AHA

I am heading into the home stretch in executing a social media campaign for Tourism New Zealand. This is the second year for the TRENZblog campaign and things are different from last year. There is a deeper interactive engagement this year. Last year, we had a similar number of overall views, but this year, our target community is more active on Twitter and in commenting on the blog. And there is a buzz at Tourism Industry Rendezvous New Zealand (TRENZ) about the blog.

It takes time for industries to adapt to change and the use of social media is a big change. There are some very interesting organizations using different components of social media and I think that next year, we will see even more innovative and creative ways for companies to connect and engage in conversations with their target markets.

Tourism is an interesting case study when it comes to social media. Consumers have jumped into the pool using sites like Trip Advisor, Cruise Critic and other review sites to share the good, the bad and the ugly. I think it is going to take some time for a lot of organizations to realize that, used well, social media starts a conversation. It is about building relationships and creating connections, not just pushing out information.

While my time here in New Zealand is drawing to a close, I think that my work in supporting Tourism New Zealand and in sharing the wonders of this beautiful country with the world through an interactive conversation is just beginning.

Kia Ora!

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caption id=”attachment_2178″ align=”aligncenter” width=”497″ caption=”Ruth ZORB Globing!”][/caption]

Ruth keeps telling us that she’s extremely busy delivering the social media campaign for our client Tourism New Zealand, but she might just be off looking in the forest for kiwi, trying to find something to eat, or perhaps ZORB globing down a hill.

We’ll have a true blog post up tomorrow.

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You have to love lists. I love this one from Brian Solis on Mashable.com for a couple of reasons:

  • It’s a great review of 21 rules for social media engagement and
  • This list lets me keep my commitment to an active blog and provides enough great content that I can now go have a coffee and catch up on emails.

Check out why I need the coffee and follow my travels through New Zealand as I blog on behalf of Tourism New Zealand here. Two more New Zealand blog posts will be up today.

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I just read one of the best blog posts ever at lostremote.com. Before I get into that, I have to say that I just discovered lostremote.com today and love it. It is definitely on my must read list now.

The post is by Steve Safran and it is a worthwhile read for any communicator – whether in house, agency or consultant. In this piece, Steve talks about the importance for PR people to develop a good pitch: “signal not noise.” It goes on to talk about how we, as communicators, deal with the challenge of perception. If the CEO believes being on TV is a good thing, then it’s our job to get him or her on TV…or is it?

In yesterday’s post, I talked a bit about the information my friend and colleague Della Smith presented at the CPRS event this week. One of the key points she made was the value of establishing your credibility with the senior team. I think that Della’s point fits well with Steve’s. I see our role as helping to inform our clients – or if you’re in house, your CEO or senior executive – of the value of certain types of coverage from online to TV to newspaper. It’s not always an easy thing to do. Let’s face it, we’re in a shifting world, one that we’re still learning about. That makes for a challenge when you are presenting the rationale to your client or senior executive about why being profiled in a blog or doing video blogs is of value, compared to say, being profiled on the local morning news.

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