by Joe Johnson on 24. Aug, 2010 in Travel IT
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Social media is huge and it’s here to stay. Facebook, the world’s most highly populated social network now has over 500 million users, if it were a country it would be bigger in population terms than the U.S.A. This is why social media is now not just an option for any business, small or large, but an absolute necessity. With many social media users logging on multiple times throughout the day, businesses have a great opportunity to get their brand out there and into the conversation without using traditional methods of paid advertising. And with a potential audience of this magnitude, your company can’t afford not to invest in social media.
The fact that social media activities are required is a given but how to go about it is an art rather than a science. Constantly bombarding people with ‘sales talk’ will turn them off immediately, you need to offer your audience great content that they want to engage with. This could take the form of a video on your website, or an interesting, newsworthy post on your blog, anything that makes your audience want to engage with you and share content with others.
Handy tips to getting your B&B on social media
The key component of your campaign should indeed by the company blog, this provides the foundation for all your social activities and is the first point of contact for customers and potential customers trying to discover the human side of your business. This notion of appearing human is crucial, almost every business now has a website that informs and educates, make sure yours also discusses, jokes and debates. Tools such as Facebook and Twitter can then be used to promote the blog and continue the dialogue with your publics.
It is important to stay on top of social trends as it is young, developing medium which changes almost daily. Something all location-based businesses like B&Bs will need to start considering is location based services, this allows visitors to ‘check in’ at your physical location letting all their friends know where they are and earning you a spot of valuable publicity. Foursquare has been offering this for some time but Facebook places will bring it to the masses. So there you have it, a few handy tips to get your B&B out there in the public consciousness, get blogging and tweeting!
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