A recent 'Social Media Watch'(http://energise2-0.com/2010/12/05/visitengland-top-european-dmo-for-social-media/) benchmark analysis of 25 national destination marketing organisations in Europe has found that VisitEngland (www.enjoyengland.com) is a clear winner for their use of social media.
With an overall score of 68, out of a possible 104, VisitEngland was a clear leader with the nearest rival being Switzerland Tourism (www.myswitzerland.com) with a total score of just 36.
The scoring looked at:
-the number of social media channels used
-the depth/level of engagement with each channel
-social media use on the DMO's own web site
-their active participation in external social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube etc
What particularly impressed the judges and which VisitEngland were clear leaders in, was their innovative use of social media on their own website. This on-site social media platform is developed by social media innovators Digital Visitor, and is currently being used by a range of DMOs including VisitEngland, VisitBritain, VisitWilshire, VisitBlackpool, Welcome to Yorkshire and Isle of Man Tourist Boards and many more.
The Visitor Review technology not only enables online users to upload photos, videos and text reviews to the destinations' website, but it also dramatically increases the destinations online audience as each review added to an individual Visitor Review platform is automatically displayed on VisitBritain – assisting in promoting Britain, whilst also showcasing local and regional destinations to a greater audience.
The judges were impressed with the VisitEngland Visitor Review platform features including the active encouragement of user generated content (text, images, video); visitor ratings and reviews; the use of rich internet applications to enhance the online customer experience (widgets, mash-ups, podcasts); social bookmarking; RSS feeds; together with very clear links to their external social media channels.
On top of the on-site social media, VisitEngland's use of external social media channels was also impressive with a Facebook fan page of 45,500 plus 'likers' and a Twitter following of 9,000 plus. Good use was also being made of iTune podcasts, mobile apps, an EnjoyEngland blog and mapping tools. Location based services, Youtube and flickr were also being used although there is a more limited engagement compared to the other channels.
To find out more about how your organisation can make the most of both off-site and on-site social media, contact Digital Visitor on +44(0)1179 055 195 or email [email protected]