Social Currency

Filed under Social Media Thoughts by on April 10, 2012 at 12:50 pm {no comments}

I am constantly put into situations where I have to explain why I do what I do. I rarely get paid. In fact, I’m more likely to shell out a few bucks in order to do something that intrigues me than to not do it at all. In the end, it really comes down to the fact that I like breaking systems and I just simply like helping people. So yeah, not all that mysterious.

But one of my friends pushed me. He said that wasn’t a good enough reason. I was possibly wasting time on this and I needed to pursue something more worth my while. Since this friend is in finance, I decided to take another stab at explaining it. We all have online reputations. These reputations are basically what we use as currency in our world. The bigger and better our reputations, the more that we get to do. We trade and barter all in the name of getting people to do what we would like them to do. For me, that sometimes equates to getting people to events for my day job and sometimes it’s as simple as getting people to read a blog post. It just depends on what is important to me at the time. And in exchange, I am expected to give some too.

I’m lucky in that this all comes naturally to me. I’m more likely to give than to take, so when I feel the need to ask, I’m rarely met with rejection. And my lack of asking may have a little something to do with #catholicguilt. We’ll ignore that though.

I’ve been feeling guilty lately, because I think the tables have turned. I think I’m asking a lot of you guys and giving little to nothing to the social community in general. This guilt has been somewhat muted by the fact that I am still helping every single person that I feasibly can help when they ask me. My problem right now is that I’ve got a buttload of needs. Putting my online needs aside, I’ve had holidays, birthdays, new flooring, cat issues,  relationship issues, etc. (Oh my God guys, I think I have a life!) However, I think I still know a thing or two about securing some social media currency, so here are a few tips:

1. Don’t constantly ask for people to vote for you: Hey, I am guilty of this right now and I hate it (Vote for me! Vote for Cleveland!). An already stretched thin reputation is totally taking a hit from the things that I have going on right now. Every time you ask people to vote for something, think, “Is this really going to help me achieve something that is important to me and/or my social media strategy?” I’m in the unfortunate position of having two things going on that would achieve something important. Try not to let that happen.

2. Don’t ask people to do your work: There’s a difference between asking a question that requires a quick answer and asking for the step-by-step instructions so that you don’t have to really doing anything and yet still look fantastic. Know that difference. Asking questions isn’t bad, but asking people to do the creative and the technical for you is super, super bad.

3. Don’t constantly go after celebrities for retweets: Maybe this is just me. I know we’re all on Twitter for different reasons. If you’re constantly doing this, I think you’re not on there for business reasons which is totally cool. Not everyone has to be on there for business reasons. But if you are trying to get business done, this is not the way to do that. It will make you look less professional and less social savvy. Especially since celebrities are usually not influential enough in your core audience to help you achieve much.

4. Do say hi: If you say hi to me with no ulterior motives, you’re going to interest me. I’ll at least take a look at what you’re doing (I’m an online stalker, after all). That’s the start of gaining a reputation with me.

5. Do ask questions: I can’t even get into how flattering it is when you show that you have a sincere interest and want to know more. Good pointed questions get you everywhere in social.

6. Do be interesting: This is a no-brainer. If you want to gain a reputation, do stuff. Make it cool. Don’t tweet about how you’d jump the Yankees 24-7 (oh crap). But make your feed enjoyable too. Crack jokes, show your personality and just be you. Because you are interesting. And that made up business persona that you’re putting on? Not so interesting.

What other tips can you give to someone that is trying to gain a reputation in social?

My name is Betsy and I’d like your vote.

Filed under Social Media Thoughts by on April 3, 2012 at 12:55 pm {no comments}

The Bronze Fonzie says Vote Betsy

Hey there! Most of you that will read this already know me, but for those that don’t, my name is Betsy A. Decillis. Yes, it’s always with the A. My parents gave me the initials BAD, because they thought it was funny. But frankly, it goes well with my sense of humor, so I’ve gotten over the great parenting that they displayed there.

