I was finally able to do a Facebook Live video recently on an organization’s page. I was more excited about this than I probably should have been. I have been itching to do a ‘Live’ Facebook video ever since I heard they were launching it. I couldn’t wait for Facebook to feature live video beyond celebrities and verified pages, so that everyone can get in on the bandwagon. Live streaming has been around for a couple of years now, but really caught steam with Meerkat, and Periscope. Before I even used it, I thought this would be huge, especially when I was at Visit Lake County. Pages were already seeing an uptick in engagement when you uploaded a video directly to Facebook vs. posting the Youtube link. Read more
Visit Lake County
A Behind the Scenes look at the Visit Lake County Song Search
You are only as good as your last month, or in this case your last year. A year ago, I was thinking of was to generate and create more awareness before our summer season and I got it stuck in my head that I could pull off a lip dup. At the time, it was probably my favorite this to work on. We created a music video tailored to Lake County, Illinois to the song, Best Day of My life by American Authors – https://youtu.be/iphhBSYiE44
Flash forward a year, well I definitely out did myself and launched a “music video that has gone viral with 74,000 views on Facebook and YouTube”, according to Bill Geist. Well, it was not as easy as that. It started out like any other passing water cooler talk in the office, “What are you going to do now to top Best Day?” I did not know at the time and wasn’t sure how to take that concept to the next step. I attended eTourism Summit last October and decided to sit in a music video session. Speakers from other destination spoke about what they did and how they used music to sell their destination. I took notes and wrote down some ideas that came to me. When I returned to the office, I told my boss I came up with idea to top ‘Best Day’, that included a way to generate website views during out off-season and increase the music section on our website. The idea sat with my until January, I then talked to my boss again, and this time I had the while idea flushed out. Granted there were some obstacles and hurdles along the way, otherwise, I thought it was a great idea. Read more
Creating the Visit Lake County ‘Best Day of My Life’ Music Video
What a summer it has been! Being a marketer in the Tourism Industry, the summer season is by busiest season and this summer was no different. It started off the launching of a music video to promote spending a summer getaway in Lake County, Illinois.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iphhBSYiE44&w=560&h=315]
I will start at the beginning to give you a sense of how this video came about. Now, just sit right back and read about how a small tourism destination won with a little video. My boss and I had been talking about doing a lip dub video for a couple of years, ever since Grand Rapids did the best lip dup of all-time. We even had one of our mayors bring up doing a lip dup. Well, over Christmas break last year, I was singing and dancing with my son and thought it would be cool to take a song and make fit to Lake County. I went back to work in January and the thought was in the back of my head but I just kept moving forward on the tasks at hand.
In February, I returned to the office from the Illinois Governors’ Conference on Tourism, where I had won ‘Best Social Media Marketing Campaign’. I went into my boss’s office and told her that I think that we could do a music video and the time was now. She like at me probably thinking, “Oh, here goes Anthony trying to accomplish something that we do not have time for”. The next week, in our marketing department meeting I told our Communications Specialist what I was thinking and quickly started brainstorming. After on hour, I had a rough idea to show my boss. She said that she really liked the idea and lets explore it. The following week, I brought one of my board of directors into my office and informed him and he said it was definitely do able. At that point, the idea was fully stuck in my head and that is all I could think about. I was off and running.
I found a local Lake County musician, Justin Yates, who had a good following on Social Media and had created several professional looking music videos on YouTube. After several discussions with him, he was convinced into recording the song, “Best Day of My Life” by American Authors, into his own style. I worked out the agreements with the record labels of the song. Which was a lot smoother that I had anticipated and actually got back to me quicker than I thought they would. Justin lead us to a recording studio in Lake Forest, IL, owned by Dustin Bennett. He also led us to YouTube sensation, Rob Scallon.
While Justin was recording the song, I continued to work on laying out the scenes and trying to incorporate as many Lake County celebrities and people as possible, with also staying true to our mission of attracting visitors from 50 miles outside of Lake County to stay overnight. I got a local mayor to participate, several of our board of directors, and the Chairman of the Lake County Board. I also received agreements from the Instagram sensation Nugget_thefrench_bulldog (a Lake County Instagram celebrity), mommy bloggers from Little Lake County, Lake County Social Media friends (Beth Rosen, Eddie Soto and Casey Karl), actors in the play CATS at the Lincolnshire Marriott Theatre, our partners, and Chicago Bears players Kyle Long and Jordan Mills. We also did a call for local residents to participate in a scene down a street in Waukegan.
