Social Denmark: it’s all about recommendations

August 22, 2014

By Steve Keenan

More from this Social Denmark report we prepared for World Travel Market:

* Denmark’s work with bloggers
* Alex Berger: The blogger’s point of view
* Sex sells holidays in social media
* A chat with Wonderful Copenhagen
* Get on your #bike
* Copenhagen Airport takes off

Throughout Denmark, at 50 popular tourist spots, you will find a sign this summer encouraging visitors to take a photo. Like the photo above. Each sign carries a distinct hashtag, which people are then encouraged to use when sharing the photo on social media.

Residents, as well as tourists, are encouraged to share the photos. It’s a trend: Denmark is one of many tourist boards who now think it’s better that travel recommendations come from travellers themselves.

“We have had a lot of talk about this recently” says Agnete Sylvest Jensen, head of digital media at Visit Denmark. “It’s to get our citizens involved – but what we really want to get is foreign visitors involved and take photos to share.”

“It’s not so important that we get the photos – more that they go out on the visitor’s feed. We see social media as important in personal recommendations.”

“We’ll evaluate in September to see whether more people actually shared photos from these places.”

The influence of previous tourists to potential tourists are clear, says Agnete, and can be divided into two stages:

After the journey: Loyal tourists who have previously been in Denmark and who would like to share their experiences - and can be activated as ambassadors.

During the journey: Shared snapshots, the good moments that users want to share and show the world and ‘them at home.’ Instagram, Twitter and Facebook are seen to be the primary platforms. “Photos shared socially often act as a trigger and inspiration in the early stages of decision-making, and in the choice of destination is in place - very much an inspiration from the recipients,” she adds.

It’s part of the dawning realization worldwide among DMOs that the people to tell the tourism stories are the people who live there, and those visitors who are fans and can influence others.

It’s a fascinating transition from a tourist board buying billboard and other media space and telling people why they should visit. And one that Agnete clearly buys into.

She has been at Visit Denmark for four years, when the agency created her job title and centralized all of its social media presence. Previously, there had been different Facebook pages for each of its key markets. Now there is a consistent message, although the teams in London and other key markets can access the social accounts to “add local value once or twice a week,” says Agnete.

She has a digital team of seven, plus two students, in Copenhagen covering content, analytics and video. The agency’s developers are based in Bulgaria. The agency operates on seven different channels – Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest and YouTube.

Video is a key component of output but Agnete has veered away from bigger productions. “The way we see it, we don’t want to have to spend money as you also have to spend to get it seen.” As part of the marketing team, Visit Denmark will spend money on corporate-type films. But smaller projects are in vogue right now – such as a short on Danish castles last month, which was then showcased on travel news site Skift.

“The film creates a good feel: you can see yourself in that place. We are not selling – we tell stories of what you can do in Denmark. A good story is even more relevant these days,” says Agnete.

Another such example of a story used to good effect on social media was the 100th anniversary last year of the installation of The Little Mermaid on a rock in Copenhagen harbour.

Visit Denmark organised the event to hit 13 cities worldwide on August 23, the anniversary: human mermaids were bodypainted and placed close to icons such as Sydney’s Opera House or the Eiffel Tower. A video news release was created (press releases? Pah!), a social media photo competition ensued while, on the same day, an infographic about The Little Mermaid was sent to 380,000 people on Visit Denmark’s database.

The resulting coverage and awareness was huge: it was seen by 380m people worldwide on screen, while press coverage resulted in exposure worth twice that normally achieved by Visit Denmark in a year. Further social media results were 250,000 users actively engaging with the content on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. “With a creative yet simple idea, we got successful exposure with minimal paid advertising, utilizing both owned and earned media,” says Agnete.

“It was a global event where we succeeded in exploiting synergies within exposure, resources and budgets. And furthermore, the project enhanced team spirit in the company!”