Northern Norway Tourist Board was established in 2010. Since the beginning the biggest question was what pictures they had to use in their marketing to create an IMAGE of the region that has everything from polar bears to white coral beaches, UNESCO world heritage sites, indigenous cultures, distances over 1000 kilometer and still a budget of regional tourist board. How do you define visual bestsellers for different seasons? Is it ok to show stormy weather? When “too much information” literally means “too much information”? Is there such thing as constant “tone-of-voice” in social media? Not all the answers were out there when the Northern Norway Tourist Board first started and not all the answers were the right answers to them. Their use of Facebook, was one of the most useful sources of knowledge, as well the greatest tool to build awareness about Northern Norway’s destination travel brand and regional tourist products. From 11,000 first and (mostly) local fans in 2012 Northern Norway Tourist Board increased the community to over 137,000 likes worldwide in 2014. This is the largest FB-audience among DMO’s in Norway. Evgenia Egorova has lived and studied in Russia, France, Finland and Norway throughout her professional career. She started her work in the tourism sector in 2004 (as a guide at the UNESCO Rock Art Center, a snow hotel receptionist and a multi-genre contemporary art festival coordinator, just to name a few). She then joined the Northern Norway Tourist Board in 2010 as their Marketing Manager. In 2013, Evgenia graduated from Finnmark University College (now referred to as the Arctic University), with a master thesis about how to define the qualities of a social media influencer in order to choose the best one for destination promotion. A large part of her role now is to inspire people to travel to Northern Norway, largely through social media initiatives. Some personal achievements we had to mention: Evgenia has kissed a wolf, surfed in the Arctic ocean, and spent 33 winters under the Northern Lights!

1. 1
REFLECTIONS FORM ABOVE THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
#SoMeT2015, Amsterdam
Evgenia Egorova, Marketing
Manager

2. 2Photo: CH/VisitNorway.com

3. 3Photo: CH/VisitNorway.com

4. 4
NORTHERN NORWAY :
THE LAND OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS
… AND THE MIDNIGHTSUN
Photo: Øystein Lunde Ingvaldsen/nordnorge.com
Photo: ToFoto/nordnorge.com

5. 5
NORTHERN NORWAY :
3.000 POLAR BEARS
… AND THREE UNESCO’S WORLD
HERITAGE SITES
Photo: Ole J Liodden/Naturfokus

6. 6Photo: CH/VisitNorway.com

7. 7
NORTHERN NORWAY :
• Norway is the biggest
market;
• Germany, Sweden,
Holland, UK and France
are the fabulous 5.
Photo: Konrad Konieczny/nordnorge.com
Photo: Reiner Schaufler/nordnor

8. 8
THE CONTEXT
NORWAY, Facebook and Internet, anno 2012*
• Almost 90% aged 9-79 with high-speed Internet
access
• each Norwegian used ca 90 minutes surfing and
reading
• 30% of that time - on Facebook
• Over 2 million users checked FB every day
• 20% were on Facebook via mobile
• 70% posted on FB while on holidays
• 76% uploaded their holiday pictures on FB
• 55% "like" tourism pages on FB
PROUD NORTHERN NORWEGIAN PHENOMENON
Photo: Frode Sandbech/www.nordnorge.com
Photo: Terje Rakke/www.nordnorge.com // Hiking in Northern Norway

9. 9
Our FB-page as of June 2012:
• about 11.000 likes
• local fans: 25% Finnmark, 10% Troms and 5%
Nordland
• about 20% of "proud Northern Norwegians" living
in the South
• less then 40% tourists and less then 17%
international fans
• language and content confusion (Norwegian and
English, links to media, old + new pictures)

10. 10
HOW WE DID IT…
• One picture per day, mostly only pictures,
short text in English (question, quote,
invitation).
• Link to our www or to partners www/FB
• Surfing with the others: TV-shows, Frozen,
happenings
• And last but not least, Facebook Ads on
pictures,
used with caution.

