Social Media State of the Union Q&A

Thanks to all of you that attended our Social Media State of the Union webinar on Wednesday. For those of you that missed the session or would like to view it again, a recorded version can be streamed here.

In addition to the session recording, we wanted to share with you all of the great questions that were asked on the webinar and provide you with the answers below.

Q: What are the Google+ Page profile and cover photo dimensions?
A: The new Google+ cover photo is similar to Facebook Timeline but is a little bigger and the profile picture is on the right instead of the left. The size you will want in order to maximize the cover photo is 940 pixels x 180 pixels. The Google Plus profile picture dimensions are approximately 250 pixels x 250 pixels.

Q: Why is the Hotel Berlin Page all in English? Do they have a separate German language page?
A: This Page is actually written in German, but they’ve included an English version of their About Section. Google+ also has translate technology integrated throughout, allowing users to easily translate foreign language posts into their native language.

Q: Within Google+, can you simply link your YouTube channel videos when asked to upload your own videos?
A: At this time, Google+ requires you to re-upload the video content that you would like to have added to your Google+ page, although we suspect that this functionality will come at some point down the line.  For the time being, we recommend that you upload at least 2-3 videos so that your visitors will be able to view at least some dynamic content about your brand.

Q: Can you only access Instagram from a handheld device or phone?  Or can you from a desktop?
A: You can access Instagram from a desktop browser. However, you cannot post photos from this interface at this time. You can find more information on this here.

Q: Do you have to have a mac computer to use the Instagram desktop?
A: No you do not. It works across all major browsers. To view an Instagram photo in your desktop, simply click on the image link from wherever you are accessing it – Facebook, Twitter, etc. – and you will be sent to Instagram’s desktop viewing portal. Here, you can like and comment on the photo from either your personal or brand’s Instragram account (make sure that you know which account you are currently logged into). Please note, however, that at this time, Instagram only allows you to upload and share photos through its mobile application. Stay tuned for our How to Instagram Your Hotel for timesaving tips, strategies and best practice ideas coming to our blog very soon.

Q: We are on Pinterest. How can we get our boards to be searchable?
A: To make sure that your boards are searchable, the first and most important step is to be sure you keep the ‘Hide your Pinterest profile from search engines’ checked to ‘Off’ so your profile can get indexed. As far as how to optimize your Pinterest account for search, we will be sharing a comprehensive How to Search Optimize Your Pinterest Presence here on the blog soon, but to get you started, start connecting with relevant users.  Since Pinterest is a younger and far less cluttered social space than Facebook or Twitter, engaging with other active users that are aligned with your brand – through commenting on posts, copying users with @mentions, re-pinning original content and liking when appropriate – can yield you significant benefits.

Q: How appropriate are these platforms for a new business opening in a year? And for restaurant brands?
A: As with any other established business, these platforms are terrific ways for new businesses alike to augment your social presence and increase audience reach. They support you with strengthening your brand identity and do assist with bolstering organic search ranking. The platforms enable you to communicate with your audience in a highly visual way that lends itself perfectly for restaurant brands. Finally, each platform allows you to re-purpose and crowd-source compelling new content for other platforms that can help build buzz for your opening.

Q: Do you recommend Google +, Instagram, and Pinterest over Facebook and Twitter?
A: While we think it’s imperative to keep an eye on emerging platforms and develop at the very least a listening presence on them – provided your team has the resources to do so – both Facebook and Twitter have far greater usage and should serve as the cornerstone platforms to your property’s social media plan. We do recommend, however, leveraging the unique benefits yielded from these of these emerging platforms to complement and integrate with your current social strategy. Specifically for each:

• Google+ Maintaining an active presence on Google+ will at the very least support, to some degree, your visibility in organic search.
• Instagram Sharing photos on Instagram will supply your brand with highly appealing photography that you can re-purpose and share in difference ways on other social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr and Flickr.
• Pinterest Curating a few pin-boards will again allow your brand to speak a highly visual conversation with users and, like Google+, can increase traffic to your website.

Q: What is a hashtag and how many should I use?
A: A hashtag (#) can be thought of as a keyword used to label content that you’re posting (primarily on Twitter) and make it more searchable. To generate a hashtag, begin by using the pound/hash sign followed by your keyword. (eg. #NYC #Hotel) While hashtags can improve your post’s visibility, we recommend that you use no more than three hashtags in a tweet, as research suggests that beyond this threshold the likelihood of your content being re-tweeted and shared significantly diminishes.

If you have any more questions, feel free to reach out to us!