I attended the Ulster County Development Corporation & Ulster County Tourism‘s Ulster Tourism Conference held at the Kingston Holiday Inn on May 4th. As part of the local community and also because we serve clients who need to promote their own local tourism destinations, I signed up months ago to hear more ideas about what people are doing in our area.
The conference was well attended, clearly showing that many local people cared enough about this subject to spend the time and money to learn about how to drive tourism in our area. It makes sense, after all, many of them are small business owners who count on out of town business to make their living and keep their employees paid.
Ulster Country Tourism: Working Together
The conference started with a common theme I have heard lately: working together as a community. The first speakers spoke of the Ulster Tourism Industry not fighting over the same slice of pie anymore, but collectively joining forces to better not only individual establishments, but our whole community; our economy, our employment base, our tax roles. Increased tourism benefits all who live here. So, as a firm believer in community and reaching out, sharing information, etc. I thought it was off to a great start.
Somewhere between the great start and the finial, my optimism waned. I kept thinking of all the other people there that were hoping for solutions to their concerns and I hope they all got something from the conference. In truth, I ended up leaving feeling pretty frustrated and kind of disappointed. I’m going to try my best not to turn this blog post into a huge rant, but I might just a teeny tiny little bit.
Promoting Ulster Country Without Promoting Local Business?
As the Director of Social Media at DragonSearch, immediately, my eye was drawn to one speaker, Brain Riech, who was scheduled to speak about “Viral Marketing to Drive Sales” as a social media consultant.
Now, this has absolutely nothing personal against Brain who left his family including a brand new baby in New York City to come up on a Trailways bus to speak today, but what was the thought process that lead the organizers to bring in a social media consultant from New York City when we have local sources for the same information right here? I mean, here are all these local folks who want local solutions and there are local professionals who are ready willing and able to connect with them, and the conference organizers don’t even consider promoting the local professionals?
I’m sorry, but right there is a sign that something is wrong with the whole concept: PROMOTE ULSTER, but we can’t highlight any local companies that can help in that promotion? Heck, I can even understand that maybe they were concerned about highlighting just one business and showing some version of favoritism, but then seek presentations, put out a call for papers or put together a panel of all the local professionals who know how to use social media and have us all work together. And I am not saying this because I feel slighted or insulted or my ego hurts, I am saying this because I would think that the local folks who face local challenges might feel more comfortable calling up a local business to help them or to ask a quick question. I have a feeling that they are not going to be calling up Brian and here’s why:
Brain is a very smart guy and extremely well read. He did have a great understanding of how social media is changing advertising and marketing and I generally agreed with everything he said. The one major problem I have with his presentation ( besides the fact that he was not from my office), was that he spent a great amount of time discussing how businesses need to know their target audience and engage them or as from his power point: “Know Your Audience: Demographic -Psychographic -Technographic- Behavioral” And again, I do completely agree, however, in my opinion, what Brain failed to do was exercise that basic tenet himself.
See, Ulster County is NOT New York City, or Boston or even Seattle. And while it was a perfectly presentable presentation for a geek conference someplace, or a PR conference in NY or an OMMA event, that’s not who was sitting in that room.
Ulster County is Intimidated by Social Media
I know who was sitting in that room because I talk to, see, hear and live with these folks every day. I know who “gets” social media in this area because we all Tweet to each other! I can tell you exactly what challenges the small business in this area is facing when it comes to utilizing the various marketing tools. I also know how to make a strong community group function using those very same social media tools. I go to the Ulster Chamber events and talk to people who know they should be using social media, and really want to be using social media, but have no idea what to do first or how to start and are afraid of messing up.. and so they don’t do anything. Or they want to, but they don’t have the time or the knowledge and don’t know who can help them because they are really busy trying to keep afloat running their business and can’t afford to hire anyone. So sitting there and simply being told that everything they are doing is all wrong isn’t what they really need to hear. They know that; that’s why they paid $35.00 to sit in the Holiday Inn instead of working!