11. 11
BUDGET, TARGETS AND RESOURCES
• 50.000 Euro for 3 years (2012 – 2014)
• Targeting:
- explorers interested in nature-based
holidays
- looking for enrichment
- motivated by: Seeing new places,
Experiencing a new country and new culture
- couples and individuals – no children in
party
- above average income and education
- age: 35-65 years.
• From one community manger to 3 overlapping Photo: Terje Rakke/Nordic Life

12. After the first eight months:
• from 11.000 to 114.000 likes
• From 18% foreigners to 70% foreigners
• Over 20.000 "talking about" our pictures
every week ( more than about Olympics in
London 2012)
• Over 700.000 comments received
• Over 1 million engaged FB-users
RESULTS, THEN AND NOW
Photo: ©Foto: Steinar Skaar / Statens
vegvesen

13. 13

14. 14
SITUATION NOW:
• 134.800 likes
• 50% are women and 49% are men
• over 30% are aged 25-54
• about 22% are Norwegians
• Fab 5: Poland, India, Germany, USA
and UK
• Average post reach is 13.000 – 15.000
people Photo: Ole Jørgen Liodden/naturfokus.no

15. 15
KNOWLEDGE…
Photo: Reiner Schaufler/nordnorge.com

16. PANORAMA VISION

17. 17

18. 18
TARANTINO
PHENOMENON
"You really work in this
visual, emotional, cinematic
way... Then the effect
is...You can never really
hear that song again without
thinking about that image
from the movie…"
Quentin Tarantino

19. 19

20. 20

21. 21
EVERY DESTINATION
HAS ITS
….PANDA/KOALA
Photo: Øystein Lunde Ingvaldsen/nordnorge.com

22. 22Photo: CH/VisitNorway.com
SURFING IN THE
ARCTIC …

23. 23
• over 630.000 saw the
picture
• 8.798 likes, 132
comments
• 1068 shares
WAVE:
#WhatDoesTheFoxSay
:
Photo: Ole J Liodden/nordnorge.com

24. WAVE:
Rihanna/Diamonds:

25. WAVE:
The End of the
World
• Almost 50.000 saw the
picture
• 5.945 likes, 208
comments
• 2.351 sharesPhoto: ToFoto/nordnorge.com

26. 26Photo: CH/VisitNorway.com
IT IS SOCIAL ….

27. …ASK YOUR AUDIENCE

28. 28
THE GOOD YEAR
Photo: Espen Mortensen/nordnorge.com

29. CHALLENGES: :
DO YOU LOVE ME,
OR MY MONEY? :
Photo: Ole Jørgen Liodden/naturfokus.no

30. 30
SO MUCH
INFORMATION, SO
LITTLE TIME
Photo: Yngve Ask/Fishing in Northern Norway

31. OVER PHOTOSHOPPED
OR OVERWHELMING?
Photo: Ole Christian Salomonsen
/www.nordnorge.com

32. ARE YOU BEING
HONEST WITH ME?
Photo: CH/VisitNorway.com

33. ARE YOU BEING
HONEST WITH ME?
Photo: Tommy Andreassen/nordnorge.com

34. 34
ARE YOU BEING
HONEST WITH ME?

35. 35
THE ONLY CHILD
PROBLEM
Photo: Martin Bril/ Whale Safari in Northern Norway

36. 36
CHALLENGES:
• Law of Diminishing
Returns
• Déjà Vu - Déjà Shared
• What if…?
• Big Politics Photo: Øystein Lunde Ingvaldsen/nordnorge.com

37. 37
WHAT NOW?
• Sharing Inspiration and
Inspiring Sharing
• Co-curating
• Pro-active search for
“Ambassadors” on several
SoMe

38. WHAT NOW?
THE POWER OF LINKS

39. WHAT NOW? WHAT NOW?
PARADIGM’S SHIFT:
SUMMER IN YOUR WINTER
I DON’T WANNA TALK…:
LIKES VS COMMENTS

40. TAKE-AWAYS:
• Find your “panda”
• Truth with
moderations
• The power of a good
- don’t CTRL+C/CTRL+V from
print
- learn from the audience
- careful with short-cuts
- but some stories are not
for everybody
Photo: Roy Mangersnes/wildphoto.no

41. TAKE-AWAYS:
• Overlapping Success
• Master Co-curating
Photo:Roger Johansen/nordnorge.com

42. 42
REFLECTIONS FORM ABOVE THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
#SoMeT2015, Amsterdam
Evgenia Egorova, Marketing
Manager
Facebook/NorthernNorway
@northernnorway
@Northern_Norway