Social Media | Kristi Dement

Tag Archives: social media

Murder Mysteries

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Kristi Dement Leave a comment

Do you know that you could host murder mysteries at your bed and breakfast? Not real ones of course! Many bed and breakfasts invite guests to participate in a who-did-it type murder mystery.

The variety of murder mystery options include any of the following:

Using written kits with script booklets.
Assigning roles ahead of time and providing each guest with lines.
Some of the murders occur in previous eras such as the 1920’s.
Providing wardrobe options including outfits, hats, and scarves.
Hosting a meal during the mystery.
Having participants look for clues in pairs.
Encouraging guests to take pictures to prove their alibis.
Having your staff act as characters in the mystery.
Spreading the scenes of the mystery out over the weekend.
Solving the mystery in one evening.

Advise your guests:

Arrive in plenty of time to settle in and participate.
If applicable, to bring their scripts.
They can bring clothes and props for their roles (if they know it ahead of time).
Inspire your guests to question or point to others with motive and opportunity.
Assure your guests that you will not let them fall out of character.

You can market your murder mystery weekend(s) on your website, in your blog, on social media, and through your associations. Some bed and breakfast owners even offer a promotion code for guests to get a discount on their room. Your bed and breakfast does not necessarily have to be historic or haunted in order to offer this type of event. The bottom line is that your guests thoroughly enjoy themselves in the process of solving the murder mystery!

Image by Marcus Berg of Unique Angles Photography

Posted in Activities, Blog and Social Media, Events, Promotion

Bed and Breakfast Tea Rooms

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Kristi Dement Leave a comment

There are several bed and breakfast tea rooms in America. Tea rooms can be open to the public or limited to their own bed and breakfast guests. Tea rooms are great for small gatherings and often they serve brunch and lunch. Each tea room has their own hours or they serve “by reservation only.”

Menu options can include:

Croissants
Quiche
Salads
Sandwiches
Scones
Soups
Sweets (like cookies and cakes)
Tea (bottomless usually costs extra)

Hours:

Regular year round hours
Reservation only
Seasonal hours
Sunday brunch

Events:

Baby shower
Birthday party
Bridal shower
Club meeting
Girls’ get together
Group meeting
Private parties

Some sell items such as:

Antiques
Jewelry
Tea
Tea cups
Tea pots

Marketing opportunities:

Blog: great fresh content for your website
E-mail marketing: send out information to those on your e-mail list
Photos of your bed and breakfast, tea room, food, and guests (with their permission)
Social media: Facebook fan page, Pinterest pins, Twitter updates, etc.
Website: you can have one of your main headings labeled “Tea Room”

When thinking of ways to increase your business, if you do not already have a tea room, this could be a great idea. For those who do have tea rooms, are you promoting them online? Kristi Dement of Bed and Breakfast Blogging is happy to help you with this.

Image by Marcus Berg of Unique Angles Photography

Posted in Activities, Amenities, Food, Kristi, Promotion

Getting to Know Kristi Dement

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Kristi Dement

I (Kristi Dement) was born and raised in Holland, Michigan. My great-grandmother was originally from Holland, Netherlands. After graduating from West Ottawa High School, I completed my bachelors degree in psychology from Michigan State University’s Honors College in East Lansing, Michigan just three years later.

Since I did not want to meet someone who wanted to stay in the cold six-month-long winters of Michigan, I met my husband Glen online. He lived in Maryland at the time I was finishing my last year at MSU. We got married and I moved to the Baltimore area for a year.

When he had an opportunity to transfer with his work to the Raleigh area in North Carolina, November of 1999, I wholeheartedly supported it. This Michigan girl thought Maryland weather would be warm enough, but going further South sounded even better to me!

I went back to school to earn my masters degree in library science from North Carolina Central University in 2006. I have been a school librarian and professional writer since then. I look forward to serving more bed and breakfast owners in this new year.

If writing is just “not your thing” and/or you just do not have time as a busy innkeeper, hiring me is a great solution to getting you more traffic to your website through a regularly updated blog with fresh content for the search engines! I can also set up your social media business profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Linked In. I look forward to helping you book more rooms in your bed and breakfast throughout this New Year!

Posted in Hiring, Kristi

Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Kristi Dement

TripAdvisor^®, one of the world’s largest travel sites, offers trusted advice from real travelers on a wide variety of travel choices (including bed and breakfasts). TripAdvisor branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, with more than 200 million unique monthly visitors and over 100 million reviews and opinions covering more than 2.5 million accommodations, restaurants and attractions.

