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Google My Business

You Need Google My Business

Orlando Expert For Google My BusinessThe bottom line is that your property needs to be on Google My Business. It’s what people see who are searching for things on their smart phones. It’s what allows people to easily get directions to your establishment, call your location, see reviews, and yes, even post reviews.

People Find Information On Their Phones

And while most hotel/motel accommodations are booked via a laptop or desktop computer, you want to be able to provide your guests with the easiest way possible to find your location once they’re in town – or if they get lost in our wonderful city. If your location is listed in Google My Business, you’re just a  click away – and that’s a good place to be.

Listings on Google My Business get stale. People don’t update them on a regular basis. There isn’t an account manager who’s answering the questions from Google – they continually seek to validate the information listed about your business, and if someone isn’t there to respond to those messages, the account can be removed.

Google My Business is free. Listings don’t cost your company a thing. However, having one done right, and then maintained – well, that’s a different story.

We Are Here To Help You

At Sotellio, we have a proven method to keep the information on your Google My Business listing up to date and relevant. We insure that guest comments and reviews are dealt with in a timely and appropriate manner, we update site photos on a regular basis, and maintain information integrity within the listing itself.

We want to be your partner in success. Our plans start a low as $50 a month, and will ensure that your business is found when people are looking for you.

To find out exactly what Sotellio can do for you, ask about our free consultation. Just contact us today, and we’ll handle the rest.

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Provide Incentives For Follows And Likes

provide an incentive for social engagementSave 10% Off Your Next Stay With Us! Free Room Upgrade! Free Buffet just for liking us on our Facebook page!

Your business operates on the happiness of your patrons. If they’re happy, they’ll tell a couple of their friends about the location and recommend that they stay there. If they’re unhappy, they’ll tell anyone who can listen about the problems they had – and they’re quite likely to exaggerate those issues.

Hoteliers will do everything in their power to ensure the guest has a pleasant and happy experience while staying at their location. If they’ve done their job properly, then there should be very little to worry about.

It’s important to capture that happiness via Social Media. Have them like your Facebook page, or leave a review and comment on Google, or just follow you on Twitter, or whatever social media platforms your business is on. Get a picture when them  (don’t forget to have them sign a release) and display it proudly on your pages. Happy customers bring more happy customers.

You can easily provide an incentive for a guest to socially engage your location – you’ve got an arsenal of incentives right around you. Anything from a free meal, to a hat or t shirt, to upgrades, discounts, or comps. If you’ve spoken to your business neighbors, you may even be able to provide something from them as well.

While you don’t want to make the incentive the primary reason the guest is interacting with you, you do want to make their time to do so worthwhile to them.

Need some more ideas on how to engage your audience on Social Media? Contact Sotellio today, and we’ll take care of it for you.

 

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This Small Phone Camera Lens Can Make A Huge Difference

Your Social Media Feed craves good pictures, and good pictures come from a decent camera. Adding a small phone camera lens can make a huge difference in the quality of photos your camera is producing. That difference can easily turn into a paying guest at your location.

We previously shared some Tips for using pictures in Social Media, and do recommend that you read that if you haven’t already.

A Small Phone Camera Lens Can Make A Huge Difference

One of the leading decision makers in people booking a room at a location is what the room actually looks like. People want to see pictures of where they’ll be staying or taking their family to stay. Hoteliers will know that getting a good room picture is one of the more difficult things to do. Choices seem to be pretty limited. Either you’ve got a decent camera and enough time and equipment to do it yourself, you can hire a professional photographer to come in and do a room shoot for you, or you just grab a picture with your phone and hope for the best.

That’s how it used to be.

With a phone camera lens, the world of photography tends to open up just a little bit more for smart phone users.  That room picture that was so difficult to get now becomes painless with a wide angle lens attached in front of the camera on your phone. The front sign that looks great but is just too far away to get a good picture of? That’s taken care of with the 10x zoom lens. A picture from the edge of the pool comes alive with the fish-eye lens attachment. The possibilities become endless with the right set of tools for social media pictures.

I’m not discounting the need for a professional photographer, and highly suggest that you invest in at least one professional property shoot for your location. I’m referring to day-to-day social media posts that include pictures. Those are the ones you can spice up a bit with a  phone camera lens and stand out among your competition.

You can pick up that lens kit pictured in this post right here on Amazon.

No Time For Pictures? Sotellio Can Help You

You’re busy running the business, you don’t really have the time or the “eye” for photography – but you know you need pictures for your social media feed. That’s where Sotellio comes in! We’ll handle your property photography, and can even post pictures on a regular basis to your feed. Want to learn more? Just Contact Us today to get the conversation started.