We were able to film all of the locations in 3 days. Which was pretty amazing with all of the schedules that we had to coordinate. We promoted the video through Social Media, Newsletters, blogs, etc. We ran a Facebook contest to giveaway tickets to see American Authors and One Republic at Ravinia Festival. We were informed that if we hit 10,ooo views on this video, as we were missing the “it” factor to make it go viral, that we would totally win. Well, we won alright! In my 7 years with Visit Lake County, this was by far my favorite project to have worked on and something to this day I am extremely proud of.
I hope you enjoyed the video and please comment with your thoughts.
Lake County Social Media Marketing Event #LCSN
I have not been good at keeping this going but I thought with all of the buzz from my Social Media Networking event this past Thursday, there is no better time than the present to give this another try. As, some of you already know, I am the Marketing Manager at Visit Lake County, and I handle everything from Advertising, Website development, Public Relations, Marketing, Technology and Social, so all thoughts expressed here are my own and not representative of Visit Lake County in any way.
This past Thursday, I held a Social Media Networking event at Urban Edge in Downtown Waukegan and it was a HUGE success!! People are still buzzing about it a couple days later. This all started a few months ago when I was looking around on my brand’s Facebook page at what the community was posting and talking about. I quickly realized that there was a lack of knowledge with small businesses within the community with what to post on Facebook. So, I pitched an idea to my boss about Visit Lake County getting behind a Social Networking Event, where we would educate our partners, bring in area small businesses and the former Lake County Social Networking Group. Once she was on board, I set out to locate the venue, and I immediately thought of no better place than Urban Edge in Downtown Waukegan. They built their gallery and ArtWauk on Social Media, plus Waukegan has a very vibrant community that I could tap into. The next step was the easy one….finding panelists/speakers. I went to my contacts in the Lake County Social Networking community and targeted 4 of the top Social Media enthusiasts that I know and who brings a following with them. They were (in no specific order), Casey Karl, Eddie Soto, Heather Acton and Beth Rosen (unfortunately Beth was out of the country and could not attend but was on board with what I was trying to do). It was a resounding “YES, Anthony, what do you need me to do. Thank you for spearheading this!” I started to feel the excitement and saw some buzz happening online before the event.
We decided the first session would be solely about the Social Network “Facebook” and how small businesses can utilize the network to promote their business. It was pretty easy to decided the format of the event, as Tim McDonald (now with the Huffington Post and living in the Big Apple, New York) did a create job with Lake County Social Networking #LCSN when he was in Lake County. I did touch base with Tim during the planning stages to get his thoughts. I learn something new every time I chat with Tim. For me, when Tim speaks, I say nothing and immediately turn into a sponge as I want to soak up everything he has to say. He is literally one of the best community managers that I know!! I was not trying to recreate what Tim did or duplicate it, I just wanted to bring the band back together so to speak. Talking with the speakers, I decided there would be no powerpoint presentations, just the 3 Social Media Enthusiasts (do not like to use the words Social Media Experts, no such thing, just people who know more than the average bear) and myself sitting on a couch talking about Facebook with interaction from the audience, similar to a talk show format. I did my best Maury interpretation.
I started it off with, “Is Facebook still King of the Social World?” The answer for all 4 us was a resounding “Yes”, but don’t put all your eggs in the Facebook basket. Yes, brand reach is down but the people are still there and they will find you with great content. Content is still KING!! Facebook is just part of the your arsenal that should include, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube. We then continued on to talking about ROI and how you should have Social Media goals for each platform first and than ROI. We then answered audience questions that ranged from very basic, “How do I set up a Facebook page?” to more sophisticated, “Where is Facebook heading and how do quantify it?”. We also gave one tip for small businesses managing their own Social Media, and that is to, Listen! Listen to what people are talking about on the networks and what your audience wants and then deliver.
Overall, 54 people were in attendance in the first installment of the second coming of Lake County Social Networking events. What lies ahead with the idea? Well, as soon as the event ended attendees were asking when the next one would be. After initially talking with a few folks, I am thinking having the Social Media Networking events once a quarter, but we shall see. If you attended the event what did you think about? What are your thoughts on Facebook? Do you think it is still the Social Media king?
