4 ways to put social media in action for place branding

Places are tapping more and more into online media in order to manage their image. In these four examples we can see the effort put in to get people involved in the brand message.

Foursquare. A Chicago Tribune article by Julie Wernau indicated the Chicago Office of Tourism launched a new partnership with Foursquare in 2010, the first city in to the U.S. to partner with the social, location-based mobile platform.

Chicago put its best foot forward with these three iconic Chicago badges:

Chicago blues badge: a comprehensive musical journey of historic blues sites and blues clubs, including the New Checkerboard Lounge where Prince and the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards were known to pop in for late-night jam sessions.

Celery salt badge: a scavenger hunt for the best Chicago style hotdog. In Chicago, the hotdog is king!

On location badge: With over 800 films and TV productions filmed in Chicago since 1989, this badge allows Foursquare users to step foot in some of their favorite movies like The Blues Brothers and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

The Foursquare partnership is a great example of turning city marketing into an interactive experience. The added bonus is that it is fun for tourists and locals alike. For more information visit Explore Chicago.

Found via The Chicago Tribune.

Crowdsourcing. The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) is crowdsourcing the “love” with its “With Love, Philadelphia XOXO” campaign. The campaign works like this: users go to the VisitPhilly.com site, create a billboard entry, and then that entry will be emailed back to the creator who can then share it on Facebook and/or Twitter, thus exponentially increasing the reach of the promotion. This is another great example of getting tourists and locals involved in the promotion of the city.

Here are some examples of the best billboards:

For more information on this contest, check out Visit Philly.

Found via on3 blog.

Blog. BlogMoiParis is a blogging contest organised by the Paris.fr website along with L’Express.fr, a popular French newspaper. Fans of Paris were asked to submit a blog topic, subject to a public online vote. The best projects were then presented to a jury of journalists, bloggers, etc. who will choose the top three ideas. The three blogs to be featured will be presented on 31 January. The blog initiative is in accord with Paris’s artistic side, and offers new angles on the more modern Paris. Again, it’s another way to get locals and visitors involved in promoting the city.

Some similar blogs to check out are:
L’inconnu du metro: a French-language blog about getting to know strangers on the Paris metro.

London buses: one bus at a time: features city tours on London bus lines.

delicatesseNY:  A French-language food tour in New York and abroad.

Found on BlogMoiParis.fr

Hashtags. The Township of Muskoka Lakes in Ontario, Canada went digital by adding Twitter hashtags to two of their communities’ entrance signs. Bala’s hashtag is #CranCapital, boasting the region’s cranberries and Port Carling’s hashtag is #hubofthelakes. While it’s an easy way to go high tech, the real impact of the hashtags is still to be determined.

Found on Moose FM.

Related posts:

1. How Twitter can make your place “exist”
2. 2nd Place Branding Conference