Most new business owners struggle with placing their business online. If you are also facing this challenge, social media could be your strongest resort. Latest figures from a study revealed that there are 3.78 billion social media users worldwide. Therefore, it is certain that your target audience is reading reviews about your business online. Social media is one of the leading resources for travellers to seek recommendations for accommodations for their next travel destination. This is why hotel owners must make sure they are present where their audience is. Social media management for hotels is an essential part of marketing strategy.
Social media channels help you accomplish many goals related to your business - ranging from creating brand awareness to establishing your brand’s identity. Minutely targeting your audience to establish a relationship and drive organic interactions encourages direct bookings.
How can hotels use social media?
The impact of social media on the hotel industry has grown multifold in the last few years. Let us now take you through a series of steps you can take to increase your business’ revenue with the power of social media.
1. Employ the right channels:
Drive your focus on and engage with your audience on the platforms where they are. Learn your target audience’s digital whereabouts and use your financial resources judiciously. There are two parts to this – firstly, find the kind of audience that is interested in your offerings or a potential buyer. Secondly, approach the audience that displays buying behavior that favors your brand.
2. Manage your resources:
Handling multiple social media channels involves multiple tasks like creating content, responding to queries or comments etc. This requires a great deal of planning and efficient use of manpower, skill sets, budget etc. However, social media marketing in the hospitality industry is not limited to just consistent posting. It is driven by a list of clearly laid-out goals. Setting up your channels is time-consuming and requires several iterations before a basic plan can take shape. Apart from resources, you will need to brainstorm ideas that your audience enjoys. Spending some time researching channels is definitely the most important part of your social media plan.
3. Create content to match the purchase cycle:
At its core, social media management for hotels is based on building awareness about your business at every stage of the buyer’s purchase journey. The principles of targeting consumers at each part of the purchase cycle remain the same. Your relationship with your customer doesn’t end when they’ve made the purchase - it in fact begins there. You must therefore try to keep them constantly engaged with surveys, reminders, and feedback at regular intervals.
4. Make content quality your priority:
In 2019, an average adult spent 2 hours and 22 minutes per day on social media. Since the lockdowns of 20202, this has almost doubled. Since your audience is spending so much time of their day online, you need to ensure your content is worthy of their attention. Content is what drives your brand on social media - because of its quality of socialization and shareability. Social media users today are sagacious, and your quality of content needs to match that, compelling them to want to become your customers. With mediocre content, you would not want to risk low engagement.
5. Encourage purchases:
The ultimate aim of any marketing activity is to drive sales. Social media is a great way to prompt users to transact without being too salesy. It is your responsibility to make it easier for people to not just engage with your content on social media, but also purchase, if they so wish. Facilitating purchases on the social media channels themselves, makes for a frictionless shopping experience, apart from driving traffic.
6. Improve brand awareness:
When done right, social media management for hotels has the unique benefit of creating and nurturing a community around your business’ expertise. Having a dedicated following on social media lets you connect with your audience by means of discussion boards, forums, etc. It is also a great opportunity to keep up with the trends of your industry. Along with brand awareness, having a community is a tool for spreading the word about your brand and gaining social proof.
7. Induce lead generation tactics:
In order to drive leads, you need to pay close attention to combining the existing features of various social media channels with effective ‘calls-to-action’. To personalize the experience subsequently, build lead capturing landing pages as per your campaigns. It is also important to draft your social media descriptions wisely. Give your new visitors a glimpse of your business’ unique selling points, and more importantly, explain accurately what you do and who you are. Having a simple link to your website can help you gain more foot traffic on your website.
Conclusion:
Your audience wants to hear from you and engage with you, no matter the scale of your business. Therefore, it's important that you are present when they look for you and respond when they need you. Hotelogix helps you carefully plan your social media strategy with regular updates on trends. To improve your online presence and reviews, Hotelogix has partnered with 3rd party platforms. With Hotelogix all-round software you can automate reviews and feedback requests and interact with your past and potential guests using a single dashboard. It is time for you to get creative and have your social media goals met with a little help from Hotelogix.
Hotelogix Editorial Desk
Hotelogix's team of researchers and writers are constantly innovating to share the latest trends from the travel and hospitality space. Got suggestions? Write to us on editorial@hotelogix.com.