I’ve been doing more workshops lately about how tourism organization sales staffs can connect with meeting and event planners on social media, and this includes some discussion about content marketing through a meetings-focused, B2B blog in addition to their CVB, DMO, or Tourist Board consumer-focused blog.
Skift had a post about this not too long ago: The Meetings Industry Turns to Content Marketing to Get Ahead.
Here is an example of why it pays to give meeting planners what they’re Googling for….
I searched using the phrase “ideas to make a meeting more green” and on Page One of the Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) here is what I found from the Grand Rapids, Michigan CVB’s Meeting Minds blog – Going Green: 5 Ways to Make Your Meeting More Eco-Friendly.
Actually, the very top result was green meetings ideas from the Athens, Georgia CVB, but the link was broken and took me to a 404 page on their site. I wish folks would do a better job of redirecting when they make website changes; otherwise, they lose all sorts of Google juice for certain search words and phrases.
The Grand Rapids meeting planner blog has long been one of my favorite B2B examples, but their staff tells me that it took awhile (6 to 9 months) for the blog to get traction and significant traffic.
That’s about the time that many people give up after starting a blog (right before the “growth hockey stick” that typically occurs after you’ve been consistently publishing good stuff for 6-9 months) but Grand Rapids stuck to their plan and now they’re reaping the benefits.
Other meeting planner blogs by tourism organizations include the MTG Plnr Blog by the Cincinnati, Ohio CVB, and planner-specific posts tagged accordingly on the DuPage County, Illinois CVB blog.
You don’t have to set up a totally separate meeting planner blog if you don’t have the resources right now to do it well; simply review your online publishing editorial calendar (part of your integrated marketing plan) and beef up your offerings in the Meetings category on your regular blog.
I’m a big fan of devoting more attention to your own self-hosted blog – which YOU control and which reaps significant long-term SEO benefits – rather than spending quite so much time pouring effort into Mr. Zuckerberg’s Facebook empire, which is what Marcy Massura calls, “Decorating a room in someone else’s hotel.”
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