The document provides guidance on using social media to promote rural tourism businesses. It discusses creating and sharing content through various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs. It emphasizes listening to customers and influencers on social media and engaging with others in the industry. The document also provides tips on taking good photos to help sell a business online, and suggests using video for marketing, demonstrations and customer support.

1. Stand out on Social Media
Matt Young
@Cosmic_Matty

2. Housekeeping
• Fire Alarms
• Breaks
• Mobile Phones
• Health & Safety

4. Rural Tourism Toolkit
The toolkit is crammed with helpful hints and advice for new and
existing rural tourism businesses. It is designed to assist you in
planning, developing, marketing and sustaining your services for
customers. It is intended to encourage initiatives that offer great
visitor experiences whilst nurturing the environments that create
them
FIVE sections: Getting Started, Communicating
Effectively,Working Together, Local Distinctiveness & Saving
Money and Sustainability

5. Toolkit continued…
• http://www.visitsomerset.co.uk/business/business-support/
cool-tourism-toolkit

6. Helping you stand out on Social Media

8. What have you posted recently?
Posts
Blogs
Images
Videos
Anything else…?

19. Listen
Google Alerts
Twitter
Feedly
Share &
converse
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Newsletter
Content
creation &
Broadcast
You Tube
Blog
Flickr
iTunes/podcasts
Community
building
Forum
Facebook Groups
LinkedIn Groups
Virtual worlds
Social media engagement ladder
Less time More time

21. Social Media Stats
1.3 billion users
50% of over 65’s use Facebook

22. Hashtags
Industry specific
#HolidaysInSomerset
#holidays
Geographic specific
#BurnhamOnSea
#Somerset
Media specific
#JournoRequest
#PRRequest

23. Search

24. Advanced Search

25. Hootsuite

26. Engage and share through influencers
Influencers like Tanya Burr?

27. • 2,500,000 subscribers on YouTube

29. Who’s your influencer?
• Social Media guru

30. How do you find influencers?
Klout

32. Social Media Strategy - Discussion
• Marketing
• Company culture
• Who’s going to do it?
• Policy
• Identify where content is coming from
• Measure
• Network (influence)

33. Google search
SEO
• Optimise for onsite phrases
– 2-3 keyword phrases per page
– Content, titles. Paragraph titles
– Page titles
– Footers
– Images
• Get strong and relevant links back to your site
• Update your site regularly

34. How can you stand out?
Tell us what your USP is
(Unique Selling Proposition)
In other words…
What makes you stand out from the others!?!?

35. Case Studies

36. The Old Cider House
Ozy the Labrador – Dog Friendly
Video on home page introducing themselves and
the various activities around them.

37. Ozy has his own Twitter account

38. Mill on the Brue
2 things I love about their website

40. Make it personal

41. Oatley Vineyard
Embraced social media recently
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Google +
YouTube

42. Blog

43. Pinterest

44. Sense of humour

45. Case studies

46. Case Studies

47. Sell the experience…

48. Working with others
B&B
Brewery
Visit B&B and brew some beer. Then come back six
months later to pick up the beer and stay at the
B&B again.

49. Photography
Hints and Tips

50. Picture this...
“ This person is at the top of his profession and is a world-wide
household name. He is about to manipulate a sphere. The situation is
tense, a very important confrontation – two top groups and the
confrontation has reached a possible; tie-breaking situation. This
person is in control and is able to make best use of the advantage for
the rest of his group. With his fellow group members support and
with his natural talent he takes his group into a possible winning
position by placing the sphere where the rules stipulate! ”

51. ...or

53. "A picture is worth a thousand words"
• "A picture is worth a thousand words" refers to the idea that a complex
idea can be conveyed with just a single image.
• ‘visualisation’ i.e. - making it possible to absorb large amounts of data
quickly.

54. Lighting
• Natural light is best
• Middle of the day
• Avoid using a flash if
possible
• No direct sunlight,
shadows.

55. Composition
• Create a sense of time
and place
• Think in three
dimensions
• Take something away
• Tell a story

56. Good images help sell!
On...
• Ebay
• Amazon
• Your website
• Your blog
• On Flickr
• On your Facebook page
Insert image here

57. Mobile Phone Photos

58. Love your camera
• Experiment with your camera - have a play!
• Make notes, start a notebook of the settings that worked and
the ones that ‘didn’t’.
• It will become a fantastic source of reference for future
photography trips.

59. ‘Content first' strategy
‘Tradigital’
E-news
Forums
Digital
magazines
Adapted from ‘Media Cloverleaf’ by Richard Edelman
Traditional
Media
Press
Social
networks
Facebook
Twitter YouTube
LinkedIn
Owned
Content
Video, blogs,
Editorial,
photos
Website
Responsive design
Mobile enabled
COPE
Create
Once
Post
Everywhere

60. Canva.com

61. Design your own content

62. Picmonkey.com

63. Editing

64. Resizing

65. Instagram
• Filters
• Video
• Embed images in to your website

66. Instagram

68. Video

69. What about video?
• Video – for sales and marketing
• Product descriptions, visualisations
• Expert analysis, talks
• Case studies, testimonials
• Becoming significant in Search Results
• Pre sales – research
• Post sales - support

70. Video for customer support
Creating video content
for customer retention:
Sony Xperia have created a
YouTube channel of all their
support and advice guides.

72. Watching video online
• Online TV video streaming has climbed 338% from 2013, according to new
research from Adobe.
• The research also noted an 85% jump in the number of unique visitors
watching online TV over the past six months.
• Adobe’s latest study also highlighted that tablets and phones now make up
26% of all online video consumption – a 59% hike since 2013.
• Smartphones now dominate consumption over tablets.
• According to the research, video completion was on a mobile devices was
low, with 16.6% of videos watched reaching 75% finished.
• The report states that “when coupling it with the growth of video viewing,
online video advertisement viewing is accelerating at a remarkable rate.”

73. Technology
• What are your customers using?

74. YouGov survey (over 2000 consumer )
• More than half (54%) have booked hotels or accommodation via
an app
• Almost half (42%) of the online consumers surveyed use mobile
devices such as smartphones and tablets to search for and
complete travel plans

75. Questions
Matt Young
email: matt@cosmic.org.uk
Twitter: @Cosmic_Matty
One to One sessions.