Good for You, Good for Me: Here’s How a Sense of Community Can Enable DMO Partners to Help Themselves

As a DMO, it’s impossible to underestimate the power of community. Whether it’s answering basic queries on the place you represent or keeping your calendar of events up-to-date, a good relationship with your wider local network enables you to make the most of everything your destination offers while supporting your visitors and partners. In an ideal world, the relationship between a DMO and a partner would be wholly harmonious, with a free flow of information and communication. But as with any bond, it takes consistent effort to keep this relationship strong. And yet, for partners in particular, the long-term benefits are well worth the input; by actively supporting your partners, you as a DMO enable them to become more self-sufficient in terms of the activities that they undertake — all while creating that ever-important sense of community. Here’s how Simpleview can help reinforce your efforts. 

Presence is Everything

When it comes to building and fostering a network, the basics are very simple: be seen. That is, spend time getting to know your partners and — vice versa — by letting your partners get to know you. As a member of a DMO, you might, for example, spend one morning a week working from different hotels in your local area, organise an evening of wine tasting in a local vineyard, or even consider hosting a community lunch in a local restaurant. Being physically visible to your partners is helpful in keeping the lines of communication open, but it also serves as a kind of stepping stone to another purpose: to ensure that — when partners receive questions from clients and potential visitors — your organisation is the first port-of-call for any and all queries. After all, as a DMO, enticing visitors to choose your destination is the most important aspect of any enquiry. Staff at a DMO can help planners save a ton of legwork by directing them to properties, venues, restaurants and attractions.  Some even have a RFP process that planners can use to avoid all the time necessary in contacting individual entities. 

Showing a physical presence to your partners is one thing, but being active in the digital sphere is something else. As your technology partner, Simpleview is dedicated to ensuring that your DMO’s website is easily found and always visible. That’s great news for the destination you represent, but what about the online presence of your partners? The local restaurants and pubs, businesses, hotels, attractions, and venues — the existence of each and every one of these partners within the local community and, likewise, on your own website, reflects and represents your destination in a much wider sense. That being the case, as a DMO, it’s in your best interest for your partners to have a positive and impactful online presence. This is where Simpleview’s Digital Influence Report can help.

So Much More Than a Score

As a tool, the Digital Influence Report (DIR) enables you to get a clear view of your destination’s digital footprint, to see what would-be clients and visitors see when they undertake any sort of online travel planning. The report includes websites, TripAdvisor, social media channels, search and listing platforms; just think of it as a kind of digital welcome mat for your destination. It provides a composite digital grade, which serves as a benchmark for your destination’s collective online presence, which of course is informed and influenced by that of your various partners. In fact, the digital grade offered by the DIR includes the total account activity and social performance of your stakeholders across a range of third party channels. 

For ease of understanding, Simpleview has then split the individual scores of these various channels into groups to allow you to see exactly how your DMO is perceived and represented online. Additionally, these segments are graded by account existence, activity, and performance before being given a percentage-based score and finally benchmarked against general industry standards. But what’s more — beyond offering a flat numerical score — the DIR also generates a summary report that provides tangible, actionable insights to enable both DMOs and their respective partners to improve and elevate their online presence. 

In this business, community is everything and when your partner does well, so do you. Let us bring your network closer together by taking the hard work out of online analysis, letting you fully concentrate on your DMO and the destination it represents. If you’d like to learn more about how Simpleview can help you with a Digital Influence Report, please contact your Account Manager.