Destinations Council Destiny Awards > Social Media Campaign

Revamped Social Media Strategy

About This Entry:

Long Island was second only to NYC as the nation’s epicenter for the Coronavirus. In March of 2020, the region went on an immediate and strict shutdown of all unessential businesses, causing devastation, fear and confusion amongst our industry and our residents. During this incredibly difficult time, there was a halt on all advertising spend and it was completely unknown as to when people would feel comfortable traveling again. The organization knew that to prepare for when travel would return and to provide destination information in the meantime, it would be crucial to pivot our marketing strategy.

Social media has transformed the way that people make travel decisions and is the new travel guide providing consumers with non-stop inspiration and “word of mouth” advice from trusted individuals. When all paid marketing was frozen, we leaned into storytelling content that we could share via organic channels, specifically social media, and used the opportunity to heighten our organization as the top trusted source for all things Long Island.

Discover Long Island’s revamped social strategy launched in August 2020 with the goal of becoming the top source of online information for the region of Long Island and to transition from a DMO who utilizes influencers to becoming THE influencer for Long Island travel. In the past our posts consisted of inspirational imagery of the region but with our new strategy, “edutainment”, video content and humanizing our organization became our focus.

By abandoning traditional marketing efforts for a social media content strategy with a tone that was fun, informational, and lighthearted, we were able to reach consumers on the channels where they were consuming content and connect with them in a tone that was relatable and authentic as opposed to sales or advertising driven. Transitioning from a marketing message to an influencer persona that included YouTube videos, Podcasts, TikToks, IG stories and more provided a personalized glimpse into our organization, our CEO and our team members, showing individual personalities (including bloopers) and establishing us as the trusted source for Long Island information.

Campaign Strategy:

TikTok – In April 2020 Discover Long Island jumped on what was becoming a national past time, watching, and creating TikTok videos. We launched two accounts to attract the millennial and Gen Z audience:

Discover Long Island: An organizational account that gives viewers a glimpse of our office culture and work hard, play hard mentality. This channel is primarily geared towards our partners and stakeholders and provides an opportunity for them to feel connected to the team and to show the behind-the-scenes work we’re doing.

Long Island, NY: In order to be THE influencer for the destination, we also secured the destination name to ensure that we were the voice behind the official TikTok account of Long Island. This channel features inspirational and engaging videos showcasing attractions and businesses around Long Island. We can control the brand messaging of the destination, not just the DMO.

YouTube - More than a billion hours a month are consumed on this platform, which is incredibly underutilized by DMOs. We launched a weekly video series LITV where the CEO and team members highlight different experiences across Long Island in short segments that are designed to model a VLOG with experiential content and bloopers at the end of each segment to highlight the authenticity. We also post video recordings of the weekly Podcast, Long Island Tea, where the CEO and COO “Spill the Tea” while drinking Long Island wines.

Instagram –Still the most popular social platform, IG is our primary social communication tool for inspiring people with Long Island’s beauty. A seasonally focused grid that uses colors as a subliminal trigger (blues in summer, orange in fall, etc.), utilizes local photographers and CrowdRiff imagery for authenticity and enhanced audience engagement. Instagram stories and IGTV showcase local news and upcoming events, and our “Long Island TV” series which garners 10k views a week on average.

Facebook & Pinterest- We launched a Facebook LIVE series to deliver curated and virtual content weekly and our Pinterest channel provides digital vision boards themed around our BeLONG on Long Island branding (ex. “Be a Foodie”, “Be Beachy”, “Be Cultured”).

Results:

Each of Discover Long Island’s social channels have grown tremendously in the past year and the hashtag #discoverlongisland, which is promoted on every LITV segment and throughout our social messaging has grown from 5,000 hashtags in 2017 to 95.2K to date.

In less than a year, the Long Island, NY TikTok account has 70k followers and more than 730K likes. The viewership is even more impressive with many posts receiving more than 50k views each and it’s not uncommon to have views of more than 100k for a single post such as one on Adventureland that received 127k views, 22.3 likes, 984 comments and 2,82 shares. This channel has also exposed us to many other influencers, which has led to collaborations and content sharing that further expands our reach and influence.

The Discover Long Island TikTok has almost 5,000 followers, while providing a fun and human connection to our team members who are working so hard for the destination and our partners. This channel has also been an exciting new outlet to share DMO projects, merchandise opportunities and upcoming events.

At the launch of our YouTube Long Island TV weekly series, we had 300 subscribers. Today we have more than 2,200 subscribers (an increase of 633%). The channel has received more than 750,000 views to date and weekly videos generate 5-10k views each, on average, with some reaching viral status of more than 80k views.

Since relaunching our strategy, our IG following has grown by 26% and our Facebook Impressions have grown by 171% with our LIVE videos receiving more than 500k views. The Pinterest page receives almost 24k monthly views since the rebrand.

Social media is the most cost effective, engaging, and immediate platform for information dissemination. Discover Long Island leads the industry in TikTok followers and YouTube content generation and engagement while remaining innovative and consistently growing all other channels. The strategy to not just utilize influencers, but to BECOME the influencer is a unique approach that positions Discover Long Island as a social media innovator and model for success.

Why This Is A Finalist: 

Discover Long Island's pandemic recovery social media campaign is clearly an industry leader. They've demonstrated a keen understanding of social cutting edge social media, and a willingness to focus on channels other DMO's won't yet.

Often times when DMO's adopt new social media strategies, they are performative at best. They impress industry partners, while having little impact on relevancy or perception with consumers. They may get industry press, but they don't move the needle in tangible ways. Discover Long Island's social media campaign is an excellent case study for the opposite - a strategic, meaningful, and innovative approach to helping the local tourism & hospitality industry recover from the pandemic's impact.