Social Media: ROAD TRIP!

Destination 1: Prescott, AZ, 99.5 miles on the I-17 N and AZ-69 N

Destination 2: Benson, AZ, 207.0 miles on the I-10 E

Back in December, we took our social media expertise on the road. In partnership with the Arizona Office of Tourism, members of the Off Madison Ave team traveled North to Prescott and Southeast to Benson to host social media workshops for local business owners and tourism organizations. Additionally, we hosted a webinar for folks who couldn’t make the North or South workshops. The goal was to help small businesses and tourism organizations in these communities understand the fundamentals of social media, how they can leverage it, why it should be important to them and how using the platforms can be a driver to generate business and encourage tourism in their cities. 

We kicked off the workshop by covering the overarching benefits of utilizing the social media space. It was crucial to stress the importance of building a community around their brands and how it can help drive revenue and affect other business objectives in a positive way.

We took the attendees through each portal (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogger outreach) and explained the basic functionality. This opened up an opportunity to showcase additional tools, effective approaches and how to integrate all efforts.

It was a lot to cover in a short amount of time, but there were four major key takeaways:

1. Determine Objectives & Goals

Even if you have limited resources, focus on 1-2 objectives and then add additional objectives as you become more comfortable with the space and start seeing success in those areas.

2. Align Messages & Audience Inclination

Find the intersection of your audiences’ needs and the key marketing messages your brand needs to demonstrate to ensure relevance and engagement.

3. Choose the Appropriate Platforms

Research the typical audience on a specific platform to give you key insights into if your target market utilizes the social network. 

4. Effect Customer Retention & Repeat Visits

Attract past customers or visitors with exclusive information, offers and engaging content.

Interested in learning how to do all that? Watching the webinar will give you a high-level view of how we approach social media. To us, it's all about creating a multi-dimensional and well thought out program to prime your audiences to do everything from retweet to rebook, or from “liking” you to being brand loyal. 

To glean key insights and actionable takeaways from the webinar of this workshop, visit http://www.azot.gov/marketing-programs/arizona-tourism-university/webinars.

About the Author: Jessica Carlson

Jessica develops strategic social media plans, manages online communities and tracks results to look for opportunities and efficiencies in her role as Social Media Manager. Her passion is building robust, engaged communities that create brand loyalists and garner key insights for clients. That, and drinking iced coffees while watching documentaries and reading blogs.

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