The Pure Michigan advertising campaign launched in 2006 and quickly won national accolades, including being named by Forbes as one of the all-time best travel campaigns. In this presentation, Chad will share how Pure Michigan uses social media to accomplish specific objectives, as well as tips, tricks and tools any business can use to save time, grow followers and super-charge your social media efforts.

1. Pure Michigan: Changing The
Conversation Using Social Media
Presented to:
Social Mitten
Prepared by:
Chad Wiebesick
Director of social media & interactive marketing
Twitter: @Wiebesick
September 25, 2014
@@WWiieebbeessiicckk #SocialMitten

2. Michigan: Perception Isn’t Reality
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsR0DeY7f1g
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

3. The Early Years: Weak, Undefined Brand
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

4. People Don’t Trust Brands
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

5. People Are Bombarded With Advertising
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

6. Key to Success: Make Fans the Hero
and Share Their Content
We empower our fans to
become brand ambassadors
and tell the story themselves to
their friends and family.
Follow the 80/20 rule: 80% is
relevant content from fans and
20% is from you (self-promotion).
@@WWiieebbeessiicckk #SocialMitten

7. Ask Fans To Share Their Travel
Stories With You
Reinforce your brand by using the same hashtag and name
across all channels.
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

8. Align Your Social Strategy
To Your Business Objectives
Brand Goal: “Pure Michigan is majestic, mythic and magical –
a place with abundant natural beauty and authentic
destinations.”
@@WWiieebbeessiicckk #SocialMitten

9. Pure Michigan Ranks #1 on Instagram
Pure Michigan is the #1 most
popular travel brand in the world on
Instagram as measured by the
number of photos people have
hashtagged #PureMichigan, ranking
higher than Hawaii, Australia,
Museum of Modern Art, Lonely
Planet and Carnival Cruise Lines.
@@WWiieebbeessiicckk #SocialMitten

10. Find Influencers
@TonyDetroit = 300,000 followers and following 311 people
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

11. Engage Influencers
• Select an influencer to serve as an Instagram Guest
Photographer at popular events
• Sprint Cup NASCAR race August 21, 2012
• 75 million NASCAR fans nationally
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

12. Instagram Guest Photographer
• Within 20 minutes of posting on Instagram, @TonyDetroit’s
photos appear on the Popular Photo Page @Wiebesick #SocialMitten

13. Instagram Guest Photographer
• Please do:
– Minimum posts per day: 3
– Maximum posts per day: 10
– Location to be noted in tag or caption.
– Name of photographer to be noted in caption (e.g.
Contributed by guest photographer @username).
• Please do not:
– Post photos of explicit content or any activity that
could be deemed illegal
– Any item(s) that do not represent the Pure Michigan
brand
– Comment to fans or answer questions on behalf of
Pure Michigan
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

14. Takeaway: Find and Reward Your
Social Media Superfans
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

15. Oops, He Didn’t Go Through The
Logo Request Process
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

16. Michigan Ranks #1 or #2 on More
Social Networks Than Any Other
U.S. State
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

17. New York State Has The Largest
Number of Facebook Fans
• Yet, only 0.9% of their fans are talking about the page.
• The most popular age group are 13-17 year old teenagers.
• Most of their fans live in New York City.
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

18. State of Florida Has Far Fewer
Fans, But More Engaged
• Average age of fans are 35-54, a demographic more likely
to have budget to travel.
• Most fans live in out-of-state, a more lucrative traveler.
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

19. Takeaway: It’s Quality Not
Quantity of Fans That’s Important
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

20. Dec 6, 11:49 am
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

21. TravelWisconsin.com
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

22. Dec 6, 2:45 pm
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

23. Dec 6, 7:17 pm
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

24. What, If Anything, Do We Do?
• 1 tweet
• 11 retweets
• 1 story in Kalamazoo Gazette
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

25. Dec 7, 11:45 am
WhoIsTheRealMittenState.com
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

26. @Wiebesick #SocialMitten

27. @Wiebesick #SocialMitten

28. Dec 7, 4:43 pm
Statewide News
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

29. Dec 7, 7:23 pm
Wisconsin Releases Another Mitten
Travel Wisconsin put up a new version of the mitten in the green and
gold of the Green Bay Packers, boasting the football team's unbeaten
record and ribbing their rivals, the 7-5 Detroit Lions. @Wiebesick #SocialMitten

30. “Is Michigan or Wisconsin the Mitten State?”
Google AdWords
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

31. Dec 7, 10:20 pm
National News
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

32. @Wiebesick #SocialMitten

33. Dec 13
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

34. The Mitten Drive Prompted
More Conversations
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

35. Dec 14, 2:20 International News
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten
Results:
•Over 300 news stories from state, national and
international radio, newspaper and TV
•396 million media impressions
•$17.7 million in earned media value

36. Takeaway: Utilize real time content
marketing to be timely, relevant
and to resonate with audiences
Within 15 minutes of Super
Bowl 2013 grinding to a halt
because the lights went out,
Oreo sent this tweet.
Generated 15,000 retweets
and 8,000 new Twitter
followers.
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

37. BONUS: Name Michigan’s Great New Trail
• Michigan has more total trail miles than any other state.
• 2,000 mile trail from Belle Isle to Ironwood in the U.P.
• Submit your name to Facebook.com/MiDNR before Oct 13
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

38. BONUS: One Simple Thing Increased Social
Traffic To Our Website by 188%
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

39. Most popular state tourism web site in U.S. in
2013, seventh year in a row
1. michigan.org 5.68% market share
2. Virginia 5.21%
3. Florida 5.00%
4. Arkansas 4.86%
5. Hawaii 4.56%
6. Oklahoma 3.63%
7. N. Carolina 3.37%
8. Colorado 3.32%
9. Minnesota 2.84%
Source: Experian Hitwise
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

40. Most Popular Blog Story in 2014
This blog story received four
times more traffic than the
homepage of michigan.org.
Michigan.org had its biggest
one-day spike in traffic in three
months.
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

41. Story Went Viral On Social Media
• 48% of traffic is “direct” vs 33% of traffic is “social”
• Really? It can’t be direct traffic because the story is too
new for people to bookmark, and the URL too long for
people to remember.
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

42. Google Is Under Reporting Facebook Traffic by 40%
By default, Google erroneously and automatically attributes
traffic from mobile apps like Facebook and Twitter as being
“direct”.
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

43. Use Google Analytics URL Builder To Track
Social Traffic
Create unique tracking URL’s to properly credit social media
mobile app traffic arriving at your website.
http://www.michigan.org
Becomes
http://www.michigan.org?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Becomes
http://www.puremi.ch/1kLHW4U
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

44. Now, Our Social Traffic Is Properly Attributed
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten

45. Thank You
• Chad Wiebesick
• wiebesickc@michigan.org
• Twitter: @wiebesick
• Facebook.com/cwiebesick
• Linkedin.com/in/wiebesick
• (517) 335-1083
@Wiebesick #SocialMitten