Over the last few years, social media has seen a shift from merely a social way of communicating with friends to a very important method of communicating and engaging with your customers.
There are numerous social media platforms for hotels you can use to grow your hotel business, however, it is best to select a social media strategy that is realistic and manageable. I have selected Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to review their benefits for marketing your hotel. Facebook
Facebook is currently the largest social networking site in the world and is widely used by hotels (and other businesses) to attract customers. Paid Facebook advertising campaigns can be targeted to certain demographics and results easily tracked using the Facebook analytics tool. For example, if you would like to attract family business over the midterm breaks you can select audiences with an interest in family activities, age demographic of 35- 45 years of age, and location Cork/Kerry (depending on your hotel location).
Facebook can also be used organically to communicate with existing Facebook followers and keep them informed of updates to the hotel, such as new swimming pools, refurbished restaurants, awards, and other items of interest.
Instagram
Instagram is predominantly a photo-sharing social media platform. It is a social media platform for hotels and businesses to showcase their images, videos, stories, and most recently live videos. Though Instagram currently doesn’t allow links from posts, it does allow you to have a specific profile that you can link directly to your website.
Instagram stories offer a great way for Hotels and influencers to collaborate. Teaming up with an influencer that is relevant to your hotel product is a great way to gather momentum on Instagram. If your hotel focuses on weddings, maybe partner with a wedding blogger. Only use influencers if it makes sense for your property, 100’000 new followers are great but not if they will never visit your hotel!!
In 2019 Instagram introduced IGTV (Instagram Tv) which allows you to upload a 60-minute video, though there hasn’t been much uptake for hotels just yet, it’s worth considering if you have a large event in-house.
Twitter
With more than 300 million active users, Twitter gives a cost-effective method of engaging with your customers. Like other social media platforms, it gives access to audiences around the world. However, it is quick and to the point, having only recently upped its limit to 280 characters per tweet, so be brief! The best use of Twitter for Hotels is for proactive customer service. This strategy involves listening to travel issues of people in the area, complaints about competitors, and reacting accordingly. Users of Twitter have a “real-time” expectation, they want the most up-to-the-minute information. Should you choose this as a platform you must respond promptly!
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a professional social media site where industry experts share content, network, and build their personal brands online. It has more recently been used to promote vacant positions within hotels or to highlight the benefits of working at a particular property to encourage new job applicants.
LinkedIn also offers advertising opportunities such as boosting your content or creating ads, typically the cost per click is much higher than that of Facebook. However, if you are looking to generate conference and meeting business for your hotel, it is worth trialing a paid ad! It is important to carefully consider your social media strategy for your hotel. Choose social media platforms that suit your property and manage them well.
Top Tip: Don't fall into the trap of having a presence on every social media platform but being active on none!!
Daire I really enjoyed your blog this week and how you gave a synopsis of some of the top social platforms in today's digital landscape. I think it is important to note that Youtube is the second largest social platform in the world and that video is the highest consumed social content which is also very important for SEO as it ranks high in the algorithm. Video is very underutilised in the hospitality industry and I feel it need more focus from our peers to really understand its value. Overall I really enjoyed your blog and I look forward to reading your next blog.
ReplyDeleteHey Daire- thanks for sharing this great summary, nice overview of the different social media platforms and how they fit in the hospitality context. It also really helpful to get specific examples of how the platform features can be integrated e.g. using the long video options in Instagram to showcase events or using twitter as s 'social listing' tool. I think the closing point is a real takeaway for me.. having presence but no activity on these channels is pointless - they need to be maintained and constantly evolving to be effective.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great guide for marketing teams in the hotels to help them make the right choice when it comes to social media platforms. It is better to have one well-managed social media account that have many accounts and not posting regularly or engaging with customers. This blog will help our customers. - F, Pinate.
ReplyDeleteYou have given a very good and concise overview of the social media platforms that hotels can use have outlined the benefits to a hotel on each platform. It is very useful giving real life examples as it makes it much easier for the reader to relate to each platform and makes you reflect on what you are actually applying in your current social media strategy. I love the tips and recommendations and as they say you learn something new everyday, I did not know about IGTV and I am going to check that out now for my hotel.
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