Pembroke economic development department pleased with social media successes

By Stephen Uhler, OBSERVER MULTIMEDIA JOURNALIST

Pembroke's economic development department is pleased with the success of its extensive use of social media to promote the city.

However, at least one city councillor would like to see more concrete results.

In a report to the economic development committee, Susan Ellis, economic development, recreation and tourism manager, stated over the past two years there has been a significant swing away from traditional advertising such as print, outdoor and broadcast, and towards things like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and websites.

She stated the department has documented proof of this; the Meet Me in Downtown Video, posted on the City of Pembroke YouTube channel has more than 5,000 hits on it, plus their Twitter account has 528 mainly business oriented followers. In both cases, it cost the city nothing to set up both accounts.

Ellis reported in order to increase page likes on their Pembroke Tourism Facebook page, they purchased a simple audience builder campaign over the course of 30 days for $10 a day. The city's audience grew from 122 to 720, and continues to expand. More here.