Today, I’d like to talk to you about the Social Media Club of Columbus. I made a decision to run for their Programming Chair and well, I think it would be super swell if you voted for me. You know for all of the obvious reasons like I’m the most awesomest person ever, of course. But you know there are some less obvious reasons too…

I started my career in politics. I LOVE the campaign process and nonprofit work. The idea of figuring out how to do a whole lot with little has always intrigued me, as well as forming relationships to make things happen.

My second career has been in tourism. Now if you want to meet a group of people that do a whole lot with nothing, this is the crew. As I was trying to understand them and figure out how to best serve this amazing group of individuals, I started experimenting with social media. I took my fundraising background from campaigning and tried a little of this and a lot of that  to figure out what worked. I dived head first into any learning opportunity and forged relationships with those that most impressed me so that I could learn more. This was all in the name of helping an industry that I grew to love.

Over time, Anne Hornyak and I realized that there was something missing. Even though there were a ton of smart individuals in tourism and social media, we weren’t sharing in an effective manner. That led to us founding #tourismchat. We have run this successful chat for two years and pride ourselves on providing the best questions on the most pertinent topics in social media. This is something that I strongly feel that our Social Media Club is not doing as of right now and I would like to fix that. And I think my experience in building this community will help to get the club back on a track that will help all of us do business better.

About a year after doing the chat, I realized that there were not enough great resources for those that are new to the social media world, but want to learn the best practices. But being me and having a touch of ADD, I couldn’t leave it at just being a business only blog. Yes, I’m breaking all of the rules here, but every topic I write about affects a number of people that work at many different levels of social media. And the more I talk about my struggles with depression, I’m realizing that this is a thread that unites too many of us in social media. So yes, you may think my blog is a bunch of hodge podge, but there is a method behind the madness. My number one goal, however, has always been to provide great advice to those that need it. And I try to do that both here on the blog and any time anyone asks.

In the process of doing the blog, I realized something else was missing from our community: a list that broke out who is awesome at tourism and social media and is willing to help. I filled that void the best I could and I am very proud of the recognition that has given to those in a community that is often overlooked.

My latest project has been freelancing. I love it. There is nothing better than getting to work with people that are genuinely excited to be around me and want me to help them do what they do better. When I asked my first client what her goals were, she literally said, “Do something awesome.” How can you not want to hug someone that says something like that? This has led to me doing presentations, writing guest blog posts and stepping out more as my own force. I’m a little uncomfortable with attention, so this has taken some time to adjust to. But I want to take my client’s goal and make it my goal for everything I do. I want to be something awesome.

So please take the time to vote for me for Programming Chair. And hey, if you agree that I should get this position, I’d love it if you left a comment. Or hashtag your Twitter comments with #ilikebetsy. Yeah, I’m so awesome that I have my own hashtags. How can you not vote for that??

Stop sharing Facebook posts blindly

Filed under Social Media Thoughts by on March 20, 2012 at 12:37 pm {no comments}

I have a new pet peeve. I know… SHOCKING! Luckily, I know this mistake is coming from a warm and loving place, so I haven’t really been calling people out on it. Well, except for now.

There’s an old saying that goes, “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” And just because you can share Facebook posts doesn’t mean you should. And just because YouTube taught me how to make a shiv doesn’t mean I’ve done it… and that it’s hidden in a drawer…. in my kitchen… waiting.

There are lots of great examples of sharing on Facebook, but if you’re about to press send on a post that looks like this… STOP. And not just because you should really take some time to admire the cuteness of this cat.


