Tag Archives: CVB

Apr26

CVBs on Pinterest: April update

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Anne Hornyak

It’s time for another update! My list has now grown to 181 CVBs on Pinterest, not including international destinations. I’ve been tracking these basic stats weekly but it takes nearly 2 hours each Sunday to keep up so I’ll be changing my strategy soon.

What I’m seeing: the CVBs that pin daily, or almost daily, see a gain of 20+ followers each week. Those who don’t pin weekly have almost no growth at all. Of course, the larger destinations see a larger weekly growth. And so do those accounts who have a larger following. Everything seems to be proportionate on size and activity, as it should be.

Taking a break from extra analysis this month, I’m just going to share lists and resources in this post.

When I talk about “followers” below, I mean the amount of people following the entire CVB account / all of the CVB’s boards. Typically certain boards will have a LOT more followers than the entire account but it’s not possible for me to track the cumulative number of followers across all the boards each CVB has. I don’t have a script so I track everything manually and it may be hard to believe, but I do have interests other than social media.

CVBs, ranked by account followers

CVBs, ranked by number of pins Read the rest of this entry →

Apr25

Tourism Pinterest Contests

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Anne Hornyak

Tourism Pinterest Contests

Recently there have been 3 tourism Pinterest contests that have caught my attention.

1. Visit Bucks County “Repin It to Win It” Contest

This was the first CVB contest that I’ve seen. The rules are simple: repin any image from their Repin It To Win It Contest board and you could be selected randomly to win that prize. The contest period was just over a month long (March 20 – May 1, 2012).

They had 182 followers (those following their account, not the cumulative followers all of their boards) before the contest and currently have 345 followers, an 89% increase. A lot of DMOs have seen a growth average of 10-20 followers per week, which correlates directly to the amount of pins added each week. Visit Bucks County’s average for this contest period so far has been 28 followers per week.

Their contest board currently has 828 followers. They have 17 prizes/pins on that board and have a total of 2,065 repins for the contest so far.

On April 13, we saw a big jump in traffic to the contest. The ‘Repin It To Win It’ board jumped from 598 on April 12 to 733 on April 13. We specifically saw a great deal of activity on the Sesame Place pin, including more than 20 comments on that pin.

In terms of promotion, check out this get pinterested post or visit their Visit Bucks County News Pinterest board for other blog mentions.

We’ve promoted the contest through the press release, Facebook and Twitter (daily tweets about the different prizes). We’ve worked with our participating partners to encourage them to promote the contest through sample Facebook and Twitter posts on their company accounts. We promoted the Pinterest contest in our ‘This Weekend in Bucks County’ e-newsletter, as well.

This looks to be very successful! Congrats! And thanks to Jessica for providing extra stats and information!
2. Experience Columbus’ “Repin it to Win It!” Contest

This is a quick little contest to give away one prize. To enter, just repin this one image on Pinterest or leave a comment on their blog post.

Experience Columbus typically gains 20-30 followers per week. This contest is so short that it probably won’t impact their following much. So far there have been 33 comment entries on the blog and 68 repins. Of those, 50 repins occurred on the first day of the contest.

This was promoted on twitter and Facebook. It’s a very innovative way to incorporate Pinterest in a giveaway.

Well done! And thanks to Joe for providing the stats!

3. Pin Hawaii! Win a trip to Hawaii with Aqua Hotels & Resorts

This contest isn’t from a DMO but I’m including it this list because it still promotes tourism and it’s just so beautifully done.

Go to www.pinhawaii.com and be amazed! Read the rest of this entry →

Mar21

Twitter Best Practices: #tourismchat

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Anne Hornyak

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 →

Mar15

US DMOs on Pinterest: By State

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Anne Hornyak

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 →

Mar14

CVBs on Pinterest: March update

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Anne Hornyak

CVBs on Pinterest: March update

I first blogged about CVBs on Pinterest on February 22. Within these past 3 weeks, the list of US and Canadian CVBs has increased from 34 to 110. The number of international DMOs also increased from 3 to 26 DMOs.

For this post, we’ll just focus on US and Canadian CVBs and DMOs.

One of the more important Pinterest engagement metrics is the number of repins an account receives. This is almost impossible for me to calculate manually as I’d have to look at each pin and tally the numbers for each CVB. This is why I focus mostly on the number of followers and the number of pins. The number of followers can determine an account’s reach while the number of pins shows how active/dedicated the account really is.