And again, I completely do agree that the whole new marketing plan for the Ulster Tourism board is wrong. I was horrified to see $770,000 all going to traditional print and advertising media like The New Yorker, 1010 Wins Radio spots and 30 second commercials. I am annoyed that the brand new UlsterCountryAlive.com website does not have one single social sharing link and the online calendar of events brings up popup windows and according to business owners’ doesn’t even work! To be fair, I am also a bit put off that Ulster County gave over $45,000 to a Westchester County company to create the Ulster County website when we have the “good enough for the American Museum of Natural History’s brand new website” (cough:coug:33Oxclove:cough) company right here on Kingston’s Wall Street in Ulster County! And don’t even get me started on search engine optimization and where is the site map for the search engine spiders! So I do get what is WRONG, but can we begin to tell Ulster Country what is RIGHT and how to do it? That’s what this audience needs!
Ulster County Tourism Needs Solutions
Today’s conference missed a great opportunity to present some real simple solutions to the tourism community. There was a whole room filled with people whose very livelihoods depend on helping and they were not given ways to actually work together and make a difference. So, while DragonSearch was not asked to speak, I’ll be a good neighbor and help my community in the same way DragonSearch did on Wednesday when we presented on Social Media at UlsterSCORE, but that will have to be my next blog post!
So if you attended the Ulster Tourism Conference, and want to know some immediate tasks and tricks in social media to help promote your business, come on back!
Also, Ric Dragon will be speaking at the Hudson Valley Business Edge Spring 2010 on June 17th, so there were be real solutions there as well.
Tags: Promoting Ulster Country, Social Media to Promote Tourism, ulster country tourism
Hi Claudia,
First, we really appreciated you attending the conference. UCDC put this conference on, with the help of the Tourism department, as a way to demonstrate to the tourism industry that the county “gets” that tourism is a critical jobs and revenue generating industry for Ulster County. Thousands of people rely on it for their income, either directly or indirectly, from tourists visiting the county.
Second, the purpose of the conference was two-fold: 1) an update on the Ulster County’s tourism industry and efforts to promote it and 2) provide enough good information so that attendees would leave with at least three things they could do immediately to improve their business. And, based on the feedback forms returned by 35 people, the conference achieved both objectives. It was not our intention to provide a Social Media 101 conference, though it is clear, as you point out, that some people need it. That is why I am in contact with your firm about the possibility of hosting a more specific conference to address this for all industries, not just tourism.
As for how the tourism budget is being spent, perhaps someone from DragonSearch could volunteer to become a member of the Tourism Advisory Committee and have direct impact on that issue.
And thirdly, your complaint about not being asked to participate is understood though a bit mis-guided. We are well aware that Ulster County has talented people in all industries. However, since conference attendees were asked to pay $35, I thought it best to bring in people from outside the area whom attendees can’t likely run into at the local coffee shop. Local perspective and relevance is great but not the intention of this part of the conference. Our tourism businesses rely heavily on metro New York visitors and the speakers are experts in how to effectively communicate to that audience. I have no doubt that Ulster-based firms like yours could have added value to the discussion, which is why I was a bit disappointed that more questions were not asked in a way to stimulate further conversations about these topics. That, in my opinion, was your lost opportunity to add value.
I understand, however, that at the break you took the time to introduce your firm to attendees, saying that many of the things the speakers discussed could be accomplished by working with Dragon Search. Excellent networking! I hope it results in more exposure and business for you.
Again, thank you for attending the conference. I look forward to working with your team on our next effort to help bolster Ulster County’s economy through information sharing efforts like this conference.
Best,
Paul Rakov
Director, Business Development and Marketing
Ulster Co. Development Corp.
[...] my last blog post, How Ulster County Can Use Social Media to Promote Tourism, I expressed my feelings after attending the Ulster Tourism Conference. Based on almost half of [...]
Hi Paul,
First off thank you so much for taking the time to respond with such a thoughtful letter to my blog post.
I am sure the conference did indeed achieve its objectives as I did hear the chatter that many attendees found most of the speakers to be knowledgeable. And I would expect that, since, he indeed was however different our opinions might be on what knowledge was needed.
However, when writing my post, what I did refer to was the literature that promoted the event and according to that 3 out of the 7 of the topics had a social media component:,
Tourism’s influence on the local and State economy
- Ulster County’s bed tax explained
- Incentives for “greening” your business
- How to grow in a down economy featuring Dan Scavino, Executive Vice President, Trump Golf Resorts
- Viral marketing via YouTube and other social media
- Effective public relations in a digital age
- Influencing travelers’ decision through online media
So based on the above information my feeling as an attendee was cemented.
