The founders of Tourism Currents are Becky McCray and Sheila Scarborough. With their combined knowledge and experience, they share an impressive history of being involved in the arenas of social media, travel and business ownership. With the launching of Tourism Currents in September 2009, Becky and Sheila have compiled a wealth of information into easy to understand and apply online training materials.
How Tourism Currents Came to Be
Becky and Sheila met, online of course, through “open mic” night on Liz Strauss’ Successful Blog. They met in person for the first time at the 2008 South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) tech conference. Their common interests developed into a friendship almost immediately.
In 2008, both attended Liz’s SOBcon (Successful Online Businesses) conference. The following year, Becky came to SOBcon armed with a notebook full of possible business ideas, including a travel/tourism/social media education project she hoped to collaborate on with Sheila.
Revitalize once-vibrant communities
Becky was tired of watching small towns die, and she understood that social media was a powerful way to compete and reach out globally. Sheila knew the world of travel writing was shifting from print to online, so they combined forces and started talking to every tourism professional they could meet. They networked locally, regionally and online, connecting with every tourism organization they could find. They used Twitter to participate in every hashtagged tourism conference they could catch.
All this would ultimately help them achieve their goal – easy to understand training that put social media to work for tourism.
With the insight Becky and Sheila gathered, they developed courses and lessons that reflect the actual work tourism professionals do. For example, they dedicate an entire lesson to promoting special events and festivals…including preparations before an event, handling the actual event itself and follow-up after the event to keep the momentum going.
Social Media is much more than “chatting”
Instead of teaching “how to use Twitter,” Becky and Sheila take it one step further and show how to reach a network of people who can promote your destination. Twitter is just one part of networking through social media.
The focus is not on the tools, but on the application of those tools.
One of the biggest roadblocks they hear consistently is “lack of time” to implement such a program for destination marketing. Both women understand this all too well themselves; Becky is an incredibly busy small business owner (with four businesses) and Sheila is a professional writer and speaker, a parent of two and writes for multiple online and print outlets.
Developed with busy professionals in mind, the Tourism Currents lessons were born. From understanding the basics of social media to utilizing a small army of supporters, this online training shows people how to tell their stories via social media, get the word out and bring visitors to their destinations.
The Founders of Tourism Currents
Becky McCray is a small town entrepreneur in Oklahoma, where she owns a liquor store and operates a cattle ranch with her husband. She works with city governments on project planning and grant writing. She is a sought-after speaker in the areas of social media, small business and small towns.
Sheila Scarborough is a freelance writer in Texas specializing in travel. She writes for numerous magazines, newspapers and blogs and speaks about social media to a variety of audiences. She was chosen as a 2010 Austin American-Statesman “Texas Social Media Award” winner, is a Navy Master Training Specialist and also a member of the national Association for Women in Communications (AWC) Tech Committee.
After many years online, “social media” and “the social Web” aren’t new buzzwords or fads for Becky and Sheila; they are incredibly powerful and enriching communications tools that can help build interest in (and build community around) destinations, attractions or events.
For more details and information….
- Is Tourism Currents right for you?
(includes who the lessons are intended for and how they’ll be delivered.) - What are other folks saying about us? That’s over on our “Currents” testimonials page.