The most fundamental mistake that I’m seeing lately is that people are just pressing send and not adding any language.  There are lots of reasons why this is wrong:

  • Link: Do you want people to click on it? If you’re sharing it, I would assume yes, but hey, I share links for just for laughs too. And if you don’t add some descriptive language, that’s just what you did. When you click share on a link, it literally just brings the link over and leaves the other person’s language out. So be sure to tell your fans why you’re sharing and why they should click. And also, make sure that you’re comfortable sharing space with that other person that you’re sharing from. Because if your fans are fans of their page, those two posts will be linked.
  • Photo: Okay, it’s great that you want to share this cute cat’s photo, but why? Give it some context to make it a more effective post. Ask a question, so that you can get some interaction. Just make the post yours and not just a piggyback post.

  • Video: This is the same as with a link. If you actually want someone to watch this video, tell us about it. Or else it will go into never never land, because never shall there be a single person watching it. Great descriptive language is especially needed, because videos need some extra massaging. You’re actually asking people to actually commit time to your post. Make sure it’s worth it and that you make it sound worth it.
  • Status Update: I haven’t really seen this one used effectively. Yes, the hotel in your area has a great deal and you want to tell your fans. I totally get that. But, the text gets grayed. I, like others, skim. My eyes go to the black text, not the gray. And your share is totally lost. Give an anecdote about the hotel. Ask who has stayed there. Just post SOMETHING. My eyes really want to see that pretty black text so they can stop. And to be honest, this is why pictures do better. My eyes always stop on something colorful before black text and definitely before gray. So if you’re drawing attention to lots of gray text, be sure that there isn’t a better way to do it first. And remember that you can always tag the page to give them some love.

I know we have lots of great partners that we want to give lots of love to. Do it and do it big. Just make sure that you’re doing it effectively.

What are you seeing out in the wild of bad Facebook posts?

Tearing it down

Filed under Social Media Thoughts by on March 13, 2012 at 12:43 pm {no comments}

I have lots that I want to write about right now. There was the wonderfulness of meeting Katie Cook in Austin. There was the all over glowy feeling I had from running the Austin Half Marathon. And there’s a lot of social stuff that gets me inspired too. There’s almost so much that I’m at the point of being paralyzed. And I want to make sure anything I write about Katie or the half is carefully done and really shows the feelings both of these events brought into my life.

With all of this happiness going on in my head, it’s making the dark side of social much less tolerable. I get that we as humans like to smell blood in the water and take down the powerful. Hell, they don’t even have to be powerful. We just like to see people go down for the sake of going down. And every time someone makes a social mis-step, we all get that look of glee on our faces that ends up fueling hundreds of blog posts and countless tweets.

Here’s the thing: It sucks. Pitchfork mobs don’t get anything done. All they do is make people want to avoid them. They crush innovation and make us go the way of worker drones just trying to get by under the radar. And for us tourism geeks that are trying to do something awesome, they spell death. They make bosses more weary and less likely to touch something that could cause controversy.

It also hurts real feelings. Take a step back before you write that blog post or that tweet. Remember that who you are attacking is a real-life person, likely trying to do the best they can. They may have made a well-meaning mistake or they may just have some learning to do. Jumping on them and trying to make them look like an idiot doesn’t help. Perhaps coming from a sense of learning and an email will better suit what the situation requires.

And on the subject of emails… Why are we trying to publicly humiliate people with these tweets and blog posts? Why aren’t we taking that second to send a private message to see what’s really going on? It takes thousands upon thousands of tweets to build a reputation, but it can take just your one tweet to ruin a person’s reputation forever.

Am I guilty of some of these sins? Yes. And I really hate that I am. I think I did it out ignorance, rather than an real malevolence. And yes, I’m a terrible gossip. Going forward I pledge to try to lift more people up and to try not to tear them down when possible. I will try to work on the gossiping. “Try” being the key word… Who is with me?

How to use a hashtag

Filed under Social Media Thoughts by on February 15, 2012 at 12:45 pm {one comment}

The guy I live with: Let’s hashtag that.

Me: I don’t think you know what that means.

The guy I live with: No, but it’s on commercials, so I’m gonna use it.

Hashtag abuse is kind of running rampant  later. Some of it is naivety and some of it is downright spamming. Either way, it’s just downright annoying.

