 People keep talking about inbound marketing and social selling but what does it all really mean and more importantly what does it mean for hotel sales managers and DMOs that are trying to attract meeting planner business. Well I can tell you it actually means a lot and people who are using this in our industry are seeing results. So today we're going to break it down and see how you can get started with inbound marketing today. Hey it's Leanne from LeanneColderwood.com and you've likely heard a little bit about social selling and inbound marketing maybe even in your own office setting but you're not sure how to start yourself or even what inbound marketing means. Well you're not alone we're going to break it down today we're going to define what inbound marketing is and then talk about some of the social media platforms and how people are using those platforms to attract more meeting planning attention. To start inbound marketing is defined as creating valuable experiences that have a positive impact on people and on your business using relevant and helpful content to attract them to your website or your blog. Now if you're in the hotel industry that means attracting them to your hotel's website or even something that you've created in the industry that increases your personal brand. So what inbound marketing is not it is not a hard sell of your property but it's rather giving your potential client or existing client something of value that they can use in their work. So it's very selfless in that regard and not a pushy sales tactic at all. Inbound marketing doesn't necessarily have to take place on social media it can take place via email or a phone call as well. But what social media does is it almost creates a permanent place for that content to reside and it can create opportunity for multiple people to find that content. So that's why when people talk about inbound marketing and social selling they almost go hand in hand because they use social media to push out these value based pieces of content so they can attract a larger audience. Are you still with me? When I started with social selling and inbound marketing I think the biggest piece of advice that someone gave me was when looking at all the social media platforms that we have to get our content on focus on mastering one platform before moving on to another platform. So trying to do all the social media platforms at once and creating content and elevating your personal brand it is extremely overwhelming and extremely time-consuming because each platform operates differently and best practices are different for each and every one. So make sure that you when you're getting started you pick one platform and you focus on all your time and your talent in mastering that platform before jumping to the next. Now looking at the social media platforms the ones that I am predominantly mostly on are LinkedIn and Twitter and so LinkedIn is probably one of the best platforms for the hospitality industry. I feel most of us are on LinkedIn we have an active resume and an active profile and we're looking to LinkedIn to provide us with information about our industry whether it's on our homepage with the news feed or whether it's in groups that we have joined. So I highly recommend LinkedIn as a great way to push out content and push out value-based content when you're looking at your inbound marketing campaign. Because I'm on LinkedIn quite a bit I do some articles and blog posts about LinkedIn best practices. The one that you might want to reference is above here and it's about LinkedIn best practices when trying to find potential clients on the platform. So make sure you check that one out. So what is it that attracts me to LinkedIn as my preferred inbound marketing platform? There's a number of things. Obviously you can post content right on your profile and on your homepage. You can write articles. So articles and posts are two different things and two different modes of distributing content. You can also upload native video which actually I've just started doing in the last couple months and it's been a lot of fun as well. But you can also provide value without even creating a solid piece of original content by contributing in the groups that are on LinkedIn and they're doing a better and better job of profiling their groups a little bit better. So getting involved in some of the event industry and meeting industry groups is a great way of providing value and content as well. The second social media platform which everyone is on at least on a personal basis is Facebook. And Facebook is getting better at driving business. I am going to be wrapping up my Facebook strategy for my business and for my website and blog. The struggle I have with Facebook right now is the visibility. So in order to gain visibility to original pieces of content, it tends to have to be done through ads which of course cost money. Now it's not a lot of money to be perfectly honest but you do need a budget involved if you want massive visibility on your content on Facebook. But it is a great platform. Again it's kind of that smash up of personal and business and a lot of businesses have very robust profiles on Facebook. So I highly recommend you look into that especially if you're very very Facebook savvy, you may want to even start there. The third social media platform is Instagram. And Instagram for hotels and destinations is awesome because it's all visual, right? It's not a lot of written content and blogs but it's visual stuff that you can showcase your product or service. So again if you are Instagram savvy that is a fantastic way to start delivering content. And while the content is visual in nature, you can also add some written value below each of your posts on Instagram. But what a great way to attract an audience with some really eye catching visuals. The final two platforms I want to talk about are so interesting. Some people consider them social media platforms. Some people consider them search engines. But anyway you look at it, these are the fastest growing ones out there. So we're going to tackle both of them here. The first one is Pinterest. Now some people consider that a social media platform because you're connecting with people. But you usually go to Pinterest when you're looking for something in particular which makes it a search engine. Pinterest is growing and it's exploding in fact. And a lot of people swear by Pinterest as the one way they grew their business the most. And so if you are Pinterest savvy, I highly recommend you look on Pinterest. The thing with Pinterest and how the analytics work on Pinterest though is your pins get showed if you are a busy pinner. So you're pinning stuff, you're repinning stuff, you've got to spend some time on Pinterest or some time with tools that help you spend time on Pinterest in order to make it effective. But it's crazy growth on Pinterest right now. So you might want to check that one out. And the final platform is YouTube. Again, it's a search engine as well. It's video. People love video. I know I get more feedback on my video than on my written blog post. So I should probably just stop writing the blog. But I find having the blog is such a good compliment to the video as well. But video is king. And so if you are interested in learning more about video, I highly recommend you take the time to get comfortable in front of the camera and just start recording. Video is not hard to do. I use a webcam. All you need is a simple desktop built in camera. You don't need a lot of heavy editing software to make a video that's one, two, three or four minutes in length. So try video. Don't be afraid of it. It is a lot of fun once you get started. And it is very impactful when you're trying to grow your business and deliver content. I would love to hear from the community and hear what platforms you're using to push out your value based content. Do me a favor and just comment below this video. Let me know what your chosen platforms are or even what platforms you want to give a try. And feel free to ask questions. I may not be able to answer all of your questions, but certainly point you in the right direction of people much smarter than me who do a great job of inbound marketing and can answer your questions. Now that you're aware of some of the platforms you can use for your own inbound marketing campaign, it's time to jump in. So pick one platform and start creating value based pieces for your audience. If you like this video, please like it and make sure you subscribe so you don't miss any videos. And check out this playlist up here. These are sales and service videos that I've compiled over the months that help you attract more meeting planner attention. If you need a handy worksheet on how to attract meeting planners, jump on over to my website at liankholderwood.com and download the worksheet right there from the homepage. I hope you enjoyed this week's video and we will see you next time. Bye for now.