Our summer vacation this year included a stop in Zion National Park in Utah. You are not permitted to drive your own vehicle inside the park, and must board a bus that will take you to various stops and points of interest inside the park. Between stops, a recorded message shares a bit of history and background of the next stop. At the end of the recorded message, the voice drops to a very serious tone which says “Your Safety is Your Responsibility”. Our destination was the very last stop, the Narrows. And after 7 or 8 stops, all of us were quoting at the end of each recorded message… AND REMEMBER... "YOUR SAFETY IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY”.
At first we thought, well DUH! Of course “Your Safety is Your Responsibility” but when you stop to think about it, between 120 degree temperatures on the desert floor, cliff hiking, which we are warned on the friendly bus recording you shouldn’t do if you have issues with heights, canyoneering and river hiking where hypothermia is always a risk, people sometimes just don’t pay attention.
Some go hiking without enough water to drink, a huge no-no in the desert, others are not dressed properly for the heat, no hat or sun screen, and others that we saw live and in person on the Narrows River hike in BLUE JEANS and FLIP FLOPS!
Obviously they weren’t paying attention very well to the admonition of “Your Safety is Your Responsibility!"
Well, summer is at an end, and we are still catching ourselves quoting… “Your Safety is Your Responsibility”, discovering various other phrases to swap out for the word "Safety" ...
- As school is about to start for my son it’s “Your Homework is Your Responsibility”
- And for our Innkeepers it’s “Your Web Presence is Your Responsibility”
Which seems very appropriate at this time of such Google flux.
We are beginning to receive more and more phone calls from Innkeepers that built a new site 2-3 years ago, which still has 2-3 year old On-Page SEO, a virtually untouched blog, social media accounts that are poorly attended to and are simply unaware of the benefits and necessity of Google +, Author Tags, Site Speed, new Google mobile requirements and the list goes on.
These Innkeepers are calling wondering WHY their BUSINESS IS DOWN?
Sometimes an Innkeeper decides that once their Website goes Live and is being hosted with Acorn IS, it is where they stop. They choose not to be involved with Acorn University or Club 60. Often times we see that these same Innkeepers have done very little or nothing to continue any type of Ongoing Marketing for their business online once their site goes live.
If you’re an avid reader of our Acorn Blog, you know I LOVE Info Graphics. A picture often speaks louder than words. So I gathered together a Web Presence Info Graphic so that anyone out there who might be beginning to lose placement and business could easily understand what needs to be done. START HERE at the "?" and follow along...
You can see that the most important juncture is to decide YES to Ongoing Marketing. Just completing Steps 1 – 4 will get you on the map, but like it or not, in today’s Google world, it isn’t going to keep you in the top search results. You HAVE to continue with Ongoing Marketing. We’ve said this over and over: Steps 1 – 4 are ONLY THE FOUNDATION of your Web Presence. Step 5 and beyond is what is going to bring your ongoing Success!
As a farm girl, I like the analogy of a garden. It’s like preparing the soil, purchasing the plants and placing them in the ground. But if you don’t continually weed, water and protect your investment from critters, it is quickly going to be lost.
And back to our Zion National Park story, you can always hire a guide to take you on any of the hikes, or canyoneering in the crevasses of the park, but even with a guide “Your Safety is STILL Your Responsibility”. It’s the same with your Web Presence. Even when you choose to "Pay an Expert" to help you with your Ongoing Marketing instead of Doing-It-Yourself, you still have to have the basic knowledge of what and how you want your Ongoing Marketing to be established and monitored. You can’t just hand it over to your “Guide” and hope for the best. You wouldn’t expect your Zion Guide to carry all the water and food, put a hat on your head, and continually tell you to watch for snakes and put on your sun screen. Even with a guide you have to know and be able to do the basics! And in that serious toned voice we should all now be hearing...
“Your Web Presence is Your Responsibility!”
I’m also finding a small percentage of Innkeepers that are unsure about which Acorn Services cover what. From time to time we’ll hear, “What do you mean you don’t do Ongoing Marketing as part of my Monthly Hosting Fees. I thought that was what I was paying you for.”
At $20 - $30 a month for Hosting, NO, Ongoing Marketing is NOT covered as part of your Hosting fees.
So in order to help all our clients clearly understand our different services... YES! We have another Info Graphic!
Every Service is Color Coded and will incur an additional cost depending on what each Individual Innkeeper needs for their own Web Presence.
- Red – Hosting
- Yellow – Webmaster Support
- Pink – Reporting
- Purple – Creative Services
- Green – DIY Ongoing Marketing Education via Acorn University and Club 60
- Blue – We do your Ongoing Marketing for you
And please keep in mind that any Innkeeper can choose to blend the Green (DIY) and Blue (We do the Ongoing Marketing for you) in any shape or form to best suit your own individual needs.
But please remember, should you choose for us to do your Ongoing Marketing for you, or you choose for us to teach you how to DIY, we still need ALL of our Innkeepers to understand the basics of what Ongoing Marketing is all about.
Knowledge is POWER!
I do hope you’ve enjoyed our little “Parable” of the “Your Safety is Your Responsibility” AKA “Your Web Presence is Your Responsibility!”
I know that many of you already embrace this concept, and are flourishing even when others are not. So from time to time, I hope you too can hear that serious toned voice saying “Your Web Presence is Your Responsibility” and SMILE 🙂 because you KNOW it’s TRUE!
Lisa Kolb
President and Co-Founder
Acorn Internet Services, Inc.
Educating our Industry one Innkeeper at a Time!
What a great blog post, Lisa! It is a powerful and important reminder of our responsibilities as innkeepers. Of course, time (and energy) are issues – thank goodness Acorn is there with expertise, support, and help. We thank you & your team!
We appreciate the innkeepers like you that take what we teach and put it into practice, Carol!