Big Mill B&B’s Social ExperimentThe first seven years

Social Media Launched From a Solid FoundationBig Mill’s kickass website is replete with stunning photos, content that charms and magnetic on-page optimization for search engines.

Chloe’s main website is HTML, not WordPress, first launched in 1999. Site crafted by Deep Creek Arts.

Go Mobile or Go HomeChloe was an early adopter to mobile, which in 2013 represented about 15% of her non-blog web traffic.

The $99 “Last Minute Special” has proven to be a win-win mobile marketing strategy, filling rooms that would otherwise go empty for the night.

Staking Her ClaimAlthough Williamston, NC (pop.< 6000 residents) is a mere spec on the map, Chloe uses keywords on her website and blog to gain exceptional regional visibility in organic search results.

Chloe uses the “Publisher” tag (aka “rich

snippets”) on her main website so her brand/

photo displays on organic results for bigmill.com

Greenville, NC is the closest major

city to Williamston – 30 miles away

It’s a challenge to get anyone to take the time and/or figure out how to leave an online review. There are particular obstacles when it comes to leaving reviews on Yelp and Google.

But authentic reviews are the lifeblood of new bookings. We developed the Reviews Booster Program to make it easier for owners and staff to connect -- using a personal invitation with a physical reminder (biz card) once a positive relationship has been forged.

Reviews “Booster Program

Chloe’s Blog: A Delightful ConvergencePassion + Perseverance + Pretty Pictures

115 posts over 7 years2007 - 21 posts2008 - 13 posts2009 - 11 posts2010 - 12 posts2011 - 13 posts2012 - 17 posts2013 - 28 posts

Chloe’s BlogGoogle Analytics for 30 days of traffic and top referral sources 11/22/13 – 12/23/13

Google Authorship is attached to

all content Chloe creates/contributes

to reinforce her brand recognition,

credibility & authority.

She keeps it personal – her

photo is her brand.

Establish Google Authorship

Chloe’s Blog been on WordPress from

her first post in April of 2007.

Photography is her passion – and using amazing photos to

help tell stories and share “how-to”s

remains a significant contributing factor to her blog’s popularity

and sharability.

Every image is optimized for search engines – and now,

written with Pinterest in mind.

Chloe’s Blog : Picture Perfect Marketing

These stats for Chloe’s Blog are fairly typical throughout 2013. Her blog averages between 4500 – 7000 visits per month.

Her bounce rate is always amazingly low. People find what they searched for and Google rewards her for that.

It was in May of 2013 that we began to pay attention to the referral traffic she was getting from Pinterest.

Pinterest wasn’t even a channel she spent much time and energy developing! In 2014, we’ll put more attention there and see what happens.

Put Google Analytics Plugin on WordPress Dashboard

Chloe’s presence on Pinterest is a modest one – only 25 boards. But she’s consistently seeing 15 - 25%+ of traffic to her blog coming from Pinterest. We can attribute some of this to her content. Even though she’s currently uploading only 15% of her own content, what she puts on Pinterest speaks the language of Pinterest’s prime demographic – crafts and recipes and gorgeous photos.

Want to follow along? www.Pinterest.com/bigmill

Pinterest : The Biggest Surprise of 2013

When search engines point people to Chloe’s Blog, we can quickly see the trend in reverse - the same items are being pinned from Chloe’s Blog TO Pinterest boards. Because we now see so much pinning from the blog, we always use Pinterest-friendly alt-text (which is also keyword friendly) under every image to get more bites of the apple.

Check what’s being pinned from your website/blog: www.Pinterest.com/source/yourdomain.com

Blog Visitors Add Chloe’s Blog to Their Pinterest Boards

In the early days of “the gold rush,” Chloe had multiple custom landing pages built and offered a free gift in exchange for “Liking.”

When Facebook changed to the Timeline, we developed an easy-to-update cover photo design that reinforces the Big Mill brand. Every blog post is cross-promoted on Facebook, but Chloe will tell you straight away - Facebook is not a marketing basket into which Big Mill has ever put many eggs. That will not change in 2014.

Facebook Early AdopterWe were using Facebook from the first day they let local business owners create “fan pages.”

Google+ Local:If anyone comes to check out her G+ page from Google Maps, a link from organic search, the website or the back of her business cards, the “i”s are dotted and “t”s are crossed. It’s a pleasant place to land and she’s getting “circled” sometimes 20-40x a day.

We make it easy for new followers to

find her from Chloe’s Blog

G+ Local and G+ Personal Profile Pages: These are excellent places to resurrect content from the early days of Chloe’s Blog

Because Google has now deemed hashtags important, she’ll start using them with every update. Social media “rules” are in constant flux. We help Big Mill stay on top of the new – sorting the wheat from the chaff as it relates to her target audience and visibility marketing goals.

Of course, every new blog post is cross-promoted on Google+ Local and Chloe’s personal G+ page.

Status update descriptions are written with keywords in mind. For this, Google rewards her efforts, often showing her G+ updates in organic search results -- sometimes within minutes of posting!

Branded YouTube Channel:A work in progress – but great to add to the content mix

Twitter – Perfunctory Presence:Big Mill has been there for years -- with a beautiful branded background we created for her. But to be honest - Twitter isn’t a primary marketing channel for Chloe.

Almost every Tweet has been automagically posted from another source – but this strategy works well enough to keep her page from looking abandoned. Recently, she got an unexpected confirmation that at least one person reads her Tweets. She was 45 minutes from home and ran into a previous guest from a few years back who had read news on Twitter earlier that morning that her old red truck had caught on fire.

Using Email to Nurture RelationshipsWe stopped using Feedburner in 2012, opting for more controlto the look and feel of the email updates subscribers received. Yes, there is a bit more work involved to customize the templatebut the increased click thrus and reader feedback make us smile.

Emails Her Subscribers Love OpeningChloe sends 2 types of email to her list of nearly 1000 subscribers

A quarterly newsletterQuick “Alerts” to check out a new blog post

Stay Tuned for 2014 and Beyond

Will She … or Won’t She?

This Success Story was prepared by Jody Murphy – jodymurphy.me | 804/794-6073