Vallejo tourism agency's new intern concentrates on Internet marketing

Vallejo tourism agency's new intern concentrates on Internet marketing
By RACHEL RASKIN-ZRIHEN/Times-Herald staff writer


Posted: 01/21/2009 01:01:39 AM PST


It was a match made in cyberspace -- where tourism officials hope to bring Vallejo to the attention of the growing multitude for whom the Internet is a main information source.

Vallejo Convention and Visitors Bureau officials recognized the need to market the city online, but lacked the expertise in-house, said executive director Mike Browne.


So the agency put an ad on an Internet advertising site and found the perfect candidate, he said. On Jan. 6, Sarah Rutan started working part time for the agency, to bring its marketing campaign into the 21st century, he said.


Rutan is a 21-year-old San Jose State University student from Vallejo who, ironically, found the job online.


"I found the job on Craigslist, and when I saw it, I knew it was the perfect internship for me," said Rutan, a Napa Valley native whose family moved to Vallejo a few years ago. "It's down the street from my house, and it's exactly what I wanted to get into."


Rutan is majoring in public relations with an eye to working for a nonprofit agency. The paid visitors bureau internship also fulfills a graduation requirement for Rutan, who is on track to graduate this spring, she said.


Browne, too, is pleased with the match.


Visitors bureau officials have been considering "for some time" finding an Internet-savvy young person familiar with social networking Web sites, he said.


"She's getting us on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot, Ning, Wikipedia, Voy.com, all those sites,"

Browne said. "We're putting 'Visit Vallejo' up there, and adding pictures and events where you can, and putting what we have to offer on the sites to promote Vallejo as a destination."

Besides attracting Internet-focused people to Vallejo, the plan is also to get reaction and feedback from them -- something possible through the networking sites, he said.


"And we're putting links to our Web site," Browne added. "It's relatively new for businesses to be part of these sites, but it's where the future is going. We're really excited about it."


Though she's been plastering Vallejo all over the Internet for only a couple of weeks, Rutan said her work is already generating buzz. Since she started Jan. 6, Vallejo's MySpace page has gotten 220 hits -- a number Rutan said she fully expects to grow as its number of network "friends" expands.


"It's been wonderful," she said. "So far, I've created networking sites for the city, and we have a 2009 Destination Vallejo photography competition coming up that I'm putting on the sites."


Rutan said she's confident the social networking Web sites are the way to market Vallejo, a city she said she's grown to love.


"I think it will work," she said. "So many people are finding their information online now. So more people will learn about our events and, hopefully, attend them."


Contact Rachel Raskin- Zrihen at RachelZ@thnewsnet.com or 553-6824.