The idea of handing someone a camera and a stipend and sending them out to record their adventure as a marketing technique has gotten a little closer to home. In May, Ben Southall got the job of doing just that in Queensland, Australia. Last week, Paul Cox got a similar job in Ocean City, Maryland.

The Baltimore Sun reports that the Delmarva Low Impact Tourism Experiences (DLITE), Rural Development Center at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, the Makai Condominiums, Worcester County Tourism, Southern Delaware Tourism and OceanCity.com joined forces to offer one individual the opportunity to travel around the Lower Eastern Shore. The job description includes blogging, tweeting, and shooting both video and stills. Paul Cox was one of 72 applicants for the two-month position, which comes with a stipend of $10,000 and the use of a two-bedroom condo in Ocean City.

I live about three hours from Ocean City and wouldn’t exactly call the area a hot bed of social media. It’s a nice area, though, and I think there’s a willingness to experiment with marketing methods outside of what has worked in the past. The idea of hiring a person solely for the purpose of telling stories about your product — in this case, an area’s tourist attractions — is still very new, but it’s already proving to be effective, especially when the topic lends itself to storytelling.

It seems likely that other tourism organizations will bring in bloggers and other social media types in the future. They won’t replace traditional marketing or public relations, but they will certainly augment them.

Photo — Thumeco