EDEN Destinations Social Media Newsletter 2, september 2012

1. Newsletter 2. (24-09-2012)
Editor’s Word .
Dear colleagues, here comes a second newsletter of EDEN social media movement, aiming to
help You to become a better digital marketer of your tourism business and/or destination.
Thank you all who have been responding on our first newsletter and giving their opinions: Antje,
Antonis, Anya, Artis, Chrysoula, Elizabeta, Erika, Gustaf, Halldor, Iulia, Jaana, Jaanika, Johann,
Michael, Olga, Robert, Stan, Virpi, Vitalijus and others.
I do appreciate very much you comments, especially the critical ones, as this is the fastest way we
all learn and move forward. Special thanks to Stan, Antje, Michael and Jaana for contributing to
this newsletter!
Aivar Ruukel (editor of EDEN SoMe Newsletter). Contact me aivar.ruukel@gmail.com
Newsletters are now online!
Stan from Zuid-Limburg, the Netherlands, pointed to the need of having
newsletters online: "Do you have online link available? Then I can push the message
through our Twitter account, where we have a lot of entrepreneurs who are interested
in our EU activities."
Thanks Stan! Now the first newletter is available at: http://www.slideshare.net/Ruukel/eden-so-
menewsletter1 . All coming newsletter will be available on SlideShare as well.
Flickr Slideshows to present EDEN on #ATWS
As you all probably know from Antonios, I am going to participate on Adventure Travel World
Summit, taking place in Luzerne, Swizerland on 8.-12 of October 2012.
Initially my plan was to network there for my own purpose only, but I am happy to present also
EDEN Association, the largest sustainable tourism network in Europe.
Flickr slideshows are a great way to share with adventure travel media and tour
operators on #ATWS intranet. I am already using this communication, before the
actual summit started.
This week we will compile several slideshows about EDEN on different themes.
For that I would like you to take one hour and upload best images of your
destination / company to Flickr. Become part of EDEN Goup
http://www.flickr.com/groups/edeneurope/ !
See the first newsletter for simple instructions on „How to start using Flickr“.
Last week we have got one new EDEN destination joining our team on Flickr,
thank you for this contribution Antje from Abenteur Flusslandschaft /
Kanustation Anklam, Germany!

2. Facebook Pages for Tourism Marketing
Most helpful feedback on the ideas presented in the first newsletter came from Michael (Fernhill
House Hotel / Clonakilty, Ireland) and Jaana (Wild Taiga, Finland). Michael and Jaana both have
the experience in Facebook marketing and they are sucessfully managing their Facebook Pages
https://www.facebook.com/wildtaiga https://www.facebook.com/FernhillHouseHotel
See EDEN Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/EDEN.destinations

3. Here are comments and tips from Michael:
„- You are using loads of imagery which is good. Have to use a pic with every post on facebook
and you do.
-Posts are short which is also good. Short posts get more interaction.
What could be improved?
Your edgerank is very bad. Its a complicated thing but it means that of the 2000 who like the page,
few are seeing your posts. This must be improved. To do so you need more interaction on your
posts. You can do this by doing the following:
-You need to put a call to action on posts. For example 'Soomaa National Park : building a Dugout
Canoe' Should be 'Would you like to build a canoe in Soomaa National Park'
Just putting in the word like will get more people to like.
Then those people who liked it will see more of your posts in future and also the posts they liked
will go viral to their friends.
-The second thing you need to do is post more often, which is obvious but very important. Getting
content is normally hard but should be easy for you as pics of destinations will work brilliantly. You
could schedule half a years posts (I recommend 1-2 posts a day) with two pics from each
destination.
Here are tips from Jaana:
Some ideas
- it's all about pictures, which fans notice and share in their own pages - in our case especially
wildlife pictures are liked
- good amount of humour is always appreciated
- try to show what happens behind scenes, for example serie of our entrepreneurs or staff
https://www.facebook.com/erja.mahonen?ref=ts#!/media/set/?set=a.318183718223948.70553.180
600658648922&type=3

4. 10 Steps : How to start with Facebook Page ?
Why should I have a Facebook Page for my company, town or tourist destination?
Because it is the world's largest social network with 922 265 720 active members (as by 24th
September 2012 according to http://www.socialbakers.com ).
As they say, go fishing where the fish are!
1) Create a Page
Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and you will find following possibilities to choose:
"Local Business or Place" - under what you find categories like:
"Hotel"
"Attraction / Things to do"
"Tours / Sightseen"
"Landmark"
"Local Business"
"Restaurant / Cafe"
or "Company, Organization, Institution" - under what you find categories like:
"Travel / Leisure"
"Small Business"
"Company"
Choose one that is most appropriete for you.

5. 2) Follow the instructions and fill all the details, it is not difficult!
3) Add photographs (profile picture and cover picture) to make the page look professional, think of
you brand personality.
Facebook Page URL is another important thing to consider. Examples from our members are:
https://www.facebook.com/wildtaiga https://www.facebook.com/FernhillHouseHotel
4) Post pictures and create albums about your themes, activites, seasons and other relevant
issues, that might be interesting for your fans. Good idea is to create thematic albums.
5) Invite your Facebook friends and customers to become fans of your page
6) Update consistently. 3-4 times per week is a good way to start.
Put some time into thinking about the types of content your fans will like and create a list of ideas
as a calendar for next weeks and months.
7) Share pictures of other Facebook users. For finding such posts try search on Facebook, enter
your company and/or place name and you will find that some other people are already talking
about your stuff. For posting relevant pictures to your page click on "share" and add a short
sentence about the picture.
8) Respond to all actions that your fans take on your Page. „Like“ their comments!
When they have a question answer in a timely and helpful manner.
9) Create Facebook Events. It might be some regular event that you are planning to run anyway.
Invite potentially interested people to join your event. When you are already having a bigger fan
base you might consider to create some special events for your fans.
As an example see event from Soomaa, Estonia below:

6. 10) Ask your fans questions. There is a special Facebook functionality for asking questions.
Think of some relevant question that your fans will actually care to know.
Please also vistit https://www.facebook.com/EDEN.destinations and answer the question:
„How you will be celebrating World Tourism Day 2012?“
Take these 10 steps (or 8) and let us know what problems did you encounter? What questions do
you have now? Write at aivar.ruukel@gmail.com, I am here to help you out!
Next Time!
In next newsletter we will continue discussing the best practice of Facebook
marketing and also introduce Pinterest - the new kid on the block of the social
media scene.
Have a question, comment or suggestion?
Please send it to editor of EDEN SoMe Newsletter aivar.ruukel@gmail.com