There is very little to cheer about whenever you hear the word “Greece”. Sure, the economy is in shambles and ordinary Greeks are having a tough time. But this does not mean all is that bad. This wonderful country still has the sun shining on it, the sky still retains its majestic blue color, the olives continue to grow, and the wine still continues to flow. The Greek National Tourism Organization under its “Visit Greece” brand is successfully getting the message that Greece still has a lot to offer in terms of tourism.
Right from the start Visit Greece realized that it had to remind people, amidst all the negative press, that Greece is still perhaps the greatest place for tourists in Europe. What with its rich culture, history, natural wonders, and its distinctive cuisine. Visit Greece realized that with captivating imagery they could make Brand Greece still very relevant to tourists from all over the world.
To do this Visit Greece adopted Google+ from the day it was launched. In fact Visit Greece was the first tourism organization in the world that set up a Google+ page. Visit Greece realized early on that the potential this platform afforded was too good to be ignored. With a worldwide audience that could become potential tourists Visit Greece realized it could not ignore this platform and put in strategies to take advantage of it. The strategies put in place by Visit Greece were:
Pictures – Visit Greece realized that the business they were in called for stunning pictures and rich media content. As they say “a picture is worth a thousand words”, Visit Greece started posting high resolution pictures as Google+ photos of every aspect of Greece. This strategy paid off as these pictures today have become more popular than any negative press that Greece gets.
Circles and ripples – This strategy has allowed Visit Greece to tailor their content so that it targets specific segments. Followers are categorized and placed in circles based on their shares, interests, and +1’s. Visit Greece then creates specific content/posts that target such circles. How this strategy is doing is monitored by using the ‘ripples’ a great Google+ feature.
Social extensions – Visit Greece drives traffic to their Google+ page and ensures more +1’s by using ‘social extensions’ across all their AdWords search campaigns. This has ensured that the numbers of followers is always on the rise and has led to a Clickthrough rate of over 35%. To further boost all this Visit Greece has installed Google+ badge on its homepage so that fans can follow it.
All these strategies ensured a daily increase in followers to the tune of 3000 to 10,000. Today Visit Greece has surpassed more than 750,000 followers making it one of the top pages to follow in the tourism industry. With unique and rich content in addition to these smart strategies Visit Greece has become a high profile brand and ensured that tourism brings in the much needed revenues for this wonderful land.