Why should businesses use social media?

Expand your Web Presence and Reach Facebook reported in 2016 that they surpassed 1 billion daily active users. As much as we might love or hate social media, it's impossible to deny that it is an increasingly effective tool for distributing content, advertising, and maintaining customer loyalty. Those who take the time to construct engaging content are rewarded with shares - essentially free word-of-mouth advertising. Since social media marketing can be involved in several levels of your sales funnel, the return on investment is easy to see. Engaging and targeted content will help expand your business' web presence beyond just your website.

Improve your Search Engine Rankings Blogging can have a significant effect on your search engine rankings if executed properly. If your content is engaging, useful, and shareable, you can earn powerful backlinks from other established publishers, and search engines can then recognize that your content is worthy of higher rankings. Additionally, your blog posts have the potential to rank for themselves in related searches. Blogging does require more effort than other forms of social media, but the rewards can also be much greater.

What should I post about?

Local Attractions and Events A reality of the travel industry is that most of the time, a person will be interested in visiting certain attractions or events and needs lodging as a means to that end. It's not very often that the lodging is an attraction unto itself. So the idea here is that you can provide information regarding local attractions and events that are being searched for, travelers will think of you when it comes time for them to find lodging. Your brand name will be associated with the useful information they found regarding the area and all of your social media outlets will provide links back to your website, making that connection easy for web surfers.

New Upgrades at your Property A revised breakfast menu, upgraded mattresses, new sheets - there are lots of ways that you can improve the guest experience. Big or small, each of these is a new selling point! Potential guests, returning guests, and even past guests who didn't have the experience they expected, will all appreciate that you are improving their stay.

Engage with other Users Social media is meant to be interactive. Generally, the burden is on you to create content that users will want to interact with. This will not be the case when users leave reviews or comments, which means that is a great chance for you to interact with them. Be sure to thank users for good reviews, and use unfavorable reviews as an opportunity to show off your excellent customer service.

Social Media Best Practices:

Have a Plan Shaunta Grimes lays out an excellent 4-step plan for starting a daily blogging habit. Even if you'll only be blogging weekly/monthly, this plan will help you make sure that you always have something to write about. The basic premise is to share your expert knowledge of a subject, or become an expert in a subject and share that journey with us.

This Blog Scheduling Template can also help you plan out your focus and publishing: BnBwebsites Blog Scheduler Template

Use Photos A beautiful photo can be used as a great hook to get readers deeper into your post, or it can sometimes stand on its own as a piece of great content. Most up-to-date cell phones will take photos that are just fine for use in social media activity.

Post Lengths Each social media network has its own personality, but these guidelines will help get you started.

• Twitter - Tweets are limited to 280 characters so your message has to be short and sweet!
• Facebook - posts can be much longer, but you should typically aim for not more than a 2-3 sentence short paragraph.
• Blogs - posts will usually be article-style with more detailed and developed writing. Most blog posts should be anywhere from 500-700 words but it's not necessarily about a strict word count. More importantly, try to focus on a 7-10 minute read time.