Influencing the influencers

Q: We had a ‘mumpreneur’ blogger stay at our hotel the other day – it wasn’t a PR stay, but she’d booked in for a conference. Looking at her profile she talks all about ‘wanderlust’ and a love of travel and has several thousand followers. She didn’t share any pictures of us in her stay, but did do lots of the local area. How can I encourage coverage?

This question divides neatly into two parts; how to acquire this type of visitor and how to make the most of their visit. The first part – getting them to stay in the first place – is a culmination of the advice in many of my previous columns. PR, partnerships with DMOs, being part of familiarisation trips, developing a blogger policy, and reaching out to blogger groups will all put you in front of the right people. If they’re not already coming to stay then you need to find and invite them. You can see a back catalogue of these articles on the Hotel Owner website, and there seems little to be gained from reiterating the processes here.

Instead, I want to focus on making the most of their visit. My first comment is that these points don’t just relate to bloggers, but also to your general guest base. ‘Word of mouth’ has gone through a number of iterations; first as a literal concept – friends telling friends, then through online user-generated content – think TripAdvisor, and now we are at a point of visual merchandising and personally curated content – social media recommendations and publicly available personal profile. A positive recommendation from individual to individual can often be more powerful than controlled content – articles, blogs etc. – and even better, the people who visit are likely to tell people who are in the same type of circumstance; a ready-made target audience.

We are living in the ‘Instagram’ era, where pictures are taken and posted of everything from the environs to the food and the décor, with attention garnered through eye-catching pictures and perfectly framed moments. The purpose is the pursuit of influence, in some way, shape or form, to establish themselves as an influencer in a specific niche e.g. motherhood, or as a trendsetter in a particular field e.g. travel. We all know that what we see on social media is meant to present a picture perfect snapshot of the moment, but in reality it may have taken minutes to carefully curate and perfect. Regardless, these perfect and striking images do much for the profile of businesses, with travel and tourism being one of the most followed and sought sectors on the web.

For hotels, this means only one thing. How to support the perfect picture postcard? What you do need to bear in mind for your strategy is that unless you invite them and agree a ‘package’ for coverage in advance, there is no guarantee of a picture if someone does pitch up; however you need to offer a backdrop they simply can’t resist. There are hundreds of tips and tricks for taking the perfect picture, but broadly speaking, they fall into five groupings:

• Uniqueness – pick a space which looks quirky, unique, interesting or something you haven’t seen before. Viewers want to see something new or different, not the same as everyone else. Hotels can capitalise on this by reviewing the décor and creating feature spaces that are perfect for pictures. Big, eye-catching murals, cutting edge interior design or unusual colours and textures can all be incorporated. Don’t forget, you don’t have to make over the the whole hotel – you only need to pick one or two eye-catching locations and add some pizzazz.
• Framing – typically, interior décor is designed with the whole room in mind and while this is essential for the overall guest experience, it doesn’t necessarily support the photograph. Again, you’re looking to create a single space or a few spaces which are ‘Instagram-friendly’, so think about the framing. A tip I got from a photographer was to take a piece of cardboard and cut a square in the middle. Look through the hole at your proposed photo-tastic place without the wider context of the room and see if it stacks up. It’s amazing how quickly a small space looks boring without its wider context.
• Focus – all good images have a clear focal point, and what is often effective is bold and bright patches of colour, and / or straight lines. Think about how you can help incorporate focal points into your new Instagram spots.
• Volume – taking a lot of photos is commonly listed as key to the success of the image. From the perspective of your hotel, think about the logistics of this and its impact on location. Putting a big mural on the stairs, by reception or in the entrance may be eye-catching, but will it cause a problem if someone stands here for twenty minutes pursuing the perfect pic?
• Editing – the final tips come under photo editing and ultimately, there is little you can do to support this work. Your job is to help with the four points above and leave the rest to them!

Capitalising on photography is a great word of mouth tool, and one you can do for yourself too. If you need more inspiration, look through some iconic travel and hotel images and identify which are most popular to see what you can replicate for yourself.

By Angie Petkovic. This article first appeared in the November 2018 issue of Hotel Owner.