What is a hashtag?

A hashtag is the pound sign (#) followed by a keyword or agreed upon term. It can be used to index your tweets around an event or a product or it can be used to express your thoughts as an aside (i.e. “We offer sweatpants at the visitors center when you’re all done! #FullServiceCVB”) A common usage is to use it for Twitter chats, such as #tourismchat, so that you can talk about a topic at an agreed upon time. For most Twitter chats, the hashtag is used even during non-designated times so that you can ask questions or share information. All, except the aside usage, make your tweets more readily found in Twitter search.

So I should hashtag the hell out of everything right?

If you like Angry Betsy, do that. I’ll unfollow you so fast…

If you are looking to hashtag your tweet for a chat, make sure that you are familiar with the purpose of the chat. You can simply do a quick search on the hashtag to find out that information (look for the type of information that is shared the most). If you are still confused, shoot a tweet over to the host or co-hosts. The reason why these people founded these chats was to help people like you out, so they are more than happy to answer your questions.

If you are hashtagging around a keyword, think if anyone will actually search that keyword. I don’t know too many people that will search #travel when looking for a place to go in North Dakota. And to be honest, I don’t know too many people that search hashtagged keywords when trying to find information. I never do. I would limit this kind of hashtagging, especially because of readability issues. Does any body really want to read a tweet that looks like this, “We are #fishing in #Michigan today. Hoping to #catch a #smallmouthbass!” No. Every hashtag you add lessens its readability score. If I were writing this same tweet, I would get rid of all the hashtags and consider ending it with #michiganfishing or #mifishing. More direct and to the kind of audience you might be trying to reach.

What happens when I screw up?

Y’all did see the Angry Betsy thing right??

A Twitter chat is the worst hashtag to abuse. Let’s say someone was hashtagging their tweets with #tourismchat to promote the great deals at their hotel or just simply sharing irrelevant information. I don’t look at their profile. I simply hit spam. Some people are more forgiving than me (See Anne), but even those people have their limits. Getting marked as spam blocks you from accounts you might have wanted to connect with and in the worst case scenario, can get your account completely deleted. Kind of not what you want to happen, right?

And then a tweet that is just hashtagged to death with keywords almost always gets skipped over. I can’t read it and I don’t care to spend the extra time to decipher it. I, like most Twitter users, am a skimmer. If your tweet takes more than a skim to read, I am not going to stop even if it is the greatest tweet ever written. Which it can’t be. Because the greatest tweet ever written would at most have one hashtag. So if getting your tweet read is important to you (hey, it’s not always important to me, so I understand if it’s not), then I would suggest leaving a hashtag or two at home.

I can’t stress this enough: If you get confused, ask. I don’t know anyone that is good at social that wouldn’t stop to help someone that truly wants to learn something, especially when it comes to the correct usage of hashtags.

So have you seen any blatant hashtag abuse that makes you want to poke your eyes out?

 

Geek Love

Filed under Social Media Thoughts by on February 14, 2012 at 12:49 pm {one comment}

I’m a lucky girl. I know I say that often, but I really feel it.

Over the 8 months that this blog has been alive, I’ve been blessed with fantastic readers that encourage me and make me want to be better. You really can’t ask for more than that. I’ve never really known how to thank those people that have been the most supportive, so you’ll see that they are regularly featured on my blog. I hope that everyone knows by now that I genuinely feel that any attention I get is better suited to those scrappy people that surround me. And they are scrappy. And cool. And I love them.

I also love this blog. It’s given me a platform where I can write about anything I want whenever I want. Will everything I write be applicable to every reader? Nope. And I’m okay with that. I write this blog out of love: love for my community and love for what we do. Some of us are depressed. Some of us like to run. And all of us geek out.

What I have found through my participation in social media is that there are a lot of people like me out there, so I might as well be myself and love it. And I’m very thankful that many of you love it too.

