It sounds obvious but the most successful projects I work on or see presented at conferences have one key ingredient. People who work on it give a shit.

At #SoMeT12 in November, Dave Olsen from Hootsuite explained how Hootsuite enters markets with virtually no marketing budget. They leverage the passion of their local ambassadors and builds them in a community that often turns into movement.

Ocean City has created a community of the most passionate locals in the city who love where they live, want to talk about it, and who can help amplify positive messages and correct negative perceptions. Essentially people who give a shit. In 2011, 20 ambassadors answered nearly 9,0000 questions. Pretty much for free.

We work with many DMOs who have great people who care about what they do. I’m not going to list them all but I’m using Flanders as a good example of people who really cared about the project we worked on and went over and above what was asked from them to make Flanders is a Festival a success.