The Greater Williamsburg Chamber & Tourism Alliance wants to put more focus on its social media presence, and has asked the City of Williamsburg to help fund the effort.
Karen Riordan, who took over as president and CEO of the Alliance at the end of January, increased the organization’s original funding request — already $50,000 more than the $650,000 it received from the city in fiscal year 2014 — to $75,000 more than last year during a budget work session with City Council on Monday.
Before Riordan stepped into her new role, former President and CEO Dick Schreiber sent a funding request to the city for $700,000.
In keeping with her own goals for the Alliance, Riordan is asking for the additional $25,000 — a request submitted to the city only — to launch a three-year strategic plan for social media that would be implemented this year. Riordan emphasized the need for the Alliance to be constantly present on various social media platforms to reach out to a wide demographic of people.
“There are a lot of misconceptions that if you build a platform then [building a following] just sort of happens. It’s very, very time intensive,” said Riordan, who added social media sites provide a reliable focus group filled with people unafraid to express their opinions on whether they like what an organization is doing. “… It truly is two-way communication and requires monitoring and vigilance.”
Schreiber’s original request asked each of the three Historic Triangle localities to increase funding by $50,000 to help promote a to-be-determined weekend event in September, which would focus on either performing or culinary arts, in an effort to boost visitation during Arts Month. The Alliance will request more funding from James City County than originally requested to target a different growth area in a budget work session today with the county’s Board of Supervisors, Riordan said.
Arts Month, celebrated throughout the Historic Triangle but concentrated in the City of Williamsburg, begins in September and culminates with the long-running An Occasion for the Arts on the first weekend of October.
“Arts Month holds significant potential for this area,” reads the original funding request to the city. “However, we need more major events and more advertising funding to help it achieve its potential.”
Riordan said a new weekend-long event to Arts Month would be an opportunity to complement the successful ventures of particular organizations – such as food and wine festivals at Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens – to bridge guests between those attractions and Williamsburg as a destination.
“We want something fairly sizeable in performing or culinary arts that promotes [the Historic Triangle],” she said.
Riordan’s presentation showed how the rest of the requested $725,000, along with the revenue it receives through James City County, York County and its membership fees, would be spent with an overview of the Alliance’s goals.
Much of the Alliance’s efforts would focus on rebranding the narrative for Greater Williamsburg as a tourist destination, as market research has found potential visitors have misperceptions of what Williamsburg has to offer.
Advertising – 90 percent of which would be concentrated in the summer months – should bring a spotlight to the Historic Triangle’s qualities beyond Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens, Riordan said. Better promotion of Christmas in Williamsburg and Arts Month, along with quality programs during those times to entice visitors to return, would aim to promote Williamsburg as a whole.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, which submitted a level funding request of $1.3 million from the city to support its media budget, touched on a similar theme of tweaking its messaging to inform potential visitors of all that is offered in its presentation to the council Monday.
“Perceptions of Colonial Williamsburg have not caught up with today’s revolutionary city in terms of the nature of the experience we now offer in the historic area and museums, nor is there a full appreciation of the totality of the experience that encompasses shopping, recreation and a range of culinary and hospitality events,” CWF President Colin Campbell said.
CWF said its research has shown its target customer — which has been recently redefined as someone who enjoys discovery and learning but want to have fun at the same time — see Colonial Williamsburg solely as a destination to learn history.
Janet Eason, CWF’s director of marketing communications, pointed to a discrepancy between its target customers and those who recently visited. Recent guests are twice as likely to find Colonial Williamsburg more engaging than other historic sites, while target customers are largely unaware of the “depth and breadth” of its programming.
She also said CWF’s target customer, dubbed pioneers by CWF staff, tends to believe Colonial Williamsburg is a tourist destination best suited for families with children between the ages of 7 and 12 — a limiting perception the organization hopes to change.
“Those who haven’t been here think we’re boring, they think we’re like other historic sites, they think they’re going to be talked at. They really don’t realize how our programming is much different, much more immersive, much more hands on,” said Eason, who added it can appeal to a wide age range.
City Council members did not speak for or against the funding requests from CWF and the Alliance on Monday, largely using their time to ask clarifying questions.
City Manager Jack Tuttle will release his proposed budget for fiscal year 2015 to City Council on Thursday, and members will meet for a budget work session at 4 p.m. April 7 in the 3rd floor conference room of the Municipal Building. Citizens can offer their opinions of the proposed budget during the public comment period of that meeting, and council will host a public hearing on the budget April 10.