Social Media Marketing

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Social Media Marketting

This  is a subject I am passionate about, and believe it can make a huge difference

• to your customers (keeping them informed)
• to your professional life (keeping connected with others in your field)
• to search engine recognition (keeping you at the top of google and others)

Read more on how to make the most of
Twitter - Tweet Deck (for multiple Tweets) You tube - Linked in/Facebook ...

Places where we think there are gaps in the Womens Travel Network

Bay of Islands Gisborne Queenstown West Coast

What about starting something up??

For Suppliers:  Food suppliers - Beverage suppliers - Linen - Other Odds and Ends Click here

Ideas, Links and Resources for Tourism Businesses

New Zealand Tourism Industry Blog: Connect with others in the tourism Industry

Are you registered with tourism NZ??

This is free and a good way of connecting with Tourism NZ
Here are the instructions: (courtesy of destination northland) to register on Tourism NZ website
Some tips for you to assist with the process: You will be asked to provide 3 key things -
* a 80 - 120 word description of your property, which will appear on your operator page.
* a 15 - 20 word summary which appears as a listing resulting from a 'search.
* keywords which will be used by clients when 'searching' the site. Some examples might be the name (or part of the name)of your business, your location eg Mangonui, Paihia, etc, and other descriptors such as beachfront.

I would suggest you have this information available in a "Word" document or similar that you can cut and past into this portion of the Registration form. The reason being that if you take longer than 10 minutes on any of the pages you will be 'timed out' and the site will shut down and you'll need to start all over again. This page of the registration form is the one which requires the most input and is likely to take you some time to think about - especially 'off the cuff'. The rest of the registration process is very straight forward with easy to follow online instructions.

The forms are on www.register.nztb.co.nz Once you have successfully completed your registration, you can go online again anytime using the 'Returning Users' section to update or refresh your information, you simply need to remember your user name and password.

Are you in contact with your Regional Tourism Organisation? 
Ours is Destination Northland, all the regions have one. It is an excellent opportunity to connect to local tourism training events, to perhaps have overseas media visit your place, and general networking. Follow the link above to find your local provider.

The Business of B&B A newsletter for owners and operators of Bed and Breakfast and Country Inns "I read it cover to cover every time - it is crammed with helpful hints, advice and ideas about running a b&b. I keep back copies for later reference, they are a mine of information on everything from burn out, breakfast recipes, selling a business, the best beds to buy to where to advertise." $NZ60/yr for seven issues CG Lloyd 1236 SH1 RD 31 Levin. Email

Benefits and pitfalls to hosting b and bs  - a very interesting article about hosted accommodation.

Bizinfo - government small business support - worth checking out the website and local offices - I have been to some excellent fully funded seminars run by Biznorth our local provider.

KiwiHost Customer Service Training Programmes

Red Cross First Aid Courses Equip yourself to be able to help people in an emergency - you may be the closest one at hand.

NZ Association of Farm and Home Hosts I bought a small very helpful booklet from them called "Legal Requirements Applicable to Home and Farm Stay Accommodation Providers"

Inland Revenue and Tax and Accountants Homestays - gst treatment IRD Tax information bulletin Vol 7.13 May 1996 - email me I will send you a copy (you need acrobat reader to be able to open it) If you are not registered for gst, this leaflet explains some of the potential advantages, especially if you are investing in renovations. This has some very helpful information, if you don¹t have an accountant, consider getting one. I can recommend my accountant Bridget Fraser at Fearless Accounting.

Other websites/publications to advertise in

Especially for women travellers

Tamaki Makaurau Lesbian Newsletter
(Auckland based, but wider distribution) email
Otautahi Lesbian Outpost Christchurch based newsletter email
Her Business - NZ magazine has women's businesses guide in the back, and local networks
Lesbian Connection A US based international magazine for lesbians, a wide circulation and not cheap to advertise in, but worth an occasional advert in my opinion. Womentravel.co.nz advertises every 6 months or so in this. Consider a joint advert with another NZ operation. email
Purple Roofs Travel Directory (free)

NZ Tourism Online - this is one of NZ's top sites and after consultation they developed a category for women's accommodation.  They have an excellent newsletter.

BUSHWISE Women - have an accommodation network on their website.  If you are listed on womentravel, you automatically have a free listing on their network.

Gaystay NZ: a great network of NZ gay and lesbian hosted accommodation.  $50/year
Rainbow Tourism - Mark Proffit and Dee Farrell run this site from Australia - no money up front, 10% commission for confirmed bookings

Gaygetter - gay and lesbian travel portal

Lesbian Accommodation lesbian friendly places to stay in UK , Europe and world wide

General Accommodation guides
(The Business of B&B Newsletter has regular
comparisons of prices/benefits for all these)

The New Zealand B&B
Automobile Association Guides
Friar's Guide to accommodation for the discerning traveller
Retreats of New Zealand
New Zealand Homestay
The B&B Directory of NZ
Boutique Lodgings of NZ
Bed and Breakfast Club
The Greenwood Guides
The New Zealand Web directory (free)
Accommodation in NZ (free)
B&B Club (free)
Altraverse Accommodation directory (free)
New Zealand Holiday Guide (free)

Wwoofing/Work Exchange Websites

- offering board or similar in exchange for work

Wwoof NZ - willing workers on organic farms

Work Away - gap year and volunteer programmes

Help Exchange

Maps

Firstly did you know that you can get a free Yellow Pages listing if you are a Telecom Home Business.  Secondly Yellow Pages have teamed up with Multimap to give everyone in the Yellow Pages a link to a Map giving directions to that business

If you have a Yellow Pages listing do you know that you now have a link to map of how to find you next to your business.

