Try this: ‘sō shəl (verb) to design activities in which people engage with each other for pleasure – or in your situation – commerce! You won’t find that in Websters but we should. I have noticed a few practices or in some cases, lack of practices, that really doesn’t help social media be social. Bottom line – we’re not engaging! Here’s some thoughts on engaging through Twitter. (Next month, Facebook.) – If someone comes into your welcome center or business, you greet them right? You thank them for visiting and/or becoming a new customer, yes? When someone follows you on… 

I do nothing with and know nothing about Google+. I don’t even believe I can remember how to login to my account. Not knowing anything about this social network is what made a former colleague’s blog on Google+ appealing. Amy Garton is the Director of Interactive Solutions for the Overland Park (KS) Convention and Visitors Bureau. I share her blog as a guest column this month… What is Google+ and what do we know about it? Google+ is a social network that was created by Google. It is the social element to all of Google’s other services (search, Gmail, YouTube,… 

I live in Norman, Oklahoma. There’s a small university here and the University of Oklahoma is pretty good at football. The Sooners played Alabama in the Sugar Bowl two weeks ago. (A Thursday evening.) While friends were relishing the upset victory, a video starts popping up on social media. An Alabama fan goes crazy on an OU student. Friday afternoon a story is posted – Bama Sugar Bowl mom ‘sorry’ but would ‘do it again if I had to’. Okay, sympathy for the mom? Wait… have you seen this video – the Crazy Bama Mom BEFORE attacking OU student? All… 

The Kansas Tourism Conference theme was Capitalizing on Tourism. (The conference was held in the Kansas capital Topeka.) The sub-theme might as well have been Getting Back to Basics. Roger Brooks opened the conference with a two-part full morning general session sharing Deadly Sins and the New Age of Tourism, Jerry Henry provided guidance on doing research on a shoestring budget, representatives from the state revenue office gave a transient guest (hotel/motel/bed) tax 101, and the state tourism office shared their research and strategy the next fiscal year. No fireworks. No glamour. “Just” a back to basic conference packed with… 

Social media… the marketing world never paid attention to it in the late 90s when GeoCities and SixDegrees were starting. We didn’t engage with MySpace in the early 2000s. But then Facebook happened. It hit 200 million users. Then 400 million. (Now 900 million.) YouTube became the second largest search engine. Twitter reports 1 billion tweets. Okay, you’ve got marketer’s attention! Conferences began offering breakout sessions on social media. Then keynote speakers. Now full conferences. (How Dave Serino’s SoMeT didn’t make the list I’ll never know.) Books, consultants, reporting standards, even its own awards. Marketing departments and DMOs are hiring… 

If you weren’t able to attend the annual gathering of destination marketing professionals at DMAI’s international convention, that’s okay. I have a summary for you. It seemed like last year’s DMAI convention had a recurring theme or two strung between all sessions – mobile and video. Perhaps it was the diversity in sessions I attended this year but there wasn’t a recurring theme it seemed. Instead five or six good takeaways that I’m sharing with you this month: 1. Motivation… DMAI started the convention with this video… Very motivating as a destination marketing professional. Throughout (and before in the CDME…