Trip Advisor also awards hospitality excellence only to establishments that consistently achieve outstanding traveler reviews on TripAdvisor. Stephen Kaufer, president and CEO, TripAdvisor said, “The Certificate of Excellence award provides top performing establishments the recognition they deserve, based on feedback from those who matter most – their customers.”

Winning bed and breakfasts can showcase their success a number of ways, including displaying the Certificate of Excellence they receive, uploading the award to their own website, or by promoting the achievement to local media with a press release. Last year’s winners promoted their award to great advantage through social media, highlighted their success on Twitter and on their business’s Facebook page, as well as notified past guests and customers of their win, thereby encouraging repeat visits!

TripAdvisor provides access to promotional services and tips for successful PR campaigns through the Management Center. To qualify for the Certificate of Excellence, businesses must maintain an overall rating of four or higher, out of a possible five, as reviewed by travelers on TripAdvisor. Additional criteria include the volume of reviews received within the last 12 months.

If your bed and breakfast earns awards, Bed and Breakfast Blogging, can write about it in a blog for your website. Awards of this caliber make a great impression on potential guests and make great content for your website!

Image by Marcus Berg of Unique Angles Photography

Posted in Associations and Ratings

Easy Ways to Promote Your B&B

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Kristi Dement

Promoting your bed and breakfast does not have to be hard. There are some easy things you can do to spread the good word about your inn.

Put your name and logo on things like your coffee mugs (this mug is from Blue Mountain Bed and Breakfast in Missoula, Montana) and make them available for your guests to purchase as a momento

Join a bed and breakfast association. This could be an association in your state. If your state has several locations, select the one you think will give you the most exposure or that has the most value. They can put your B&B in their marketing materials as well as list you on their website.

Hire a blog writer who keeps readers informed about your upcoming events, highlights fun things to do in your community, shares your recipes and decorating tips, etc.

Gain an active presence in social media. This includes websites such as Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Google Plus, and even YouTube videos.

Don’t overlook other ways such as hosting community events (like local chamber of commerce meetings or local reading groups) and providing or hiring live entertainment for your guests (such as musicians or a speakers).

Develop packages to offer your guests that include tickets to local attractions, massages, wine, dessert, picnics to go, etc.

These are just some of the many ways you can let people know that your bed and breakfast is just the place they want want to visit. Your creativity and imagination is the limit.

Image by Marcus Berg of Unique Angles Photography

Posted in Associations and Ratings, Blog and Social Media

The B & B Boom in the United States

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Kristi Dement

The B&B boom in the United States was influenced by several factors:

Enjoyment of the B&B experience by millions of Americans who traveled in Europe–especially starting in the 1970’s.

The U.S. Bicentennial in 1976 sparked a renewed interest in preserving America’s architectural heritage, and accompanying federal and state legislation provided tax credits for the preservation of historic properties. Many such buildings were on fairly busy roads, making them undesirable for private residences but ideal for conversion into bed and breakfasts.

Similarly, the large size of thousands of Victorian-era homes made them inappropriate for single families, but perfect for B&B’s.

The 1980’s saw a rapid growth in the numbers of B&B’s in the U.S., but despite considerable media coverage, advertising was expensive, and getting listed in the many B&B guidebooks took a year or more.

The growth of the Internet provided the biggest boost to the B&B industry, and leveled the playing field so that a bed and breakfast could afford to compete with area hotels, by listing in directories like BedandBreakfast.com, establishing a first-rate website with pictures and virtual tours as well as offering a safe, secure online booking option.

Bed and breakfast owners can hire professionals to give them an online presence in social media as well as to write professional search-engine optimized content in a blog.

With so many different ways to market their business online, it is the innkeepers that keep up with technology who will really thrive in this economy.

Image by Marcus Berg of Unique Angles Photography

Posted in Blog and Social Media, History

Social Media Success

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Kristi Dement Leave a comment

Using social media is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to get the word out about your own business, products, and ideas. The popular social media websites include:

Facebook (one of the first big social media sites)
Twitter (limited to 140 characters per tweet–which forces people to get to the point!)
Linked In (the best business social media network where you establish connections with other professionals)
Google Plus (you can add people to your circles)
Pinterest (you can post pictures of your bed and breakfast–inside and out!)

Social media is an industry by itself. People can actually earn social media certification through various programs both online and offline. There are search engine optimization (SEO) experts who will tell you that it is extremely important that people have blogs using keywords that are relevant to their audience.

The search engines love it when you generate a lot of traffic regularly to your website and they reward you with higher rankings. Many businesses seek to be one of the first search results for a specific set of keywords.

Blogs need to be written regularly so people know they can come back to your blog for relevant, useful, up-to-date information. I hope I have encouraged you to think about the possibilities of widening your particular audience by using social media!

Posted in Blog and Social Media, Success