visitwales.com | new site launching in May We will be pulling images into the site from the Share Wales Flickr group based on specific tags that are relevant to the page topic. Where we find suitable images and the originator is happy for this to happen we can feature them as main images on the page. Note | This is a mock up rather than final version of the site

The big idea Digital marketing is simpler than most people would like to make out. It’s all about content and distribution. Getting the right content in front of the right customer at the right time in their decision making represents the holy grail. Whether it be a video that inspires and evokes that 'Hey, let's try Wales' moment, or a journalist's blog around ten places for the perfect Valentines break, great content is what works on the internet. We would love to see anyone and everyone involved in Wales tourism opening up their content and sharing it online. That includes our visitors too. All we need to do is make a few small changes to the way we work and the way we work with content. Great content is the currency of the internet. That is what drives interest online and ultimately drives traffic to your website. We want to play our part in driving traffic to your site based on the great content you create.

The power of tagging and sharing Tagging content appropriately makes it easier for people to find and share that content. It supports the ongoing distribution of that content far and wide so even more people will come across the content and engage with it. There are many different types of content platform. They include things like your own blog, Flickr, YouTube, TripAdvisor and Twitter. They all allow you to associate tags to the content you place on them. Those tags are essentially categories – the same kind of categories that people will use when searching for that type of content online. These open platforms also allow other people to embed that content on their own websites. That’s exactly what we will be doing with images shared on Flickr. We’ll also be putting a direct link on those images so people can click on them and they will be directed to the Flickr profile from which the images originated.

Share pictures on flickr We have set up a group on the photo sharing website Flickr. Setting up an account on Flickr is simple. You can then start uploading pictures from your computer, tagging them appropriately and adding them to the Share Wales group. We’ll be picking the best ones and adding them to the new visitwales.com site. There will be a direct link back to your Flickr profile where you can provide basic information about your business, as well as lots of other interesting pictures. Other people can do the same. We’ve also provided some guidelines around how to tag the images.

Share pictures on flickr These tags are not exclusive. You can add further tags that describe the image.

Topics and Experiences The kind of topic areas we are keen to source images for include; Castles & Architecture Music Arts Gardens Wildlife Family Walking Cycling Surfing Whitewater Rafting Bushcraft

Copyright and why should I bother? Let’s get one thing straight. Not everybody wants to share their photos and allow other people to use them. We understand that and that’s absolutely fine. Flickr deals with copyright very well and allows the originator to decide exactly what they want to allow or not. By adding images to the Share Wales group you are agreeing to those images being used by Visit Wales and other Businesses in their promotion of Wales. If you are not happy doing that please do not add them. Are your images enabled for sharing? Click here.Click here More importantly, what’s in it for you? Well each image will be attributed to source and contain a link back to the originator's Flickr profile. If your image get’s featured on our home page or other popular pages it could help drive significant interest in your business and what you have to offer. We’ll be driving around 2 million visitors to those pages during All of whom are current or potential visitors to Wales.