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On September 16th the Executing Social Media conference will be held in Regina at the Queensbury Convention Centre.  Now I may be a bit biased but I think they have a great lineup of speakers.  Some locals and some from abroad all taking about our favorite topic, online media.

Besides myself the list of speakers includes:

Kip Simon – President, 22 Fresh

Mike Klein Senior Online Communications Strategy at University of Saskatchewan

Philippe Leclerc, Interactive Communications Manager at the City of Regina

Adam Herstein - Partner, Pitblado LLP

Doug Walker - President, WebWalker

Ryan Lejbak – CEO & Co-Founder, ZU

To see all the speakers and presentation outlines click here.  Let me know if you are attending as we may organize a small Tweet up the night of the conference.

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The other day I filled out a survey from the Regina Regional Opportunities Commission (RROC) asking about what they are currently doing and what they could do better, it got me thinking.  Now I’m not being critical of RROC, I think they’re doing a great job, especially when you see them picking up talent such as Grant Langford who I worked with on the Saskatchewan Pavilion project.  I’m writing this as an idea generator, without knowing the ins and outs of RROC this is how I would go about marketing our beautiful city.

First, I would put packages together making it SO incredibly easy to come to Regina that you would literally need to click your mouse three times on the website, enter a credit card and WHAMMY you have your holiday booked.  Why?  Because humans are lazy and the easier you make it for people to come here, the better your chances are of actually getting them here.  I know there  are some offerings through the Stay and Play promotion but I think they could take it a step further.

Second, put packages together that allow tourists to experience Regina in a different light.  We don’t have World renown attractions but we do have some of the best people ready to put on a show for whomever is in the audience.  There are some very unique things that people would be more than delighted to experience in our fine city.

For example:

• Hotel accommodations, a massage, dinner at La Bodega, then off to a Redsox game?  Or maybe to the symphony?
• A round of golf then off to Globe Theatre for a performance and a catered meal.
• How about a ghost tour of old Regina ending at Cold Stone for ice cream?
• In the different seasons, put packages together surrounding events which would include hotels, some meals, transportation and various activities.
• The “Fire and Ice” or “The New Years Eve” package in the winter.
• The “Summer Invasion” or “Patriotic” package in the Summer.

Plan everything out for our lovely out of town visitors so they don’t have to worry about a thing once they arrive.

Third, enable every visitor who has had a great experience in Regina to share their story somewhere online.  Be it a blog, a video-blog, a picture story on Flickr or on the RROC Facebook wall, somewhere that will allow RROC to amplify the story.  Soon enough that blog, video-blog or Facebook wall will be filled with authentic stories from people who had a wonderful experience in Regina.  Those stories will be available to anyone searching for a vacation in Western Canada and soon become the most powerful marketing tool for potential visitors to our city.

Ok, I’ve shared, now it’s your turn.  How would you market Regina?

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You know what really grinds my gears?  When people try to sell something on Twitter. A growing culprit of this? Real Estate Agents.  No, they’re not the only ones but why do they insist to put their listings on Twitter?  Does anyone else tweet about their products including the price?   Have you ever sold a house via Twitter?  It just seems ineffective and lazy.

There are many different things you can do on Twitter I just don’t think selling or bragging about the thousands of houses you sold last week are giving the best impression to your followers.

So what could you be doing on Twitter?  Offer me something no other Real Estate Agent can.  How about you tweet your favorite Real Estate blog post each day.  Offer me housing tips that will help me save money or time.  Offer me your expert advice on buying a house, get into detail and really create a digital asset that can help many other people in the Regina market.  Forget selling houses for a day and help others with whatever it may be they are tweeting about.  There are many options of what you can do on Twitter, just don’t try to sell me a house.

Finally, here is an example of a Real Estate agent who got creative with a video camera and offered something different to his followers (click the picture to watch the video):

Twitter is not a one way communication medium, it’s a conversation medium, use it wisely.

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A long, long, time ago advertisers would interrupt people to get their message in front of them.  Commercials interrupting your favorite show, coupons in your mailbox, awkwardly placed billboards, branding of anything and everything, commercials interrupting the top 10 countdown on the radio, telemarketers trying to sell you something, sales people showing up at your door, and video billboards promising even more interruptions than static billboards.

There was no permission established so eventually these were bound to fail once the market was saturated with messages competing for the next chance to interrupt you.

Enter Seth Godin coined term “permission based marketing“.

I need to be friends with you for you to show up in my Facebook newsfeed or to be able to post on my wall.

I need to be following you on Twitter to receive your tweets.

I need to subscribe to your e-mail newsletter to receive it.

I have never been forced to watch a Youtube video, I choose what I want to watch.

I can’t force you to read my blog, it’s your choice.

Notice a trend here?  To communicate with people you must have their permission, no matter what medium you use.  Marketing hasn’t gone anywhere since “social media” took over, it just got smarter.  The winners now will be the ones who understand permission based marketing and come up with the newest innovative way to acquire permission.  It’s the next generation of word-out-mouth.

On the other hand, I hate to hear campaigns talking about “mass-text-messaging” services and mass e-mail marketing.  Just further attempts at interrupting more people to tell them a message they don’t want to hear.

If you want to delve further into the topic pick up this book:

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