10 Do's and 10 Don'ts of Social Networking For B&Bs to Attract Business

I understand that not all B&Bs use the networks for business and lots use Twitter and Facebook to talk to friends and network with other B&Bs, as well as attracting business. I believe though that you should try to separate business from pleasure and perhaps think about having a personal account as well to talk to friends with. Concentrate day time efforts on attracting business and evenings/weekends for personal. This sounds like it might be a pain but it isn't really. 

DO take all your guests' Twitter and Facebook details and follow them. Make sure you take this information and over a period of time you will have a large network of former and future guests.

DON'T send personal messages to former guests or any followers with 'offers'. People hate messages in their inbox and will block you. 

DO tweet and Facebook offers along with news of local events/activities. 'Come and stay for the ***** festival for half price'. Post offers once a week but NOT all the time.

DON'T forget about your audience with everything you write. Audience. Audience. Audience. 

DO think about what your audience wants to know about? Take them to your paradise, what do guests love about your place. Talk about your experience.

DON'T talk about things that are too mundane. Do potential guests care that you have just read a magazine and are now cleaning toilets?

DO talk about local events in your area. If people fancy an event you've told them about in your area, they will stay with you. Retweet local tourist board and information sources. Write blogs, post pics. Become the knowledgeable voice for your area.

DON'T just link Facebook and Twitter together to make things easier, unless you use Selective tweets. When you put a picture on facebook it tells Twitter like this: 'I've just posted a picture on Facebook' with a link. That won't make people want to look because they don't know what the picture is. Never post links without full descriptions.

DO (and this is a big do, that many people don't do and should) put lots of pictures on Facebook. What's the point of having access to the world and not showing every nook and cranny of your beautiful place.

DON'T make huge attempts at gaining followers that aren't potential guests. I know first hand that begging for more followers is a waste of time. Quality not quantity is the key. Networking with thousands of people who will never go near your establishment and bring nothing to the table is pointless. 

DO find the right people to network with. Post on Facebook sites where your potential guests will be. Perhaps fans of a festival or local venue, a local hiking group. Think about where your guests will network and find them. Spend a lot of time doing this. Network with the right people or social media will become a wasted exercise.

DON'T Tweet too much. Only tweet when you have something worth saying. Noisy people get deleted by others who only have small networks. Imagine if your guest only has 30 friends - if you are tweeting all day you will be the only person they see.

DO make some fun films and post them on Facebook. Don't be deluded into thinking that you have to produce professional promotional videos. If I saw a video of someone catching a big fish in your local lake I might think, 'I want to go fishing there, I'll ask them about rates'. Sell the sizzle not the steak. You provide an experience, show it.

DON'T forget to ENGAGE people in your network. There's no point in having followers if you aren't interacting with them. Build relationships, find common ground. It's hard work but if you don't network socially on social networks there's no point. This is why you shouldn't have 1000s of pointless fans, or it becomes pointless. Retweet your followers if they have something worth saying.

DO Run competitions/create promotions to give you something to talk about. Speak to local businesses and run a joint competition. 'Win a free day out at local theme park and a free stay in our B&B.'

DON'T play the stupid games on Facebook. The easiest way to loose followers is to beg for bits of wood to build your Farmville farm.

DO be human, be funny, be entertaining, sell your self as a humourous, light-hearted and fun establishment. No one likes a square and a fun social networker gets more attention than a dry one.

DON'T lose sight of your goals. It's easy to become distracted but your aim through social networking is to build traffic to your site by producing content and ultimately gain more visitors. 

DO have Twitter and Facebook links on your blog/website. If a potential guest looks at your page and sees this they may have a look at your presence on Facebook. If you've followed all the above, they'll see you as a great host and book. The very fact that you are on FB and TW will make some people think you are a forward thinking business and want to stay with you.

DO write down lists of all the content you would like to produce and what your ultimate objectives are. Lists make life so much easier.

