Welcome to another #keephospitalityalive. Well, we now know that it will be the beginning of July when we MAY be allowed to open some of our fabulous venues. At least we can now start to REALLY focus on a plan for re-launch, even if we keep it fairly loose until we know more.
I’m still offering, until June, my FREE ‘PBP Pow Wow’s where you get to pick my brains on content ideas for your social media. These are primarily aimed at those of you that have physical venues such as bars, restaurants, hotels, B&B’s, cafe’s etc. I offer these every Wednesday, so drop me a line or click here to book your slot.
So grab a cuppa or something stronger & ‘Happy Reading’
‘USEFUL ARTICLES & INFO’
There are a number of guides, checklists & articles out there that talk about re-opening & I thought it might be especially useful to pull some of these together for you into one place:
Access Hospitality have provided us with another guide that gives advice on how technology can help when you re-open & social distancing
You can also get access to a great PDF from E-Hotelier if you subscribe to their newsletter called ‘Hospitality in the Post COVID-19 World’.
Check out: ‘Covid-19: When restaurants reopen, table spacing, face mask rules and the ‘toilet situation’ from I-News.
Also Big Hospitality have a great article: ‘The Lock Down social distancing in restaurants’ that might help your plans to re-open in July.
A webinar really worth registering for here: EHotelier. This webinar will show you how to evolve your marketing & strategy in the next 3 months, to help you develop resilience for future tough times & pave your way to success over the next 5 years
Other bits & pieces:
There’s always some amazing stuff happening on Hospo Live’s Facebook page. Everyday they have ‘live’s’ from yoga to Q&A’s with industry experts, food & drinks focuses & top tips: Check out what’s going on today you might be interested in.
This is a good read & nice to see some positive actions & thoughts: Yorkshire Post: ‘Five ways to help Yorkshire tourism during lockdown’ – by Susan Briggs
If you’re in the events industry then I recommend you tune into this every Thursday with some fab event ladies: The Agenda
A nifty social media tool for you from Sprout Social. Do you ever struggle to resize photos for social media? Well, this is exactly what you need… upload a photo choose your platforms (FB, Twitter, LI, Insta etc) choose “where they’re going” on each platform (e.g. banner) download a zip file with them in & you’re DONE!! CHECK IT OUT HERE. Thanks to Ade Wilson for sharing this on Linkedin.
A few shout outs this week for fellow freelancers. If you’re looking to get ‘re-open ready’ & you’re updating your website, menu’s etc, then you’ll probably need some decent photography & video. I highly recommend a few freelancers that I work with. Firstly, Heidi Marfitt – Fabulous hospitality & interiors photographer. Ade Wilson – Also brilliant food & drink photographer & Ryan Mulhern – Amazing videographer.
Finally, I’d be super grateful if you could take my really quick survey about social media. It will really help me to pull together the best free resources for those in hospitality & to see what needs there are, so I can get my packages & online courses just right for the market. It only takes a couple of mins.
Thanks so much! CLICK HERE TO COMPLETE SURVEY
‘PBP POST PICKS’
Here are my favourite hospitality ‘PBP Post Picks’ I found this week to give you inspo! (CLICK THE IMAGES TO BE TAKEN TO THE POSTS THEMSELVES ONLINE):
Sometimes the simplest of posts say the most. This post showing the sun streaming in to North Bar (Leeds) shows a past picture of us all going down for a drink, after work, on a ‘normal’ sunny work day. It creates nostalgia & hope that it won’t be long until we can do this again. It also shows the people behind the bar are humans missing the interactions also & that it’s not just a bricks & mortar venue:
Also from North Bar, I loved this creative & entertaining video that promotes their delivery in such a fun way. CLICK THE IMAGE TO WATCH THE VIDEO:
Grumpy’s in Farsley are back with another belter of a week focused heavily around their local community. Their ‘Faces of Farsley’ campaign, is a project with an aim of brightening the streets of Farsley with art & that celebrates essential workers! This has really taken off & has brought the community together in such a lovely way:
They were also instrumental in co-coordinating murals along the main street of Farsley by local artists:
I’m featuring Catgill Campsite – Bolton Abbey again this week as they were really responsive to the recent announcement that hospitality businesses may be able to open again at the beginning of July. They quickly put this post out which obviously promotes their beautiful venue but also instils confidence & trust for customers to book, as they are offering a voucher for the full amount paid valid until end of 2021 – great idea. People want to support independent businesses & if you make it easier for them then they are more likely to put their money where their mouth is:
I know Rachelle who does Catgill’s social media & had a bit of banter with her this week about this post, saying that this was just cheating! (Only kidding). I mean who doesn’t love a puppy?! Great idea to get the followers involved naming the puppy. Fab content!:
There were a few posts this week that made the most of the V.E Day celebrations. Topical content always does well.
Humblebee Farm showed us them enjoying their own mini street party at the venue:
Heaney & Mill in Headingley also still feature heavily in my post picks. They also jumped on V.E Day with another great idea. ‘V.E Day Victory Roasts’:
They also showed an image of the venue 75 years ago. Old, nostalgic images like this are fascinating to followers & usually do well:
Finally, from them they take us on their journey by showing us their plans & new products. This is the new packaging for their Sunday Roasts which also happens to look fab!:
I loved the fact that Matt Healy x The Foundry actually showed us how to enjoy their yummy Sunday Roasts at home, so we can picture ourselves ordering them. A great inspiring post!:
The Bearded Sailor in Pudsey showed us the fish & chips ready to go out to another local community initiative. Simple content like this works really well & sells the product & the generosity of the venue easily without being overly promotional:
‘CONTENT IDEAS’
I’m sure you’ve been inspired loads already with those ‘PBP Post Picks’, but just in case you need more, head on over for the last few weeks ideas on my previous blog posts HERE.
Here are some you could try based on the above & more:
- Can you put a fun spin on the every day? I.e Making food, delivering food, planning stuff etc.
- Once again, what can you do for the local community & key carers? i.e. art, brighten up their lives, gifts, giveaways, food, shout outs/thank you’s etc.
- If you’re looking to re-open make sure customers have the confidence in you now. Offer them reassurances about what you’re planning to do about health safety & hygiene, as well as encouraging them to book with reassurances on refunds or vouchers.
- If you have cute pets, don’t be afraid to use them!! Lol.
- Be topical – What’s going on in the world you can replicate, feature or jump on?
- Do you have any old pictures of your venue you can pull out of the archives? What was it before you were there? Does it have an interesting history?
- Ask your followers to share their pics of them eating & enjoying your food at home, if you are doing deliveries.
Remember above all else keep being heartfelt, honest, candid & yourselves. With lots of people pics & those that generate emotions.
We can do this peeps & come out fighting the other side!
Stay Safe. #keephospitalityalive and #keepsocialalive
