The rules of the game are different now – marketing for tourism businesses in Ireland (hell, all businesses) has changed dramatically. No longer can Irish hotels, B&Bs, etc. rely on the annual, mega-bucks TV advertising of Tourism Ireland or Discover Ireland to bring in customers.

Sure, those TV ads are catchy and showcase the scenery and wonderful sunny weather (when do they actually film those ads?) and all of the super fun and frolics that a holiday in Ireland offers. But accommodation providers in this country need to go get a slice of the action themselves.

Online marketing is still being paid lip-service by many in the Irish hospitality industry. The only real way to attract paying customers through your door is to start listening to what your potential guests are talking about. The advent of Twitter and Facebook and other social networks gives you the accommodation provider a bloody fantastic opportunity to eavesdrop.

For example, suss out what is important to people thinking of heading to Dingle for the weekend. Or planning a Stag Party in Galway (has the recession realigned the Hens/Stags policy yet?).

Then provide quality content that meets their needs in the form of a blog post or a reply on a discussion forum or hit them up on Twitter.

Think of it this way - your potential customers are providing you with the leads in a very public way. Go follow those leads in a public way and gain additional traction with the next potential customer who happens to search for information around that very same subject.

Try this out – go into search.twitter.com and type in your city/town/region and  put in words like “advice”, “tips”, “bars”, “restaurants”, “hotels” and so on...there you go, you’ve just eavesdropped!

Now stop eavesdropping and start talking to your potential customers, chances are they’ll thank you for it.