Also, I should point out that I am a lousy networker in real life! During the break, my conversations were with people I have worked with before and a few of our clients that were also attending! Other than that, I made a point of saying hello to Brian as I was tweeting with him before he went on and then to tell Rick that Ulster tourism really needs to get back on Facebook!
In the same vein, I choose not to comment during the question period, because I did not have questions and did not want to my comments and thoughts to undermine what had been said nor make it seem like I was promoting DragonSearch. IMO, that was not the time or place for me to voice what *I* think Ulster County should be doing. That’s what this blog is very handy for! In fact, you should enjoy my next post where I will be sharing quite a few things everyone can do right now to improve their business!
In fact, that’s coming up right now!
Thanks again,
CCD~
Dear Claudia,
I would like to congratulate you for your courage and your clear ideas. I a firm, probably a fanatic supporter of the idea that Tourism Is All of Us in our areas. I come from Cyprus and I am the Director of Avantless, a consultancy company that looks into Social Media for tourism as the tool to Customer engagement and service. We are something like the “priests” of local community work together and I understand your “frustration” and “anger”. I totally agree that Brain has no responsibility in this but Ulster is not New York City and in my case Cyprus is neither Ulster or New York City…. Anyway as a Spanish saying says ” none is a prophet in his own land” . Keep up and regards from sunny Cyprus. (If you goolgle my name you will for sure end up in my Blog in case you want to see it).
I have to agree 100%.. I’ve run into the same trouble with the Ulster County Alive website…..these are really basic functions that any decent CMS can provide and they were simply overlooked.
As was reaching out to community members and expressing how not only do THEY need to engage with social media more, but they need to cross engage. Take your post here where you discuss other companies in the area that can provide expertise…. the cross promotional community way of doing things is to name and link to them…even when they are not related to you or compete with you. The self promotional way of doing it is only to discuss your brands and businesses. Ulster County in general takes the latter approach, and what appeals to NYC tourists is a sense of community in upstate NY. The idea that you talk to one store, and if it can’t meet your needs or personal preference, they recommend others. I know this is there in a small way in person, but it also has to reach out to online media.
Lastly, the advertising campaigns are a big flop in my book. It looks like wording phrases from the 80′s…and while NYC people look to upstate NY for nostalgia and the way things were, 3 decades out of date is at least 1, if not 2 decades out of date.
Add to that the whole Taxi video idea…. for half the money they could have printed up flyers and handed them out outside of subways all over the city. This tactic has been very successfully used by communities 3-5 times as far away in Virginia!!
All in all, I have been very disappointed in these campaigns and been looking myself for how to provide input. On the plus side, at least you were invited to join their advisory council!
I wrote a reply to Claudia’s first message and, am now compelled to respond to Gary’s.
Gary, you said that for “half the money” of the Taxi TV ads, “they could have printed up flyers and handed them out outside subways all over the city.” I will ignore two facets of that statement: 1) you don’t know how much “the money” was and 2) the environmental impact and message it sends with thousands of Ulster County flyers cast off by subway riders is counter to our green culture up here. But the main point is one of convergence. At the time of the Tourism department’s subway ads, we (Ulster Co. Development Corp.) chose to supplement that effort with a Taxi TV ad so that people riding the subway would get a second exposure to Ulster County (if they took a taxi later in the day). btw…the subway ads ran a total of 180,000 times in Manhattan and only when there were people IN the taxi (the TV system is triggered by the meter).
Gary (and Claudia) have you seen the taxi ad? If not, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzzlvCyYono
You’ll note at the end, the call to action is “Text ‘Ulster’ to 87415.” Go ahead and do it. What you get is a specially developed version of a web site just for smart phones from which you can get some key information about visiting and doing business in Ulster County. In other words, not a tiny print replication of the real web site that hardly anyone can read! Claudia…you are in the tech world and social media. I would think you’d have to say that this was a good use of technology.
I was in the tourism business for several years. One thing I know is that people make travel decisions based on so many factors, it’s impossible to tell which one is the one to think of when putting an ad campaign together. What I can tell you is this, whenever next my wife and I go on vacation, I am going to consider Aruba. Why? Because there are 90,000 friends there I haven’t met yet. Sound like an ad campaign, yes? It is. And I saw it every day for a month when riding the subway last year.
