My former stomping grounds, Seattle, and employer, Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, has a wonderful asset at the helm of their Visitor Center – Ann Peavey. Ann’s twitter handle is appropriately @SeattleMaven, a self-described “Seattle’s Know-It-All, History Buff, Concierge & Visitor Information Maven, Food & Wine Enthusiast, Aficionado of Good Hygiene, and Worshipper of the Planet”.
The branded Twitter experience
@SeattleMaven now sports a fantastic Twitter skin, chock full of iconic Seattle eye candy, branded with the SCVB logo and color scheme. To keep up with all the Twitter action, SCVB recently created a Twitter landing page on their vast website, visitseattle.org, where Ann really hams it up about one of the best products Seattle has to offer – tourism. She has a healthy following of SCVB member restaurants, hotel, venues, tourists and locals alike. Her updates are useful, engaging and often quite hilarious. She manages to weave her personal follies and observations of Seattle life into the mix of member shout-outs, happy hours, and extra tickets to live theatre she just happens to have at the Visitor Center.
@SeattleMaven gets it
The most notable aspect of Ann’s twittering style is that she engages her audience. Not only will she gladly retweet a good deal, she’ll ask her tweeps for feedback, guide them through the “what’s to do in this town” gauntlet, and reward them almost daily with some kind of entertainment perk by tweeting Seattle trivia. She really does get the conversation going, and keeps you hooked – until tomorrow when it starts all over again.
For other destinations, attractions and even small tourism-based businesses, @SeattleMaven is a stand-out example of how to brand your business on Twitter and how to create and nurture genuine relationships with your followers. Congratulations Ann! I look forward to your tweets – despite the fact I am now 3,000 miles away in Vermont!
