Those of you who have known us some while will know that we came a little late to the whole Social Media thing. We knew when we started up with the Gasthof that Internet access would be a major factor in building our customer base and doing our marketing and we made sure we began with a good website. And we had set up a blog to record our experiences in this new arena – but that was really for our own personal contacts and the connection between our blogging, our presence on Facebook and Twitter, our use of Flickr etc etc and the marketing of the hotel was something we had to learn about – and fast! Of course we had a lot of help from Achim & Monika who introduced us to a lot of interesting information and data that we had known very little about and it has taken some time to  really get into it all, but it seems it is really beginning to pay off. We have had a steady growth in ‘likers’ on Facebook, our Twitter followers are increasing and the impact of the blog  on our new Website has been very positive. So all in all we were feeling quite pleased about our process, but still very definitely at the ‘enthusiastic amateur’ stage.

Imagine our surprise then when we get an E Mail from Iain Harper, a REAL professional, to say he had picked us, out of all the companies exhibiting at the Bike Show (including the very big ones), as being the best in Show at the whole Social Media thing!! We were truly amazed -  but obviously very, very pleased! Especially as it meant that Iain was able to write a very exciting piece featuring us and our Social Media strategy on his website. Read it here.

No prizes sadly, but Iain was gracious enough to offer us some very valuable advice about how to further improve what we are doing, which will be a real help and we are looking forward to meeting him in person on the opening day of the Show. In the meantime we will continue to blog where we can, use Facebook  to keep in touch with our lovely guests (just had our first booking taken through Facebook as well!) and generally raise our Social Media profile as best we can!

The joy of this form of marketing is that it costs so little! OK it takes time – and time is money of course – but it is time that is often also a lot of fun, ‘chatting’ to Fb friends and followers, writing about the fun times we have (and some of the disasters too of course).  Its a way of being in direct real (and often realtime) contact with customers and potential customers and getting your message out as quickly and simply as possible. And most imporatnt, it is THE way that so many people are now looking to find out about their proposed holiday destination. Any destination/accommodation manager ignores it at their peril.