CVB Web site takes advantage of social networks

Although it’s been up and running for a couple of weeks, a unique ribbon-cutting was held Tuesday afternoon — not for a business, but the Carthage Convention and Visitor’s Bureau’s new Web site.

Dozens gathered at the Chamber office on S. Garrison for the event. There, CVB executive director Wendi Douglas spoke about the Web site and how it’s interchangeable with popular social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

After the ribbon cutting, Douglas snapped a photo on her personal iPhone, punched a few buttons, and moments later, after clicking on the new CVB Web site at www.visit-carthage.com, the picture was there for anyone with a mouse to see.

That instantaneous movement of information is a must-have, she stressed. On the site is an interactive Google calendar. By clicking on the calendar information, which on the Web site blows up into a readable box, it will give an option to add it to the user’s own personal calendar.

“So if you have an event for 2010, for example, and you saw that on our Web site today and you wanted a reminder for the future, you would click on that option and it will download to your laptop or phone or desktop and you’d have the reminder for you in a year from now. That’s really an exciting update.”

Concerning the social networks, a majority of Twitter users are over the age of 44, while the Missouri Division of Tourism recently indicated that 83 percent of decisions for travel are made through Web sites, “so having that friend-to-friend referral will really be critical for our growth here,” she said.

Facebook already has 200 million signed users, with about half that number clicking on their Facebook page at least once per day. “And it’s free,” she said. “So it’s exciting to have those free advertising opportunities available.”

There are about 50 Twitter and 50 Facebook fan page and the group page has about 60 members, Douglas said. The former has been up since May.