Author Archives: Anne Hornyak

About Anne Hornyak

Tourism industry twitterer. Amateur photographer. Washed-up flute rockstar. Owner to 2 birddogs. #tourismchat cofounder. Short-sentence writer. Hashtag abuser.
Apr1

Things I Learned This Week: April 1

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Things I Learned This Week: April 1

Sometimes life gives you lemons. Sometimes you’re not strong enough to make lemonade. Sometimes you break down.

  1. When all else fails, try to remember to breathe.
  2. A long call with a good friend makes all the difference in the world.
  3. Dogs feel stress too. Millie is now on different medicine for recurring infections, which is working wonderfully so far, but poor Chip has is developing a sore on his leg from compulsive licking.
  4. In an attempt to change things, I now have auburn hair. We’ll see how long it lasts.
  5. Pin of the week:

Mar29

Promote Tourism. Vote Milwaukee.

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Promote Tourism. Vote Milwaukee.

There’s a really good chance to bring #SoMeT to the Midwest! And you can help!

What: #SoMeT is the Social Media Tourism Symposium and, quite frankly, it’s the BEST tourism conference I’ve ever attended. There’s great educational content, outstanding networking and all around fun.

Why do you need to vote? This conference is like no other. YOU get to decide where the location will be.

When? Today, starting at 11am CST. You have until 11pm CST and you get one vote per network ID so vote at work and then again at home tonight.

How? Go to the Milwaukee voting page: t.co/OAUg6A11. VOTE MILWAUKEE!

Where? That, my friends, is up to you. VOTE MILWAUKEE today and then again on Monday (April 2-3) when it’s paired against St. Louis. And hopefully we’ll have another chance to VOTE MILWAUKEE on April 11-12, selecting Milwaukee as the top choice for #SoMeT.

Thanks for you help! Promote Tourism. VOTE MILWAUKEE. Read the rest of this entry →

Mar26

Things I Learned This Week: March 25

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Things I Learned This Week: March 25

Three weeks into this endeavor and I’m already falling behind!

  1. All work and no play makes Anne a dull girl.
  2. I lost Daisy, my English pointer, to cancer a year ago yesterday. I knew the weekend would be hard but I didn’t realize how bad it would actually be. Grief is an ugly emotion.
  3. On the plus side, Millie, my springer spaniel, turned 11 on Friday. She’s going through some tough health issues but still acts like a puppy most of the time.
  4. Are you a Pinterest addict? Check out Pinpuff and see what your Pinterest “score” is. It’s similar to Klout so don’t take it too seriously. However, it breaks down up to 20 of your boards by number of followers, pins, repins and likes. Analyzing this data can help you develop a Pinterest strategy. See which boards have the most activity and pin more to those boards. To give you an idea of available stats, here’s my profile.
  5. If you want to waste HOURS, download Draw Something on your iPad, tablet or phone. Stick figures FTW!
  6. Pin of the week:

Mar21

Twitter Best Practices: #tourismchat

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Twitter Best Practices: #tourismchat

Our previous #tourismchat was on March 8 and focused on Twitter. If you have time, read through the entire chat transcript. Here are my highlights:

What are your favorite twitter tools?

  • jesslaw Hands down, Hootsuite. Love the ability to schedule tweets and monitor multiple accounts and keywords.
  • Joe_ExpCols I’m a Sprout Social guy.
  • midwestguest I really rely on the list function at Twitter itself as a tool…rather than Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or the like.

How many tweets do you send a day? Evening or weekends too?

  • DanielleRauch I send about 5-6 per week day, depending on what’s needed. Not as much on weekends
  • HeidiTown I find that you’ll hit an entirely new demographic if you send or live tweet at night.
  • jesslaw We aim for 18-20 tweets a day, but usually exceed that. Def. on weekends! That’s when tourists are visiting.

What do you think are the most important metrics for Twitter? Read the rest of this entry →

Mar20

Antiquing in Shelbyville, Kentucky

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Antiquing in Shelbyville, Kentucky

I’ve found a little piece of heaven. Last October I had the pleasure of stopping in Shelbyville, Kentucky, just east of Louisville, for some antiquing on my way home from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I only had a limited time there – approximately 2 hours – but I fell in love with the antique malls in their downtown area and hope to visit again this summer as a weekend getaway.

Downtown Shelbyville is lined with antique malls but I only had time to visit three of them that day. One that particularly stands out was The Ruby Rooster. They’re even on Facebook, enticing my return with photos of new antiques and dealer booths. Everything in this mall was very clean and reasonably priced.

Milk JarsI stopped at two other antique malls next to The Ruby Rooster. One of them was your average antique mall but the other one had just opened, or moved to that location (I can’t remember) and, unfortunately, I didn’t write down their name.

I did find a few treasures there though. Both of these milk jars were purchased there for under $5 each. They look great displayed above my sink and work perfectly as vases.

What else can you do in Shelbyville, Kentucky? It turns out that I missed a lot while rushing through. Shelby County is known as “The American Saddlebred Capital of the World” and offers Horse Farm Tours. As a suburbanite, the only experience I have with horses was a weekend trip to a dude ranch as a girl scout. I’m not exactly sure what a Horse Farm Tour includes but I’m intrigued and will find out first-hand the next time I’m there.

