The Fairfield County Local Expert Program is a unique mission that aims to bring synergy to the Fairfield County community by empowering residents to discover new experiences in their own backyard and to share their expertise of hidden gems with friends, family, and visitors. To provide our Experts with the tools they need, our organization hosts opportunities for Local Experts to learn more about the county’s local businesses, history, themed trails, events, and culture. Through this program, we continue to pass on the knowledge we have at the visitor center and share it with the public in a new way that is engaging for local residents – making them true ambassadors for their community. Our ambassadors are people who share content online, interact with the community, and give reviews to their peers– they aren’t motivated by compensation. They are proud of their community and want to share it with others. By participating in the Local Expert Program, residents boost local tourism, make friends, and create memories while completing special challenges along the way– all to inspire visits to the destination.
Through social media ads, radio spots, and printed banners hung throughout the county, we were able to create a solid marketing strategy to recruit Local Experts. Within the first month of launching the campaign, we received over 30 registrants to become Local Experts, which put us on track to reach our goal for 2022! In addition to our marketing efforts, we developed a landing page on our website dedicated to the program where proud locals can learn more, apply, and read about our visitor center and its resources; our team also created a private Facebook Group for Local Experts to network amongst each other. Website logins were created for each Local Expert to access a password-protected dashboard where they can view resources and digital copies of our materials; they also have access to a Challenges dashboard where they can find year-round and seasonal challenges that they can complete for points, and they can redeem those points for special prizes and merchandise.
Local Expert Landing Page: https://visitfairfieldcounty.org/local-expert/
Local Expert Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vfclocalexperts/
