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26
Jan 2022
Harrogate council paid social media influencer £700 to promote town
Harrogate Borough Council paid a social media influencer from Bristol £700 to promote the town's Christmas Fayre in a blog — which only received two likes on Facebook, including one from the council itself.
Heather on Her Travels is run by travel blogger Heather Cowper and is aimed at people over 50. Ms Cowper writes about her trips to different places in the UK and abroad with articles focused on "authentic travel with a little luxury".
In December last year, Ms Cowper, who has 8,000 followers on Twitter, 4,000 on Facebook and 17,000 on Instagram, published an article called "11 Fun Things To Do Over Harrogate - Our Winter Break".
It named the council's new Harrogate Christmas Fayre as the number 1 attraction.
The Stray Ferret discovered through a freedom of information request that the council, through its tourism body Visit Harrogate, paid Ms Cowper £700 + VAT for the article.
Its performance on social media raises questions over whether the fee represents value for money.
On Twitter, the article received just one retweet. It performed better on Facebook but still only won two likes, including one from Visit Harrogate.
One of the Instagram posts.
Several photos of the trip on Instagram fared better, receiving up to 50 likes.
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Other UK councils have used social media influencers to promote their area, including Edinburgh City Council. Edinburgh Live reported the authority paid £14,000 to Instagram influencers who praised the Scottish capital as a destination.
However, these posts were more successful, with one post about a bike tour around Edinburgh racking up almost 2,500 likes.
'Attracts our target demographic'
Gemma Rio, head of Destination Harrogate, which controls Visit Harrogate, defended the £700 fee for Ms Cowper. Ms Rio said she produced "incredibly well-written content" that could help the council attract new visitors through social media:
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