So, I dumped 50% of the CVBs I follow (also many others as well, but that is for another time). I am not done either, I just got tired and needed to stop the madness and recharge the batteries.
My unfollowing was not carpet bombing, it was a surgical strike. A tactical move to ensure that my clients are making wise choices in the destinations that we choose to learn more about.
What? Why? What was the crime? The crime was that they were wasting my time. The were clogging up the system. With a limited amount of people that I can follow, it is imperative that I only follow the people that are giving it their best shot. These were not the best, they were far from it.
Today, I am picking on CVBs because I found an overwhelming amount of crap, just plain horse manure. Here are examples of some of the beauties that I found while digging through the folks that I follow.
- Twitter accounts that were abandoned – What does this say about you and your destination?
- Twitter accounts that are all about the individual – I signed up to follow a destination, not you. I don’t care who you were out with last night unless it speaks to the culture of your destination. Get your own account.
- Twitter accounts that were promising, but just faded away – Guess you got bored or couldn't find anything good to say?
- Twitter accounts that pound away, all day about some special deal, some special rate. Why not get me to love the destination and then close the deal with the special rate. Don't lead with your ace.
- Twitter accounts that were opened and now just sit idle and empty.
- Duplicate twitter accounts that serve no purpose. Having more than one account is OK, you can have one for food, one for activities, one for leisure or the MICE market….But they must have a purpose.
Here I am, a qualified meeting and event professional, asking you to market to me, to engage me and to tell me the things that I need to know about you. You, your destination, your culture…..your “youness”. By understanding your “youness” I can make those informed, well thought out decisions in what to present to my clients and instead of helping me, this is the best you can do? This is your shining moment and this is what you serve up.
I get it, your boss probably forced you into something that you don’t understand and I can empathize with that. There have been things bosses have had me do that have been outside my skill set and I am sure that I probably did a bad job, but at least I tried, some of you are not even trying.
For those that want to learn the basics, here is my post on “hotels and twitter”, the same rules apply to destinations. Know this however…. You now have to try harder because I am gone. You may not be able to win me back.
What a freaking shame. You had me. You had gotten past the highest hurdle in the sales game. The highest hurdle is getting me to pay attention to you. I was paying attention and you simply walked away.
Understand this loud and clear. Social media is not going away, at least not for a long while. Right here, right now, I make the rules about how I want your information. I have the power to learn what I want, when I want.
I gave you the key to my mind-mailbox, I asked for you to teach me. Yes Obi-Wan, you had the Force and you strolled on over to the Darkside. You will probably go back to sending brochures. OK Sparky, go ahead, send me a brochure, that brochure will certainly end up on the top of a pile. It is just not the pile I think you want.
Just a thought
