How to Tell Your Sustainable Tourism Story…Without Using the Words “Sustainable Tourism”

1. Show, Don't Tell: Employing Digital
Storytelling and Social Media in
Building Brand Advocacy
Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott, Uncornered Market
UncorneredMarket.com
@UMarket
facebook.com/UncorneredMarket

2. Show, Don't Tell: Employing Digital
Storytelling and Social Media in
Building Brand Advocacy
Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott, Uncornered Market
UncorneredMarket.com
@UMarket
facebook.com/UncorneredMarket

3. How to Tell Your Sustainable
Tourism Story…
Without Using the Words
“Sustainable Tourism”

5. Roadmap
! Storytelling: philosophy and
approach
! Business case for storytelling
! Storytelling & sustainability
! Social media and engagement

6. What Business Are We In?
! Travel business?
! Experience business?
! Inspiration business?
! Differentiation business?

7. Backdrop: Too many messages
Too
many
messages…!
! Prospect, 6000 messages. Japan photo
Your
average
prospec-ve
customer
is
enduring
more
than
6000
adver-sing
messages
every
day

8. Awareness of Sustainable Tourism
! Bad news: Not everyone knows about what
sustainable tourism is, how it is different
and why it matters.
! Good news: Not everyone knows about
what sustainable tourism is, how it is
different and why it matters.

9. Storytelling: What it is NOT
! A bullet list of sites, activites, or amenities
! A mass distribution press release
! A bunch of statistics
! A chronological list
! Fiction, making things up

11. What is Story?
! Story:
! An account, a telling of an
experience
! Does not need to be long form
! If experience is the new currency…
! Then storytelling is your bank

12. Storytelling and Sustainability: Why?
! Information is processed more efficiently when in story
! Cuts through noise, helps customers retain message
! Delivers depth of impression
! Differentiator, not a commodity
! Goals:
! Plant the seed
! Change minds/Shift perception
! Story  Trust  Believe  Take action

13. Storytelling: Leading Questions
! Who is affected? And how?
! What is being done?
! Why is it important? (Is the community benefiting?)
! How can this impact a traveler’s experience?
Zikra Initiative, Jordan

14. Storytelling Components & Techniques
! Show, don’t tell
! Involve characters
! Crux and conflict
! Emotional connection
! Multi-dimensional, taps multiple senses
! Communicates: what, but how and why

15. Bangladesh Homestay

16. Storytelling for Sustainable Tourism
! Communicate the experience first, not sustainability
! Show why travelers benefit from choosing sustainable
tourism: experience amplifier + feel good
! Travelers/stakeholders become part of the story, part of
solution.
! Effective storytelling = Greenwash killer

17. How do you use social media?
! Distribute information
! Answer questions/customer service
! Curate and share relevant articles
! Engage with the community
! All of the above?

18. Why use social media?

19. Social Media Basics
! 83% trust family & friends for advice, 33% trust social
networks
! It’s social. Personal. Human to human.
! Two-way communication.
! Not just about numbers, but about engagement.
! Visuals are King. With context, they are Queen.

20. Social Media Toolbox
! Do not link your Twitter & Facebook feeds!!
! Managing Twitter feeds: Tweetdeck / Hootsuite
! Following keywords/hashtags: Hashtracking.com or
Tweetreach.com
! Create different Twitter lists for each group

21. Why Engagement?
! Don’t just engage for engagement’s sake!
! Shows your personality & values
! Allows you to shine on customer service
! Develops brand loyalty and advocacy  customers
become part of your story

22. Maximizing Use of Social Media Content

23. Upshot & Take-aways
! Story is a differentiator
! Build depth of impression
! Partner with storytelling agents
! This is a human exercise
! Have fun!

24. Thank you!
Stay in touch!
Let’s continue the conversation. Connect with us on:
! UncorneredMarket.com
! Twitter: @Umarket
! Facebook: /UncorneredMarket