So Much More Hawaii, What's Next?

It’s been two weeks since the official So Much More Hawaii tour ended, and everyone — bloggers, public relations representatives, marketers, writers, taxpayers, opinion formers — are all asking, what’s next?

The entire process was a complete learning experience for me. I am truly grateful for the lessons learned, even the tough ones. As I previously mentioned, my goal was to bridge the local social media and blogging community with the So Much More Hawaii team. The pairing process, while seemingly simple, was actually enduring. It was more than just coordinating schedules and niches; but also handling rejection gracefully and being able to adjust to personality differences.

One of the key elements that I had before making this commitment was knowing many of the individuals that make up my community. For many, a person’s passions are clear in their online content, however the traits that make them unique individuals can only be discovered through real life or more intimate conversations. Over the years, I’ve invested a lot of time offline at different events or online through frequent instant messaging, VoIP and even telephone calls fostering relationships. These sincere investments, I believe, provided the edge needed in building a solid bridge.

Another goal that was also met, and this perhaps was much more favorable for social media marketers, content creators, and long-time users and enthusiast of social networking; was that the Hawaii Tourism Authority gave consideration to social media tools through this tour. This ground-breaking decision led by Vice President of Tourism Marketing, David Uchiyama garnered the attention of local traditional media outlets: Pacific Business News, Honolulu Star Bulletin, and KHON2 news; and of course the blogging community.

The ultimate and foremost goal was to inspire action, specifically having people book and pay for airline tickets, hotel rooms, car rentals, and activities to experience a vacation in Hawaii. Time will tell if the ultimate goal was met, and the analytics of the tour is still being compiled. But, the question still remains — what’s next?

Here is what I have been doing and will continue to do next:

• Evangelize all of the islands of Hawaii on different social networking sites.
• Produce and share content about Hawaii’s traditions, values, and culture.
• Promote the local traditional news and blogging community.
• Promote the So Much More Hawaii content.

As does everything, this inaugural tour has room for improvement and I am certain, if asked, several people will have an abundance of worthy suggestions — I have already received some very good feedback. But, right now I’d like to thank Christine Lu, Chris Noble, MJ Miller, Guy Kawasaki, Aric S. Queen, Jim Turner, Leah Lamb, Mark Tafoya, Rick Calvert, Sheila Scarborough, and Shira Lazar with special mahalo to my community, the Puka Shell Tour Guides Burt Lum, Melissa Chang, Russ Sumida, Olin Lagon, Bruce and Yaling Fisher, Liza Pierce, Sarah Burns, Melanie Kosaka, and Leslie Lang. Most importantly, I’d like to extend encouraging words of gratitude to the residents of Hawaii and the Hawaii Tourism Authority that we’re all in this together — what’s next? Pot luck our skills!