Creating an Effective Facebook Page for Your Bed and Breakfast Inn
As the innkeeper of a quaint bed and breakfast inn, you are tasked with not only creating a comfortable and homey environment for your guests, but also managing an effective marketing campaign that exposes your accommodations in front of big chain hotels. It can be difficult, especially for the new B&B owner, to compete with a national corporation and its seemingly endless budget, but if you’re smart enough to operate social media and use it to your advantage, you can crack a crack at their business and keep an eye on it. yours. growing up. A Facebook fan page is a great, free way to get started.
Facebook profiles and fan pages: the difference
If you have a Facebook profile, you may be afraid to promote your bed and breakfast through this network. In recent years, privacy concerns have warned Facebook users not to give out too much information, and you may not want to arbitrarily add strangers to your network of friends. The good news is: you don’t have to. With Facebook, you can set up an individual page dedicated to your inn or vacation rental, and people can join that page for information. Your profile remains intact.
What can a fan page do for your hosting business? Now that Facebook URLs show up in search engine results, a lot! In the bottom left corner of your Facebook dashboard, you’ll find an icon that takes you to a Page’s settings area. The wizard is easy to use and the end result is similar to your personal profile, only you have the opportunity to promote your bed and breakfast’s main website, addresses and other important information. Plus, you can create photo albums for your specific rooms and services, and list events happening in your area and at your inn. A video tab option allows you to upload short clips advertising the finer points of your B&B, or homegrown “commercials” for viewers to enjoy.
Facebook Extras
While Facebook limits how users can structure fan pages, widgets are available to enhance functionality. If you are familiar with HTML, using the Static FBML feature can help you create custom tabs for your page. You can set up a qualifying code to direct users to a booking engine or your Twitter feed or Flickr account… you name it.
Facebook also has a proprietary advertising program, where you can market to specific demographics. If you’re looking for out-of-state visitors, for example, you can advertise profiles in the area, or just for women, people who like a specific soccer team near their home, etc. Using the cost-per-click model, advertising on this social network is affordable and analytics are easy to discern.
The notes section on the fan page is for making informative posts, like a blog. To save time, if you already have a blog set up, you can connect the RSS feed to the Notes app and every time you blog, it will be connected to your Facebook page.
Find friends
Once you have set up the store, comes the job of getting people to join your fan page. Of course, word of mouth is the best method of advertising, so naturally the first thing you should do is let your personal friends know that the page is live. Be sure to include some kind of link on your main website to the page (Facebook has widgets and codes available for us) to authenticate the fan page and promote it. Since other social networks have apps to interface with Facebook, you’ll find that getting the word out is as simple as typing in the name of your inn.
If you don’t already have a fan page for your accommodation, it’s important to set it up as soon as possible. Adding social functionality to your business solidifies your brand on social media and helps you better promote your inn. Invest the time in promoting through Facebook and you will see the improvement in your reservations.
