professionally. It's just personally, it's drama-free, it seems like. Professionally, it's just beautiful. All of the pictures that people post and use our hashtag and tag us. I'm an Instagram girl, all the way.
Adam Stoker: [00:12:22] Nice, okay, how about you, Beth?
Beth Ridgeway: [00:12:26] I would say right now, I really, even though it's going to make me sound old, I like Facebook because that is where most of our traffic comes from. I know that I can drill down into those types of people that I want, if I need to make this blog into an ad and then say, "okay, I'm looking for those outdoor people. I'm looking for those drive market people." I just feel as a tool, it's scary, how much you can just get to the people that you need to get to and get in front of them and everybody uses it, whether you hate it or not. My mom, my grandmom, everybody and their mom is on it. And so you might not be getting to the youths, with TikTok, but you are getting to the people who are starting to have money. The younger people are still using it, so that's what I like about Facebook and the fact that I can reply with GIFs.
Adam Stoker: [00:13:24] Really important.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:13:25] Really important, I would say Twitter but now that Facebook has given me the GIF journey-
Melea Hames: [00:13:25] The gift of GIFs.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:13:25] The gift of GIFs.
Adam Stoker: [00:13:29] Oh man, this is good.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:13:35] If I can just do an office GIF for every time somebody like, "whoo, whoo."
Adam Stoker: [00:13:39] And there's a relevant Office GIF for just about everything.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:13:42] This is true, thank you NBC, The Office.
Adam Stoker: [00:13:46] How about you, Maryanne?
Maryanne Floyd: [00:13:48] You know, I'm actually with Beth on this one, I personally prefer Instagram because I feel like it's very no-nonsense. But when it comes to marketing, my organization specifically, Facebook is where it's at. That's where our traffic's at. That's where people are most interacting with our content. I've just found it to be a little bit more... We're really able to get down and like get to those visitors or to those people that we want to see certain things. So, I would have to say Facebook, as well.
Adam Stoker: [00:14:17] So you guys both like Facebook, it sounds like mostly because of the ability that the... Or the data that's available so that you can actually learn from what you're doing and improve on an ongoing basis.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:14:30] Right. And, Facebook or Mark, if you're hearing this if you take Instagram-
Adam Stoker: [00:14:30] Mark listens all the time.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:14:39] Good, I just want to let you know if Instagram ever gets the opportunity, where I can put a link in, it will actually show up in the caption and people can leave your site or at least just pull it up in a new window, that would great. I left my link tree [00:crosstalk 00:00:14:53].
Adam Stoker: [00:14:53] You're getting a little tired of link and bio.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:14:54] Yeah. I mean, because people want to know more information. People save these great pictures. Let me learn about these Cathedral caverns. Or, let me learn about this beautiful bridge, but-
Adam Stoker: [00:15:05] Get it together, Mark.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:15:06] Yeah, come on. Yes.
Adam Stoker: [00:15:08] Okay. Have any of you tried to take TikTok?
Beth Ridgeway: [00:15:12] Personally? Yes. Here's why I love TikTok. Okay. I know it gets a bad rap and they were probably spying on me, but here's the deal. There are so many creative people on there, and I get so much creative inspiration from it. It's just this edible content and you can just scroll through. And the For You page is amazing because it knows exactly what you want to see. I want to see Hamilton. I want to see aquariums that have little penguins that say "Don't be suspicious." Like, I am just... If attractions can find a way to use this in the right way, it can be great for you. However, if you are a destination and you know, your board's niece, somebody on the board has a niece who says "You guys need to get on TikTok." And now you're expected to create TikTok content. It's a whole new game. You can't just throw things up there that you would throw up there. You can't just put a picture up there. People spend hours on this content and it's a rough game to get in there. If you don't know what you're doing. And I mean, sometimes you just got to jump in like a big frog, but I don't think at this point we are ready to jump in like a big frog.
Adam Stoker: [00:16:33] And where are you going to add something? Maryanne?
Maryanne Floyd: [00:16:34] I mean, I personally loved TikTok, so I agree with everything that's said more. I think that TikTok. The platform is just not quite there. As far as Destination Marketing Organizations go. We're not quite ready to dive into that because like you said, it's a lot of content creation and there's so much thought and so much time that goes behind TikTok. So yeah, I mean, I'm excited to see where that platform goes. Hopefully, if it doesn't get deleted off my phone magically by the government, who knows. but yeah, TikTok, I think has a lot of potential and it can be something that we could really use to our advantage in maybe six months to a year.
Adam Stoker: [00:17:13] So, I'll tell you what I think about TikTok. And, it's interesting, my opinion has changed recently. One of our clients is a Parade of Homes. It's a home builder association and they do a big event, the Parade of Homes every year. And we had one post, that we hired an influencer from TikTok, they did one post and we had 1,722 comments on that video. And-
Maryanne Floyd: [00:17:42] Was it good comments or bad comments?
Adam Stoker: [00:17:42] Good.
