Social media

Instagram has recently made two changes which are likely to make a big difference to users.

Firstly, you can now log in to your account and post to Instagram directly from your computer so Instagram is no-longer mobile-only.

The second change is that now everyone can add links in Stories. This used to be something only available on verified accounts or those with a given number of followers but is now being rolled out everywhere.

To add links to your Stories, you need to use the Link sticker …

I love twitter for the variety of topics  on there and the many useful links I often find, but I rarely suggest businesses use it to promote their businesses. Whenever I look at Google Analytics for tourism business websites, twitter seems to refer very little business.

Twitter is brilliant for one thing though: generating free media coverage.

Journalists love twitter. They use it to gather stories, spot trends, find new contacts and – most importantly and useful for you – to ask for informati…

Do you sometimes struggle to think of good things to post on social media? It can be hard to try to find different ways of saying "Look at my business, come and visit!" without boring people or feeling like you're being too pushy (you're not!).

Here are some different types of social media posts you can use to promote your business, engage visitors and make your feed more interesting. Using a combination of these will help build engagement and followers. But don't forget to do numbers 6 and 10 …

Ask any tourism business what's their most effective, lowest cost marketing method and they'll almost certainly answer 'word of mouth'. It's easy, it's free - and it 'just happens'. Or does it?

Most businesses just hope for word of mouth publicity and recommendations from satisfied customers. They do a good job, and hope word of mouth referrals will follow. Now we have 'word of mouth on steroids', in the form of social media so it's become even more important to impress.

Surprisingly few peopl…

I’ve been asked several questions this week, all with a common theme: comparisons.

What’s a normal level of direct bookings for an accommodation provider?

What sort of level of repeat bookings should I aim for? 

What would be a usual bounce rate on Google?

How are bookings looking for everyone else over the next few months?

Are others experiencing a higher than usual level of cancellations?

How good is my social media compared to others?

I’ll answer each of these in a little more detail l…

Images are often the very first thing that people notice when they scroll through your social media.

Impactful images can make a big difference, but each social media channel has different image size requirements. While we might have got used to the idea that we need square images for Instagram, not everyone recognises the power of a long vertical image on Pinterest. 

Social media channels change their image requirements quite frequently so it can be hard to keep track of which channel needs w…

Most tourism and hospitality businesses have to fill last minute gaps created by cancellations or dips in demand. This year it looks like there may be more cancellations than usual as visitors switch-book or have to change plans to fit their changing circumstances.

The way you try to fill those last minute gaps can really affect how your business is perceived by potential visitors.

When faced with a space to fill, the knee-jerk reaction is often to post a panicky message on social media, typic…

I saw a genius social media post last week. I don't think the person posted it with any intention of generating as much response as they did. It didn't even promote their business very well - but it could be so easily adapted and used for yours. Quite a few of you have already seen it, and commented. 

So what made it so good?

First of all, they choose a topic that most Brits feel quite strongly about - a full cooked breakfast. They asked a question, a really simple question. 

Why are posts l…