So thank you for the geek love that you’ve shown me. And for the geek love that you guys spread around.

Regardless of whether you have that special someone in your life today, remember that there is a whole group of geeks willing to cut anyone you want. Let that warm your heart for a second.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Tourism Twitter Accounts I Think You Should Follow (Part 3)

Filed under Social Media Thoughts by on February 8, 2012 at 1:03 pm {4 comments}

And here I go with the final list. What you can learn from some members of this list is that if you are focused on what someone is tweeting, you’re going to miss out. A lot of great stuff happens behind the scenes and you should really get relationships with some of these guys. You will never regret it.

Stephanie Molina: We all have that friend… She’s beyond beautiful and can be totally bad ass at the same time. Stephanie is that girl. And the fact that she has smarts too just makes her killer. Her work for Beaumont has made them one of the most watched CVBs out there. Yup, Beaumont, TX. I was confused too. And you really can’t find a more gracious person out there that is more than willing to share everything she knows. Um, Stephanie, can you stop being soooo awesome and give the rest of us a chance? Kthxbai.

Jeremy Harvey: Jeremy doesn’t tweet much, which is a shame. Let’s just put it this way: If someone were to put me out of the wise-cracking business, it would be him. A dry sense of humor mixed with awesome tourism knowledge would bring all the peeps a-callin’. If you follow Visit Loudoun, you know he’s got some chops. And all you have to do is ask and he will magically appear on Twitter with some great answers. You can also regularly find him on #tourismchat as a key contributor. Just a fun, nice guy. We need more people like him.

John Pricher: Why yes that is Chewbacca throwing a baseball and yes, it’s the perfect picture for John. John is another example of someone that if you look straight at their tweets, you’d move on. But that would be a very, very bad decision. He has possibly the biggest heart of all of us. He has said the nicest things to me and they always seem to come out of nowhere. That mostly has to do with the fact that his humor is out of control and having him say something serious seems out of character. I LOVE people like that. He does some cool things down in Gainesville, FL and will always keep you guessing. So maybe if we all start following him, we’d get more tweets…. Hmmmmm….

Andy Hayes: Now let’s talk about one of my favorite bloggers. He’s snarky. He’s smart. And he’s fun. If he’s published something, it is almost always must read. If he’s giving advice, it is without a doubt the route you should go. And if you need help, he’ll be one of the first people to ask what he can do. People like this are rare. And it all equals one of the best follows on Twitter.

Brian Matson: Brian is gutsy, smart and hilarious (yes there are a lot of funny people in tourism). I run to him with my video questions and he always has a fun way of explaining things. And he’s taking that fun on the road. You should not only follow his Twitter, but go give him a like on Facebook. I love that one of our own is trying to out and teach more and I can tell that he just gets a thrill out of it. Honestly, we’re really lucky to have someone like this in our industry.

And that is that. Now who is your best follow on Twitter?

 

 

An Open Letter About #tourismchat

Filed under Social Media Thoughts by on February 4, 2012 at 1:17 pm {one comment}

Dear Anne,

We really created something, didn’t we? That first phone call between us back in August 2009 not only was the start of a terrific friendship, but also an amazing community. And now, on #tourismchat’s 2nd anniversary, I’m just in awe of where we are.

Thanks to you, I have had some wonderful people enter my life that I hope will never leave. I am inspired and I want to do everything better and faster. I want to share every little cool piece of knowledge I come across. And I want to learn more just so I can share it. If everyone in our community feels even a tenth of how I feel, I think you’d agree with me that we’ve been successful.

Like me, I think you think back to those same few people that supported us and were sharing before #tourismchat was even a thing.

Thank you to Beth Conway. You took your talents and created a striking logo for the chat. You have schemed with us behind the scenes and have been present at almost every chat that we have had. I know everyone in our community loves seeing your flaming red hair jump in and asking questions or just being silly. You’re a good egg.

