What’s the ROI of Social Media for your Bed and Breakfast if you don’t advertise it?

[JBloggs]

[COLOR= rgb(68, 68, 68)]What’s the ROI of Social Media for your Bed and Breakfast if you don’t advertise it? | Chefforfeng's Weblog [/COLOR]http://bit.ly/uWK8vW

 

[Madeleine]

I don't understand what I'm missing. Here's one quote from the blog:
As a perfect example of this, I recently did an email blast for one of the inns I work with, he never wanted to put a link to their Fan Page on it before. I finally convinced him to try it just once. He got over 30 people fanning the fan page from it, not too bad considering the average open rate of email, as well as factor in those 30 were people that probably just didn’t think about the fact (or have any reason to search for) the fact the inn had a fan page.
I have links to all of my social media pages in my newsletter. 850 emails are sent. I have a 40% open rate. ZERO people EVER click the links to any social media. I suppose I could say, 'Click the link to FB, like us and get a discount on your next stay' to see what happens. But that's not the purpose, to me, of social media (giving discounts).
Do I 'like' places I am going to go to? No. Why would I? I don't see the purpose. I've already booked. Am I going to be one of those people who call to say, 'I just saw I can get 10% off on my stay if I like your FB page,' when I've already paid?
There is a certain segment of the population who could give a flying rat's behind about social media and they all stay here. I still do the FB fan page, Twitter & a blog because I use those to promote OTHER businesses. The only outlet anyone has ever said they found me on is my own blog.

 

[Copperhead]

What I take away from this article is this: What's the sence of having these accounts and spending the time writing on them if no one is a fan or following it.
Maddie, what is the reason you promote other businesses on your FB page? I think I already know your answer - it is to get people to come back, try something new, come for that special event, eat at this great new restaurant etc. Mainly to get the reader's to think of reasons to come to Maddie's Place.
But why spend the time writing about it if you only have a hand full (loosely speaking of course

) of readers? The objective is to gain more readers to increase the odds of possibly getting bookings from your post.
Good points - I need to add my FB, Tweeter & blog to my email closing - not that they will do it, but what the heck! And I do need to have our social media larger on our site.... I think I will add WHY they would want to like us: "Keep up with what is happening in Copper's Town"

 

[Madeleine]

What I take away from this article is this: What's the sence of having these accounts and spending the time writing on them if no one is a fan or following it.
Maddie, what is the reason you promote other businesses on your FB page? I think I already know your answer - it is to get people to come back, try something new, come for that special event, eat at this great new restaurant etc. Mainly to get the reader's to think of reasons to come to Maddie's Place.
But why spend the time writing about it if you only have a hand full (loosely speaking of course

) of readers? The objective is to gain more readers to increase the odds of possibly getting bookings from your post.
Good points - I need to add my FB, Tweeter & blog to my email closing - not that they will do it, but what the heck! And I do need to have our social media larger on our site.... I think I will add WHY they would want to like us: "Keep up with what is happening in Copper's Town".

Why I do it is the off chance someone will eventually find it somewhere. Yes, the FB & Twitter links are in my blog, on my website (small, at the bottom because I am NOT advertising FB or Twitter, I'm advertising myself on MY website) and I'll add them to my email sig.
Here's the deal, for me, about having FB & Twitter links looming large on my website- why? Why am I leading guests who HAVE FOUND MY WEBSITE to go somewhere else? It's like having ads on my website!
I push other businesses in the hope they will push me, too. By commenting on their products or pushing their products & awards I am hoping to show up on their pages to be found by their followers. (And, yes, to show guests the hundreds of different things there are to do here.)
According to a research study I looked at yesterday, I am about 500 followers too short on either FB or Twitter. Which can explain why I don't get any business from either of those sources, not enough critial mass.

