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Salt Lake City uses Facebook contest to get you psyched

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) on Jan 29th 2010 at 1:00PM

The #1 Fan Sweepstakes for the Salt Lake City CVB's Facebook fan page kicked off on January 15, 2010 and runs until February 12, 2010. The goal is to get the number of fans pumped up to 5,000, while giving potential visitors information about everything Utah: from skiing to genealogy to Mormonism to convention business. Already, the number of fans has almost doubled -- from 1,200 to 2,200 -- indicating that the new Facebook push is working.

This is a trend that's becoming increasingly common: travel companies and destinations are turning to Facebook to promote themselves and attract tourists. Recently, JetBlue and the Mexican Council for the Promotion of Tourism kicked off Facebook programs to attract interest and (hopefully) generate the sort of interest that will help them overcome the severe travel industry slump that we've been coping with for more than a year now. For Salt Lake City, which has been executing an aggressive media campaign, the move into social media isn't at all surprising.

According to Inside Facebook, the #1 Fan Sweepstakes isn't the first push that the Salt Lake City CVB has made on Facebook. Rather, it reflects the lessons learned from previous efforts. Says Shawn Stinson, Director of Communications for the CVB, "We started with a number of different Facebook fan pages: ski, visit, genealogy, meetings, and that didn't work. It was too littered. So we went to simply Visit Salt Lake." The straightforward approach is anchored in this new initiative. According to Stinson, "This contest in particular is being used to drive an increase in our fan base because we are looking to distribute more and more information via Facebook."

The grand prize is a ski trip for two that is packed with extras beyond airfare and lodging: ski passes and a FLIP video camera are included, and the winner is expected to shoot video for a blog about the trip. Other prizes include a set of Dynastar skis and bindings, a two-day Ski Salt Lake pass valid at any of the four resorts in Salt Lake and 20 Ski Salt Lake belt buckles and t-shirts.

Are you a fan of Gadling on Facebook yet?

Filed under: Skiing, North America, United States, Internet Tools