Thank you to Katherine Hoppe. Yes, you might call yourself the deadbeat dad of the chat, but I know Anne and I both feel differently. You’ve contributed to many a behind-the-scenes chat where we’ve discussed how to make the chat better and stronger. And when you have been a part of the chat, you keep us in stitches with your hilarious sense of humor. So deadbeat dad or not, you really have been an integral part of all of this.

Thank you to Sarah Page. You might not technically be one of #tourismchat’s mommies, but I will always consider you one. You were the first one to have interviewed us about what we were doing and you have contributed to the chat like a crazy person. I have learned so much from conversations with you and I know others feel the same.

There are others that I would like to thank too, but the list is too long. And I know you feel the same as well, Anne. Instead, I want to send out a big thank you to everyone that is in our community. You are all awesome in your own unique ways and I love seeing that awesomeness come alive during the chat.

Here’s to many more years of sharing and caring! And may we continue to make the tourism industry stronger together!

Love,

Betsy

Tourism Twitter Accounts I Think You Should Follow (Part 2)

Filed under Social Media Thoughts by on February 3, 2012 at 1:00 pm {9 comments}

Today’s list kind of includes the people I’ve written about before, but I love them lots and they’ve all helped me get through this trying week and other very trying times. Have I mentioned lately that I’m a lucky girl? Because I really, really am.

Dave Serino: Where as Anne & I have created #tourismchat, Dave gave us an even bigger gift: Social Media Tourism Symposium (SoMeT). Meeting people online is great, but I don’t think it becomes a real lifelong relationship until you have done that all important face-to-face. Dave gave us tourism geeks that opportunity, coupled along with a great education conference to boot.  And why is it a great education conference? Because the guy behind is awesome. You can learn loads from his Twitter account and hey, you can learn loads from his big heart too. Thanks Dave!

Theresa Overby: I think we can all agree on one thing: This girl is crazy. And she’s crazy in all of the right ways. Social media luckily rewards those with big hearts and crazy personalities and I am so glad it does. This definitely led me to get to know Theresa and I now consider her one of the rocks in my life. If you’re up, she’s the first to high-five you. If you’re down, she’s the first to know how to turn it around. She jumps into everything she does full force and I’m insanely jealous of all of the energy she brings to everything. Honestly, she’s the coolest crazy person I know.

Emily Forsha: We all need an enabler in our lives. Emily is mine. If I know I’m going to do something bad, I DM her. I can be guaranteed she will instantly come back with, “DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!” I love that so much. She’s somebody that I can always laugh with and have extremely odd conversations with, and it’s just brilliant. She’s probably one of the handful of people that I know from online that if we lived close to each other, we’d have to see each other every day for many hours of scheming. And wine. You can’t forget the wine. Another thing social media likes? Good schemers. And this is why Emily is awesome at it.

Katie Cook: If Theresa is my crazy rock, then Katie is my sane rock. She listens like no one else and she gives the best advice. She would easily make my list of the top five minds in tourism and social media, because the talent here is endless. I get to meet her face-to-face for the very first time this month and I am beyond excited about it. Can we say twins for the win? Oh yeah, we’re twins. We’ve never been in the same place together though, so maybe we’re the same person. Hmmmm…

Joe Vargo: From our fights over whether baby lion cubs are better than baby otters to our debates over Foursquare, Joe has always been a hoot. Total love, Love, LOVE him. And even though I love to disagree with him, he’s great to go to for advice. He has something that I like to think I have too: The desire to help. It doesn’t matter if it’s the smallest person or the biggest person in the business, he wants to make sure they are comfortable and happy. That’s cool. And he’s helped a lot of people in the Ohio tourism industry. I can’t count on my fingers and toes how many people I know that say wonderful things about him in our state. There’s a reason: smarts and a great attitude.

So since I took a beat for my anniversary, I’m going to stretch this little series even longer. You’ll notice some really important people to me aren’t here yet. You’ll see them either tomorrow or Sunday. God, I really have the most amazing people in my life right now. And yes, that was a brag.