Maryanne Floyd: [00:17:44] Good. Okay, good.
Adam Stoker: [00:17:45] People are excited about the homes.
Maryanne Floyd: [00:17:46] No, honestly I just --
Adam Stoker: [00:17:48] Oh no. An important question. This video sucks. That would be bad. But the reason I think TikTok is interesting... And I would challenge destinations that are listening to two. At least if you have the budget, make an attempt to figure it out. ...is that the ability to go viral on TikTok is what the ability to go viral on Facebook 10 years ago was, right? When you were early to the game, you had much more of a chance of going viral. And then all of a sudden it got flooded with content. And there was so much competition that it was harder to go viral, right? And I feel like TikTok offers potential virality that Facebook and Instagram and Twitter can no longer offer. If that makes any sense. That's one place... And I'm not saying we figured it out by any means. We hired an influencer that already had a following, which maybe that's the way to go instead of trying to nail the organic content side of it. If you can get Yes Theory, which is a big account on TikTok... They call it Yes Theory because they just go. If they want to go to a destination, they just go. He Googled one time, "What's the least visited destination in the world." Google result pops up. Boom. He went.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:19:01] That was on my For Your page.
Adam Stoker: [00:19:03] Mine too. It was a great video. But if you can get the right influencers to your destination, maybe you don't have to do all that organic content work that it would take, the content creation work that it would take. but leverage someone else's audience. You just have to make sure the audience matches your audience, right? Otherwise going viral, but it's not relevant, doesn't matter. Right? So anyway, I think TikTok is an interesting opportunity that somebody is going to figure out and it would be great to be the one that figures it out.
Maryanne Floyd: [00:19:37] I mean, just saying like the videos influence me to be more creative with how I'm like, "Oh, could I do something similar, but not make it TikTok?" I mean, and Instagram reels, they're trying.
Adam Stoker: [00:19:51] They're trying. Yep. Absolutely. And I think there's a lot of opportunity with Instagram reels as well, but I still think you've got the distribution problem on Instagram that you don't have on TikTok and a completely different audience. Right. Well, Maryanne, let's start with you. I've got a question for you. And nobody has a crystal ball, so none of this is guaranteed. We're not going to hold you to it. In fact, I went to a conference one time and a guy, a huge conference guy, gives a presentation about how we're just about to be able to advertise on smartwatches. And the... I mean, huge slide presentation, screenshots, all the stuff... I still can't advertise on smartwatches. So like it's okay to look into the crystal ball and be a little off too. But using the information that you have, what do you feel like the future looks like for your social media strategy at Decatur?
Maryanne Floyd: [00:20:44] That is a tough question. I guess, personally, I see a lot more... And this is kind of in relation to the current state that we're in with COVID and everything. I see a lot more virtual events. I see a lot more outdoor activities that we share a lot more paid advertising working with our stakeholders, just to make sure that their content is being shared onto our social channels. A lot of what we're doing now, but hopefully there will be new and advanced ways to get that message out. Only time will tell. So we'll say. Give us a follow at Visit Decatur AL, to find out what we're doing. I like it.
Adam Stoker: [00:21:25] How about you, Beth?
Beth Ridgeway: [00:21:27] I would say people are going to, especially in the next few months, so people are going to be wanting good news. You are going to find your Facebook feeds. You're going to find Twitter feeds just Full of... And as social media people, if you know, we already have to deal with, "I don't want to wear a mask. Masks are the devil." Or "Mask up, why are you not wearing a mask?" They're very politicized right now. And our country is really divided on a lot of different things. So, for you to be able as a destination, put out good content, solid content that tells people "Here's who we are. Here's how we're keeping you safe. Here's how you can come and visit us and not feel like you are just a number. You are a person who we're excited to have here. And there are multiple socially distant itineraries that we have provided for you." That is what it's for.
Adam Stoker: [00:22:27] I love that because you're right over the next several months, there's not going to be a lot on social media to be excited about or to get excited about and if you can be the voice of positivity, that's great.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:22:37] Yeah. And just keep, keep the politics out of it.
Adam Stoker: [00:22:41] Oh. Especially for a destination.
Maryanne Floyd: [00:22:45] Oh, for sure.
Adam Stoker: [00:22:45] How about you Melea? Well,
Melea Hames: [00:22:46] Well, I'm listening to them and I'm thinking back to the road trips of maybe... And I've been thinking too that maybe it's time to break those back out again and share those because I share those quite a bit for, a month or so, when business returns to usual. And for some people when is now and for some people when is still later, so again with that good news of just offering some hope.
Adam Stoker: [00:23:13] I like it. Okay. Another question that I have for you guys. And I think this one, don't feel too much pressure on this question. But advice for Destinations that are listening that are struggling with what to do with their social media right now, what advice would you give them?
