Hoteliers need to be on social media. It is where your customers are and it provides a range of opportunities for connecting with guests and promoting your business via social media marketing.
Guest writer Rae shares her tips and insights on social media marketing for hoteliers.
When it is done right, social media can be one of the best free business resources you will find.
Many hotels are not getting as much as they can from social media. They might have a Facebook page or accounts on different platforms, but they aren’t using the right strategies (digital marketing strategies) to engage with customers and attract attention.
Fortunately, there are simple strategies that can help a hotel turn its social media into success. The following are a few tips to create an effective social media strategy for a hotel business.
Get Involved
The social element is an important part of social media. If you are only posting to promote your business and push bookings, you are doing it wrong. You need to get involved and engage with other users. Comment on posts from other businesses, participate in conversations and respond to people when they make a comment or ask a question.
Crowdsource Content
You don’t always need to create your own content. In fact, social media crowdsourcing can be one of the best ways to engage with users. You can ask your audience to take pictures, create videos, answer a question or comment on a popular topic. A crowdsourcing campaign can be a lot of fun and when it catches on, it can attract a lot of attention.
Right Social Media Platforms
It’s better to have a strong presence on one platform than it is to have a weak presence on several. Since you only have so much time and money to spend on social media marketing, you need to focus your attention on the platforms that will offer the most value to your business. Facebook is a good option for most businesses and YouTube can be good for sharing video content while an Instagram account is great to connect with young millennials especially to promote deals, experiences, hotel stories by sharing photos.
Standout with Video
Text and images can be an effective part of your social media strategy for hotel marketing. With that said, the video does tend to stand out and it can be a great way to set your business apart from the competition. For a hotel, a video walkthrough can be one of the best ways to use video on social media. A video can be much more effective at showing potential guests what it is like to be in one of your rooms or to see different facilities or amenities that may be available.
Automate Your Social Media
Much of social media marketing is about engaging with customers and giving your brand a personality. While that is important, it doesn’t mean you have to be there to do it all. With social media automation, you can automate posts and different types of responses to create a more robust presence without having to spend a lot of time doing the work manually.
Make it Easy for Customers
Generating interest is good, but you want to make it easy for customers to book a room or complete other actions that will be beneficial to your business. If you are promoting a special offer, make sure to use a call to action that directs them to a landing page on your website. Some platforms even let you add a CTA button for things like bookings on your social media page.
Posts From Influencers
When it is done strategically, influencer marketing can provide your business with a big boost. Of course, you have to find an influencer that has credibility with the audience you are looking to attract. Do some research and find the influencers that will work well for your brand. You can then offer them a few free nights in exchange for them creating and posting content about your hotel/resort. With the right influencer, this strategy could be more effective than all of your positive reviews and testimonials put together.
Highlight Testimonials and Positive Reviews
Reviews and testimonials can have an impact on consumer behavior. When customers see positive reviews and testimonials from happy guests who just stayed at one of your hotels, it sends a powerful signal of quality to everyone who reads it. Get the most from positive reviews and testimonials by showcasing them on social media. You could even encourage your happy guests to leave a review or testimonial when they check out.
About the Guest writer
