Alright, so we write a lot about blogging and social media and
the importance of it in your marketing, etc., etc., and
sometimes you just want to tell us to SHUT UP already. We get
it. But we don't give up that easily!
A couple of weeks ago
in my article,
"Do Innkeeper Blogs Work?" I mentioned a blog,
My Bella
Vita, by an American innkeeper in Italy, Cherrye Moore.
Something happened this past week that caused me to dig a bit
deeper into her blog and to reflect on the power and strength
of online community. Something happened to Cherrye's father,
and the outpouring has been remarkable.
If you explore My Bella Vita, you'll read a lot about
Italy, about food and art and history. But you'll also learn a
lot about the author. And you'll learn a lot about blogging.
It's by inference and the prominent link to
Il Cedro Bed &
Breakfast that you'd want to stay at her B&B as well.
Cherrye gets an unusually large number of comments to her blog
posts because, as she told me, "people feel like they know us
through the blog." Remarkably, she replies to every
comment, something we're told to do to be effective. But then
she told her readers on Feb. 13 that she was going home to
Texas for a couple of weeks because she'd received the middle
of the night phone call that no one wants to receive. "It's
your father." And something amazing happened.
In just a couple of days nearly forty people have left
comments, offered prayers and best wishes. No doubt some are
friends but many, like me, are strangers. Sometimes it's
tragedy that makes us realize how many people "out there"
really care. And then you realize that it really is possible
to create a community in cyberspace.
The whole purpose of a blog for a bed & breakfast is to
share something of yourself and your area with the larger
world, to make people feel like they want to come
stay with you. You begin to create an emotional connection
with your past and future guests, and as you write and make
the effort you may not know if anyone is really reading or if
they care. But if you persist you might be surprised.
Is this for everyone? No. But if you visit
My Bella
Vita you'll understand why a blog can be a powerful tool
for communication and for creating community. And you'll
understand better what drives some people to "broadcast their
lives to the blogosphere." And why people would want to stay
at Il Cedro Bed & Breakfast. And why you might consider
following a great example of what works.