Beth Ridgeway: [00:23:34] I have been taking inspiration from our old Google Analytics. So, something that I know that does really well. Let me give you a couple of blog ideas. Five least-known spots in your area, new incoming soon restaurants, where to splurge on dining, places to get takeout, where you can eat in the park, where's the best place to picnic... Things like that are always going to do well. And people are going to share them because they are already looking for that information. So take what people are searching for on your site. Take what you know has already done well in the past and reuse that content, maybe repurpose it in a different way, put together a little Adobe spark slideshow or use like InVideo or whatever you have and put a photo, but just text, put links just use it in different ways because you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You just have to be smart about it.
Adam Stoker: [00:24:36] I love that. And I love the idea of using the data, let the data... Because once again that's listening to the visitor, right? The visitor told you through their actions what they're interested in. Now, your job is to create content that matches that activity. I like that. Go ahead. And Maryanne.
Maryanne Floyd: [00:24:51] Yeah. I mean really what Beth said, that's a great point. We use our Google Analytics for pretty much every aspect of our marketing strategy. So, that's an excellent point. So yeah, I mean, just focusing on those key things that people typically get excited about like destinations within your county that they might not know about. Things that are secret or special are always very cool. Everyone likes to feel special. New restaurants, especially... One thing that we have done that we've seen a lot of success from is like Beth was saying, we just got a new mural and it's just absolutely gorgeous. It's part of this big ongoing project called the Chasing Art Project that we're working on here in Decatur. So we developed a MoCo, Morgan County, mural trail. So, we're sending visitors on this outdoor kind of trail of all of our public art. That's been in a really cool that's now the number one page on our website. So like before our events, that's a big deal. Yeah. It's very cool to kind of see that data and work off of that. So ditto to everything, Beth said.
Adam Stoker: [00:25:57] Yeah. And I even like what you're adding to what Beth said there because you know, you look at the pages on your website that are most interesting to the visitor and you craft your content to that. I think it's great. So we have someone making loud noises on the ceiling. If you're wondering why there are weird pauses going on here.
Maryanne Floyd: [00:26:20] Santa!
Adam Stoker: [00:26:20] Santa's here, he's a little... Timing's off, but Melea, I want to give the final word to you. And really, my question is, is there anything that I haven't asked you that you think would benefit our audience?
Melea Hames: [00:26:39] I think going back, I know I keep talking about the road trips, but I feel like that's the thing that destinations can do is create those little road trips. Because a lot of... I mean, it takes the thinking out of things for people. Because a lot of times we were like, well, what is there to do when you've got, well, you can do this, this, this, and this. And you can stay here and you can eat here. And it's like, Oh wow. I don't even have to think. I just have to. And I think the outdoor opportunities, especially in the South things are going to start cooling down maybe a little bit, just getting outdoors. People still feel safe, outdoors. And I guess I would just like to say, just hang in there. It's going to get better.
Adam Stoker: [00:27:19] It absolutely will. Well things, you guys have spent a lot of fun. It's been nice to have you on. We're going to go try Big Bob's. Is it Big Bob's?
Melea Hames: [00:27:27] Yes, Big Bob Gibson's.
Adam Stoker: [00:27:29] Big Bob Gibson's I can't wait. In the meantime though, tell us how we can find each of your social accounts.
Maryanne Floyd: [00:27:35] You can find Decatur Morgan County tourism at Visit Decatur AL on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Adam Stoker: [00:27:42] Nice. I like the consistency.
Beth Ridgeway: [00:27:44] Oh, I like that consistency too. You know what the best thing to do is just go to huntsville.org and find us there. And I will just say to those social media people, if you're out there listening, go ahead. If you don't have a policy, get a policy together so that you can block people, let people know the trolls will be out there. And go ahead and plan for the future because now that we've had a pandemic people down the road may need to know how you've handled this.
Melea Hames: [00:28:11] And you can follow us at Visit North Alabama on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest also, and YouTube.
Adam Stoker: [00:28:17] Great. Well, thanks you guys for listening. And if those of you that are listening would like to have the Destination Marketing Podcast come to your destination and feature your destination and some of the attractions within it, we'd love to come to your town. So hit me up at adam@relicagency.com and we'll arrange for that to happen. Thanks everybody for listening. And we'll see you next week. Today's episode is brought to you by Relic. As many of you know, I own an advertising agency called Relic, and we work specifically with tourism destinations. If there's any of you that are struggling with what to do next, or you've tried agencies that don't specialize in tourism, or if you've been using the local flavor for years and years, and you're just looking for something new, I would say, give us a call. Give us the opportunity to take a look at your plan, see what you're doing. Use our tourism knowledge and industry specialty to examine everything from your brand to your tactical execution and make recommendations of how to help. We'll do that assessment for free. We'll give you those recommendations for free.
And if you like what we say, maybe you can hire us to execute on those plans. So kind of a risk-free opportunity to have us take a holistic look at everything you're doing, provide some recommendations, and kind of see us in action. If you're interested in having us do something like that, please send me an email directly at adamatrelicagency.com. I would love to set that up with my team.
[End of Transcript]
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