Allyson's CSIT 155 - SP20 Class Blog

Email Marketing with Mail Chimp I have put together an email to our Concierge Members to show continued education that is being offered, at no charge, during our health crisis. It is important to continue to boost confidence in our members. We may be out of work for now, but we will have jobs when the world starts to travel again. It is so important for our selves and to show our hotels that we are at the top of our education.  Forbes Travel Guide (which many of our hotels are graded) is having free zoom classes with top experts in our field. To hire a Forbes trainer for your hotel, you would pay for their travel, hotel room and pay for the training, depending on the number of people attending. It can be very costly. It is amazing that these classes are being offered at no charge. I, personally have taken advantage of this opportunity. For those who ere either unable to join the call or were unable to sign up (due to the capacity of the calls... 10,000 signed up) they have th...

Email Marketing I look forward to starting a newsletter for San Diego Concierge Association. We currently have an email list of about 85 Concierge members and 45 Affiliate Members from local San Diego businesses. We have not been consistent with digital contact, but should be! In this newsletter or series of mailed information would include education opportunities. With continued education, our Concierge members can stay on top of their jobs. With the current state is is so important to sharpen their skills for when we go back to work. We may have even given up a little and taking classes brings joy and hope. A quarterly newsletter would be excellent for our members, both Concierge and Affiliate members. Reviewing past events (including pictures), events coming up, highlighting a business in our industry and a arts piece would all be good. Including our motto for the year "Knowledge for a New Vision" is important to have on the header or foot of the newsletter. Pictur...

Connecting with customers by sharing a special moment I shared a fun Bread Recipe from an Affiliate Member of our Organization. We are spending a lot of time in our kitchens, so this appeals to many people. I tagged the member, then promoting her business and a brewery that they work with to purchase supplies. Creating special moments will return to hotels and traveling. Reminding our members of our happy times is important right now. Visually we can remember a time that we helped a guest celebrate. This post was appropriate for both Facebook and Instagram as it catches your eye. I used hashtags that would draw in a wide audience. I used a picture collage app so that I could include many pictures all at once. I have gotten a good reaction and interaction with each post. 

Blogging for Our Business As a business organization our goals for San Diego Concierge Association is to educate of members, create value in the concierge position and encourage people to enjoy San Diego. Right now it is a time to work together and create a sense of unity. Posting personal touching stories and encouragement is important now, but is also good to spread it out. Educating our members is important now more than ever. A current priority is providing information on how they can sharpen their skills for when they return to work. Many universities, such as Florida Atlantic University, are providing courses and certificates at no charge. Stories about guest experience and special moments are perfect to draw in a page visitor. Proposals, anniversaries and birthday celebrations are what a Concierge is trained for! We are enthused to start creating these special moments again for our guests. On social media we can share past special moments and create excitement to travel o...

This week I concentrated and a few topics to keep the interest of my followers. Posting between 7am-11am or 4pm-7pm, I receive the most action on my posts. I believe this is because in the middle of the day people are enjoying their family or working. Capturing their attention when they are relaxing before bed or right when they wake up might be what is best for my Social Media pages. I have been alternating when I post (evening or morning) between our Facebook and Instagram. I also try to post different things (even though I know you can link it to post the same. I believe this keeps our followers interested. Togetherness I posted a group shot of our membership that was taken at our annual photo. This photo would have been taken this week for 2020. Many of our Hotel Concierge members have been laid off or put on furlough while we try to flatten the curve. Our hotels have closed and we are loosing hope in our industry. Posting this picture and stating that we ca...

Visual media draws in potential customers at first glance. A great picture can tell a thousand words... but words are also important. Below you will find the Instagram pages I chose to visit. They include Concierge associations in Los Angeles & Orange County, A Personal Blogger (and current hotel concierge), A tourist guide to San Diego, and The San Diego Tourism Authority. These pages have the same goal as we do... to visit our city and use our services. They range in posts, followers and who they are following.  The numbers show that having a large amount of posts does not always drive followers. Also I noticed that posting multiple times a day does not help either. I have felt that if you follow local businesses they tend follow back and assist in spreading the word about your account. Also, having loyal followers and interesting posts helps. One of these accounts does not use many hashtags but has a continuous audience for their posts.  Instagram...

Businesses can use Instagram to draw in new customers. Visual representation of a company can attract customers who might not have been seeking services. Someone scrolling in their feed might see a business that a family member of colleague was looking for. Mixing up posts is also important to continue their interest. Pictures of landscape, people, animals and wording can catch an eye of a follower or someone who finds your page. I try to do this on my page as best I can. When events and special moments happen I love to share with our followers. It is great to read the comments! Hashtags also help in bringing in new eyes to your page. When adding a hashtag, it pops up the number of times that hashtag was used. I tend to lean toward popular hashtags, as more people search for these. I, myself, look up hashtags when seeking services or restaurants. When I travel to a new city I like to look up hashtags for the area I am in to see new restaurants. A picture tells a thousand words. I...

The San Diego Concierge Association @SDCAonline on Instagram Our organization created our first post in 2012 when we created our account. 2012 was a slow start for our account, as it was averaging 2-9 likes per post. I have been posting for the page for 2 years as the director or PR on the Board of Directors. Since working on the account I have doubled our followers and have a consistent presence. I have been posting 2-4 times weekly with almost daily story features. My focus has been to celebrate our city and the concierge profession. I use hashtags that are catchy and fun such as Member Monday to feature associates or business members. Flashback Friday is a fun post because I can feature one of the many archived photos of our events since 1985. I also like to feature education opportunities so that we never stop learning. So that we can look back at common posts i also include our unique hashtag SDCAonline. We currently have 1,135 followers and follow 1,240 pages. I see the ...