Exclusive Feature: Social media is filled with pictures of popular destinations, look at Instagram hashtags, for example, #berlinwall or #worldtradecenter and there are thousands of such publications in the search results.

Now imagine the reach of each photo �" in total that makes a significant number.

Good PR, is not it? It would be great to achieve a similar effect for your hotel - to ensure a constant substantial organic engagement without direct advertising and ongoing spending.

Fantastic? Not really.

It hardly needs saying that travelers adore to be photographed. 400 millions of active users regularly make thousands of geotagged posts in Instagram. And it is needless to say that with the millenials having reached the maturity age and achieving financial self-sufficiency, as well as with the smartphones availability increase, and camera quality improvement, it is expected that these numbers will only grow in the coming years, and tourists will take even more pictures.

At the same time not only tourist attractions, but also hotels and their environments get caught in the camera lens �" literally as in our times there’s a trend for the use of add-on lens with smartphones.

How to ensure that guests keep taking more and more pictures of your hotel? And not just some abstract photos, but branded geotagged pictures? Pictures of girls in bikini at the edge of the pool with a glass of wine are good, of course, as are "foodporno" pictures and room interiors, but if they do not work for the hotel brand, they are useless for your marketing.

How to convert this travellers’ passion for taking photographs into free and high-quality PR? "The concept of social triggers" can be an answer. The idea of it is in the creation of anchor points of visual attraction on the hotel territory. These anchor points can be anything on one key condition �" their attractiveness for tourists.

It can be a strawberry model in size of a human complete with a ladder; an attractive branded astronaut suit; a stone overhanging the river; an unusual bridge over the river; or eventually a banal phrase "I LOVE..." with a head in the hole stand in.

There are two tasks, which have to be undertaken:

1. "Social Triggers" have to be branded skillfully and unobtrusively. Otherwise you have to create something truly amazing. In the latter case you can expect a “viral effect”: users will be looking for your place just to take the same photo. (See such an example below.)

2. You have to create a place comfortable to taking pictures. Come up with a place for a photographer and his friend; as a result he will pull a smartphone out of the pocket. Pave the ground with stones, make a wooden platform or simply draw a circle on the asphalt with the image of a camera.

Sometimes social triggers don`t have to be created from a scratch - it might be enough just to have a look at the hotel from a new point of view. It can reveal objects that can be slightly rebuilt or redesigned for your new purposes thus becoming excellent social triggers. Consider the most banal situation. The courtyard of your hotel is surrounded by a large white wall. For several years in a row you have tried to decorate it, planted various clamberers, put flower pots near a wall... Now try another way. Invite your marketing agency or design studio to create a bright catchy graffiti. Apply it on the wall and add unusual elements like furniture and accessories.

In the case of tropical island hotels such social triggers can be created literally out of thin air. If your hotel is located on the first line - set a big carved frame on the beach and decorate it with lamps and flowers. Has the hotel a swimming pool? Create a branded waterfall. Did celebrities visit your hotel? Place wax figures of those celebrities on benches and invite guests to sit down beside them. Is your hotel located not far from famous monuments? Make a small copy on your territory. Have no marketing budget? Try to make your own funny posters.

Thinking of social triggers, remember that visitors primarily want to surprise and amaze their friends in social networks. Creating social triggers ask yourself a simple question: "Will it have a strong impression?" Remember that most bright pictures stand out among the others. What you suggest should be bright, amazing, beautiful, perhaps unusual. Trivial solutions (I LOVE ***) will work too, they are also acceptable, but their potential is significantly lower.

Social triggers can be additionally linked to social media. Ask your guests to post a photo with a tag to join the loyalty program or install a tablet and suggest to register for the contest.

The idea of social triggers has its roots in the past. We come to London and take a picture of Big Ben. We come to Paris and take a picture of the Eiffel Tower. We visit Prague and go to the Charles Bridge. Your task is to apply this typical tourist action, adapting it for your particular business and the modern reality of the Internet.

Let me give an example of a successful, even though an intuitive use of the social trigger concept. I’ve lived on Bali, Indonesia, for several years with my wife and kid. This is a very diverse island with tourist activity in its southern part and very authentic and overall rarely visited villages in the North, East and West.

A few years ago in the Jasri village, Kerangasem, East Bali the expat from the US built a ”Charlie's Chocolate Factory” on the sea shore. He began to invite tourists to visit it. Some people came, but mostly they were occasional guests. I guess nothing would have changed up till now, if he had not come across a great idea: to hang a huge swing between the palm trees. Its cost was, I think, no more than $20; actually he had to fix only a rope.

However, the effect has exceeded all expectations: the guests began to attend his manufacture one after another. And I suppose half of them came only because they wanted to take a their own picture on a swing over the boundless sea. Over a couple of years the popularity of this factory has grown so much that the village administration (as is usual on Bali) started to collect money for the entry, and Mr. Charlie was forced to cut down trees near the entrance to make a parking lot. A cottage village where guests can stay for a while emerged around the manufacture.

This story is a perfect example of how the concept of social triggers can work. In our marketing world there is still a place for a really simple, but very powerful ideas that can bring you profit.

And it would be wrong to ignore such a powerful promotion channel and not to try to add a shine to your hotel. Hotel chains and independent hotels can and have to use the love of guests for taking pictures and posting them in social media.

Evgeny Malyshev, CEO of marketing agency "Icon Communications". Lecturer, journalist, freelance writer.

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