Sunshine Matters

VISIT FLORIDA’s leadership in social media marketing was recognized this week as Gammet Interactive named us number one in their quarterly “How Social is Your State DMO?” ranking. The report benchmarks the web and social media presence of state destination marketing organizations. It also marks the first time in almost two years that the report has a new number one, with Florida edging out former winners Michigan and Pennsylvania.

More About “How Social Is Your State DMO?”

Florida moved from fourth on the list last quarter to first on the strength of our more than 240,000 Facebook “likes,” over 14,000 Twitter followers and thousands of posts on 11 different consumer and corporate blogs. In total, Gammet Interactive’s report uses a 13-point algorithm that includes 28 objects of measurement. VISIT FLORIDA received the highest score possible for our website traffic, use of social media icons and links on our home page, and our link and search popularity as determined by Open Site Explorer.  Two additional categories where we received the highest score were our amount of user-generated content and the ability for users to share content easily. Other contributing factors included VISIT FLORIDA’s number of videos and subscribers on YouTube, number of tagged images on Flickr, our Google keyword search results, and our new mobile site.

One area of measurement that Gammet is just beginning to include in their grading process is geo-location involvement. VISIT FLORIDA recognized this as a growing resource for consumers and already have a strong geo-location presence through our Florida Live feature with webcams, fishing reports and Google maps that are embedded in every individual business listing on VISITFLORIDA.com.

“Top 100 Most Influential Tourism Professionals on Twitter”

VISIT FLORIDA was also singled out for our strong presence on Twitter this week as Will Seccombe and Nate Long, two highly-social members of our staff, were named to a new list of the “Top 100 Most Influential Tourism Professionals on Twitter.” This ranking was compiled by well-known tourism blogger Betsy Decillis after seeing a similar report of influential small business leaders on Twitter that was covered by the Wall Street Journal.  She used methodology that combined the percentage of tourism pros who follow a person, coupled with their Klout score, which is a mainstream metric used in overall Twitter influence on the web.

Decillis noted, “some of the top minds in the tourism industry toil day and night to make their destinations, blogs, agencies, etc. the very best on Twitter…and while they often let their organization be the star, I think it’s time to start recognizing how these tourism professionals are the real stars.” VISIT FLORIDA’s two stars are ranked alongside other well-known influencers, such as Peter Greenberg, Sheila Scarborough, Dave Serino, Christopher Elliott and Wendy Perrin. To tap into our two tourism pros on Twitter, I invite you to follow Will @TroutLine and Nate @thePRguy.

“Top CMOs on Twitter”

Last, but certainly not least, on July 11th VISIT FLORIDA’s Chief Marketing Officer Will Seccombe was ranked #29 on Social Media Marketing magazine’s “Top CMOs on Twitter” list.  The ranking is compiled regularly by Kent Huffman, the magazine’s founder and co-publisher.  Huffman pulled together his latest list of the top 93 Chief Marketing Officers around the world based on who he believes provide useful content and consistently engage with their followers on Twitter, and truly “get it” when it comes to the best ways to use Twitter and other forms of social media.

Congratulations to Will, Nate and our entire social media marketing staff.  All three of these accolades help underscore the importance of social media marketing in tourism and reinforce VISIT FLORIDA’s determination to be a “thought leader” in this influential and ever-expanding realm.