What is Social Media exactly?

The recent explosion of so called social media sites like Twitter and Facebook has without doubt been phenominal with new sites springing up daily and even more prolific are the army of "Social Media Consultants" making money out of it all. Social Media is not new, It has in actual fact been around for several years in the form of, forums, blogs guestbook reviews and so on, these are still very important part of web marketing.

How do I use Social Media?

Despite the hype about how much business social media can deliver, you need to think carefully about how much time you have to spend working on it and more importantly which social media sites you want to become involved in. it is a minefield which can gobble up every minute of your day unless you go about it systematically. Knowledge of your existing and target market is vital in knowing which Social Media websites to concentrate your efforts on. Central to any social media presence is a blog, if used properly, even on its own it can drive large numbers of visitors to your site.

Will it help my business?

This is a question I have been working on for ever! I have concluded that the social media is a good tool for those professionals who have the skills to use it properly to further their careers and for bigger business with branded products.

Like any other form of marketing the old saying that "you only get back what you put in" applies. It takes time and to some extent skill in knowing how to "Socialise" without blowing your own trumpet too often or too loudly. Small tourism businesses especialy accommodation providers should definately get listed in TripAdvisor.com as I know first hand that many people planning a holiday or visit to an area use customer reviews regularly in order to get an idea about the place they are intending to visit and word of mouth reviews from previous customers are about the most useful way of finding out. But beware bad reviews cannot be removed, only responded to. I have still to meet a small tourism business especially accommodation business who can substantiate a claim to have significant business generated through the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

Some tourism businesses are better placed to capitalise on Social Media than others. Generally speaking the more people/customers passing through a business the more can be gained from social media, like the difference between a 60 bed hotel and a Holiday lodge is vast in terms of customer numbers. So if no one is talking about your business then unless you have regular input it will all just die a death.

I also stress that the Social Media should be used to drive potential customers to your website rather than the other way round. I see facebook and ther logos on so many websites which so often only serve to slow down page loading time and drive customers to the socialmedia website never to return! What is the point of sending your site visitors to Twitter or Facebook if there is nothing to read on your pages.

I think all in all social media marketing is where we were with SEO a couple of years ago, but the market is changing and there are some exciting things on the "search" horizon but now for many small businesses is too much too soon. Don't put all your eggs into this particular basket, it's better to wait till the nest is nice and warm before investing heavily in it unless you have the resources to follow it through. Just make sure that whatever you do get into that you do it properly. Your blog is a good start, look at it, do you blog a couple of times a week? If the answer to that is yes, then perhaps you should consider moving into social media a little more. If the answer is no then you should think carefully before wasting more of your valuable time in Facebook or Twitter at the expense of your blog. If you go anywhere from here go sign up to TripAdvisor. Self caterers should go to Flipkey or My cottage holiday to sign up as TA do not allow self catering entries directly.

We have a Good knowledge of what works and what doesn't but we dont at this time want to join the ranks of Social Media consultants vying for business. We will, on request, give you likely prices for taking your business foreward into the social media maelstrom! but only after we establish that your business is suited to this type of marketing and what will be your likely return on effort for various inputs.