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How The Outer Hebrides Leveraged SnapSea to Increase Social Media Followers

In order to steadily increase their social media following, The Outer Hebrides turned to SnapSea to help them leverage user-generated content effectively.

Danielle Stringer
January 13, 2022
Find out how The Outer Hebrides utilised SnapSea's unified platform to grow their total social media followers by more than 100%.

The challenge 

An indication of a solid social media presence—the number of followers. A greater following presents the opportunity for more individuals to view and interact with a brand’s content, ultimately leading to more website traffic and conversions. 

The Outer Hebrides, a destination marketing organisation (“DMO”) located off the west coast of mainland Scotland, needed a systematic approach to acquire strong visuals while increasing their social media followers steadily each month. Before SnapSea, their only available option was to manually search for authentic user-generated content (“UGC”), manage each step involved in obtaining the rights to reuse that content, and then manually schedule each post on their social media platforms. 


With a desire to regularly source and share high-quality visual content, The Outer Hebrides turned to SnapSea to help streamline the process.

Nils Leonhardt on Unsplash


SnapSea solutions

Curating content

Gone were the days of this destination marketing organisation laboriously sifting through visuals from the biggest social networks. After an initial briefing to discuss The Outer Hebrides' target audience and brand preferences, SnapSea's powerful machine learning algorithms were put to work, finding visual content tailored to their requirements.


A vast quantity of UGC was processed daily to illustrate what The Outer Hebrides is best known for. White sandy beaches, local seafood, and ceilidhs (traditional Scottish gatherings with folk music) are just a few examples of how SnapSea discovered high-quality yet relevant visual content quickly. 


The Outer Hebrides was then presented with a curated board of exceptional visuals. All it took was a few minutes of sorting through each image or video to ensure it adhered to their brand standards. If they disliked the visual, a simple click of the red button would skip it (and consequently improve the output of SnapSea's curation algorithms). When they wanted to proceed with the visual, they would click the green checkmark and instantly start the process of acquiring permission for reuse.


Automating the approval process 

The process of requesting the rights for each visual was very straightforward. When crafting a message to send to the creator, The Outer Hebrides could either choose a templated message to send or write their own text if the terms & conditions needed to be modified for a specific use case. Following the creator's approval of the requested image or video, the "digital handshake" was documented, and the approved asset was then stored directly in their media library. 

Built-in social scheduler 

Last but not least was the built-in social scheduler allowing The Outer Hebrides to plan and share visuals with their followers across social media. All of the visuals they wanted to schedule were pulled directly from their media library. This prevented the need to download or transfer images between tools, in which the resolution typically degrades.


With a multitude of curated content right at their fingertips, The Outer Hebrides could instead devote time and effort towards crafting a caption, selecting appropriate hashtags, and choosing an optimal posting time for their social media posts.


Results from using SnapSea 

Growth of the Outer Hebrides' followers over time


  • > 123% average increase in Instagram & Facebook followers in eight months
  • > 890 total images approved


Added bonus: With access to such a wide range of visuals available on the DMOs curated board, the approval rate soared (along with their social media followers). The Outer Hebrides also began building relationships with an emerging community of creators in the process.


SnapSea did the heavy lifting of discovering an extensive collection of the finest visuals while automating the content scheduling and rights approval process. This resulted in a greater following for The Outer Hebrides and presented them with more opportunities to engage with their increasingly large audience.


More about The Outer Hebrides

This interconnected chain of Atlantic islands is located off the west coast of mainland Scotland. It is home to white-sand beaches, fresh seafood, a vibrant Gaelic culture, and a variety of activities suited to thrill-seekers from windsurfing to hiking. Plan your next trip to The Outer Hebrides and experience "The Hebridean life."

For more information on how to utilise UGC to maximise your brand, head back to SnapSea or give us a follow on LinkedIn.

ARTICLE TAGS
Destination Marketing Organisations, DMOs, Travel Marketing, Tourism, User-generated content, Case Study, Examples, Outer Hebrides
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