Paul Rakov
Ulster County Development Corporation
Working in the advertising business for both print, web, and email I am well aware of the cost of advertising. Flyers are the cheapest form of advertising, taxi ads are on the much more expensive side. [And MTA advertising.....well, let's just say from growing up in Duchess I think that considering the added taxes on hudson valley residents to pay for the MTA, we should be getting some form of advertising in trade for that...and it is a disappointment in our political leaders that don't press for that].
As for counter to the green culture, while it send the wrong message on it’s appearance…that’s a open question on whether one wants a more effective campaign, or a more green campaign. And if one does, then figuring out what is ‘greener’…for example is it greener to run advertising in gas guzzling, smog producing taxi’s or hand out flyers on recycled and biodegradable paper? There are all sorts of parameters that go into the calculation… personally I haven’t done the calculation, so if you say you have and it is more environmentally friendly to do the ads, that’s fine…just so long as you aren’t using it as a shield on why one direction was chosen without actually having researched it.
As for the ad…yes I saw it. “Ulster County Style” is an 80′s catch phrase….. As Claudia mentioned, a much better use of time is to say what there is to do THIS weekend or this month than just a generalized comment.
Also figuring out how to target people… those ads were most appealing to people who had cars and can drive……and yet they didn’t appeal to that segments core goal…the “day trip”…very hot this year in the city is finding some extra special location within a 3 hour drive of the city and getting there FIRST….or at least second or third for bragging rights. [For example, friends coming up form the city are hitting the restaurants in Duchess with views of and near the walkway.....they are not aware of any in Ulster and not coming here despite the fact that the parking is better and the attitude is more mellow].
Then there is no immediate hook to tell non car drivers what there is to do in New Paltz and Kingston right around the bus terminals. Or outreach to let them know where they can rent cars in the area[because face it, if they come up metro north, their going to mostly head for the sites in Duchess]. Of course, that also leads to my pet peeve that Ulster County doesn’t setup business accounts with Zipcar and have zipcars placed at the county building, the universities, etc for county use. While Zipcar doesn’t franchise, they do provide them to businesses who commit to a certain number of hours a month. With the added benefit that regular Zipcar members can use them[just think, a dozen Zipcars at the Ulster County offices in Kingston means a dozen NYC weekend visitors can come up and have a car to drive. AND the added benefit there is that they have to actually WALK through the main business section of Kingston to get from the Bus terminal to the car!]
As was mentioned about the website, the calendar and business directory is not really open. It should be THE place to easily add your business and update your calendar of upcoming events! And the calendar should be highly filterable and exportable, as well as embeddable – so for example, if I’m a business and I take the time to enter all my events for the next 3 months on the Ulster County Alive calendar, I should then be able to embed a widget of that Calendar on my own website filtered to just my business, or just the ones I want to promote. Instead it’s a dead end, even when the data goes there it isn’t reusable……so given a choice between entering and promoting that website, or spending the same time on my own website….that’s a no brainer – my own website gets the time.
As for my next vacation, it’s Ulster County! I am a new transplant to this area[moved up here back in fall of 2008]. I have kids and you know what I can’t find online? Amazingly enough, I can’t find a coherent message of all there is to do in Ulster County for kids! It’s taken 2 years of hunting on my own to start to find things I want to take them to and do. That’s an epic fail of consolidation and passing along of information.
Yeah, my tone is on the more negative side. Fortunately for me, on the freelance side I’m a web engineer, so while I build all the cool backend toys that make these things work…I’m not involved nearly as much in the front end …. nor the general idea of advertising…because as you can see I’m not a people person.
My “dayjob” though is dealing with fashion and lifestyle ezines down in the city. Companies that send out trackable email issues to subscribers for free, and make their money by selling advertising. And I know what works in online marketing[special offers that customers feel are unique to them, microsites to gather information and provide immediate information on a promotion, limited time offers with a sense of urgency and an immediate call to action, contests with prizes] and what doesn’t[general offers they have seen on 50 other websites already, a special that is always offered, branding with no sense of immediate interest, etc].
I understand Ulster County has not really been taking advertising seriously until the past year or so… mistakes will be made. But it is much more important to learn from these mistakes and move forward.
Gary,,
Wow.. you and I should get together for lunch one day! I know you are at the beahive.. I live and work both on Wall Street so it should be easy to make happen! The super simple services that can make that perfect embeddable widget is completely available right now! What I need is someone who can make that tool programed on the back end so that it is branded for Ulster/ Hudson Valley! I also heard a runor that the Freeman is looking to do something like this as well….so I am thinking that combineing forces would be excellent.. maybe along the lines of if we build it they will come!
