Ireland Wants You to Tweet Your ...Irishness?

If you are part-Irish, want to be Irish or just want to go to Ireland, you need to check out this campaign.

Tourism Ireland recently launched a marketing campaign encouraging people to connect with their "Irishness" in hopes that this relationship will lead to a convenient visit to the motherland.

The ‘My Irish 140’ campaign aimed at sparking the imagination and creativity of Irish descendants to follow myIrish140 on Twitter and tweet, in 140 characters or less, what makes them Irish. Each tweet must contain the hashtag #makesmeirish.

What's great about this cause is that it is a fun and imaginative way to spark interest through social media.

Everything is centered around the number '140', which as we all know is the max number of characters allowed in a tweet. The festivities began at 1:40pm last Friday and continued on for 140 hours or 5.8 days. On the campaign's website, myirish140.com, the top tweets will be featured and a list of 140 things to do and see in Ireland are continuing to be released.

So what's the incentive to tweet?

Tourism Ireland consistently gave away gifts at 140 minute intervals to the best tweets, and the most inspiring #makesmeirish tweet will be awarded an exciting 140-hour adventure tour of Ireland- sheepdog trials and hot air baloon rides included.

According to the U.S. Census, 34 million U.S. residents claim Irish ancestry-- which is almost nine times the population of Ireland itself (3.9 million). What's more is that Irish is the nation's second most frequently reported ancestry, trailing only Germany.

Perhaps this campaign is part of a greater strategy to take advantage of the renewed interest in ancenstral roots as a result of shows and initiatives like Who Do You Think You Are? a popular show where celebrities trace their ancestral roots. Definitley not a bad idea for other countries to consider using social media to help people identify with their roots and up the number of vacays.


What do you think? Would connecting with a country or destination through social media make you more likely to visit?