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Horton Hotel Staying in Touch with Fans and Followers Through Social Media #MayWeBeWell Campaign

By Nathan Ham

Local businesses have had to face some unprecedented times during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unsure of what the future holds, the Horton Hotel in downtown Boone made the most of some of their downtime by staying connected with their fans on Facebook and Instagram through their #MayWeBeWell project.

A calendar on the Horton Hotel’s social media pages lists an activity for people to do each day during the month of May to promote health and wellness.

“I felt like it was an appropriate time to highlight all the different areas of wellness. There are so many different areas of your life where wellness can be nurtured and focused in on. I thought why not spend a month focusing on it and giving people little, easy things to do from home if they want,” said Horton Hotel co-owner Denise Lovin. “During the entire pandemic, the Horton has tried to be a light of positivity, a space in the social media world where people can get a little distraction from what’s going on and focus on the silver linings and the happy things.”

Denise says the calendar is there as a way to offer suggestions of things to do for people to take care of themselves during these trying times.

The #MayWeBeWell Campaign is also offering social media followers the chance to win a free night stay. To enter the contest, “like” the Horton Hotel and Rooftop Lounge Facebook Page, “like” one of the daily calendar posts, tag one friend in the post and then comment one way you have been able to stay focused on wellness during the coronavirus crisis.

The campaign has served as a great way for the Horton Hotel to reach out to a new audience and incentivize people to follow them on social media.

“We’ve always strived to be a place of comfort and connection when we were open. So despite being closed, we wanted to continue providing that kind of experience,” said Denise. “There are so many areas where our business was able to connect with wellness and we thought it would be fun to highlight all of the different ways we do it here and at home.”

Another popular social media activity currently taking place at the Horton Hotel has been their live video sessions on the purple couch. It has become a place for staff members and guests to talk about different topics.

“Before the pandemic, Denise and I really wanted to invite people to find out what was going on in the local downtown area each week and we had dreamed of doing that on a weekly basis,” said Andrea Morton, the Director of Hotel Operations. “It evolved once the pandemic happened to where there was a dire need for us to find a space to communicate with our followers and fans, and the purple couch is the quintessential spot in our hotel, everybody recognizes it and wants to take their picture on it. Now we’ve just been doing all different topics to cover all different audiences. It’s fun because every week we’re trying to figure out what to do on the purple couch.”

The purple couch live sessions can be seen on the Horton Hotel’s Facebook page.

Some of the previous videos included reading children’s books, discussing college life, and putting together flower arrangements.

Andrea Morton, Director of Hotel Operations