As a side note, a few CVBs got a head start and secured their accounts really early in the game. Users followed these accounts even though there was/is little or no activity. This is why I prefer a combination of followers and pins.

It’s no surprise that Visit Savannah is still in the lead in both number of followers and pins. With 12,422 followers, they actually have almost twice the amount of followers of all the other accounts combined (7,151 followers). The second highest is Wyoming Tourism with 775 followers. All the other CVBs have less than 400 followers.

Visit Savannah (1,090 pins) also has over double the amount of pins of any other CVB. The next closest CVB is Visit Salt Lake with 504 pins. Just beyond that are Experience Columbus (442 pins), SeeMonterey (409 pins) and VISIT Milwaukee (399 pins).

Here are the top 25 accounts in terms of followers and pins:

Now let’s look a little deeper. Read the rest of this entry →

Mar13

Adding a Pinterest tab to your Facebook page

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Anne Hornyak

Adding a Pinterest tab to your Facebook page

Pinterest currently does not have an API available but there’s a fairly easy work around to adding your Pinterest account or a single Pinterest board as a tab on your Facebook page.

I found these instructions by Karen Moran and tested them on a Facebook page. Her How to add a Pinterest tab to a Facebook page post walks you through creating a Facebook app and then connecting it to the mobile version of Pinterest, either directing to your entire Pinterest account or specifically to one board. If I can do it, so can you!

Since it’s the mobile version of Pinterest, the tab is a little clunky but it works well and is a great solution until Pinterest’s API is available.

Here’s an example of my test page’s tab, connected to my Pinterest account. Clicking on the board will display the board’s pins within the Facebook tab. From there, you can click on individual pins but that’s where the spacing gets off. You can repin, like, edit (if looking at your account) or even add comments but you have to scroll across to see the entire pin. There also isn’t the option to go back to the board/previous screen so you have to right-click your mouse and hit back. Read the rest of this entry →

Mar11

Pinterest Week

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Anne Hornyak

Pinterest Week

As most of you know, I’ve been dealing with mono for the past 11 weeks. It’s been a slow and frustrating recovery but I’m finally at the point where life is almost normal again. In celebration of this milestone, I’ve spent most of the weekend preparing posts for … wait for it ……. Pinterest Week!

What can you expect from me this week? Well I’m starting the week early and ending it late because there are just too many posts to fit in otherwise. These posts are not going to discuss how to use Pinterest because there are already plenty of those available. My Pinterest posts this week will focus on how the tourism industry uses Pinterest as well tips on how to add it to your current social media efforts.

Here’s the breakdown:

Today’s post is about brands on Pinterest and how you can stand out among all the images.
On Monday we’ll take a look at which international DMOs are using Pinterest and how they stack up. There are charts and even a map so be ready to get your geek on.
On Tuesday you can follow step-by-step instructions to add a Pinterest tab to your Facebook page. Yes, even before the Pinterest API is available.
Wednesday has the biggest post of the week and examines the list of US and Canadian CVBs (and DMOs) on Pinterest. For a refresher, read through the February 22 post. The list of CVBs is now at 110 so you can anticipate some great stats.
On Thursday is an analysis of the US CVBs on Pinterest by state. One state will be crowned as the most Pinteresting.
Friday’s post examines two Pinterest contests and hopefully will inspire you to run a Pinterest contest of your own.
And Saturday’s post will help you pull everything together with some examples of how to promote your Pinterest account as well as other social media channels. Think of it as a Pintegration.

Now let’s get started.

The best way to fully understand something is to watch what others are doing. Since most of you are in the tourism industry, you can take a look at the CVBs on Pinterest but you’ll see a lot of accounts that are doing very similar things. That’s great if you just want to fit it but if you want to stand out, you have to look at the bigger picture. Look at what big brands are doing and then tweak that to work for your destination.

I came across this Brands on Pinterest board several weeks ago and fell in love with it. It was actually the inspiration for my CVBs on Pinterest board. According to a recent blog post, there are over 250 brands on Pinterest and Mashable has listed the most-followed brands on Pinterest. Many of the brands that I’ve looked at have little or no activity which is actually a little disappointing to me. However, there are several brand accounts that stand out. Read the rest of this entry →

Mar2

Jan 19 #tourismchat Transcript: Pinterest

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Anne Hornyak

Jan 19 #tourismchat Transcript: Pinterest

A lot of destinations are using Pinterest now. In fact, I’ve been tracking 70+ DMOs on the network. To see which destinations are on it, check on this CVBs on Pinterest board.

