Herm is one of the Channel Islands, one of the smaller Islands. Apparently you can walk across Herm in about 10 minutes. Sixty people live there full time and its main source of revenue is tourism. So Herm has to do a lot of marketing to get people to take the boat from Guernsey to Herm to spend 10 minutes to have a look around, maybe have a cuppa, and then go back. How can you generate enough tourist dollars to keep 60 people going all year round in an area that’s less than the size a city block?
Well, first, you set up a site on Facebook and garner 4,000 followers – WOW that’s over 300 fans for each Herm resident. You Twitter with instant photos and snippets of life on Herm. You do YouTube for longer snippets – because really Herm is just a snippet itself – You do Flickr and TripAdvisor too. That’s right you load the marketing arsenal with all the ammunition you can find and fire away – Voila! you are now an international destination and life, though confined, is good on Herm. Let’s hear it for all those Hermits or is it Hermites!

So now, to make your shop or website an international destination, you just have to do what Herm has done. Using all the FREE technology out there, you have to make your spot an international destination by taking lots of pictures, sending lots of Tweets, posting lots of Facebook comments, queries, replies etc. and trying to get as many people, who are in your area or who come to your area to come directly to YOU!
Please let me know if it works for you. As an aside Lucy Neatby has just created an APP for the Channel Island cast-on. It’s available as a download from Patternfish. And here’s a picture of a pattern from Lucy’s arsenal with a “sea” theme. Lucy is from Sussex, and to my knowledge is the knitting designer closest to the Channel Islands. The tea cozy is from Le Tissier who can trace her lineage back to a French connection on one of the Channel Islands – very cool!
Dinner? Here’s a recipe for pancakes. There is a strong French influence in the Channel Islands, so maybe this is more of a crepe recipe and you can always stuff crepes. I like this site because it lists the Channel Islands, including Herm and tells you what’s happening there – It’s on my hit list!.