My Destination Guernsey is a fantastic local business ran by a super friendly lady called Jayne Symes. She is always on the go so we were delighted that she could take time out of her uber busy schedule to complete a Social Goes Local interview with us! Check out her interview below to find out how social media integration has helped benefit her business.
Tell us a bit about My Destination Guernsey
My Destination is a global travel resource powered by a diverse community of local experts on the ground, providing unrivalled local knowledge and unique local deals. We make travel experiences more enriched, more enjoyable and quite simply, better. Passionate about providing the best value for money, we work closely with the global players whilst also supporting local businesses and everyone’s right to choose what suits them best. My Destination Guernsey is a local travel and information website which was launched almost a year ago and has gone from strength to strength. I have had overwhelming local support which has helped hugely in getting my site off the ground and contributed to generating a steady and increasing flow of traffic to the site. We are headquartered in London, Los Angeles and Marbella, but our community spans all the major continents worldwide and we now cover over 100 destinations around the globe. A very exciting opportunity and will be excellent for Guernsey as it was time I felt to put our wonderful island on the global map.
My Destination Guernsey has a great online presence on Facebook and Twitter, which of these platforms do you believe has benefitted the business more?
The hits on My Destination Guernsey Facebook page have averaged about 1000 per week which has been great and I aim to improve upon this going forward. I am a huge believer in social media and definitely see it as the way forward. I have become much more proficient with Twitter as I was a little wary at first but now I love it and use it daily and am getting new followers daily too which is great. I think both Facebook and Twitter and my site all compliment each other through the use of links and they are superb platforms for reaching out to the public and gaining interest from all types of followers.
I would think from a local point of view Facebook has been excellent as I now have close to 1500 friends which of course makes it easy to spread the word quickly to a wide target market and I know the locals use my site hugely as they are finding it a great source of information for what’s on – via my events page, what special offers are being run by Hotels or Restaurants or Health Clubs for example as they (my clients) all keep me up to date with which offers they are running on a monthly basis, I in turn then update the clients profile page and promote same via Facebook and Twitter.
Twitter is definitely useful for engaging the support from followers globally and it is growing. I think generally people are more comfortable with Facebook so it for me to date has been more useful but over time as Twitter gains greater support this could change.
In which areas of business has social media been most useful?
I use facebook and twitter a few hours a day – not for social reasons but purely for my work. I often use Twitpic to portray to the public how beautiful the island is for example with a coastal shot or a surf shot or a west coast sunset shot. And the response I get from doing this has been excellent to date. And it is so simple to do and such an easy and effective way of engaging with your audience and increasing the number of followers you have.
For me social media is what I rely upon to promote my clients businesses and raise their profiles and awareness of what they have to offer. So really social media helps all sides of my business and without it how else would I spread the word about local businesses and all that Guernsey has to offer both as a holiday destination and as a thriving business community and a place to live so it appeals not just to people wanting to holiday here but to potential ex pats also. I am currently for example doing a tennerfest a day project which local restaurants are delighted with as I try out a tennerfest menu and then take some snaps and write a review and post same on facebook and twitter so it gives the restaurants great exposure. Without FB and twitter this would not be possible.
How do you find your audience varies on each platform?
With Twitter I find my new followers all have a very specific interest that would encourage them to become a follower. For example if I Twitpic a coastal shot, from this I would get a few Photographers becoming my followers, or people into nature and when they have a massive following this of course in turn gives me and my site fantastic exposure as I always tweet with a link back to my website. Or if I post a food shot then I will have a new following from chefs, or foodies or often newspaper editors that sort of thing so new followers are generally specific to the type of post you put on twitter. With Facebook the audience is much more widespread and varied and lots of course are friends already and many are local so again local exposure is raised much moreseo via FB and globally via Twitter…
Have you encountered any problems using social media?
My account has been hacked into a couple of times and a virus or 2 on twitter whereby I will received a dodgy message saying someone posted something unpleasant about you – at first I had no clue so clicked on the link only to be told my account had been hacked into – I am now much more clued in and can see the signs very quickly. Facebook I have not had any issues with really and I welcome the changes e.g timeline and run with whatever change comes next.
Have you come across any misconceptions or myths surrounding social media?
As said already I am a massive advocate of both and can safely say my business would not be anywhere close to where it is today without FB and Twitter; they are excellent platforms for communicating with your audience and for feeding them and keeping them up to date with the information they require. This in turn engages the audience, increases the readership ongoing and interest in my site which in turn keeps my clients happy and brings along new ones so happy days – its a win win scenario all round.