Shelby County also has a weekend Farmer’s Market, wineries, distillery and amazing architecture to photograph. I think I may need longer than a weekend to take in everything!

Have you been to this area before? I’d love to hear your favorite things about Shelbyville, Kentucky.

Mar18

Social Media Best Practices on #tourismchat

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Social Media Best Practices on #tourismchat

Our February 23 #tourismchat focused on Social Media Best Practices and covered many platforms. Here are some highlights:

Twitter: What tools do you use? Any time-saving tips?

  • ELearningU TweetDeck, Hootsuite. Twellow is a great tool to find locals (LOVE Twellowhood)
  • Joe_ExpCols Google Reader for content, Sprout Social for monitoring. Google Analytics all day every day.
  • emilyforsha I’m a Tweetdeck girl, but use Hootsuite app for mobile. Love Google Reader to find content.

Facebook: What posts get the best interactions? How frequently do you post?

  • HeidiTown best interaction when you ask people their opinion. People love to share about themselves!
  • TourismCurrents Facebook posting. Photos, especially of food, do well. Love to send ‘em from phone. Post 1-2/day, incl. weekends.
  • pagetx Any time I post food photos, my engagement goes through the roof. Fill in the blank works well too.

Flickr: Photostream and/or group? How much time do you spend per month here? Read the rest of this entry →

Mar17

Things I Learned This Week: March 17

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Things I Learned This Week: March 17
  1. After 12 weeks, I’m still recovering from mono. I attended the Illinois Governor’s Conference on Tourism Thursday and it really wore me out. Hopefully I’ll be back to normal soon.
  2. Geeking out about social media with old friends is refreshing. I need to do this more often!
  3. People at ILGC brought up my Dinosaurs Facebook album. A lot. And they want to see more of them! I want to dedicate an entire blog post to this topic but here’s the short version: I don’t post or comment much on Facebook so my Klout score was a little low. Posting dinosaur images on Facebook changed that. Yes, I’m gaming the system.
  4. Never plan a week’s worth of themed blog posts. I spent most of last weekend blogging about Pinterest and then had to finish up a few posts at night during the week. Don’t get me wrong, it was completely satisfying but most of these posts took hours to research and write. That obviously wore me out too.
  5. Pinterest is not only for bookmarking images. Several people are now using it to share articles and blog posts. Some examples: Social Media board by Claire Isabel; Brag Board for Tourism Geeks; My blog posts
  6. Pin of the week:

Mar17

Integrating Pinterest on your site

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Integrating Pinterest on your site

Now that you’re on Pinterest and actively pinning, it’s time to promote you efforts!

One example of how to do it correctly is this SXSW Survival Guide. What I love most about this site is the design. Clicking on each category takes you to that specific Pinterest board.

Another great example is the Experience Grand Rapids Social Lounge. Not only is Pinterest showcased here, but they also have Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube as well their blog, podcasts and other efforts connected so you can easily find and follow all of their social channels. Read the rest of this entry →

Mar16

Two Pinterest Contests: Adorama & Better Homes and Gardens

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Two Pinterest Contests: Adorama & Better Homes and Gardens

There have been several “Pin it to win it” contests on Pinterest lately but none that I’ve seen in the tourism space. Here are two good examples (Adorama and Better Homes and Gardens) that can may inspire you to manage your own Pinterest contest.

Adorama

In celebration of their newly launched Pinterest account, Adorama is running an #iloveadorama contest.

Here are the contest specs:

Pros:

  • Very short contest period won’t allow contest fatigue
  • Rules are explained clearly on landing page
  • Pin must be of an image you’ve taken yourself (copyright legality)

Cons:

  • Contest period may be too short to allow an optimal amount of entries
  • People might not understand what a hashtag is or how to use it
  • There’s a lot of controversy about Pinterest copyrights right now, especially among photographers
  • Contest details are not listed on Pinterest board, which is where the Facebook post linked
  • People may not understand that the pin with the most “likes” will be named winner
  • A specific voting period (where people can “like” the pin) was not clarified so pins that enter first have a greater chance of earning more likes

Results so far? Read the rest of this entry →

Mar15

US DMOs on Pinterest: By State

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US DMOs on Pinterest: By State

By now you’ve heard about which CVBs have an active Pinterest presence but have you wondered how they stack up when comparing states? 

The 108 US CVBs on Pinterest represent 36 states in total.

Number of CVBs

The chart to the right depicts the breakdown by state. All stats were recorded on March 11.

Texas takes the lead with 16 total CVBs on Pinterest. I’m not really surprised by this. Claire Isabel, an influential Pinterest user, found me on Pinterest and shared this Texans are pinning it BIG! blog post. Her passion for Texas is amazing. She created a Texans are pinning it BIG! Pinterest board and added many of the Texas CVBs as contributors. Several of the collaborating CVBs have been actively pinning items to that board.

This concept would work wonderfully for state DMOs. CVBs can also create neighborhood boards and collaborate with attractions, restaurants or hotels in those specific locations.

The top 5 list is rounded out with California (11 CVBs), Illinois (8 CVBs), Ohio (7 CVBs) and Florida (6 CVBs).

Number of CVBs

This information is great but it doesn’t really tell us the most active states when it comes to pins or followers. I think these two metrics are important for determining active Pinterest users. Read the rest of this entry →