Henry The Seventh: Social media success

Do you “like”? Do you “tweet”? Do you tube? Does your business do any or all of these things and, if so, does it really know what it is doing with them?

Social media. Social networks. Once upon a time, social networks were just networks of people, doing what people do, i.e. being social, being friends, being business acquaintances. Whatever the type of network, the purpose is the same: to make contact and connections.

And that’s what it’s about. “Making connections.” The words of Seamus Cullen at No Frills Excursions when I told him I was going to be talking to his business partner, Toni Alenyar, about social media.

No Frills is a small business, but it is a successful one, and one reason why it is successful is that it goes about its business in a purposeful fashion. It plans. And among its plans is one for the use of social media. I have a copy: all fourteen pages of it.

Not every business can devote significant time and resources to social media, but most have come to appreciate that they are, as Toni says, “essential tools”. Many businesses have Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and the like, but do they really appreciate what they are doing with them?

No Frills is guided by a seven-step strategy. It is one that is partly specific to it as an excursions’ operator, but most of the steps can be applied to or adapted by any business. How the company uses social media is geared to meeting one or more of these seven steps. Crucially, they are not the company’s, they are the customer’s.

From the customer’s seeking of holiday inspiration and information to his planning and decision-making, to his taking action (making a booking and travelling) and to his sharing of his experiences, social media accompany each step along the way.

No Frills tests out any social media going. With some it is a case of learning what they offer and which may assume greater importance in the future. But with all its social media activity, there is a wish for the business to be visible, to enhance its reputation and to be seen as innovative.

Of the different networks, the most important to the company are Facebook, You Tube and Trip Advisor. The glowing reviews that No Frills attracts on Trip Advisor come quite obviously as a result of good experiences and good service, but the company actively encourages customers to review what it does, whether good or not so good, and spends time in responding to reviews which are posted.

The sharing of experiences by customers on Trip Advisor is the seventh step in the company’s strategic approach, but it can just as easily be seen as the first step. As Toni points out, Trip Advisor is that significant now that a majority of travellers consult it as part of their initial planning.

The attention given to the traveller’s information-gathering process is one that has led No Frills to be highly proactive and innovative. For example, it now makes short videos about hotels and posts them on You Tube. Why? Because someone interested in coming on holiday searches for information about specific hotels. No Frills videos give a short tour of the hotel and other relevant information about the resort, and relevance is a keyword in Toni’s vocabulary.

But how does this benefit the business? It’s not about selling as such. Of course, selling is the outcome that is sought, but it comes back to making connections. Someone sees a video about a hotel, it comes from No Frills, there will be some means of connecting to more No Frills information and the result … There may be a sale either online or in-resort. Critically though, trust and credibility are being created.

Actually quantifying the benefits of the company’s social media activity is nigh on impossible. Toni freely admits this. But then much promotional activity is hard or impossible to quantify. It is hard to place a value on the benefits derived from visibility, reputation and innovation, but social media, used well and planned well, will bring such benefits, and the importance attached to social media by No Frills is reflected by the fact that there is now a full-time member of staff who concentrates on the company’s internet presence.

There is way more to the No Frills internet story. I’ve not mentioned how Google search enquiries have helped to create a whole separate website, I’ve not mentioned that each of the four No Frills offices (three in Puerto Alcúdia and one in Puerto Pollensa) has its own You Tube channel, and I’ve not mentioned Henry the elephant. You might guess though that Henry has his own Facebook page.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Dog Day Afternoon: Santa Maria

Late summer came early on Saturday. The heat consumed the interior for the first time this year. The Sirius dog star had not risen, but the Luna dog, with the madness of the moon that had yet to wax, was crazy with the smell from a grill and trophies to be sniffed and dug from the sienna terrain, the red-stone earth, scrubbed like a maquis beneath the hills of plane and pine trees.

Here is the hinterland, and within it a duo-turreted folly of a finca home of some one hundred years provenance. In the dog days of late summer, the heat will wrap you in its bear-like paws, the escape being the mid-afternoon breezes that flap like swallows carried on the cooling thermals of the mestral or tramuntana, except when the Sahara blows its occasional and contrary migjorn from a stifling south.

This is Santa Maria. Santa Maria del Camí, to give the village its full name. Saint Mary of the way. Along the way, through Santa Maria, are the local areas from Son Pou in its northern entrance to Es Torrent Fals at its southern exit. As falls Santa Maria, so falls Torrent falls. And along the way is this house. Cal Tio Tomeu. Uncle Tom’s house, I guess. Certainly more than a cabin. Built like an outhouse. “It must be cold in winter.” Yes, it probably is, but not on this day of phoney summer.

Rural Mallorca or even the real Mallorca. This is where they come for an excursion. “You will not see tourists.” And you don’t. We are not tourists anyway, but we have been following the route down the highway into a cradle created by hills but high enough to be as lookouts for the arrival of the Civil War.

You scan south from the scrub that stretches to a dip, on top of which is a natural watchtower for observation. We are at journey’s end. At Uncle Tom’s house. The excursion itself, when it starts for summer and lasts through the dog days and into the stormy shifts of September and October, is to the markets of Maria de la Salut and Binissalem, to collect the vegetables for trampó and pa amb oli, to a bodega to collect the wine, all to complement the meat that has already been collected and marinaded for the grill.

Amidst the scrub, there’s a small garden that has been laboured on over the winter. It has a baby apple tree and a yet to be born kiwi plant, and other shrubs lining up in a carefully constructed grid formation. The makers of the excursion have been making the garden, frills of flowers and flora, Uncle Tom’s tribute allotment.

Rural Mallorca and Mallorca without frills. A large trestle-style table for the food’s preparation; everyone chips in, that is part of being a part of rural Mallorca. Ordinary plastic chairs that you fear might bubble in the dog day heat, sheltered by creamy shades in the dreamy other world of the still interior. Still, save for the chatter and laughter and the spit from the grill, save for the odd bark of a mad dog pleadingly looking for scraps.

The simplest can be the best. Everyone says it’s the best, or one of the best. And when the food is finished, when the wine has been drunk, when the photos of the old boy who has been the chef and who had waited patiently, drawing on a cigarette, are all taken, so they take the highway back. Away from Uncle Tom’s house, back along the way of Santa Maria, towards the sun that will set and towards the dog star as it rises. And there is a contentment, one of simple being the best and one of having peered into an other world of ruralism, away from the madding crowds.

* No Frills Excursions’ “Rural Mallorca” tour will be available throughout the season. Luna, by the way, is Seamus’s dog.

** Music references duly acknowledged in this piece. Paul Simon, “Graceland”; Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays, “As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls”.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.