Bed And Breakfast Industry

Tag Archives: bed and breakfast industry

What To Look For In a Bed and Breakfast Blogger

Posted on June 7, 2016 by Kristi Dement Leave a comment

Do you wonder what to look for in a bed and breakfast blogger? You may (or may not) have a blog for your bed and breakfast inn. If you do have a blog, chances are you are so busy as an innkeeper that you really do not want to take the time to write about your inn. The key is to focus on what you do best (providing excellent hospitality) and let a professional bed and breakfast blogger do the rest!

Why do I specify “professional bed and breakfast blogger”? First of all, you want someone who is a professional blogger. Someone who understands key strategies to effectively blog online so that search engines notice your content. Secondly, you want someone who is familiar with the bed and breakfast industry. Plenty of people can blog, but they need to convey the awesome benefits of staying at a bed and breakfast.

Another key factor is how well they can promote your local area. You want to give potential guests a reason to want to visit your area. A few important ways to promote your local area that include:

Feature local places of interest: arenas, colleges, gardens, museums, restaurants, stadiums, theaters, tourist attractions
Promote local events: concerts, festivals, marathons, parades,
Recommend fun activities: biking, fishing, hiking, canoeing, touring

A professional bed and breakfast blogger should have these personality traits:

Adaptable: readily adjusts to different situations
Brilliant: shows great intelligence and talent
Creative: has original thoughts and imagination
Dedicated: committed to doing a fantastic job
Efficient: competent and capable; makes good use of time
Focused: pays attention to what is important
Genuine: authentic, real, and sincere
Honest: truthful, credible, upright, and fair
Innovative: tends to do things that are new or improved
Just: guided by principle; does what is right
Kind: benevolent, considerate, and gentle
Loyal: faithful to commitments
Motivational: inspiring; has a positive influence on others
Neat: organized and orderly
Optimistic: expects positive outcomes; has a favorable view of events
Perceptive: shows keenness of insight and intuition
Quotable: words things clearly and succinctly
Reliable: dependable in achievement and accuracy
Steadfast: firm in purpose; unwavering resolution
Trustworthy: deserving of trust and confidence
Understanding: superior power of discernment; compassionate
Valuable: worthy of respect and admiration; contributes profitable work
Web savvy: has practical experience using the internet and online resources
X-traordinary: exceptional, noteworthy, and remarkable
Young at heart: has a youthful outlook regardless of one’s age; energetic
Zealous: enthusiastic, devoted, and diligent

If you are looking for a bed and breakfast blogger who can help you add a blog or provide fresh blog content on a consistent basis, please contact Kristi Dement of Bed and Breakfast Blogging for a free consultation.

Top image by Marcus Berg of Unique Angles Photography

Posted in Blog and Social Media, Marketing, Promotion

The Tao of Twitter (Part 1)

Posted on September 27, 2014 by Kristi Dement Leave a comment

Mark W. Shaefer is a Forbes Top 50 Social Media Power Influencer, speaker, professor, consultant, and author of many books, including the bestselling book on Twitter: The Tao of Twitter. I will share his thoughts and explain how they can be applied in the bed and breakfast industry. I highly encourage everyone who is interested in learning how to effectively use Twitter to get this book!

Mark states that Twitter is used for:

Networking
Information
Advertising
Searching
Sharing
Connecting
Teaching
Entertaining

Twitter can help businesses (including bed and breakfasts):

Attract new audiences and potential customers (guests)
Follow your industry, customers, and competitors
Find people who can solve problems quickly
Stay on top of the latest opinions and insights
Learn new skills
Strengthen new and existing relationships

Schaeffer defines “tao” as a way, path, or route generally used to achieve success. He believes, when it comes to Twitter, that there are three essential components:

Targeted connections–it is important to surround yourself with people who likely want to know us, learn from us, and help us
Meaningful content–it is crucial for person to person connections to be authentic and human on Twitter, relax and be yourself, share content for human beings and not search engines
Authentic helpfulness–the new media marketing mindset to put priority on interactions which leads to connections, awareness, and trust over time

