Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Cobourg Tourism Videos

June 20, 2017

Dear Cobourg Town Council (Brian Darling);

Last May I came across a 2017 promotional video, Float Your Fanny Down the Ganny
The video acquired 195,000 views in a month; it was also shared 2500+ times.

This is what Cobourg Tourism has achieved on YouTube:
1.      Cobourg’s heritage, 2010, ( https://youtu.be/dTZN6xQHJJM,) 484 views, 3 min.
2.      Sandcastle Festival, 2010, ( https://youtu.be/S-dfhMZR5us,)  5,877 views, 41 sec
3.      The Waterfront, 2010, ( https://youtu.be/S-dfhMZR5us ) 393 views, 33 sec
4.      Love Locks, 2013, ( https://youtu.be/r8JfxlfyoJY,) 2,920 views, 55 sec
5.      Sand Castle Trailer, 2014, ( https://youtu.be/6ltTnmpl5Oo ) 2,316 views, 1 min.
6.      Welcome To Cobourg, 2014, (  https://youtu.be/0_p1u8balGw ) 2,021 views, 1 min.
7.      Aerial View of Waterfront, 2015, ( https://youtu.be/0_p1u8balGw ) 884 views, 1 min.
8.      Feel Good Town, 2015, ( https://youtu.be/X1Lle21pHFE )  5,053 views, 1 min
9.      Family Adventures, 2015, ( https://youtu.be/xnCplg8GofA ) 1,035 views, 1 min.
10.  Romantic Getaways, 2015, ( https://youtu.be/3tCEM00jqSo ) 1664 views, 1 min.
11.  Patio Time, 2016, ( https://youtu.be/ini2FvQh6Ak ) 260 views, 27 sec
12.  Adventures In Cobourg, March 2017, ( https://youtu.be/ZLvdiT4rbP8 ) 12 views, 26 sec
13.  Family Fun, March 2017, ( https://youtu.be/Ojp8dgIg27c ) 14 views, 30 sec
14.  Summer in Cobourg, March 2017, ( https://youtu.be/JcquVet_UV0 ) 20 views, 29 sec

Total views over seven years; less than 23,000
Total number of ‘shares’: ZERO!  

This is what Cobourg Tourism has achieved on Facebook:
1.       Cobourg At Dusk, July 2015, 14,659 views, 441 shares
2.       Romantic Getaways, July 2015, 2,494 views, 77 shares
3.       Kiteboarding In Cobourg, December 2015, 9,262 views, 229 shares
4.       Cobourg Does Summer, July 2016, 2,518 views, 37 shares
5.       Family Fun, August 2016, 522 views, three shares.
6.       Adventures in Cobourg, August 2016, 3,521 views, 38 shares

Total Facebook Views; almost 33,000.
Total Facebook shares; 825.

Overall total: 56,000 views
Overall shares: 825

A Facebook search of “Cobourg Tourism” brings up three sites. Two are unused; they should be deleted to avoid confusion.

A YouTube search of “Cobourg Tourism” brings up four sites. Each site has two, three or four subscribers who will never receive notice of a new uploaded tourism video because Cobourg Tourism does not upload them to the ‘old’ site. This is inconsistent. It is unhelpful to those who search for Cobourg Tourism and have four choices of the same thing. It’s unfair to accept subscriptions to a site that will never deliver. It’s clutter. It would be preferable if these four YouTube sites be consolidated into one site and all new videos be up-loaded to that single site.

It would be advantageous if there were more linkages. Once the new videos are uploaded, the Town should email Town staff with the video links, and suggest that they post them to their social media, for their friends and family from afar. Suggest that service clubs link the videos on their social sites, request to embed a particular video appropriate to a site, eg. embed the video that includes the Ecology Garden in the Ecology Garden website, or harbor yachts on the Cobourg Yacht Club site. Cogeco could broadcast these videos in subwindows, eg as they do with photos. DBIA could forward the video urls to all of the businesses to share on their websites. Why does Cobourg Media, Cobourg News, Cobourg Now, Northumberland News, Northumberland Today, not host the videos? Why can’t these videos be linked/embedded in a sidebar on the Downtown Cobourg Facebook site?

One video of a Port Hope event gets 2500 shares in a month; Cobourg Tourism gets 825 shares from 20 videos over seven years. Hmmmmm. What’s missing?

It would be advantageous for Cobourg Tourism to develop a coherent policy and protocols concerning how best to promote the videos before spending any further money on new videos.

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