Scoial Media/PR Workshop

Scoial Media/PR Workshops always leave my head in a spin and yesterday's was no different. Thanks to Denise Howard from Welcome Training, Carol Arthur from Northern Lights PR and Visit York my head is filled with so many new ideas about how we could promote the business.

The event, attended by finalists of the Visit York awards, begain with an interesting talk on PR and how to successfully get your story into the public eye.

On the back of last year's sibling rivalry story, Denise and I spoke about the fantastic media coverage Nick and I got from last year's White Rose awards. People remember the Radio York and BBC Look North items - they don't seem to mind that neither of us won the actual award nor do they know who actually did - but they remember our "fights" and the fun we had.

Denise and Carol spoke at length about the importance of having professional photos taken and I didn't like to mention that our Dad took the photo of Nick and I whilst running in and out of reception sorting guests (or maybe they realised that). Our brochure will be redesigned over the next few months so maybe we should call in the professionals.

Carol spoke about all the different social media sources that could be used and I'm happy to say that our Twitter and Facebook pages were used as good examples of how to do it - phew! I've just got to look a bit further into linkedin and pinterest so watch this space!

I've just got to find a way of keeping up with it all now as, in its own way, all social media tools work for us:

Our facebook site is a great way of keeping regular/previous guests in touch with what we are doing and discounts can be offered but we have to find a way of reaching new/potential guests.

Twitter is a fab way of keeping in touch with people that work in our industry and I've met some great people through it that have helped promote the business. We've been able to share ideas of best practise so twitter has been a great learning resource.

We use foursquare to promote attractions that we have in the area - showing our guests that we are a great base to use for getting out and about in the area. We had such fun fighting over mayorships last year and hope to again this summer. Using a #family2follow we can incorporate foursquare into our tweets.

The one thing I'm not sure of is this blog - but you're reading it and hopefully whether you stay here or recommend others to stay here you will realise that we are a friendly site to use, we  are approachable and we enjoy connecting with our guests.