OKC CVB's website needs work

[Patrick]

A visitor from out of state sent this email to me. He makes some good points. I hope some people from the OKC CVB are reading this.

-------
Dear Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau,

I was shocked to go to Oklahoma City's Visitors website at
www.okccvb.org and see the site that promotes your growing city. I
simply couldn't believe this is your introduction to your town. I was
told I need to visit Oklahoma, and Oklahoma City in particular. I went
to the site and saw this distorted picture of your city at the top of
the page. What's that about? The picture size doesn't fit the space.
The Oklahoma City 'logo'?? My god! That looks like something from 1975 -
it's horrible! Bottom line: I was surprised at all the good things I am
hearing about Okla. City and then see this horrible website. I travel
often and visit many Visitors Center sites. I wonder if you realize how
awful your site really is? For comparison in your region, I visited -
and you should too:
Dallas - www.dallascvb.com
Tulsa - www.visittulsa.com
Wichita - www.visitwichita.com
Fort Worth - www.fortworth.com
Springfield, MO - www.springfieldmo.org
Little Rock - www.littlerock.com
Austin - www.austintexas.org
Denver - www.denver.org
Kansas City - www.visitkc.com
St. Louis - www.explorestlouis.com
Topeka (!) - www.tcvb.accesstopeka.com
Memphis - www.memphistravel.com
San Antonio - www.sanantoniocvb.com

I would hope that all the progressive things that I hear are happening
in your city will eventually make its way to the Internet gateway to
your city - the Convention and Visitors pages on the web are considered
just that. You have much work to do.

Respectfully,
----------

[metro]

Has anyone forwarded this to the OKCCVB??? I know I sent it to Sean Ridenour who is the Director of Marketing, if we all would send this to someone at the bureau then something may get done about it just like we did with the airport website. Here ya go:

sridenour@okccvb.org
sprice@okccvb.org
hferringer@okccvb.org
bsteenbergen@okccvb.org
convsalesdept@okccvb.org

[Patrick]

Thanks metro. I'll be forwarding it as well. I'm surprised someone from out of state actually emailed me about our CVB website, but I'm not really surprised with the opinion. We could definitely do a much better job marketing our city! Will Rogers World Airport finally came around. It's time for the CVB to follow suit.

[Pete]

The WRWA website has not had any new construction updates in 3 months, so I wouldn't hold them out as some kind of example.

Karen Carney promised that once they had the new site in place, it would be much easier to update, as that had been the previous problem.

I sent her an email 5 days ago without a response and still no updates to the site.




Also, there is some very important things missing from that site, such as:

- An airport schematic that shows the approach drives and parking areas (terminal is only shown)
- Pictures of new facade or transportation island (there are none at all that I could find)
- Any decent sized pictures at all -- all the ones featured are very tiny and most are close-ups of gate numbers.


It's nice they took the trouble to revamp the site but IMO it's no better than what was there before and is nowhere near effective as a marketing tool, especially given the significant recent investment.

[metro]

Thats true Malibu, maybe you can post good ol' gal Karen Carney's info again so we can all mass email her again as well

[Karried]

Patrick, send your email buddy a link to the real OK travel site which is much better in my opinion:

http://www.travelok.com/index.asp

http://www.travelok.com/

Tell his this is what most people get when they search/Google Oklahoma Travel - I don't even know how he found the other site but I'll admit it does need to be updated.

Send him this link asap - he will probably be a bit more inclined to visit.

http://www.travelok.com/index.asp

[Karried]

I like the Springfield, Missouri site the best so far. What are your favorites?

[Patrick]

Unfortunately, that's the state's website. I think the point he was trying to make was that if we wanted to be taken seriously as a city, we needed a website that compared with other cities like Dallas, Austin, etc.

[writerranger]

Unfortunately, that's the state's website. I think the point he was trying to make was that if we wanted to be taken seriously as a city, we needed a website that compared with other cities like Dallas, Austin, etc.

