SOCIAL MEDIA SAVVY
L
ast month’s National Hotel
Marketing Conference
took place at the Hilton
St George’s Park, part of the
£100m National Football Centre,
near Burton-on-Trend. The event is
designed for anyone working
within hospitality across
marketing, sales or PR, and
this year gave attendees
the chance to hear from
the experts on a range of
topics designed to drum
up more business.
Opening the conference
was a rousing speech
from expert travel editor and
commentator Simon Calder, who
shared his candid views on how the
hotel and hospitality industry should
expect to be impacted by Brexit. He
shared some snippets from his own
voyages around the globe as well
as giving an insight into how our
departure from the EU will take its toll
on recruitment, inbound travel and
currency rates.
A total of 25 speakers took to the
stage throughout the course of the day,
with the morning dedicated to theatre-
style presentations and the afternoontaken up with smaller break-out
sessions which lent themselves well
to interaction and the sharing of best
practice.Instagram insight
Matt Inwood is a designer
and act director with a
passion for photography.
He creates content for
brands and businesses,
with a particular focus
on those in the food
industry, all through his
iPhone. He works with
large restaurants and national
chains to small independents and
some of the UK’s best chefs to teach
businesses to use Instagram in the
most beneficial way.
During Inwood’s session at the HMC,
he explained exactly how best to utilise
Instagram as a marketing tool to
promote all your hotel has to
offer. We took some of his top
tips to share with you below.Creating good stories
Inwood stressed the
importance of creating good
photos that tell stories, to
inspire potential guests; don’t just
project an image, interact with users
and explore how Instagram can work
best for you.Spot the shapes
When finding a spot to shoot, look for
key shapes, such as strong circles and
squares and focus on one main element
to photograph; keep it simple as it’s easy
to get overwhelmed. Don’t be afraid to
zoom in and reduce things down in size.Light it up
Light is a crucial part of the process.
It should be the first port of call when
approaching any shot; understanding
how to manipulate light can really
make or break your picture. Look for
natural light streams to illuminate
your images, find a window and take
the item you want to photograph over.Inspiration everywhere
Remember that any part of a
process within a hotel can be used as
photography fodder so take pictures
of the story as you go. For example, in
the kitchen, take snaps of the suppliers,
ingredients, the cooking process; you
can give people a feel of what’s going
on, without bombarding them with
information if you choose the right
angle to give context.
You can find stories everywhere and
often in the most unusual
places, even in your
rubbish or food waste.Happy hashtags
During his
presentation, Inwood
also explained the
importance of using
hashtags in posts on Instagram.
His advice was not to over use them, but
to create bespoke hashtags to appeal
to a wide range of consumers. Refresh
your hashtags and use new ones each
time; don’t rely on the same bank as the
algorithms on Instagram will soon pick
them up and think you are a robot.
Search hashtags to see what your
rivals are doing and use location-
specific hashtags to drive interaction
amongst your local community too.JULY’S NATIONAL HOTEL MARKETING CONFERENCE INVITED A HANDFUL OF THE
INDUSTRY’S MOST INFLUENTIAL MARKETEERS TO SHARE THEIR INSIGHT INTO SOME
OF THE SECTOR’S MOST PRESSING TOPICS WHEN IT COMES TO SPREADING THE WORD
ABOUT YOUR HOTEL. WE LOOK IN MORE DETAILS AT A SESSION ON INSTAGRAM.A recent Avvio
survey found that
33% of hoteliers
said Instagram is
their most effective
social media channel
for driving direct
bookings.Travel editor Simon Calder32 BOUTIQUE HOTELIER | August 2019ADVICE HMC