How A Blogger’s Meetup can market Destination Jamaica Online

Posted on | July 26, 2010 | 6 Comments

FOUR DAYS OF FUN IN THE SUN: THE FIRST EVER JAMAICA BLOGGER’S MEET-UP was hosted by The Jamaica Tourist Board(JTB) on July 15t-19th, 2010. The JTB welcomed twenty bloggers to the island for a special work and play break. They were based in Montego Bay and had day and night trips to Negril and Ocho Rios.

We also invited 4 Jamaican bloggers who also were part tour guides, part local celebrities, but mostly as peers in the blogosphere, people who were sharing the journey and who could feed the curiosity of these American bloggers who were all first timers to Jamaica.

An itinerary was created to reflect some of the niche attractions and experiences the island has to offer – getting away from the brochure and hard sell of the beach and Bob Marley to showcasing the variety and diversity here. These engaging writers all have very active websites, blogs and influential twitter followings that speak to modern travel and lifestyle.

I am glad as a Jamaican, to have been an integral part in developing and implementing this idea, which is now a pillar of the ongoing digital marketing strategy of the JTB.  To establish and build relationships with influential bloggers who write for across varying niches – travel, mommy vacations, eco, music, fashion and beauty is crucial for marketing Destination Jamaica online. We also established a twitter hashtag #oneloveja for us to be able to track, measure the impact of this Blogger’s Meetup. Additionally JTB’s own official blog for Destination Jamaica was launched on July 15th, 2010 to coincide with the first day of the Meetup – it’s called islandbuzzjamaica.com. We also video blogged the entire meetup and you can find the videos on Island Buzz Jamaica as well.

We monitored their twitter, blog, flickr and facebook activity while they were here and we’re monitoring what they have shared so far now that a week has passed since they have been home. Our initial findings are encouraging and the Blogger’s Meetup has been declared a huge success. The next one is already being planned to give another set of amazing bloggers an even more memorable range of experiences worth talking about.

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