How a tweet led to driving a dogsled in Lapland

My wife @yukariwatanabe was checking out her Twitter stream a few months ago and noticed one of the people she follows tweeted about Hotel Kakslauttanen in the northern Finland town of Saariselka where you can stay in a glass igloo in winter. You can lie in bed and check out the stars (or if you are lucky the Aurora Borealis). She tweeted back and said: "I want to go there!" Then she emailed me and said the same thing.

We quickly discussed it that evening and agreed: "Why not?" Our daughter is now off to university so we have the time. So we booked it.

Now, I know that a vacation in December above the Arctic Circle might seem insane to some. Heck, the sun doesn't even rise in mid-December (there is four hours of twilight only) but for us it seemed perfect because we've travelled all over the world and are looking for unusual adventures.

How did we know that we wanted to go? By the hotel's website of course. The site lists all sorts of winter activities that you can do. When I saw Husky Safari I was ready to pack my bags. (Bucket list...)

But Yukari wanted to do one more check so she Googled the hotel, looked at the reviews on Trip Advisor and also read about the hotel in a New York Times article. Done deal.

Content Marketing

Everybody I know has a story like this. Somebody says something on a social network. It leads you to Google or a website. And you spend some money (or not).

If you are the seller in this transaction, it all comes down to content. What are you creating (like the Hotel Kakslauttanen site)? How does that compare to what are others creating about you (like the NYT article and reviews on Trip Advisor)?

You're in control. You create the content. You bring in the business.

Our time in Lapland was amazing. We had all kinds of wonderful adventures. The dogsledding was especially fun because I got to drive (more like hang on). We also visited a Sami village where Pentti took us on a Reindeer Safari and talked about his indigenous people who live in far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Pentti has 8,000 reindeer.

Sadly, it was cloudy most of the time, so we didn't see the Aurora Borealis. But we always said that if we did it would be a bonus.

Photos taken with my iPhone and tweaked with Instagram.

Here is a video I shot at Kakslauttanen Husky Safaris

Comments

[Angela Artemis/WriteABook]

David,
It is amazing what shared content can lead you to. I check my Twitter stream often - that's what lead me to read your article and always end up finding something worthwhile.

[josey jasen]

It was dark when I woke. This is a ray of sunihsne.

[Avil Beckford]

David,

That's an amazing experience to have, what's another unusual (to most people) entry on your bucket list?

[Michael Martel]

What a great example of what is possible for both the seller and the buyer in today's economy!

[Tracey]

Hmmmm... Fun to hear about your travels, but bringing it back to content marketing, was the Tweet that your wife saw from the hotel? I'm going to split hairs and ask: where do you draw the line between what is content marketing and what is just good ol' word-of-mouth business? If the hotel did not generate the content, how would one classify it as content marketing?

[David Meerman Scott]

Thanks all. It was fun.

Tracey - it absolutely was content marketing. The tweet was from someone not affiliated with the hotel. It would have ended at that except that the hotel website had compelling content which got us interested and the reviews sealed the deal. In this case it started as word of MOUSE (a tweet) and the content made the sale.

[Kevin @globalfibernet]

completely agree on both points of social bringing 'content' to the forefront and properly maintained and encouraged, social content marketing can and will make a difference.

[Anne Sorensen]

David! How fantastic! Loved your sled driving .. The glass igloo though sounds terrific. Seems perfect to do this near Christmas ... Did you happen to see a largish, bearded man dressed in red while you were there? Best wishes for the Season! :)