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| Capilano, British Columbia's earliest human connection to nature |
I decided to go a little outside the box, selecting a
cultural heritage institution outside the realm of the LAMs, and more in line
with botanical gardens and zoological parks. Capilano Suspension Bridge Park (CSBP)
is located in North Vancouver where urban development gives way to forest and
mountains. Since 1888, this section of forest has been preserved and enhanced
to allow visitors to journey 400 feet across a bridge suspended 250 feet over
the Capilano River. In recent years, the park has complimented the suspension
bridge with a nature walk, a tree walk and a cliff walk all designed to expose
the public to the wonders of nature in a way that few have been able to
experience nature before. Along the way, CSBP has introduced First Nation
(Canada’s term for Native Americans) artifacts, informational animal lectures,
ecological exhibits and environmental protection exhibits to the primary
attraction, nature. It is a magnificent place to visit.
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| The suspension bridge |
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| CSBP is an active and dedicated social media user |
The park’s parent company, Capilano Group of Companies (CGC),
has holdings that include two lodges, restaurants and retail outlets in
addition to the Suspension Bridge Park. Through their web sites and press
releases, CGC notes that they aim to be good corporate citizens and active
participants and leaders in the local community. They highlight their
environmental stewardship program which is designed to reduce their
environmental impact while raising awareness and promoting activities that benefit
the natural environment they occupy. These are all initiatives that I associate
with institutions and organizations that are apt to be active users of social
media.
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| First Nation artifacts and culture on display |
So, it is obvious that the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park
is using social media. But how exactly is the park using social media?
Unfortunately, although it seems clear that they have a strategy, I was unable
to find a published social media policy. Lacking a published policy, I’ll have
to look at the different social media sites and try to interpret what they are
doing based on my observations.
- YouTube: CSBP has their own channel with 43 videos and 74 subscribers. You can experience their attractions and meet their employees. There are videos uploaded by park visitors and some that are professionally developed for promotional purposes by Vancouver North Shore Tourism. There are hundreds of videos about CSBP and the most popular have been watched more than 62,000 times.
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| CSBP has posted 1,500 picture in addition to thousands of visitor photos |
- Flickr: CSBP has their own photo stream with more than 1,500 photos in 19 sets. Each set captures an event that took place at the park, a park attraction or a sponsored program. Park visitors have uploaded hundreds of additional photos, many with minimal tags and just a few with comments.
- Twitter: CSBP has over 5,000 followers. They have a solid volume of tweets posted at inconsistent intervals. A sampling of their 3,369 tweets shows that many are promotional in nature.
- Instagram: CSBP has 323 followers and 53 posts. Many posts highlight attractions or events at the park.
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| Facebook has 14,500 Likes |
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- Facebook: CSBP has in excess of 14,500 likes and over 85,000 visitors. There are links from Facebook back to Pinterest and Instagram. There are posts from park visitors as well as post from the park promoting things like the free shuttle bus from Vancouver hotels.
Based on these observations, it seems as though CSBP is
using social media in an attempt to engage with their community in a
face-to-face manner. They are trying to bring visitors to the turnstiles.
Social media is being used primarily as a marketing tool. The LAMs we have
studied are also using social media as a marketing platform; they too are
attempting to engage the community by bringing customers to the door.
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| The Cliff Walk |
However, there seems to be an additional distinction between
how the LAMs we have studied in class and the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park
are using social media. The LAMs, in addition to marketing their products and
services via social media, are also trying to engage their users virtually and are
using social media to elicit help from their users. Many LAMs are using social
media to get assistance in describing unidentified photographs or to augment
traditional subject headings and classification schemes with modern terms to
improve discoverability. LAMs have countless documents and artifacts that will
lie unused if they are described in a way that makes them too difficult to find
and use.
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| Nature and animal exhibits |
The knowledge product offered by the Capilano Suspension
Bridge Park is very different from those offered by LAMs. CSBP’s knowledge
product is nature. Although nature is comprised of countless elements, it is
more often discovered in its entirety, not by its many parts. CSBP does not
need to use social media to get help in improving the description of its
collection, but CSBP is using social media to make the park more discoverable. By
uploading pictures and videos to the various social media sites, CSBP’s
visitors are engaging in promotional activities that enhance the park’s
discoverability.
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| at one with nature |
My concluding question then, is whether CSBP’s use of social
media is productive and effective? I was able to find an answer to this
question. In 2012, Capilano Suspension Bridge Park received the British Columbia Chapter of
the American Marketing Association’s (BCAMA) Marketer of the Year Award for
their promotion of a new attraction, the cliff walk. According to the BCAMA
2012 event program, the use of social media was a primary component of the
marketing plan. The marketing plan included inviting bloggers to visit and
write about the park. And, CSBP used blogs, Facebook, Flickr and Twitter
accounts to document the progress of the cliff walk construction and generate
interest. A year later, while Vancouver’s international visitors were in
decline, international visitors to the park increased 2%. Attendance as a whole
increased 21% and sales went up 34%. The length of an individual guest visit was
longer and customer satisfaction had increased.
Although Capilano Suspension Bridge Park uses social media
differently than the institutions we have examined, they have used social media
very successfully. They are a different type of cultural institution from LAMs
and it makes sense that their approach to social media would be different. But
one goal is the same, to create interest and engage the members of their
community. In this regard, their use of social media has been a superb.
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