How to Generate User Content

July 30, 2010

The explosion of social media sites over the past five years has allowed consumers to share their thoughts and travel stories with millions of people with the push of a post button. Successful businesses have learned how to harness that appetite to share from consumers to develop some really unique and bold customer driven content and guess what it is totally free! Probably one of the greatest social media marketing pieces in tourism was recently done by Tourism Queensland called the Greatest Job in the World. Over the course of half a year they promoted the opportunity to work for a year as an ambassador for the region all you had to do was upload a 1 minute video explaining why you would be the best person for the job. It went completely viral and crashed their site as thousands upon thousands loaded up their videos. What it did was really highlight the region and caught the attention of a global audience in a very crowded marketplace. More local we have seen Nova Scotia Tourism run a contest last year called “Why I love Nova Scotia”. Once again it generated all kinds of free content and highlighted some of the best that Nova Scotia has to offer. It is important to think beyond the traditional static site, listing in travel book or the printed brochure – and why not use visitors who have experienced the pleasure of your region or activity to do some of that promotion for you. Start a Facebook page, create a youtube channel and invite people to post about their experiences – it will surprise you how creative and talented people will be.