You can copy the URL for your place and add it as a link on your website for another way to find you.  Here is directions to Waihoihoi Lodge Waihoihhoi Lodge

VIANET is an NZ booking management system which I would like to recommend. (I don’t benefit from this recommendation!) You pay nothing up front, simply pay a % of your booking. More on Vianet

Its a Map Driven site - making it very easy for travellers to search for accommodation in the area they are travelling to. It might be in future that Women Travel listings might be able to be seen in a format like this.

Via net will help you to set your site up - you will get an online availablity calendar, great maps.  This is the way of the future.

Three main advantages

• VIANET are going to be the provider for the upcoming Trade Me tourism website.
• They will notify you via email and Text of a booking, and then it is up to you whether you confirm or not.
• you are able to use their on line booking system and process visa and mastercard payments for just 3% which enables you to offer this service to customers without having to own all the equipment yourself.

Marketing ideas

Press Releases Write a press release for your local paper and supply a photo. They are often looking for stories. Especially good if there is something topical - an opening, an open day, an extension, a special group visiting. Also consider stories/press releases in womens newsletters, magazines.

Email marketing Keep a list of emails of those who have visited or shown interest. Send out an occasional newsletter to them, offer them a special deal, give them news about what has changed, what is flowering, why they or their friends should come again.

Give Aways - a discount on a trip, a free holiday in your down time, upgrade people to a better room, give a holiday as a prize in a raffle or auction. All of these make people feel good about your place.

Have an Open Day/Garden party Invite locals, other travel providers in the area, neighbours, people in the local information centre, your MP, etc etc. You could invite people personally and advertise it via a press release or pay for an advert in the local paper.

Web Based Marketting

Most of you have a website - are you maximising the use of it? 

You don't have a website? some options for you

Get a free assessment of your website here

Some suggestions
1. Lots of Links throughout your website: Copy the graphic at the top of this page to your header or footer or side bar - show you are part of the network, include a link to WTNZ. Links are what makes the internet go round and makes us more visible to search engines.

Relevent links are a service to those visiting your website - List other supportive businesses on your links page, ask them to link to you. Link to other Women Travel businesses and ask them to link to you.

For example Waihoihoi Lodge website has a page of links to women's lodges around the world. You could copy this, or make your own list up. 

Links are what catches the attention of search engines, appropriate links are a service to your clients, so if we link to each other then we are doing everyone a favour.  The best links are those that link to you - you might think you are important, but if other sites link to you, then you are more important.

Use this tool to find out what websites link to you or to other sites like yours.

2/ Email signatures - a lot of people don’t use them, but they are very important in a business. You can put your full name and address, a sentence about you and of course you can put our web site address on with a note to find you on it! Signatures can be put on automatically. If you need help - check out the help menu, or ask a friend!

3/ Editing your own website - you can do it!
Most of us use a professional web designer to design our site (something I highly recommend!) but after that, keeping up to date with changing information, new photos, new pages such as I have mentioned above is not always easy. For many people (including me) our eyes glaze over a the complexities of web design software.

There are many simpler pieces of software - called content management software which makes editing your site and keeping it updated, very simple.  I have used one called Contribute, but have since changed over to the Word Press blogging system which is even easier - see the Women Travel Blog and my local Bream Bay Website.

I am so passionate about Word Press Blogs because they are so easy to use, and have a blog as part of them, so inserting new news and pictures is just so easy. I  have set up a small business called Web2Blog to help people get a professionally designed and easy to use website, including coaching you to be able to edit it yourself.  Contact Rosemary for more info

PS: I would always recommend paying a professional to do the initial design

4.  Do you have an About us Page?
I think this is an absolutely critical part of a website.  Many people want to know about the people behind a business - so why not say something about yourself, your background, your interests.  I have had people who had decided to come and stay simply because of what they read on my about us page.

5. Do the pages on your website have key rich titles?

Is your home page called "home page", or does it say "adventure travel for women in small groups to outer mongolia" . To see the title of your website page - look in the very top of the browser page.  Each page should have different titles relevant to that page. This helps search engines find you.

6. Keywords and Descriptions

Each page should also have keyword rich descriptions, and keywords on each page.

Remember: Links are what catches the attention of search engines,

appropriate links are a service to your clients,

so if we link to each other then we are doing everyone a favour.

Further advice

I have had quite a lot of experience in setting up small businesses, in internet marketting, and general marketting advice, and I am happy to share that on a one to one basis, either by phone, letter, email or in person.
$NZ60/hour + gst - no minimum charge unless travel is involved

please let me know if I can help rosemary