If you were responding to Karrie about Springfield, that is the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau site, not run by the state and I was also impressed. OKC's really does need some work.

[jbrown84]

I have always thought that the CVB website was absolutely embarassing. Like he said in the email, that stretched picture at the top looks awful, and it's the first thing you see. The site looks unprofessional and outdated and the content is terrible. Also, the CVB's printed materials are almost as bad. Like Karried said, Travelok.com and the state tourism department materials are SO much better (national award winning acutally). I really hope this will finally get them to change that site.

[writerranger]

I have always thought that the CVB website was absolutely embarassing. Like he said in the email, that stretched picture at the top looks awful, and it's the first thing you see. The site looks unprofessional and outdated and the content is terrible. Also, the CVB's printed materials are almost as bad. Like Karried said, Travelok and the state tourism department materials are SO much better (national award winning acutally). I really hope this will finally get them to change that site.

That picture at the top is just awful with the squatty looking buildings from the picture stretch. I wish they would just redirect the site to the state site, or at least put up a "new design coming soon" banner on the site. I agree that it is embarrassing.

[Karried]

I emailed a link to this discussion to the webmaster, constructive criticism might be something they will consider. Hopefully, changes will be made and the website will become something to be proud of..

[metro]

What about www.downtownokc.com , its about OKC only and its a much better site

[metro]

Got this response back just now:

Thank you. I’ve already received this message from the original sender. Work is being done to revive the site.



Just curious, though…why did you receive this message? I’ve visited your website and I’m having difficulty making the connection. It’s interesting…that’s all.



Thank you,



Sean Ridenour

[ksearls]

Metro, thanks for the plug for the downtownokc site!

Actually, we just launched the new site Monday and I encourage everyone to visit and let me know what you think. It is jam packed full of content and I hope any and everything you want to know about Downtown OKC. Make sure and check out what we call the Super Map or interactive map. Also be sure and visit the postcard page too and spread the word about the new site.

Thanks for your help in spreading the word! OKC is GOING UP!

[Patrick]

Got this response back just now:

The guy told me he emailed me the message because I represented OKCTalk. I guess he thought we were somehow tied to the leadership of OKCCVB. Anyways, sounds like the guy simply did a Google Search, and OKCTalk is one of the sites he hit.

[metro]

No problem Kim, and if you see Dave, tell him to give Steven with AEP a call. I've been trying to get in touch with him the last few days.

[Patrick]

Well guys, looks like the OKC CVB listened to us. Check out their new website. Looks nice and updated!

http://okccvb.org

[writerranger]

OUTSTANDING! The out of town guy who sent an email to them and OKCTalk made a difference and he probably doesn't even realize it!

[HOT ROD]

it is a great improvement.

But Im surprised they do not have the NO/OKC Hornets in the Sports/To Do sections. Why is it that OKC web sites are so sloooow to update information? Can't somebody stay on top of things?

I bet, they will add the Hornets when the season is over, something like 'see, we're major league b/c we had the Hornets of the NBA' - its too bad they dont even mention it now that the season is well underway.

Honestly, I think DowntownOKC's update is why the cvb updated, moreso than my or other's letters and comments. DOKC's website is better but the new visitokc web site is a dramatic improvement over the prior one, that's for sure.

[jbrown84]

What's wierd is that they have the Hornets in the flash intro but not listed under Professional Sports. I'm guessing the majority of what is on the site is just copied directly from what was there before, and they're still working on getting things updated.

At least the front page looks great.

[metro]

But Im surprised they do not have the NO/OKC Hornets in the Sports/To Do sections. Why is it that OKC web sites are so sloooow to update information? Can't somebody stay on top of things?

I couldn't agree more, they are on the flash but nothing more. Also alot of the text seemed outdated and promoting some outdated places or not as "hip" as we might hope for. Hopefully they are still working to change the text once you click on a hypertext. I also hope they loose that cheesy logo. At least it is a step in the right direction!