According to Mark, some good news about Twitter:

The Twitter community is engaged and loyal
Twitter users are three times more likely to follow brands than Facebook users
Twitter users generated double the median monthly leads of non-Twitter users
Twitter enables companies (bed and breakfasts) to receive feedback from users (guests)
Twitter users can become advocates for your bed and breakfast
Twitter users are the most influential online consumers with seventy percent publishing blog posts at least once monthly
Just 25% of Twitter’s user base is in the United States, you can appeal to guests from all over the world
There is an opportunity to connect on a global scale
Twitter users with more followers are more active and successful

To set up your Twitter profile:

Use a personal photo over a company logo in most cases (however, I think a photo of your bed and breakfast could be better than a personal photo so that people can visualize your bed and breakfast when they see your tweets)
Provide a link to your website
In your bio, use keywords that people would use to find your bed and breakfast: bed and breakfast, inn, travel, hospitality, etc.
Select an easy to remember user name such as @BlueMountainBB is the Twitter name for Blue Mountain Bed and Breakfast

Good to know:

People will not see your updates unless they follow you back
Follow people based on what your bed and breakfast does or its particular location; examples: follow a local fishing guide if your area is a great area to fish, follow an equestrian organization if you have horses for your guests to ride, and so on
You can connect with people without them following you back
The 140-character limit was built to accommodate tweets being updated from phones

We are going to be digging deeper into Mark W. Schaffer’s book The Tao of Twitter in the next three blog posts. Bed and breakfast owners and innkeepers, if you are not currently on Twitter or need help to develop a consistent marketing strategy as well as achieve and maintain social media success, consider choosing Bed and Breakfast Blogging with Kristi Dement to help your B&B attract even more guests.

Posted in Blog and Social Media, Guests, Kristi, Marketing, Promotion

B&B Social Media Success

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Kristi Dement Leave a comment

B&B Social Media Success is the name of a Pin Board I have on the social media network called Pinterest. I pinned the pins on that board for the sole purpose of helping bed and breakfast owners successfully use social media. What I did not expect, and I was completely surprised about, was the response from those not even in the bed and breakfast industry. I currently have over 1700 followers on that board alone! What is crazy is that I did not start it more than a few months ago!

That is the power of numbers and how things can go viral fast. I recommend the book, “Contagious: Why Things Catch On” by Jonah Berger. Berger is the James G. Campbell Associate Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He discusses six principles of “Contagiousness”:

Social currency: people desire to share cool things to look good in the process
Triggers: people talk about things cued in their environment
Emotion: when people have high arousal emotions (like excitement or anger) they are more likely to share it
Public: behavior that is made more public enables social influence
Practical Value: people share things to help others (save time, save money, become more healthy, etc.)
Story: people share memorable stories

So what can you do to have social media success and your bed and breakfast become “contagious”? Kristi Dement of Bed and Breakfast Blogging is here to help! Contact Kristi today so you can have social media success and more guests at your B&B!

Posted in Blog and Social Media, Guests, Kristi, Promotion, Success

Innkeepers Association

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Kristi Dement

From a tiny office in Santa Barbara, California, the Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII) has grown into a national organization of nearly 3000 members. It is the largest network of professional innkeepers in the world.

PAII’s mandate is to provide education, information, networking, advocacy, business opportunities and research relating to the innkeeping industry.

PAII provides continuing education programs in many formats, the largest being the annual Innkeeping Conference & Tradeshow where experienced innkeepers are challenged and new innkeepers brought up to speed at events featuring dozens of workshops, nationally known experts, and the industry’s largest trade show.

PAII fulfills its national leadership role by being the voice of the industry, representing the innkeeping profession in Washington, in the media, and where needed to defend the industry.

The B&B Industry has an estimated worth of $3.4 billion. The core of this starts with the estimated 17,000 inns in the U.S. and then branches out to all the product and services needed to enable these inns to be the desired destination for millions and millions of travelers, both domestic and international. Real estate, finance, insurance, hospitality, furniture, food and beverage, cleaning, safety, heating and cooling…the list is endless.

Posted in Associations and Ratings