Ideas & knowhow

Social media is an essential part of tourism marketing. It’s free and can be incredibly effective.

It can also feel overwhelming and stressful. Here are a few ideas to help:

1. Create, then consume. Social media is useful when you use it to post, not just to scroll. So stop scrolling, think what you want to post, post it, and then if you have time, take a peak at the rest of your timeline. Being deliberate about how you use social media definitely helps.

2. Decide why you want to be on social…

Do you sometimes have days when you faff about or lack focus? When you find it hard to settle and get things done? 

Pomodoro is the answer!

The Pomodoro technique was created by a man called Francesco Cirillo and named after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer he first used (Pomodoro = tomato)

It's a really simple idea. You set a timer for a short period of time, typically 25 minutes. Focus on one task and stop when the timer goes off. Then you have a five minute break before re-setting. I find u…

Last week I went on a ‘Learning Journey’ trip to Sicily. Together with around 25 representatives of other tourism and food businesses from the UK, we were given an incredible opportunity to get an insight into food heritage and tourism on this surprisingly lush island.

We visited food producers, restaurants, hotels and had some really interesting discussions among ourselves. The idea of these Erasmus+ funded trips is that tourism professionals have an opportunity to gain new ideas and consider …

I'd like to suggest something that is going to sound a bit bonkers. 

Trust me, it really can help you market your business more effectively.

Tell people about something that's bad about your business. 

Yes really. Declare a downside or a disadvantage. Don't hide it. Tell people about it. 

it doesn't have to be anything earth-shattering or something that will really put people off. Just something you're aware of. Perhaps an aspect that some people find a bit odd or off-putting. Or something t…

Recent economic predictions have indicated we could be in for a rocky time. inflation increases, fuel price hikes and an uncertain economy mean that not everyone will want to think ahead and book a holiday or feel good about spending on a day trip. Combine this with the discounts available on overseas' holidays and iffy British weather and the domestic tourism industry isn't feeling as confident as a few months ago. 

So, there may be tricky times ahead. What can you do about it? 

First of all,…

Have you ever had a random phone call or email offering you the chance to advertise at a bargain price? Or thought you might need to pay money and advertise your business to give it a bit of a boost?

This article could save you a lot of money!

It's never a good idea to advertise just because you think you're getting a bargain. I'll come on to when to advertise later. But first, before you pay to advertise, make sure you've really taken advertise of all the free channels and opportunities first…

Social media is a funny thing. It’s free and easy to use. It can help you reach millions of potential customers. But when most people talk about it, they mention negatives!

Yes! it can be useful for business and marketing but…

It takes up so much time. It’s hard to know if it’s really working. It’s hard to come up with ideas. It’s hard to keep up. All of these things can be true. They’re also relatively easy to solve. Sometimes, the problem isn’t the one we think.

There are a few mistakes eve…

Have you noticed the letters TLDR or TL;DR on social media recently? If you haven't, now I've pointed it out you probably will. It's everywhere!

TLDR means Too Long - Don't Read.

It's an abbreviation used just before a quick summary of a longer post or article. The idea is that we're all so busy we like to find shortcuts. So the TLDR is for anyone in a hurry. Some people will read the full version, but only if they think it's worth it - the summary gives the rough gist, and can entice further …

Have you tried letting your visitors do your marketing for you? 

The 'normal' ways to do this is through word of mouth recommendations. I'm suggesting going a step further with four different ways to encourage your visitors to help promote your business - without being pushy.

First of all, you can encourage word of mouth recommendations through social media, simply by suggesting people follow you or asking happy customers to post photos of their visit. 

The second way is to think about offeri…