 

[OnTheShore]

Yes, I remember reading a blog suggesting exactly Madeleine's point -- you want people to come to your website from your facebook page, not the other way around. Yes, you need to advertise your social media presence, but the emphasis should always be on driving the visitors to your website. Now if only I could find that article again.... In the meantime, here is another take on the subject: http://socialimplications.com/do-we-overemphasize-social-media-in-business/

 

[JBloggs]

One comment from me is that the people who are on twitter are not necessarily the same people who follow you on facebook, and those who follow your blog may not be on either. So when you say something on Facebook that engages the followers it is not the same thing as a beautiful blog article with images.
I share-admin a page with (let me go look) 26,202 followers on Facebook, and very few read the blog, follow twitter, flickr or the eNews. There are a handful who comment on the FB page (always the same people, maybe 50-100) and they comment all the time. When the admin posts a link/article/photo it is posted on the 26, 202 followers pages. Still imo very little interaction. PHOTOS bring the most interaction.
Let's not forget Google+ (recent) and LinkedIn (groups) and most recently Pinterest. We have to maintain/update all of those now to some extent.
Lastly, remember the importance of photos. If you post your blog article on FB, do it as a LINK and make sure you have an image in your blog article so it can pull that and use as a thumbnail. We had a glitch in our system and it was not posting a thumbnail and vitually no one was reading them from FB! (we track the conversions).
PS Personally on my B&B FB page there are people who may come there who have stayed or might stay, but it has never ever brought bookings to this inn. Now I am using this same method to post artciles and info on our town's page, that is my local marketing effort, and to shove this up the you know what of the town, since they never do anything, at all, for this B&B. Sometimes I will say something like "Guests checked in from Ireland, I hope y'all will say top of the mornin' when you see them roaming around the town" ... little nuances

 

[Madeleine]

Yes, I remember reading a blog suggesting exactly Madeleine's point -- you want people to come to your website from your facebook page, not the other way around. Yes, you need to advertise your social media presence, but the emphasis should always be on driving the visitors to your website. Now if only I could find that article again.... In the meantime, here is another take on the subject: http://socialimplications.com/do-we-overemphasize-social-media-in-business/.

I think we could find a bunch of blog articles that back up whatever we believe! And that's the problem. Another problem is that not everything works for every business.
We've all seen websites that were last touched the day they were made in 1995 and yet those businesses are busy, busy, busy. And, conversely, we've seen websites relaunched recently that are beautiful and those businesses are struggling.
I think the whole idea is to find what works, make it the best I can and then TRY the new stuff to see if works for me.
What winds me up are the numerous articles that say, 'All we did was get a FB page and our business increased 500% overnight!!! It's amazing!!! Everyone should have a FB page!!!'

 

[JBloggs]

Yes, I remember reading a blog suggesting exactly Madeleine's point -- you want people to come to your website from your facebook page, not the other way around. Yes, you need to advertise your social media presence, but the emphasis should always be on driving the visitors to your website. Now if only I could find that article again.... In the meantime, here is another take on the subject: http://socialimplications.com/do-we-overemphasize-social-media-in-business/.

I think we could find a bunch of blog articles that back up whatever we believe! And that's the problem. Another problem is that not everything works for every business.
We've all seen websites that were last touched the day they were made in 1995 and yet those businesses are busy, busy, busy. And, conversely, we've seen websites relaunched recently that are beautiful and those businesses are struggling.
I think the whole idea is to find what works, make it the best I can and then TRY the new stuff to see if works for me.
What winds me up are the numerous articles that say, 'All we did was get a FB page and our business increased 500% overnight!!! It's amazing!!! Everyone should have a FB page!!!'
.

What winds me up are the numerous articles that say, 'All we did was get a FB page and our business increased 500% overnight!!! It's amazing!!! Everyone should have a FB page!!!'

yeah and I have a bridge to sell you.
What amazes me is the number of businesses who do the FB page and no website, or IF they have a website, it is not maintained in the least, they are total facebook.
Engage. Quite frankly I don't want to engage people, and answer questions viewable to everyone else on the FB page. I know that is weird, but I don't want to in the least. I am anti-social, that is why I follow the anti-social media blogger. http://theantisocialmedia.com

 

[toddburme]

Facebook used to be effective but as more and more us got more and more linked, well it just moves too fast. I have a facebook page with 30k people, and I am lucky if 10 or 15 respond anytime I do something. I have a twitter with 30k followers and it is the same deal. Yes these people/followers were not garnered in the same method as normal followers so yes they are less engaged. But the fact is most of us now use the social media sites to meet our needs. You have less people with 15 friends and 15 likes whose pages only shows a few things a day.