The Top 5 Ways Convention and Visitor's Bureaus Can Connect with Weekend Visitors

We travel throughout the state several times a month and we usually venture outside of the state every two months (usually to Louisiana to spend time at the Shreveport/Bossier City boardwalk). Here's the link to the Boardwalk -  http://www.louisianaboardwalk.com/

Before we travel, we usually like to connect with the Convention and Visitor's Bureaus in the cities we plan to visit and we also like to follow several local businesses in the area. For example, for our Shreveport trip, we followed the Shreveport Bossier City CVB and also we viewed the #Shreveport hashtag to find out about any events over the weekend.



Here are the Top 5 Ways CVBs Can Connect with Their Weekend Visitors

1 - Establish a hashtag for your city! Your visitors can utilize this hashtag before, during, and after their visit.

Ex - The Shreveport Convention and Visitor's Bureau could create a hashtag like #VisitSBC or #ExperienceSBC. These hashtags would be great for Twitter and Instagram!

2 - Create a Photo Booth (indoor or outdoor) for your visitors! The City of Galveston has amazing outdoor photo booths!

*Remember to post the hashtag on the photo booth.

3 - Interact with Visitors Through Existing Twitter Chats or Create Your Own!

*Weekends Count will begin its first Twitter chat at the end of January on Mondays at 9pm CST. We are always looking for sponsors. We only ask for your CVB or business to giveaway at least two products to participants participating in a raffle.

4 - Practice Social Media Listening and Communicate with Your Current and Potential Visitors

Just search for your city's name hashtag on social media (especially Twitter and Instagram). Then, interact with the individuals utilizing your city's name by favoriting, re-tweeting, and responding to posts.

Ex - When you search for #Granbury on Twitter, you receive these results: https://twitter.com/hashtag/granbury. If I was a CVB professional in the Granbury areas, I would reach out to these individuals to request potential permission to utilize their photographs in digital marketing outreach campaigns and also invite them to events during the time the individual will visit the community.

5 - Educate Your Local Business about the Importance of Social Media Engagement

CVBs can hold educational workshops for their local business and invite a local social media expert to facilitate these workshops. Of course, this is definitely have to be a three part workshop series, because the one-workshop approach might not work for all of your local businesses.

Enjoy the tips listed above. If you have any questions, please reach out to us! We cannot wait to visit your city!

@WeekendsCount - weekendscount@gmail.com