March/April 2021

GLAMPSITES
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Social Media Strategy
What, where, and when to post to Instagram and Facebook
I AM often contacted by campsites or
glampsites wanting to know how to write a
social media strategy.
They are happy with posting on their
social media platforms but grind to a halt
and get stuck with ideas for content. They
revert to posting the same things. More of a
“one post wonder” approach.
Putting together a social media strategy,
or in fact a plan, saves you time and makes
your social media more targeted. And it
enables you to connect with your ideal
customer and nurture them into your world.
Here are my simple steps to creating a
strategy for your business on social media:
1
FIRST UP, KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Create a fictitious "user persona",
give them a name, age, and a
location. Do they have kids or not, where
do they shop, what will they do when
they arrive onsite? Will they head off to
the local organic farm shop or have they
stocked up from home? Think about
their potential “pain points'' and how
you can solve them. Are they going to be
arriving late on a Friday night? Can you
suggest some local pubs nearby or book
them a table?
When you can identify who your
visitors are likely to be, then it's easy to
create social media content (or posts)
that will talk to them.
2
DECIDE WHAT TO POST
Lots of small businesses get stumped
here. The proper term for this is
“content pillars” but I like to call it the
"content pie". Think of about four to five
interesting onsite topics (or content) that
your customers will want to know about.
These may be:
› Your local area - the local pub/teashop,
visitor attraction, great beach, wildlife
walk. Add your recommendations or top
local tips
› Your site news - here you can post about
developments or changes onsite over the
last 12 months. Upgraded some facilities,
added new pitches, replaced or added a
brilliant safari tent? Post about them!
› Meet the team - people buy people.
Introduce yourself and your team. It's
great to see who is going to be around
onsite and it gives your site more
personality
› Camplife - this is a great source of content.
Use real behind the scenes content to
convey your story. Last year I filmed our
Covid clean taking place in time lapse. The
aim was to show that we took the clean
very seriously. It was amusing to watch
as we filmed it at high speed and, being
video content, it resulted in many views
and comments. This moved it higher up
the algorithm reaping high reach and
impressions.
3
GET ANALYTICAL
It's important to set aside the
time to look at your analytics. Not
everyone's favourite pastime, but it
does enable you to see which content
has been popular. You can also find out
when your audience is online and so
schedule your posts to tie in with them
being around. Make a note of your top
performing three posts so that you can
start to build up a picture of what's
performing well.
4
GET TO GRIPS WITH HASHTAGS
Hashtags are a hot topic on social
media. Facebook and Instagram need
different hashtag strategies. I recommend
using about three on Facebook, and the full
30 on Instagram. Opinion splits on the best
number to use. Test using different ones to
see which get good engagement or reach
(Hashtagify is a good free option).
Change your hashtags often and do
not use the same ones ad infinitum.
Consider using camel text which increases
accessibility and read by screen readers.
ie #GlampingCornwall rather than
#glampingcornwall.
Saving groups of hashtags on the notes
section of your phone or in a folder will save
you time too. Check out www.GravTag.com
for hashtag suggestions too.
44 WWW.OPENAIRBUSINESS.COM