How do you change perceptions of a whole town? Put it on the map? Persuade people that it’s not just a fuddy-duddy museum piece but an adventure destination of note with a vibrant food and wine culture too?
You call in the bloggers, of course.
Add in activities like microlighting, river rafting, a foefie slide, plenty of good food and wine, knock-out scenery, comfortable beds and a packed programme, and you have a sure-fire recipe for success.
This was the thinking of Amanda Shackley of Swellendam Tourism, assisted by Thaya Bedford of LoveOverberg, who recently organised a media tour of Swellendam and its environs for a group of eight bloggers under the banner of #Swellenblog.
I was the lucky representative from Flow Communications, who tagged along wearing our South African Tourism hat.
The amazing Amanda crammed in as much as possible, from visiting De Hoop Nature Reserve to breakfast in Suurbraak, to horse riding in the Langeberg mountains and indulging in milkshakes and waffles at the Diesel & Creme roadhouse near Barrydale.
Every day's activities were interspersed with beautifully prepared meals (including possibly the best steak to be had in the southern hemisphere, at De Companjie restaurant, which brings the meat straight off its own farm).
And that's not to mention the wine tastings, solving-the-meaning-of-life-late-night conversations, and barrels of laughs that went along with it.
So, when @bestcapetownSA, @pacuraru, @ishotimagesza, @curious_luke, @redwingstarling, @VagabondScribe, @deshaakonsen and @moving_sushi came to town, Swellendam didn't quite know what had hit it.
"What's the Wi-Fi code?" was the generally rallying cry of the group as we poured out of the van provided by SwellenCab and driven by @Simon87guide (yes, he too had just started his Twitter account).
The next question was: "What's your Twitter handle?"
Amazingly, Amanda had managed to get practically every outfit we visited to sign up to Twitter, so even the Twitter newbies were able to answer.
Then, before a fork was lifted, a sip of wine tasted or an adventure embarked on, everything and anything was photographed, filmed, instagrammed and tweeted from every conceivable angle.
See the results of the #Swellenblog twitter onslaught here.
What follows is a taste of what we got up to (and Swellendam can certainly say that it has now truly joined the Twitterverse) ...
