Resident digital creator urges Weston to strengthen tourism social media presence

Digital creator Morgan Woodruff told the Village of Weston board she is "extremely passionate about our town" and urged officials to increase the village's social‑media presence to attract visitors. Woodruff said she has a following of several hundred thousand online and that prospective visitors, particularly younger users, often turn to platforms like Instagram and TikTok to choose destinations.

"We are not being represented, in my opinion, adequately," Woodruff said. She told trustees that while the village spends on marketing, the online content is limited; she said Visit Wausau had produced one video for Weston in the past year and that much of the village's organic online exposure came from influencers who stayed at her home.

Woodruff recommended that the board consider appointing a tourism liaison or assigning someone to work directly with Visit Wausau and to post more content on the village’s Facebook page. She highlighted inexpensive content ideas — short videos of children at Yellow Bank Park, people launching kayaks at public boat launches — aimed at attracting visitors who value outdoor recreation and are likely to spend locally.

Trustee Hussain later noted his experience serving on a county tourism committee and on a sports‑authority board and said he had engaged with tourism promotion in other roles. No formal action to change staffing or contracts was taken at the meeting; trustees asked staff to consider Woodruff’s suggestion and the tourism committee's needs as part of ongoing committee work.

Woodruff said she favored keeping existing contracts in place while adding a liaison: "I believe that we should keep our contracts. I just think that we need a liaison," she told the board. The village did not adopt a new tourism position or change its marketing contracts at the meeting.