Make the most of being shortlisted!

In the media pack sent to shortlisted properties is a virtual award badge to put on your website and share on social media. This is a great way to impress potential guests because it shows that your property has been recognised in a national competition. Don’t underestimate how good that looks – it’s a huge deal!

Using these badges and promoting yourself really can pay dividends. A good example of this paying off was when Manor Farm B&B in Wiltshire posted their shortlisted badge on their Facebook page;   BBC Radio Wiltshire saw the badge and invited them for radio interviews, which was great publicity for the property.

If you have a Twitter, Instagram or Facebook account, make sure you shout about being shortlisted. Remember to keep us in the loop – tag @eviivo in your posts and include #eviivoAwards so that your posts will be visible to others searching for the awards on social media. Remember to include images of what makes your property award-worthy – this is your time to shine!

Alongside your social media posts, you might want to lay some groundwork in terms of social media reach at the same time. It’s a good idea to do some online networking, such as following influential industry bloggers on social media, as well as local tourist boards. Tagging them in tweets, Instagram & Facebook posts, as well as commenting on their posts, will draw their attention to you.

If you can, get in touch with other shortlisted properties and build a rapport with each other, as this will increase the social media coverage not only for you but for the awards themselves. If the eviivo Awards get more press, then you will too!

In the shortlisted property media pack there is a press release detailing the news of your shortlisting for the eviivo Awards 2019. We encourage you to add a paragraph about your property, your contact details and the date, then send this on to your local papers and radio stations.

A good way to track down relevant press and journalists is via Twitter. Journalists are always hunting for their next story, so tag your local news outlet in a tweet with the information about your shortlisting. Remember to keep the tweet snappy and lead with the highlights – you’ve got to really sell your story to them.

Writing a short blog post about being shortlisted for an award will look great to potential guests – a good example is the blog Fields Lodge wrote about being shortlisted for the Tastiest Breakfast and Hidden Gem Awards this year.

If you’re unsure what to write, why not ask a guest for a bite-sized quote you can include? Or you could make a video blog to announce to your followers that you’ve been shortlisted for an eviivo Award.

You might also want to take a look at our trade secrets page on how to use SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to improve the ranking of your blog on Search Engine Results Pages, and remember to share your blog or vlog on your social media pages and website for maximum reach.