ROLLIAMBASSADOR: Involving local influencers to stimulate UGC

One of the most important attractions, from this point of view, are the so called Palazzi dei Rolli, palaces which have a long history and a great name: in Genoa Rolli means “list”, in fact they are a “list” of astonishing palaces used at the time of Republic of Genoa by aristocratic families, which wanted to host people in transit for visits of state.

Since 2006, 42 of these palaces became UNESCO World Heritage, chosen among more than 100: they’re so beautiful and it’s an honor for our city to promote their beauty with special initiatives.

The Municipality, in collaboration with University of Genoa, Palazzo Ducale Fondazione per la Cultura and Chamber of Commerce, organizes twice a year the Rolli Days: a weekend when some of the palaces usually not opened can be visited by the public.

This year, as Municipality of Genoa and as Lead Partner of Interactive Cities, we organized a special action called “Rolli Ambassador”. The output was to encourage the production of user generated contents on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as the main aim of Interactive Cities but also because we are aware of the importance of the UGC in creating a strong destination reputation for our city.
As a first step, we involved some Genoese bloggers (Daniela Massardo -  RaccontidiviaggioeNonsolo, Antonio Figari - SegretideiVicolidiGenova and Stefano Bagnasco - Check-in Blog) and instagrammers (@photoflavio69, @_Lorsen_,  @nicoleo_ e @Piero2673), allowing them to manage our Municipality official profiles on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram during the first edition of the Rolli Days, on April 1^st- 2^nd: technically, this action is called a “Social media take over”.

This was not our first experiment in promoting the Rolli Palaces on the social media, but it was our first experience with a takeover (we are also experimenting this technique in managing the Interactive Cities profiles, as you surely noticed); and it was an interesting and great experience, first of all due to the social ability of the ambassadors and then because we think that a different point of view is an important moment of exchange between Municipality and citizens. The action was also an interesting occasion of cooperation with some of the city stakeholders, including the management of the National Museum of Palazzo Reale (which gave us the chance to offer to the influencers a very special #emptymuseum  experience), University of Genoa and Chamber of Commerce.

As a second step, we launched a photo challenge, inviting the participants to the Rolli Days to publish their photos on Instagram with the #RolliAmbassador: the winners will be the next Rolli Ambassadors and they’ll have the possibility to use our social profiles during the next edition in October.
Until today, more than 650 photos of excellent quality were published: Genoese people and tourists appreciated the contest for its opportunity of visibility and for the exchange we made between public administration and citizens.

You can see all the contents published on social media, in the two phases of the action, in this tagboard

We think that including common people in the social path of a Municipality is an important communication step: in this way you can stimulate the production of user generated content, people are not only involved in the communication strategy, but they become part of it, creating a real Interactive City.

More information: http://www.visitgenoa.it/it/ambasciatori-dei-rolli-diventa-anche-tu-un-rolliambassador (Italian text)