A Tourism 2.0 Professional Networking Group
"Creating The Buzz"
With support from the VisitScotland Growth Fund, Tourism 2.0 will be project managing an exciting new online marketing initiative on behalf of the Merchant City Tourism and Marketing Co-op (MCTMC) in Glasgow – ‘Creating the Buzz’.
Building on the success of previous MCTMC marketing campaigns, the overall objective of the one year project is to build greater brand awareness, loyalty and advocacy of the Merchant City as a ‘must visit’ destination (Glasgow’s ‘hidden gem’) leading to a sustained increase in visitor numbers and spend. A key focus of the project will be the development, implementation and on-going management of a proactive Web 2.0/ social media strategy for building a ‘quality’ customer base, engaging with and energising a strong online network of Merchant City ‘advocates’, maximising eword-of-mouth effects, thereby establishing a solid foundation for achieving sustained visitor growth and spend. Advanced social media monitoring tools will be used to evaluate on-going success in creating the ‘buzz’.
Established in 2007 by a group of local businesses, Merchant City Tourism and Marketing Cooperative (MCTMC) is a non-profit making, grassroots organisation whose main objective is to raise awareness of, market and promote the Merchant City as a ‘must visit’ destination; to increase footfall (new and return) and visitor spend in the area. It is fully constituted and made up of representatives from local visitor attractions, the wider business community and partner organisations. The active involvement of local businesses and residents will be critical to the overall success of ‘Creating the Buzz’.
The project starts on 1st November, 2009. We will share our experience of what works and doesn’t work in future articles in this series and would be delighted to hear from others with experience of similar projects.
Project progress can also be followed on twitter
Jim and Alan
Building on the success of previous MCTMC marketing campaigns, the overall objective of the one year project is to build greater brand awareness, loyalty and advocacy of the Merchant City as a ‘must visit’ destination (Glasgow’s ‘hidden gem’) leading to a sustained increase in visitor numbers and spend. A key focus of the project will be the development, implementation and on-going management of a proactive Web 2.0/ social media strategy for building a ‘quality’ customer base, engaging with and energising a strong online network of Merchant City ‘advocates’, maximising eword-of-mouth effects, thereby establishing a solid foundation for achieving sustained visitor growth and spend. Advanced social media monitoring tools will be used to evaluate on-going success in creating the ‘buzz’.
Established in 2007 by a group of local businesses, Merchant City Tourism and Marketing Cooperative (MCTMC) is a non-profit making, grassroots organisation whose main objective is to raise awareness of, market and promote the Merchant City as a ‘must visit’ destination; to increase footfall (new and return) and visitor spend in the area. It is fully constituted and made up of representatives from local visitor attractions, the wider business community and partner organisations. The active involvement of local businesses and residents will be critical to the overall success of ‘Creating the Buzz’.
The project starts on 1st November, 2009. We will share our experience of what works and doesn’t work in future articles in this series and would be delighted to hear from others with experience of similar projects.
Project progress can also be followed on twitter
Jim and Alan
Add a Comment
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Comment by Jack D. Wilson on October 24, 2009 at 10:26pm
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Dr. Hamill,
I emailed you two MS Word documents on our plans this afternoon.
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Comment by Dr Jim Hamill on October 24, 2009 at 9:52pm -
Thanks Jack - and sorry for the delay in getting back to you - very busy week last week.
Yes it would be good if you could send me the Strategic Plan and i will reciprocate by sending on our plan for the Merchant City Project. I will e-mail you through the site with my other e-mail address
Thanks again
JH
i will be using this blog to provide updates of our Merchant City Project
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- A volunteer group was assembled with the specific mission of incresing group tourism business (9+ room nights booked). We formed into focus groups. I am on the e-Commerce and Social Media Focus Group. We started with Twitter (www.Twitter.com/PrescottTourism), plus YouTube for videoes and Flickr for photoes. We are about to define a contest for videos. This was all driven by a Strategic Planning document which has been updated as we have learned the ins and outs. One success was a special for free gold with a 2 night room stay -- we have had 75+ room nights from that and the special runs until the end of October. Let me know if you would like me to email you the strategic plan.
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Comment by Dr Jim Hamill on October 14, 2009 at 9:41pm
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Thanks Zain/Elsa for your offer of help on this.... will be in touch.
Jack - yes we would be very much interested in sharing ideas/ experiences etc What stage is your project at?
Jim H
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Comment by Mayor Jack D. Wilson on October 13, 2009 at 9:00pm -
Dr. Hamill,
We have a similar effort in Prescott, AZ aimed at increasing group tourism business. Would you be interested in an interchange of ideas (strategic planning documents, etc.) as I think what we are doing parallels your effort and we might learn from each other.
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Comment by Elsa Wilkin-Armbrister on October 13, 2009 at 1:58pm - Way to go Jim!!!! Sounds interesting and look forward to being a part of this project. Maybe I could add some small value to it.
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Comment by Tony Humphrey on October 12, 2009 at 6:08pm -
Having worked in Paisley and spent some great times in Glasgow or using it as a base for touring...Loch Lomond, Golf, Fish, Football ( a must experience), Distilleries etc it is a wonderfull part of the world... if you are not looking for beaches!
We will advertise, market and promote any Scottish travel business at TheTopTravelClub.com and TopTravelSites.com.
We never charge any travel business for any of our services....simply offer direct booking discounts to our members and visitors to Scotland.
Currently we offer 10's of 1000's of TopTravelVouchers for discounted travel in over 80 countries with newbies added every week.
Cheers, Tony Humphrey, tony@thetoptravelclub.com
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Comment by Zain Sehgal on October 12, 2009 at 2:56pm -
Hi Alan/JIm
Sounds like a really interesting project - I know that both of you are heavily involved with Glasgow City Marketing (GCM) and that you would do a fantastic job. However, if there's something we on these forums could do to assist - I wouldn't mind helping in any way possible.
Feel free to give me a shout if you need any assistance.
Zain
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Comment by Dr Jim Hamill on October 10, 2009 at 9:49pm
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Radiance Festival of Light, Merchant City, Glasgow
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Comment by Dr Jim Hamill on October 10, 2009 at 9:42pm
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The Merchant City Festival
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