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Eight Ways To Not Be Socially Boring

don't make your content boringNobody likes boring social media, and if you’re following our guidelines on how often you should post , you simply cannot afford to be boring.

We’ve heard it a hundred times, ” I run a motel, I do the same thing every day… and that’s pretty boring to me.”  It very well might be boring on a personal level, but that must never be passed on in Social Media.

Eight ways not to be boring in your social media channels

Be Helpful
Become the source for local information and resources that your guests need. If you have a shuttle service that departs for the local attraction at 7:30 am, post about that ahead of time reminding your followers about that service.

Be Relevant
Don’t post outdated information. People don’t need to know that your 7:30 am shuttle left at 7:30 am. That does them no good at all.  Don’t waste your followers time with useless information.

Be Engaging
Adding pictures, videos, and other forms of media to your posts result in a higher level of audience engagement. People like to see things, not just read things.

Be Giving
Share fun ideas, give out meal or entertainment suggestions, if you have discount opportunities, give those as well. Your audience requires a sense of value for following your social media.

Be Open
Repost other helpful and engaging content that your local business partners are posting. If you don’t have a repost arrangement with businesses in your area, now would be the perfect time to set one up.

Be Available
If someone has taken the time to tag you, or post something directly to you, you need to take the time to reply to them. That’s how Social Media works.

Be You
You’re not a corporate robot, your social media shouldn’t be either. You may allow your personality to shine through on your social media, provided that you follow tip #8.

Be Professional
Ensure everything you have to say is said in a professional, business-like manner. If it’s not something you would say directly to a guest, then don’t say it on Social Media. Confused about that? Here’s what not to say on Social Media.

Sotellio Can Help You

If you are still convinced your content is boring, why not let us have a go at it? It might be that your content just needs a pair of fresh eyes to see your world. Contact us today and let’s get the conversation started.

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Unique Hashtags And Who Should Use Them

Hashtags are nothing new. They’ve been around nearly as long as the Internet has been public ally available.  Hashtags have been used to denote topics and interests since around 1988; and we’ve come a long way since then.

There’s nothing mystical or magical about a hashtag. There’s no governing body that regulates them, there’s nobody who can lay a claim on a word or phrasing of a hashtag.  They’re simply tools that make it easier to group like-minded thoughts, comments, opinions and other forms of media together.

Hashtags play an important role in Social Media, since the wide adoption of hashtag searching and grouping has taken hold. If someone is interested in a particular topic, say the city of Orlando, they can search their chosen Social Media platform for #Orlando.  One thing to keep in mind is that since there is no governing or regulatory body around hashtags, anyone can use one for anything – so you may find a few stray topics or ideas when searching for a Hashtag.

For Hoteliers, a hashtag is nothing short of free publicity.  For example, a location could use it’s name, or variant of their name as a hashtag. For example, the “Restful Inn” could use #restfulinn as a hashtag, and then add that hashtag to all of their social media pictures and posts.

Furthermore, the good folks at the Restful Inn could ask their guests to do the same. A simple sheet of instructions asking the guests to use #restfulinn when they’re posting things around the Inn would do wonders.

This strategy is not without risk, however. Clearly, if things are amiss at the Restful Inn, and the staff is asking guests to use the hashtag; there could very well be some negative side effects. However, as long as the Restful Inn is running a well groomed establishment, issues will be at a bare minimum.

The only limitation on hashtags is space. People often use two or three hastags to convey context. There could be a picture of a nice breakfast plate with the hashtags #perfect #breakfast #orlando #restfulinn . Those hashtags reveal a lot of what the poster is trying to convey with their post.

Now the Restful Inn, combined with their guests, are lighting up Social Media with pictures and posts from their fine establishment. When interested parties search for a cozy little place to stay when they’re in Orlando for a convention, those pictures will come up, along with the related hashtag – and when those potential guests see the pictures from other people who have stayed there? That’s when the magic really happens.

Sotellio caters to the Social Media needs of the independent Hotelier. We have several affordable plans to choose from, and will work one on one with individuals to meet their needs. For more information, contact Sotellio today.

#1 – Frequency, Analytics, And Social Data

In Episode #1 of Sotellio, we discuss how often you should post to Social Media, some basics about analytics form the social media sites, and what to do with Social Data.

Sotellio
Sotellio
#1 - Frequency, Analytics, And Social Data
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