Travel Influencers Spread The Word About Dade Attractions
Photo courtesy of Main Street & Back Roads – Main Street and Back Roads’ blog post included Lookout Mountain Pottery, McBride’s Bookstore, the Shop on Main (all pictured here) and local coffee shops and outdoor attractions.
By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor
Photo courtesy of Hope Maum – The first paid influencer to specifically promote Dade was Hope Maum, pictured here at Fox Mountain Farm.
Continuing to use Hotel-Motel Excise Tax funds to promote tourism locally, the Alliance for Dade has been busy with print and digital advertising, billboards in Chattanooga, and working with travel influencers on social media. Local businesses like The Groovy Nomad and Rosie Mae’s Alpaca Farm have already benefited from exposure through social media, but the Alliance’s work with influencers is an intentional step to harness the power of social media.
Advertisements for August’s Plum Nelly Depot Art Show were in newspapers, magazines, and digital media outlets in Fort Payne and Mentone, Ala. and Chattanooga and Signal Mountain, Tenn. The Alliance continues to advertise on three billboards in Chattanooga, and numerous Plum Nelly shoppers said they heard about the art show from these billboards.
Dade County ads have also been in notable magazines like “Southern Living” and visitor/outdoor guides like “Georgia Great Places” and USA Today’s “Go Escape” southeast edition. As part of advertising packages with “Taste of the South,” “Southern Lady,” “Southern Cast Iron,” and “Southern Home,” Dade was also featured on these magazines’ social media accounts and in their e-news.
While print advertising has a very long history and digital advertising has been a staple since the 1990s, social media influencers are a more recent development. The method has roots in other forms of advertising, but it skyrocketed with the rise of platforms like Instagram and TikTok. For those unfamiliar with the term, “influencers” use their social media accounts to promote products, companies, etc. in exchange for payment and/or free products or experiences. Influencers that specialize in travel are essentially a new iteration of travel writers.
Sandy White (Alliance for Dade president and CEO) explained, “With travel writers, it may be a year before you see something published, but influencers are more immediate.”
This year, the Alliance for Dade hired a public relations firm, Pineapple PR in Chamblee, Ga., to broaden its advertising base. The firm helped find five influencers to visit Dade in 2024 and document their adventures on their platforms. White and the firm worked together to find influencers whose interests and content aligned with our community.
The Alliance set itineraries for the influencers, highlighting investors with the Alliance. (The Alliance promotes just about everything and everyone locally, but some key opportunities like this are reserved for Alliance members, called “investors.”)
White said, “They highlighted what makes this a unique community to visit, and it seems to be working.” Several featured places told the Alliance that they’ve heard from some customers who came because of the influencers’ posts. The Alliance’s social media numbers have also gone up.
The first influencer, Hope Maum, focuses on Chattanooga outdoor attractions. She visited from July 31-August 1 and posted Instagram reels, stories, and story highlights about her visit. By the end of August, her reel of one of the Cloudland Canyon State Park waterfalls had been viewed 91,000 times, saved 2,300 times, reached over 64,000 accounts, and had 93 comments.
The second influencer, Kerry Murphy, runs a blog called “Main Street and Back Roads” that highlights Georgia towns within driving distance from Atlanta. Her post titled “Fall Getaway: Escape the Crowds in Northwest Georgia” covered Rosie Mae’s, The Shop on Main, McBride’s Bookstore, Lookout Mountain Pottery, The Creag at McLemore, Whippoorwill Retreat Treehouse, Za Brew, Fox Mountain Farm, Cloudland Canyon, Corner Coffee, and the Lookout Mountain Flight Park.
Photo courtesy of Hope Maum – Hope Maum’s posts about Dade featured vibrant colors, beautiful skies, mountain scenery, smiles, and relaxation.
The blog offers detailed information, making it easy for visitors to know what to expect, and some highlights were also posted on social media.
The third influencer (this time from Knoxville) covered last weekend’s New Salem Mountain Festival. Another Chattanooga influencer will be visiting in November, and the fifth (from Nashville) will be covering Christmas events in December.
Social media “influencing” has drawn some criticism worldwide for a number of reasons, including the fact that when people are paid to say good things about something, they will. Therefore, what happens when their experiences don’t line up with companies’ desired content? White explained that all of the influencers coming to Dade said they would not lie about any community. That being said, they will highlight the best of Dade.
In White’s words, “This is a great community. I’m not saying everything’s perfect, but there’s a lot of positives to focus on. The response from people who’ve taken the influencers’ advice and have come here has all been very positive, and they appear to be very enthusiastic about what they’ve experienced here.”
As with all advertising, White believes everyone should do their own research and come to their own conclusions. “Influencers might make you aware of something you weren’t aware of, and then check it out yourself. To me, influencers are just another tool that we’re using to get the word out.”
White and Pineapple PR also went to Atlanta to pitch story ideas to five magazine travel writers. White’s also pitching to four travel writers in Chattanooga. She said, “The Atlanta travel writers were interested in the fact that we have so many young families starting farms here. That possibly could be an article. They also had an interest in the Groovy Nomad because of its renovation. You pitch them an idea, and it may be six months or a year before you see anything come from it. However, travel articles are worth a lot more than a paid advertisement.”
Photo courtesy of Main Street & Back Roads – After visiting many of Dade’s highlights, Kerry Murphy posted on social media and wrote a lengthy blog about the stops. Here, she poses at Rosie Mae’s Alpaca Farm.
Sentinel readers may recall the Industrial Development Authority’s recent conversations about Placer.ai. With this technology, the Alliance learned that the vast majority of Cloudland Canyon visitors reach the park by driving through Trenton. She said, “That tells me we may need to concentrate our advertising so Cloudland visitors know they can stop in Trenton.”
The Alliance is already advertising in the park’s map, cottages, and visitors center. Similarly, the Alliance has print material at McLemore. White said, “We’re making sure McLemore and Cloudland guests know that there are other things to do down the mountain.”
The Alliance also wants locals to know about attractions and see that our community is being promoted. White explained that we in Dade often send people to Chattanooga to find things to do. “One of the first things I focused on when I got here was showing that we have plenty of things to do here. Never assume that locals know about what a community has to offer; we’re so used to the area we’re from that we think we already know about everything going on.”
Looking north to Chattanooga, she said, “Chattanooga folks may not know what is right at their doorstep, and also, it is our responsibility to let them know that these things are in our community.” She noted that the tourism industry in Chattanooga uses Dade attractions like the flight park and Cloudland Canyon in its advertising, so we should be sure to claim what we’ve got to offer and brag on our town just a bit.
Chattanooga and other nearby cities (Atlanta, Knoxville, etc.) are key markets because repeat business is much more likely to come from the localized tourist market. City dwellers often want a getaway from their cities, and White said, “Dade’s an easy weekend getaway. This is a beautiful area, there are things to do, it’s not crowded. It’s the perfect place to get out of Birmingham, Atlanta, or Chattanooga.”
Sentinel readers may recall the Dec. 2023 article about the wayfinding signage design contract with University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute for Government. Originally, White hoped phase one of the three-phase project would be installed by the end of 2024, but that goal won’t be achieved.
Preliminary designs were approved early in October, so next steps include getting quotes from sign companies, pursuing grant funding (if needed), and getting buy-in from involved parties.
In the meantime, the UGA design team created some beautiful posters following the theme and style of the signs and the Alliance’s current print materials. The Alliance plans to put these to use soon.
