LARAMIE COUNTY TOURISM

When the Government shut down this past October, the closing down of National Parks quickly became National news. The “crown jewels” like Yellowstone and the Tetons were most affected, with tens of thousands of people kicked out of these parks and sent home. In 48 hours, literally busloads of people were driving back across the state.

Realizing that we had a captive audience whose vacations were abruptly cut short, we quickly created a Facebook campaign letting stranded Wyoming visitors know that there was more to see and do in Wyoming than just Yellowstone and the Tetons. Everyday of the shutdown, a new post was placed that encouraged them to “continue their vacation” by coming to the State Parks and other recreation areas in greater Laramie that were still open.

The tiny ads were wildly successful. Visit Laramie’s FB page saw a 17% increase in likes in the first 10 days. With a fan base of not even 1000 “likes,” the most popular post was shared by 82% of fans, with over 3600 likes, comments & shares and a total reach of over 42,000 people.  The posts were even picked up by multiple news channels, Visit Wyoming, and NPR.