Recently, jhP partner Visit Topeka Inc. wrapped up its 2nd Annual Topeka Treasure Hunt, a two-month tourism campaign giving Topeka residents a chance to decipher clues and win prizes by taking photos of 15 unique attractions and locations in Topeka. Here, Shalyn Marsh, Visit Topeka’s Communication and Marketing Manager, explains the significant role that social media played in this year’s event.

Using social media to promote the 2010 Topeka Treasure Hunt proved to be a great addition to our campaign, giving us a cost-effective way to reach thousands who might not have heard about the Hunt otherwise. Since August 2009 Visit Topeka has been growing its social media presence with regular posts, notes, photos and conversations with fans. By the time we took the Treasure Hunt online in May, we’d established a solid core of online friends willing to share and repost our content.

For this year’s Treasure Hunt, we:
•    Created a Facebook event
•    Promoted the Treasure Hunt with a Facebook ad
•    Promoted the event in general posts on Facebook and Twitter
•    Added a photo of each person completing the Treasure Hunt to our Facebook album
•    Highlighted the Treasure Hunt in our monthly e-newsletter and on our website’s home page.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that our social media push paid off fast, gaining us more than 100 new Facebook fans right after the Hunt began – even before the Facebook ad ran. Our Facebook ad ran for just six days (we spent $116.65), and visitors responded with 479,656 impressions and 177 clicks.

It was pretty cool to find people talking about the Treasure Hunt online. (And I saved many Topekans a phone call to our office by answering questions about the event online, too!) The campaign ended with us handing out 509 Treasure Hunt information packets, receiving 185 completed photo albums from participants and giving prizes to 20 winners.

We’re already planning next year’s Treasure Hunt, and I’m looking for even more ways to use social media. Although our efforts took time and planning, using social media dramatically expanded our ability to promote this event with very little money.