William Bakker is the director of eBusiness at Tourism British Columbia (HelloBC.com), and he is also a long-time blogger in the eBusiness arena.

William was kind enough to answer a slew of questions I sent him last week about his work with Tourism British Columbia, and he revealed some really interesting tips and strategies his team is using to truly take HelloBC to a whole new level of engagement and interactivity.

HelloBC has done a wonderful job blending consumer generated content with brand-generated information. The site has amassed an amazing wealth of insider travel information about B.C. by leveraging a variety of social media technologies, and the power of online communities.

Chris Clarke (CC): What strategy did you employ to actually reach out to the travelling public to develop such an engaged team of tipsters and bloggers? What was your internal strategy to get the participation of Tourism B.C . employees?

William Bakker (WB): It all started with Tourism BC staff. We asked a few people to share tips and experiences on a blog, separate from HelloBC in 2005. It didn’t take long before more and more staff wanted to blog as well. It wasn’t hard at all. In 2006, we asked our Visitor Centre Network to participate and some did, providing us with local content from around the province. Consumers told us they loved the authenticity of the content. It forms a nice balance with the official information, so we decided to integrated into our main consumer website and include consumer postings as well.We kicked off the consumer blogs a couple of weeks before we launched the integration this spring. We sent an email to an internal list of consumers who have booked with us in the recent past. That worked really well. When we launched, we already had a great number of entries. Because the blog entries are so well integrated with the rest of the site, we get a large number of visitors to the blog section. It’s addictive. People love to share good experiences, so it’s growing organically.

CC: You have been using Google-generated maps extensively on the HelloBC site, which brings such a rich element to your destination content. What challenges have you experienced incorporating Google-earth into your site? Where do you see HelloBC heading with Google mapping technology in the future?

WB: We originally offered computer generated driving directions from Mappoint. But the web service was limited in its configuration so in some cases, driving routes were suggested that didn’t make much sense. We have suspended this service until a new, better configurable web service will be available.Interactive Maps won’t just be a feature in the future; it will evolve into the way the website works. Everything will have a location based context. The Information Architecture of HelloBC is based on regions , cities and communities. In the future, the boundaries between these destinations will become more and more transparent, through the use of interactive maps. A consumer will be able to plan a trip by just dragging the map around. We’re laying the foundation for this by structuring and geo-tagging our content. It will be an ongoing evolution.

CC: Your Tourism B.C. Flickr sets are an awesome collection of B.C. images, and It appears that many of these are viewer-submitted images. With viewer engagement generally quite low on most blogs and social media sites, what’s been your secret to having such an active Flickr account?

WB: All the photos consumers submit on the blog on HelloBC are also automatically posted on Flickr. As a result, these photos create additional value for us on Flickr with no additional effort on our part beside the initial investment of the integration with the Flickr web service. And you have to join the conversation as an equal member in a transparent way on social networks. One of the things we did was meet with a Flickr user group in Vancouver to discuss how we could approach Flickr. We’re still working on implementing some the ideas we heard from that group.CC: Can you elaborate on the success (or “opportunity”) of your winter photo contest? What would you do to improve a photo contest in the future?

CC: Can you elaborate on the success (or “opportunity”) of your winter photo contest? What would you do to improve a photo contest in the future?

WB: The main objective of last years winter photo contest was to get some first hand learning about User Generated Content so we kept the scope small. Some of the learning was incorporated into the new blog section. Keep an eye out for what we’re doing this year for the winter contest and you’ll see first hand what we’re doing to make it better.

CC: I’ve heard whispers that you are defining your USG strategy going forward to not only include roles for consumers, but also roles for the tourism industry and even B.C. residents. Can you elaborate on some of the challenges you face developing such a multi-layered and ambitious strategy?

WB: We’ve already taking the first steps for all the groups you mentioned. Consumers and residents can submit on our “tips from travelers” blog. Communities can post on the “tips from us” blog. The tourism industry can provide information about their products through the HelloBC Listing Program. Now that all these groups are involved, it’s a matter of learning from what we’re doing today and evolving it further to make it even better.

One of the things we’re going to test soon is running a pilot with a few communities. We will give them access content to the official information on HelloBC for their community to expand the information we currently have. If this is successful, we can scale this out to all communities who want to take advantage of this. We’ve received 5 million visitors on HelloBC this year already, so it’s a great way for communities to connect with potential travelers.

I personally think that HelloBC could evolve into a social network where Tourism BC, the tourism industry, residents and consumers share and connect with new and returning travelers to make it super easy to plan a trip and enhance the experience when somebody is on vacation here.

CC: With so many DMOs looking to add UGC elements to their online marketing strategies, can you offer some advice (or pitfalls to avoid) when attempting to engage the public to solicit destination content?

WB: I believe that User Generated Content needs to be integrated into existing activities. If you just bolt it onto an existing website, you’re missing out on some great opportunities. Also integrate it into other tactics. We’ve sent blog entries in eNewsletters, published in guides and used it in adverting for example. But be respectful of the creators of content and ask for permission and give proper credit.

Secondly, we’re strong believers into ongoing evolution of our tactics by taking small, but frequent steps. This is especially important with User Generated Content and Social Networks because it’s a volatile environment and you have to listen to your community. You might be surprised with what they have to say and they can point you into a direction that you never even thought off. Flickr started as a tool for a multiplayer game for example, and the Craigslist’s business model is almost entirely based on asking their community what to charge for.

CC: Is there something in particular that you are hoping to achieve at the Canada-e-Connect conference?

WB: I’m looking forward to talk to the other Canadian destinations and share learning. And listen and learn, I’m looking forward to it.

Thanks William, for giving us such excellent insight into your innovative practices leveraging social media at TourismBC!