 

 

Tourism Twitter Accounts I Think You Should Follow (Part 1)

Filed under Social Media Thoughts by on February 2, 2012 at 7:31 am {13 comments}

I know… That title makes me sound like I have a HUGE ego. Regardless, I have lots of people that I love to follow and the list doesn’t really allow me to tell you why. So I’m actually kind of really excited to tell you a little bit about why I follow who I follow.

Todd Davidson & Amir Eylon: These two are interesting to me. Todd is the state tourism director of Oregon and Amir is the state tourism director of Ohio. They’re both newer at actively tweeting. Normally, that would make me pause before I tell you to follow someone, because it just really takes some time before you can figure out how Twitter works for you. However, the brain power here really makes me throw that thinking out the window. And we are talking two extremely nice guys that are really looking to inspire and connect. The amount that you can possibly learn here is endless.

Tom Martin: Tom Martin has class. I don’t know why, but he reminds me of the 50s where it was totally acceptable to have a three martini lunch. I think that’s cool. Tom’s knowledge of marketing is ridiculous. We’re lucky enough that he is always willing to share and he is constantly coming up with innovative ways to help us. I told him once that of all the people on Twitter, I’d be okay if he had an ego, because he has the goods to back it up. But there is no ego here. Just one of the few great guys out there that can teach everyone from the newbie to the seasoned veteran.

Amy Brock: Amy is my go-to example of why personal brands work. Traveling to Savannah would be perfect for me, but I never knew that until I started talking to Amy. And did she hook me by constantly promoting Savannah? No. She hooked me by constantly talking about Bravo shows and bacon. Yes, I know that’s weird, but it’s true. We made a connection on the weird and I ended up finding out that Savannah is really cool too. She’s really genius at social media and I am a huge fan of Visit Savannah’s efforts. I always see her as being ahead of the curve and the first one to try something new. Seriously exciting to watch. And my God, no one could be sweeter than Amy. I dare you to find someone that doesn’t love her. There is no such person.

Patricia Winter: I fell in love with Trish before I even knew who she was. She runs the Madden Media account. That account participated in #tourismchat and was actively reaching out to our community in a really fun way. When I got to know the person behind it, I saw why. Trish has a passion for the tourism industry that has resulted in a thirst for learning that you can really feel. Add to it the fact that she’s not afraid to get downright silly with us and I kind of want to hug her. Don’t worry Trish. I’ll leave the shiv at home… this time.

Chrissy Blackwell: Chrissy is on my list of people that need to bang their own drum louder. She’s smart. She is making sure a county that most people don’t know how to pronounce the name of is making waves nationally. I kind of love it. When she jumps in with questions, they are always smart. When she answers questions, she’s always spot on. And she is a downright geek. When she talks programming and Mt. Dew, it is perfection.

Mo Sherifdeen: If there was an award for the nicest guy on Twitter, I don’t think anyone would argue against Mo winning it hands down. And when I met him in person, I was overjoyed that he lived up to that reputation. With Oregon trying such cool things in social, it’s fantastic to see that the guy behind much of it is so down-to-earth and humble. Mo would easily make my top five smartest people in social and tourism right now, because he brings it and he is willing to step back and learn at the same time. The wealth of knowledge here is enormous and I consider myself beyond lucky to have gotten to know him.

Troy Thompson: I mostly talk to Troy to up my Klout score. Oh alright, that’s not exactly true. If someone were to ask me what is the top tourism blog out there, I would hands down say Troy’s. I don’t always agree with him, but that doesn’t mean I don’t respect the hell out of that blog. You will regularly be able to chat with the top minds in his comment section and that is just kind of awesome. He does a lot for the tourism community and has some great chops of his own. Definitely someone you want to follow.

I’m going to leave it here for today, but I will be back tomorrow. In the meantime, who are some of your favorite follows?

Page 1 of 7123456»...Last »