Objective

In February 2008, Carolyn Grisko & Associates Inc. (CG&A) was hired by Edelman to work with them for the Illinois Office of Tourism (IOT). Specifically, CG&A was brought in to develop and implement a social media marketing strategy to help generate online brand awareness and engage passionate Illinois travelers. CG&A immediately took note of IOT’s refined branding but overall lack of channels for interactive engagement on its travel website. As most travel decisions are based on recommendations from online reviews, friends and families, CG&A knew they could capitalize on various social media channels to energize existing brand enthusiasts and increase word-of-mouth buzz for IOT.

Action

CG&A first conducted a thorough analysis of existing online conversation around Illinois travel as well as a competitive assessment of how other convention and travel bureaus were utilizing social media. A slate of listening & monitoring tools were then formatted to closely monitor online conversations in real-time prior to setting up IOT’s social media platform on WordPress, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter.

Each tool was utilized with a specific purpose to help call attention to the numerous fun attractions and natural beauty of Illinois through various forms of content engagement including photos, video and general social networking. CG&A understood that empowering brand enthusiasts would require developing outlets for sharing, interaction and feedback in centralized locations across the Web. In addition, they worked closely with IOT’s website management team to ensure all social media platform elements were integrated with the site to provide open paths for interaction, regardless of a consumer’s initial online touch point.

Results

CG&A continues their work with IOT, having helped garner hundreds of Facebook fans and video views along with thousands of photo submissions and followers on Twitter (IOT currently ranks among the top 10 CVBs on Twitter). In addition to overall brand awareness, CG&A provides IOT with detailed metrics and qualitative conversation analysis to help adapt and improve social media efforts along the way.