And then on top of that.. I think our “day jobs” might mesh pretty well…I have a few fashion / lifestyle clients and get inside infomation on deals and promos so our goals might dovetail nicely!
And I did lie about my “vacation” a) I hardly ever leave Wall Street much less Kingston.. and b) my “vaction” this year will be Kentucky, but that’s because I lobby for fun.
But seriously.. I like the idea of putting our mutually benefitial brains tiogether! Then Paul.. we can come up with the pefect master plan for next year.. lol!
CCD~
Hi all,
Well, first off I love that we are having this conversation here! So thanks all!
Paul, I did look at the video and I don’t have a problem with it per say. However, since you sent me to that Youtube page; I have to tell you that the page could be branded a lot more, there should be more keyword rich text, and you are missing linking opportunities to direct traffic back to the UlsterCountyAlive website.
And, because you asked.. I texted and got the site on my phone. Maybe I am harping on this because I am obsessed now, and maybe because I am doing social media consulting with 2 of the huge draws down the route 28 corridor, but….
If I go on “Arts and Culture” on the mobile site.. I don’t want verbiage telling me what I CAN find.. I want to know exactly what the heck is happening this weekend. Imagine form the users experience. It’s NYC, I am in a taxi, I watch the ads and I think “yes.. I would like to get away this weekend”..and then.. I text and get to the mobile site.. do I want to hear more froufrou marketing speak? Or do I want to see some compelling events and activities that will seal the deal and make me go.. wow that sounds like a whole mess of fun.. lets plan to get away!
I want a widget.. that can be shared on all Ulster websites.. and yes that means cross promoting and working together! And that can be developed as a mobile app saying “this is what you are missing right now” To be honest, I could see THAT as a great use of technology.
You know.. I think it’s that you don’t know the possibility of what CAN be done with social media marketing unless one is involved with it.. so the frustration here from Gary and myself is that the range of possibilities are endless and the potential is just bigger… It’s not just going for traditional media spend and then adding a text message..it’s more about finding the hiking clubs in NYC and reaching out to them directly.. it’s about finding the health clubs that have rock walls and then working together to make a weekend package with beer tickets to Bacchus, dinner discounts, hotel plan and maybe a relaxing spa after climbing all day to promote.
I guess there is always next year…
As for me.. on my next vacation, I think I want to go to Cyprus!
CCD~
Last minute as my work schedule tends to be these days, but just figured I’d let you two know I was working at beahive this afternoon in case you wanted to meet over at the coffee house at any point.
Erm, this afternoon being Wednesday, June 2nd
I think this back and forth is great, though i fear it is getting argumentative. So, I apologize if my defensiveness took that tone.
To be clear, my only involvement in this topic is a) I put the taxi tv together based on the creative already in place by the Tourism Dept. and on which i had no input, and b) i put the tourism conference together, booking all but the Trump speaker who was a friend of the tourism directors.
That being said…I love all of your ideas and wish I was smart enough to implement them. What I’d like to do is hear more, and get together with the two of you in person. I think the three of us could really make some strong recommendations to the tourism office (with which I am not affiliated but work with from time to time).
Perhaps a meetup at the DragonSearch satellite office…Hudson Coffee Traders? Next week?
Paul
I so love the idea.. ready, willing and able to jump at a moments notice! Especially since we are making it so convenient for me to go downstairs! lol
Let’s pick a date and time!
And I don’t think you have to apologize at all Paul.. we do the best we all can with what have avaialbel at the time. People telling you how to do things differently after you have put sweat and hardwork into somehting good rightously makes anyone feel somewhat defensive!
And it’s all still good.. look at the direction we are now going!
Well… I work at BEAHIVE a few doors down..but that’s an erratic schedule[whenever I /have/ to leave the house because I can’t work here…and this week that hasn’t been happening… But I should end up over there a few days next week.. Of course it’s not a trial to go from home to there either since it’s only a couple miles away…
Ok.. so I lied. I need more than a moments notice today.. so sorry!! I am jammed up with meetings today:(
Gary, do you know when you plan to be at the hive next?? Then we can corrdinate with Paul.