DIGITAL DESTINATIONS

Dr Philip Alford Bournemouth University

www.digitalhub.co.uk

www.pinterest.com/digitaldest www.slideshare.net/DigitalHub

ddp@bournemouth.ac.uk

@schooloftourism | @philipalford

#DDBU

Digital Destinations project is an ESRC funded research project, delivered by Bournemouth University,

with an overarching aim to:

‘capture change in the adoption and use of digital technologies and to develop a strong, competitive local tourism economy.

Through increased understanding and use of emerging digital technologies, visitor economy businesses will be in a position to increase their marketing and management effectiveness, and

develop new products and services that will provide an enhanced experience for visitors to their destinations’

The businesses benefited from 4 workshops which covered: Background to on line marketing

Individual Business objectives

Developing the strategy

Measuring impact

Reporting outcomes via case studies

All course material can be found at http://www.slideshare.net/DigitalHub All business outcomes and blogs can be found at http://www.budigitalhub.co.uk/

The following presentation is the case study provided by Julia’s House Julia’s House; at the start of the Digital Destinations project at a stage with our social media where we needed to look at what development needed to be undertaken. The programme made us allocate time to evaluate what we were doing and to how to move forward. Also, it provided the platform to share experiences and to learn from organisations that were ahead of us in this field which was a very valuable opportunity for us as we often felt we were working in isolation. So, a key benefit of this programme for us was the opportunity to learn from others and to test our ideas with a broad group of people. It was nice also, as a small charity, to share what we have learned and to see if commercial enterprises have experienced similar.

DDBU Digital Project Julia’s House wants to be “liked” Target:

• To launch a people-focused 10th birthday Facebook campaign to raise the profile of the charity and gain more likers.

What we will do:

• Three to four picture posts a week, in regular specific tea-time slots (to engage the highest traffic). Posts begin w/c 18/2 or 25/2 depending on material coming through.

• The posts will be about: Carers/families/fundraisers/donors. This could be a group of mates on a training run for the marathon; a carer doing a project with a child; a Friends Group holding a fundraiser; a child who has achieved a development milestone

• Each post will include a picture of the featured person and a short story linking back to our website.

How we will do it:

• We will launch a series of pre-posts on fb starting next week, building up interest in “your stories - people at the heart of your local children’s hospice”.

• Some posts will be targeted at specific geographical areas to boost support, with JH messages attached (“did you know we care for x children in your area?”).

• Fundraising teams will be asked to put forward any picture profiles/group shots.

• Retail teams will be asked to see if they can get shots of some donors with the goods they donate/auction items if items warrant a picture).

• Care teams will be asked for stories (from families or staff) and permission sort from parents to use images as part of the Facebook campaign.

• Plus: Appeal posts - tell us about your event/send in a picture.

• The campaign will be linked to the website and pushed through other social channels.

• Facebook flyers

How we will measure its success:

• We will aim for a 10 per cent increase in traffic to the page and will track this via facebook analytics.

For more information on DIGITAL DESTINATIONS contact:

Dr Philip Alford, Bournemouth University

ddp@bournemouth.ac.uk

@schooloftourism | @philipalford

#DDBU