Why Twitter and Facebook Make Me Swear Like a Scrap Man

People say to me it must be easy ‘playing’ on Facebook and Twitter all day, ‘building a community’, and to be honest yeah, it beats working down t’pit. However, there are certain things that really pi** me off!

We’ll start with Facebook. The worse thing I find about Facebook is those sodding games people play.

Update after update. ‘Please help take care of my baby eaglet’ ‘You have just received a fortune cookie.’ ‘Sarah found a lost Chinchilla. Can you help feed it?’

No I bloody can’t! I’ve got real kids and a real girlfriend to feed, in real life!

And the most consistently annoying one, ‘Have you got any timber for my farm?’

No! No! No! I don’t keep imaginary building supplies, you sad case ***, try a f****** DIY shop!

And then there’s the stupid groups. I kid you not there is a group on Facebook called ‘Flipping the Pillow Over to Get the Cold Side’ – members 3,834,093.

Almost four million people agree that flipping their pillows over is worth joining a group about. Is there only me that thinks this is just completely and absolutely bloody ridiculous? And that’s not the worst one…

And then there’s the name… I have grown to despise the name ‘Facebook’ with all my being. I don’t know why I just really hate it and don’t even like saying it anymore.  Urgh…  makes me wince, it’s so pathetic and lame. And the colour… Boring boring blue and white, please let me change my ******* site!!

Let’s move on to Twitter before I smash this computer up…

I have a really serious issue with how some people use Twitter.  ‘See my blog post here.’ ‘I posted some pictures here.’ ‘Check this video out’.

WHY? What makes you think that, without any explanation I’m going to spend my precious time clicking on your link, just because you’ve posted something? TELL ME WHAT IT IS IDIOT! People need to think about what they’re doing. You’re sending a message out to the world, in a sea of messages. Make it stand out a bit, or don’t bloody bother…

‘My greyhound has just gave birth to 10 puppies and they all have two heads. See the pics here.’ Now that kind of thing makes me click!

Next is ‘Retweets’. Now in principle Retweets are a good idea. Rewarding your follower for an interesting tweet by sending their message to all your followers. The problem is people do it a bit too much and the tweets aren’t always what I consider worth retweeting.

If lots of people do this, which they do, then you end up getting messages from lots of people, who you aren’t even following. This makes a mockery of the whole thing. I choose to follow the people I choose to follow because I want to know what they have to say. I didn’t follow you so I don’t want to keep getting your tweets.

The whole celebrity thing is a bit of a let down too. Stephen Fry’s generally flogging some charity or pretty mundane stuff and the others don’t seem to provide very good quality. The movie star Denise Richards is always going on about her kids. I could be following my next door neighbour!  Denise, tell me some gossip about film stars or what’s the bloody point you being one?

Rant over. 

 

 

Get More Guests Through Facebook

My ultimate goal with this blog and the social networks is to build a global community of like-minded B&B owners.

However I'm as guilty as anyone for spending far too long on Facebook, and not always using the time to focus on my goal.

It's easy to get distracted on social networks and not stick to your goals. 

So, (if this is your goal) how can you get more customers through Facebook? Everyone raves that it's a fantastic tool but are the majority of marketeers using it to its full potential? I suspect not.

Here's just one suggestion that I'm confident will gain your B&B more bookings. 

Find as many groups (not pages because you can't contact the creator) as you can that your customer base will regularly see the updates from.

If you have a vegetarian B&B in Cornwall then find the groups relating to travel in Cornwall and vegetarians.

Then send the creator a message similar to the one below. 

Dear ____ ,

Would you please do me a huge favour and give your group members the opportunity of winning a stay in my B&B. It will give added value to your group members and will help us to gain exposure for our B&B, through your large and impressive community. 

I would like to give away a free stay for XXX nights for XXX amount of people. Could you please post the following into your update:

Paul's luxury Veggie B&B in Cornwall is offering a free stay to all XXXXX group members. To win simply answer this question and post the answer on Paul's Facebook page.

What is Paul's Veggie B&B's breakfast speciality? (This is the unique selling point of your B&B - make sure that is the focus of your question).

Is it;

a) 14 inch local veggie sausage

or b) muesli made with local raspberries

To find the answer visit www.paulsveggiebnb.com

I hope you can help, please let me know if I can help you in any way.

Thank you very much indeed etc etc

Ok, so my example is a bit naff but you get the idea. Do this same competition with as many groups as you can that have a large amount of visitors, who could be interested in what you have to offer. The groups will be constantly looking for content so will certainly be up for it.

 Unfortunately you will have to give away a bit of your time and a room, but I promise it will really build awareness if done properly. And if your guests have a good experience then, (because they won the stay) there's a great chance they'll come back.

Is that a more pro-active way to use Facebook? I think so.

Just a thought...