The one true factor in tough economic times is that most businesses, especially Innkeepers, need to increase their marketing budgets to retain market share and hopefully maintain or even increase revenue.  No question that this is getting harder to do as more internet companies shift from “free services” to business models designed to produce revenue.  [...]

The comments to our recent blog post on maintaining conversations with bed and breakfast guests on Twitter really helped to expand the discussion.  Both Karen Thorne from the UK (@HoptonhouseBnB) and Heather Turner (@forfeng) added several suggestions for Innkeepers to try to expand the return on investment of their Social Media Marketing efforts.  In this [...]

A lot of Innkeepers have found out that Social Media like Twitter and Facebook are great ways to reach your customers.  Social Media Marketing is all about conversation and trust with your customers, i.e. your guests.   Many Innkeepers who are on Twitter and Facebook have many followers or fans who are other Innkeepers.  In fact, [...]

On September 23, 2009, Rebecca and I attended the first annual Social Media FTW Conference in Portland, Maine.  This was a collaborative effort of several social media savvy people from Maine who put together a great collection of speakers presenting to a sold-out crowd at the University of Southern Maine’s Abromson Center.  While mostly dedicated [...]

In our last post about Twitter we explored the concept of finding your unique voice.  Many writers and social media experts are trying to figure out what’s next with the various social media outlets.  This post will explore some of these ideas and relate it to what you should be doing to anticipate, and hopefully [...]

This blog post will explore the many images, pictures, and persona that are portrayed on Twitter.  It is an essential part of the learning of how to market Bed and Breakfast Inns on this new social media.  Here are my thoughts on this subject:
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Now for a bit of the downside of Twitter. When you put yourself out there to the world, guess what?  Some people don’t particularly like what you have to say.  Sometimes you forget that a lot of people may be listening (more likely watching) what you are tweeting about.  Here are my thoughts on having [...]

Here is the third installment of my exploration of the world of Twitter (the “Twitterverse”). My Twitter ID is @InnConsultant. Follow me if you like what I am saying.
In Part I and Part II, I discussed how I first got into Social Media, and how I got hooked on it. [...]

Here is Part II of my exploration of the world of Twitter. I have been tweeting now for about two weeks, and have about 120 people actually following what I am saying on this incredible social media. It amazes me how fast this has grown for me from a peek at a [...]

This is my first week as part of the Tweople in the Twitterverse. I am trying to discover if Twitter, the new explosion in the Social Media World, is worthy of the time. Is it something that can help Innkeepers connect to their guests and build loyal travelers? My initial conclusion is [...]