Highlights from Last Week’s Meeting
By Marc Seigar
On a day that started off with a winter white-out, Duluth Rotarians gathered remotely from the comfort of their homes for the first official Zoom meeting of Club #25. President Michelle Buria called the meeting to order. This was followed by Dave Nolle sharing house rules and directions to use Zoom. The reflection was given by Paul Hesltrom, who focused on social media platforms to “continue to connect” in this time of social distancing. With the use of Zoom, Rotarians are able to maintain their commitment to service above self and to continue their work on projects.
President Michele Buria introduced visitors. Julie Johnson, Vice President of Convention Sales at Visit Duluth, who was a guest of Stacy Oltmanns, and Christina Woods from the Duluth Art Institute (and a prospective member) who was a guest of President-Elect Dean Casperson. The Fellowship Report was by self-reporting. Dave Nolle reported his daughter, Sophie, was the Bronze Award Winner in the Minnesota State Science Competition. Elizabeth Simonson reported that she and her family welcomed a new grandson into the world last week. Congratulations! All will have to save up and stuff the golden can when we get back together.
Chair of the Day,
Branden Robinson, introduced the speaker who was our very own
Jerry Thoreson. Jerry is the Social Media Manager for
Destination Duluth and he also manages the social media for Club 25. Destination Duluth was founded by Chris Swanson,
Branden Robinson and Tom Livingston designed to promote Duluth and get people to move and live here – not just visit! The focus is on quality of place.
Jerry joined the Club in February. His presentation was entitled “Growing Duluth and Rotary through Social Media Marketing”. Social media is marketing and it can be used for a group or an individual, no matter the platform. Rotary is the original form of social marketing, with the message of service above self.
Destination Duluth is the #1 social media network in the Upper Midwest. Beyond showcasing Duluth, they focus on misconceptions such as: “Duluth is too cold for humans”, or “there are no jobs in Duluth”, or “Duluth is not a welcoming community”. To offset and correct these misconceptions, they use positive photos, because “a picture is worth a 1,000 words”. Jerry’s presentation included a wide variety of photos posted on social media by Destination Duluth. One of their most successful posts was of Bentleyville which received more than one million views.
In 2014, Destination Duluth spearheaded a campaign to win the “Outside Magazine” competition. Over the next year, Duluth was featured in over 34 publications worldwide. Social media also has had an incredible impact on tourism in Duluth. In 2014, just as Destination Duluth was getting started, the tourism industry was worth $7.8 million in Duluth. By 2019, it had grown to $12.4 million.
In a poll of 1,000 recipients, Destination Duluth found that 75% said that were thinking about visiting Duluth, 65% said they were planning a visit, and 50% said they had visited Duluth. In the same poll, 25% of respondents said that were considering a move to Duluth, 21% said they were in the process of moving, and 29% credited their move to Duluth to social media marketing.
Jerry also works on Club 25’s social media, which uses Facebook as the primary platform. Club 25 has reached 350,000 people through social media and our Duck Pluck had the highest hits of 2019. Our Club uses “Meme Monday” with a post to Facebook to promote Rotary. Check it out. Make sure to like it, comment on it, and Share it. These are the three keys, like, comment, share to increase the profile of the Duluth Rotary Club on Facebook. It makes a difference. You can make a difference.
Jerry reflected on how social media keeps us together even in this time of social distancing. Minnesotans can get through winter. We can survive Covid-19. And Jerry’s final word on the power of social media was that “a picture is worth 1,000 people coming to the Northland”.
Condolences
To Dean Casperson, on the death of his Father, Carl Casperson,on April 3.
To Past President Bonita Nelson on the death of her husband, Lucky Nelson, on April 10.