Honolulu—The Japanese language Twitter Account—HawaiiArukikata https://twitter.com/hawaiiarukikata received its 10,000th Twitter follower this month—making it a significant social media personality in Japan for Hawaii. Hawaii Arukikata posted its first Tweet on April 11, 2009, becoming the first in the travel industry to Tweet about Hawaii in Japanese.

“HawaiiArukikata’s following is largely Japanese international travelers who love Hawaii,” said Akiko Ching, Chief Editor and Content Manager of New Media and Web Portal Sites at PacRim Marketing Group.  “We Tweeted a total of 13,567 messages in 1068 days by mid-March; that’s an average of 12.7 Tweets a day.”

HawaiiArukikata’s far reaching effect and positive impact was felt following the earthquake and tsunami last March. “We addressed the crisis and Japanese peoples’ needs directly, conversing on Twitter how those affected could find help and posting comforting thoughts and graphics links,” Ching said.

The HawaiiArukikata Twitter account is linked to PacRim Marketing Group’s popular web portal site, www.Hawaii-Arukikata.com, the largest commercial website about Hawaii in Japanese.  The site, which gets an average of 600,000 visits and 2.8 million page views per month constantly ranks at the top of the largest Japanese search engines, including Google and Yahoo! Japan.  It is updated every weekday and focuses on the latest news from Hawaii, with informative features on cuisine, culture, fashion, events and entertainment. Built on ongoing reports compiled from Hawaii and integrated with other social media networks and videos from Hawaii, the website has become a trusted source of information, entertainment, and networking.

As an important part of the social media communications strategy, the Hawaii-arukikata site has posted more than 600 videos about Hawaii, including interviews with Japanese travelers, events, hotel and dining, and activity videos. All videos are in YouTube format, less than three minutes, short, informative, and attention grabbing.

"We have had more than 2,334,820 video viewers," said Dave Erdman, PacRim Marketing Group President and CEO. "We use twitter to alert users that we have posted a new video."

“For more than ten years, the web portal site has been a way for those who love Hawaii to stay in touch with the islands, learn more, and share their thoughts and feelings about Hawaii,” said Ching.

The website hosts 6 Japanese language Twitter feeds. Together, the Twitter accounts have more than 16,000 followers who PacRim’s website and social media teams correspond with on a daily basis.   Each Twitter account focuses on a special interest, such as gourmet food, shopping, or activities in Hawaii.

The Twitter accounts include: www.twitter.com/pacrimmarketing; www.twitter.com/HawaiiArukikata; www.twitter.com/Hawaiidegohan. They are linked with www.facebook.com/myhawaiiarukikata, which now has more than 1,000 fans.