My wife and I recently took a trip to JiBei island, located close to Penghu which is off the coast of Taiwan. While visiting JiBei we stopped for breakfast at the only place that was still open at 10:00am — hey, sleeping in is what vacations are for.

The place that we found is called the Hugo Cafe. It actually wasn’t open but the manager was kind enough to open up a bit early. We chatted a bit over coffee, waffles and cactus ice cream. Our conversation led into how he could better promote the business and attract people from Taiwan or elsewhere.

His customers are primarily Mandarin speakers but I made a few suggestions that might appeal to both Mandarin and English speakers. Some of the suggestions, that are explained below, were mentioned to him during our conversation but some of them I thought of later. 

Facebook Fan Pages

He had already started an Official Facebook Fan Page but it really needs some work. Contact information or a website should be the first thing added to any Fan Page.

I suggested that he walk around the cafe and take pictures of the view and the cafe itself. I also recommended that he get the cafe visitors to upload their own pictures and encourage them to tell their own stories of their visits there.

One of the things that I forgot to suggest is Facebook ads. These ads can be honed in on a very specific demographic. For example, you can have your ads displayed to just 25-35 year olds working and living in Taipei and that like to travel.

I have done some very minor testing of these ads for another project that I am working on. Since I am just getting started with exploring Facebook ads, I can’t really speak in detail about them. Hopefully I will be able to in the near future.

Twitter

Twitter is a valuable tool for connecting with potential customers. A business owner can do a search for keywords related to their business. For example, at search.twitter.com, you could do a search for “Taiwan travel”.

If you come across someone looking for a place to travel in Taiwan then you could reach out to them. You’ll want to ensure that it doesn’t come across as spam though, personalize it.

Searches on Twitter can be bookmarked or delivered via RSS. It may take a bit of time to setup a few searches but personal contact is more appealing than some flyer that shows up in the mail.

YouTube

YouTube is a place for potential customers to discover you. A business owner can create videos of their establishment and its surrounding areas and then post them on YouTube.

This gives people a chance to see what the place is like before they even step foot out their door. The thing to remember about these videos is that they don’t need to be produced, they just need to be clear and concise.

These videos can also be shared on Facebook or on Twitter.

Flickr

Flickr can be used in a similar manner as YouTube. A business owner can post pictures to Flickr. They should contain the appropriate tags and geocoding to make them easy to find.

Again, these pictures don’t need to be taken by a professional photographer. They just need to be something for potential customers to get a feeling of what is waiting for them.

These pictures can also be posted on Facebook and sent to potential customers via Twitter.

Foursquare

Every business owner that has a store front needs to add their business to Foursquare. This will allow travellers to see what is around them whenever they check in someplace new.

For example, if I am looking for a restaurant or a place to stay, I might check Foursquare to see what is close to me. If there is a cafe around the corner, then I am going there instead of the place that is across town.

Additionally, Foursquare assigns the title of “Mayor” to people who visit an individual location the most. Business users can use this to their advantage by offering a discount to people that are the Mayor of their business. This encourages repeat customers because if they stop visiting then they will lose their discount.

There are other location based services that are worth looking at like Gowalla and Brightkite, or TaiwanYo in Taiwan. There are many others but these are some of the most popular.

Blog

All of the above content can also be included on the business’s blog or website. A website that is full of new and interesting videos and pictures is a lot more interesting that a stale website that may have not been updated since the business first opened its doors.

I highly recommend WordPress as a platform for your blog. There are countless sources of information on the internet relating to WordPress. There are also numerous plugins and themes that you can use with your WordPress blog.

You should also make sure that you get your own domain name. Something like MatthewHooper.com is easier to remember than http://mdh1978.blogspot.com.

WordPress is also the platform that powers this blog!

Adapting

The examples that I suggested are the result of the conversation I had with a cafe owner. Therefore, they are targeted more at what a business in the travel and tourism industry can do. With a little creativity, most business owners can use the above techniques to draw more customers to their business.

The above suggestions are just the tip of the iceberg. Social media and social networking are constantly changing. What works today, might be obsolete tomorrow. The important thing is to connect and make connections regardless of the medium.

After you get acquainted with the above tools it is worth taking some time and really optimize each of these tools. Adding landing pages to Facebook is an example of what I am talking about. If I were to delve deep into the optimization of these tools then this post would become a small book.

Your Turn

Are you a business owner? Are you using social media to attract new customers? Leave a comment below on how you are doing it.

Want to ask me a question directly about what you just read? Email me at [email protected]

Want more? Follow me on Twitter.

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About the author

Matt
I'm Matt and I share how to build an internet presence through internet business, social marketing, lifestyle design and productivity tools. While here, read about me to learn my story or find out how you can hire me.

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