Our January 19 #tourismchat focused on Pinterest. If you have time, read through the entire transcript. Here are my highlights.

What type of boards do you have?

jesslaw So far, we’ve broken our boards down into: play, stay, dine, shop and say “I Do” in #BucksCounty.
jamiemorgancda Beverage Finds, Recipes, Dining Out in the Northwest
theslynch We’re looking at a “made in <insert state>” board to tie into a print, app or e-pub.

How often do you pin?

NinaSunshine I try to pin something daily to keep it fresh. I just started though so we’ll see.
FSAustin Aiming for a couple of times a day, but quality/usefulness is more important than quantity to us
Joe_ExpCols I try to pin a couple times a day – once during the work day, and once at about 10:30 p.m. Very active time

Where are you sourcing your pins?

Amy_BrockI try to take a few minutes each week & pin from a few member websites. (Hotels, restaurants, shops)
NinaSunshine My first boards were mostly from our website & blog (traffic!). I needed more scenic photos so went to local blogs, Etsy.
FSAustin We follow all of our local wedding vendor blogs to source wedding-related pins. Very useful so far!

Are you following back people that follow your boards? Read the rest of this entry →

Feb22

CVBs on Pinterest

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Anne Hornyak

CVBs on Pinterest

Pinterest has quickly become one of the fastest growing social networks to date. With over 10 million users, this network should be considered as part of an organization’s social strategy. Want more stats? Check out this Pinterest infographic from Mashable or these demographics.

If you’re not familiar with Pinterest, it’s a virtual pinboard for organizing and collecting photos and videos. I’m not going to go in-depth about how to use Pinterest as Mashable put together a nice Beginner’s Guide and there’s also this massive post with instructions, tips and more demographics.

The facts behind CVBs and destinations on Pinterest

Through my research, I found 34 US destinations and 3 International destinations (Croatia, Cuba [does not appear to be the official DMO] and Jordan) with Pinterest accounts. The following comments and stats will only reflect US destinations and are current as of February 21.

There are a total of 5,013 pins and 390 boards from these 34 US destinations. These accounts have “liked” 764 pins and have a combined following of 14,970 followers.

Pins

Savannah has the highest number of pins (751), followed by Columbus (426), Arkansas (354), Monterey (334) and Lake County, IL (306). There are 16 DMOs that have over 100 pins on their account and 18 DMOs with less than 100 pins. My personal opinion is that an account should have at least 300 pins to be taken as a serious Pinterest user.

Boards

For number of boards, Arkansas takes the lead with 33 boards. Behind them are Monterey and Kissimmee, each with 19 boards, and Phoenix and Fargo-Moorhead, each with 18 boards. There are 14 DMOs with 10-17 boards each and 15 DMOs with less than 10 boards each.

As I was researching, I saw many half-filled boards but did not explore the average number of pins each DMO had on their boards. I think each board should have at least 30 pins in order to be useful to Pinterest users.

Likes

Not all DMOs are “liking” pins on Pinterest. This action is not as strong as a repin but is still an easy way to engage with other Pinterest users. There are three DMOs with over 100 likes: Ohio (198), Monterey (178) and Savannah (140). Mesa is the next closest with 86 likes but the majority of the remaining DMOs have less than 10 likes each. In fact, 13 DMOs have 0 likes.

Followers

Visit Savannah has an astounding 12,114 followers alone, leaving a combined total of 2,856 followers among the other 33 destinations. Don’t think that this means there’s an average of 86 followers per destination. There are 5 DMOs with more than 200 followers: Savannah, Wyoming, Corvallis, Indiana and Columbus.

There are 17 DMOs with less than 50 followers each. Most of these accounts are newer to Pinterest. 5 of these 17 DMOs have more than 100 pins each so even though they’re new, they’re very active.

The mother of all Pinterest boards (for the tourism industry)

If you’re as addicted to Pinterest as I am, take a moment and follow some of these DMOs. I’ve created this CVBs on Pinterest board to help. Each pin links to the CVB’s Pinterest account so following your favorite destinations is easy. Read the rest of this entry →

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Tag Archives: CVB

Jan 19 #tourismchat Transcript: Pinterest