Digital Marketing and Web 2.0 Forum
Two days ago we attended the Forum on Digital Marketing & Web 2.0 organised by the Cabildo de Tenerife (through its Department for Planning & Tourism) and the FYDE-CajaCanarias Foundation. The organisers appeared to be pleasantly surprised with the turnout of over 100 people, but throughout the event we could not help but feel that as an island we are seriously missing the boat as regards online marketing.
Talking about social media marketing theory and ideas is all well and good, but that has to be backed up by a nice dollop of practical leading by example. You see, there is so much that could have gone on around the Digital Marketing Forum that simply didn’t.
For example, all we got in the way of an invitation was a simple e-mail. No Facebook event invite. No to and fro messages on Twitter. No “hey, tell your colleagues about this important event”. No buzz generating. Nothing at all!
Just imagine if the Cabildo had invited all the participants to join an online group on Facebook before the event. Everybody would have been able to get to know each other in advance. Ideas would have been exchanged even before the forum itself, and the conversation and collaboration among all who participated would have continued long after the lectures were over. Wouldn’t that have been a perfect example of the kind of interaction and bringing people together that social media is all about?
We really need to pull our socks up and start social networking for real! So, what are we waiting for, Tenerife?
Well, tonight we’re off to the closing gala dinner in honour of the British Guild of Travel Writers who have been hosted by the Turismo de Tenerife branch of the Cabildo for the last couple of days. Let us, as an island, take a feather from the cap of these top UK writers and learn a thing or two before they leave.
For example, take a look at the kind of back and forth the BGTW have going on Twitter at #bgtwagm, and you’ll see what I mean. These guys are connected. They are interacting. They are sharing ideas and commenting on each other’s experiences of Tenerife. They are excited about being here! The shame is that they are doing it alone, and the Cabildo that brought them over in the first place is nowhere to be seen online.
Members of the British Guild of Travel Writers go bananas on Tenerife
What we should be doing, both as an island dependent on tourism and also as individual businesses that earn our livelihood from the same, is to join in the big online party. We need to hang out with these guys who wield so much clout in the very market we are fighting for. We need to have conversations with them, find out what they like about Tenerife and what they don’t. We need to get our opinions and ideas across to these people and also learn from what they have to tell us about ourselves and our product.
That’s exactly what Tenerife Magazine is working on. They are already off to a good start, following the blogs and Twitter feeds of writers like @mrdavewhitley, who also blogs as Grumpy Traveller. And they have also set up a Flickr Group called British Guild of Travel Writers in Tenerife 2010, where everyone can join in and share their favourite snapshots.
Tenerife needs to get together as an island and embrace New Rules Marketing. This means going out there on the Internet and getting actively involved with the people that matter – from other writers and online marketers to our cherished clients, the tourists themselves. We are an island where everybody seems to know everyone else and where clients and business contacts are found via word of mouth and through friends of friends. We are by nature a social people. Now we have to take all that online and use the new technologies available to reach out to the rest of the world!
We have to do this as part of a coordinated effort that benefits the whole island and we need, expect and sincerely hope that our government takes up the challenge to lead us into the digital marketing age that will define next decade. Go for it, Cabildo!
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How very true this is …
I have been following some of the comments made on Twitter by #bgtwagm and it looks like they have been treated to an excellent time here in Tenerife. Lets hope that they are able to share their experiences in their future articles which will obviously be read by many, many people around the World.
I think I will have to add one or two new feeds to my daily reading!
As a member of the BGTW who was really sorry not to be able to attend the AGM in Tenerife, the Social Media side of it, which has really taken off this year, enabled me to participate long-distance and get a much better idea of what was going on there. So even people who haven’t been to Tenerife learn more about the island, and hear about the great things my colleagues have been doing and enjoying. So your post is welcome, and very very true.
It was a great Gala Dinner last night, superbly presented, hopefully it will reap great rewards. Honest, none of us chaps paid any attention to the skimpily dressed dancing girls!
I agree Colin what a fantastic night, full marks to Bahia del Duque . I believe this was the most attended AGM ever for the BGTW even without Mike
I was sitting on the same table as Colin and I can confirm he behaved with all the decorum and restraint expected of the press …. when presented with a bunch of skimpily dressed dancing girls…
However no such niceties were observed by the the BGTW!
Jeremy Hoare has promised me photographic evidence.
In particular, I’m looking forward to the photo of John Bell, hanging on for dear life to the last skimpy girl in the conga chain.
I take hope from the fact that the Cabildo have at least got around to organising a seminar, even if they haven’t cottoned onto the fact that they should be using the very tools they’re expounding the benefit of!
This blog is so important to Tenerife because it’s message is vital to not just the thriving, but the very survival of the island’s tourism. Let’s hope these seeds of wisdom find fertile ground, John.
Alastair, I do hope the BGTW are going to share those photos…