DON'T forget to write a comment, retweet or 'like' this blog if you found it useful. Follow us on Twitter too: @bandbclub

 

 

 

The B&B Twitter TTSF Technique

As with all social media, Twitter can be highly addictive. To get the best out of it you have to set yourself certain guidelines and stick to them. 

Firstly a few words about Twitter etiquette. The old analogy of a cocktail party is a great way to help describe and understand what Twitter is. For a hotel like yours it’s like a cocktail party full of your old guests, future guests and probably a few gatecrashers you’re not too concerned about! 

If you were at a cocktail party, would you constantly be telling people about your cheap room rates and ‘sympathetically’ decorated rooms? Would you real of extremely blue jokes, or share pictures of your hotel to any stranger that would listen? No! Unless you were incredibly drunk!! 

Twitter has a code, that if broken will see you being ‘unfollowed’ by potential guests (the equivalent to having your back turned on in a cocktail party!)

Think carefully about how you should connect with strangers, (but don’t be overly concerned or you won’t do anything!) The trick is to be entertaining, interesting, engaging and fun to all. In 140 characters or less!

Before you begin using Twitter, or if you haven’t already, have a look at the business guidelines.

Twitter should be a small, but important part of your marketing plan to win guests.

 Remember you are now a Publisher, so think about each tweet carefully. Though there are exceptions, I don’t believe that most tweets should have a link to a picture or web site. Busy people only have time for 140 characters!

However tempting it may be to show pictures of a nice breakfast or something personal that you made, don’t do it unless what you've made is particularly exceptional. 

The first thing to do is gather guests usernames. This is fundamentally important to making Twitter work for you as a hotelier. Change your booking form to include the field ‘Twitter Username’. You’ll be surprised how many people will fill in the box and think it's cool. This will become far more useful than a phone number or email address.  If they don’t fill in the box, then your follow up email, (which asks guests to write a review on Trip Advisor if they enjoyed their stay) can also ask for guests’ Twitter ID.

Hopefully you have every email saved on your machine, of every customer who has ever booked with you on the internet. Send one mass email to all asking for their Twitter user IDs.

Now you have all your past guest Twitterer’s (?) user names, have found them online and started following them, (and some of them are following you) it’s time to start thinking about content.

 This will either make you or break you as a successful Tweetist (I’m making these words up now). Four tweets a day is probably a good rule to start with. Think what will interest people as well as jokes and amusing anecdotes. Talking about walking the dog or a picture of the pet rabbit just doesn’t cut it anymore. There’s so much to choose from out there that people will only remember you if you’re interesting. Think of each tweet in the same way that you would think about writing literature or advertisements. It’s important to get the right tone and not be too formal.

Lots of people tend to tweet three times in a row because they are on their PC or phone at the time when they have things to say. This is a mistake because only a small number of your audience are likely to be online at one time. Spread content throughout the day.

Here is what I think would make for a good day’s worth of tweeting from a B&B. By making sure your tweets fit into the following categories, you will ensure each tweet is successful at engaging your audience.

TOURISM - 10.00am Just heard on the radio that ‘my area’ has won an award for Most Beautiful Village in the county. Congratulations Paulsville! 

 TEASER - 2.00pm Guests have been out walking the fells. Lucky people, such a lovely day. Braised pheasant for tea. Mmmm.

SPECIAL DEAL (FOR TWITTERERS ONLY) - 5.00pm Guest cancellation for the 25^th! Would anyone like to stay for half price? Special Twitter deal, expires tomorrow!

FUNNY - 10.00pm Apparently the Disney Corporation are mounting a legal battle with Scotland, demanding they change the way they say 'Does not'.

Good magazine editors 'spike' content that is not interesting, informative, funny or engaging. Begin to think like a Publisher, because you are one.

If you have a Facebook account, save yourself time by downloading this application, which allows you to update FB and Twitter at the same time,  when you see fit. Not all your updates/tweets are suitable for both networks so Selective Twitter is a great idea.