Web 2.0:
Data Sharing, Social Networking, and Widgets
Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC) and Virginia Interactive:
Progressing into the Future Together with Web 2.0, Data Sharing, Social Networking and Widgets
Overview:
Virginia Tourism has successfully embraced social media over the last two years with initiatives including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. Communication with prospective visitors, Virginia residents and tourism industry professionals has been positively impacted in surprising new ways. Virginia Interactive, for example, has created an online booking “widget” or portable online service that can be placed on blogs and personal websites like iGoogle, MyYahoo and Facebook facilitating and encouraging sharing with friends. Virginia travelers can now book hotel rooms, auto rentals and flights using Virginia.org from any web page that contains its widget.
Innovation Factors:
“Proactive vs. Passive” Before Web 2.0, websites could merely hope to attract visitors, typically infrequently and only when visitors were looking for specific information or services. By using social media and widgets however, Virginia Tourism and Virginia Interactive are engaging their customers where they work and play online everyday. Users can see the latest events, special offers and marketing campaigns at Virginia.org for example, without ever visiting Virginia.org.
Performance Indicators:
The impact of social networking on Virginia Tourism’s marketing efforts is measured in many ways. “We look at many engagement metrics such as travel guide orders, sweepstakes entries, specific landing page views as well as basic referrals from the various social media sites.” A steady increase in web traffic from these sites to Virginia.org has been realized over the past 12 months.
Service Links:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VirginiaIsForLovers
Twitter: http://twitter.com/VisitVirginia
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/VisitVirginia
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/VisitVirginia