Giuseppe De Pasquale, Author at ApprenticeTips.com

Social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram are excellent ways to keep in touch with a wide audience and promote the latest offers and initiatives for a business. Included below are tips & guidelines to help you maintain a consistent quality of publishing across your social channels, optimising three of their main elements.

Learners pursuing a Level 3 Digital Marketing Apprenticeship will find these tips especially useful.

The Power of a Good Caption

A good caption can increase your engagement rate in big ways. A well-written caption will get users to spend more time looking at your post, and it will also encourage them to interact with the post by liking, commenting, or sharing. Remember you have only 3 seconds to grab their attention!

Show Your Brand’s Personality & Tone of Voice – No one likes a dry, boring caption. Instead, spice it up and add some humour; let your brand’s personality shine through because that’s what will get people to engage with your posts (resulting in a more organic Instagram following).
Add Context – Your caption should be relevant to your photo, adding some context to help your followers understand exactly what the picture is about and why they should care.
Share Inspiration – One of the biggest reasons people use social media is to find a little inspiration to get them through their day — so give them that. Take a photo of a morning cup of coffee with a nice breakfast and post it early to inspire your followers and set them up for the day.
Be Relatable – Make a point to understand your target audience so you can relate to them.
Educate Your Followers – Help your followers learn something new about the world; share captions with interesting information that’s relevant to your hotel, the location, your processes or services.
Include a CTA – In your caption, ask your followers to do something — leave a comment, tag a friend, or go to the link in your bio (Instagram-specific). A call-to-action is an easy way to get a little more mileage and engagement from your captions.

Using Hashtags #

Hashtags play an important role in discovering the brand, regardless if someone searches specifically for the brand name, other hashtags can aid in getting the important content out there.

Hashtags Do’s:

Hashtags should primarily be used on Twitter and Instagram (Facebook does not support discoverability via hashtags in the same way the other platforms do).
Numbers are allowed in hashtags. However, spaces and special characters, like $ or %, won’t work. The ideal number of hashtags for Instagram captions is 5-10, and Twitter is 3-4.
The ideal hashtag length is around 11 characters but generally stick to hashtags less than 24 characters long.
Instagram favours the use of # that have less than 250k posts, avoid # with over 250k posts on them.

Hashtags Don’ts:

You want to avoid hashtags that are overly saturated or underused. (Over 250k/Under 100).
Don’t add hashtags that are not relevant to your content or too broad eg #BeHappy #Socute #Love etc.
Don’t use # you haven’t researched and checked what content comes up when you type them.

Why is photography important?

Photography has a critical role to play in conveying what we mean across each of our brands and in uniting our social execution around a single brand. Our imagery should be inviting and aspirational. It should have a clear sense of place, as well as a sense of humanity so that potential guests can imagine themselves in each unique destination. Regardless of the photography source, the photography we use should tell a story and document the most memorable elements of the guest’s experience.

Below are some best practices on how to use photography in your social media handles:

Use your mobile device! One of our greatest tools, smartphones can take pictures from anywhere and, when used correctly, can produce photos with quality sufficient for social media.
Embrace negative space -“Negative space” simply refers to the areas around and between the subjects of an image –and it can take a photo from “good” to “great.” Negative space also gives us the ability to overlay copy on top of the image, without overlapping focal points.
Find different perspectives -Taking photos from a unique, unexpected angle can make them more memorable – it tends to create an illusion of depth or height with the subjects. It is recommended to use as much natural light as possible.
Seek out moments of accentuated lighting, such as early morning and late afternoon (“Golden hour”). Sunset and sunrise provide the best light to capture beautiful spots like rooftop bars, outdoor terraces or pools. Depending on the direction of the light, it lends itself well to revealing textures, shape and dimensionality which we would otherwise miss in the photograph.

Following these tips, you will be able to produce better quality content on your Social Media handles and demonstrate this competency if you have enrolled in a Level 3 Digital Marketing Apprenticeship! Would you like more tips? Why not read more helpful articles on digital marketing over on our blog?

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The origins of mentoring can be traced as far back as Homer’s Odyssey. When Odysseus leaves his home to fight in the Trojan War, he hands the care of his wife and son to his trusted friend Mentor, who took the role of teacher and overseer to his child.

Although our world has changed a lot over the last 1,300 years, the role of a mentor – particularly in the areas of learning and development – is central and still reflects the principles of its origin. Mentors are experts who guide novice learners on a personal and professional journey towards expertise.

Nowadays, mentoring takes place in all parts of the Education and Training Sector (ETS) and staff-development contexts. Learning Mentors support learners of all ages, and all levels, to develop within a new work role. These learners may be, for example, apprentices, trainees or new recruits (ranging from young entrants to new CEOs) in the workplace, or any vocational learning environment. Mentoring is indeed the foundation of vocational training and apprenticeships, yet this standard is the first formal recognition of this role.

The importance of effective Learning Mentors

Effective mentors make a difference. They steer novice and early career learners to progress more rapidly, increase their resilience, boost their self-confidence and most importantly create an environment where their trainees can progress, thrive – and remain!

Some of the benefits of mentoring include encouraging new learners to develop more quickly, improved learning outcomes and enhanced job satisfaction. Significantly, working with an effective mentor will also help reduce the likelihood of novice learners leaving the profession.

What does a Learning Mentor do and is it for you?

Learning Mentors support the development of learners’ knowledge, skills and behaviours, throughout their programme, particularly in applying theoretical learning in practical work environments (and usually on a one-to-one, or small group, basis). They give practical, technical and/or pastoral support and guidance.

They collaborate closely with colleagues, other ETS professionals, employers and/or human resource colleagues to meet learners’ needs and achieve their potential.

In addition to specific experience and qualifications, a Learning Mentor should possess and further develop specific behaviours:

Promote an ethos of motivation, aspiration and a passion for learning.
Operate at all times to ethical and legal standards and within professional boundaries.
Value equality and diversity and work with others to improve equality of opportunity and inclusion.
Be resilient and adaptable when dealing with challenges and change, maintaining focus and self-control.
Demonstrate, encourage and expect mutual respect in all professional contexts.

What experience and skills do I need to become a Level 3 Learning Mentor?

Learning Mentors will have sector-specific experience and qualifications, as determined by their employer or professional body, which they use to guide and advise those who are less experienced and new to a work role. The Learning Mentor is therefore a ‘dual professional’ having both up-to-date knowledge and skills in a specialist vocational or subject area, together with the generic skills necessary to support learners (as potentially a first step towards a secondary role as an education and training professional).

The Level 3 Learning Mentor Apprenticeship has a minimum duration of 12 months.

Upon completion of the Apprenticeship, the Learning Mentor could progress further within their vocation specialism and/or into roles involving the assessment and coaching of vocational learners. They may also be eligible to progress onto a full teaching role within an education and training provider organisation.

How to apply for Level 3 Learning Mentor Apprenticeship

If you are interested in applying for this apprenticeship or have any questions, please get in touch with us via our contact form HERE.

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We look forward to hearing from you!