For the hospitality industry, particularly hotels and other accommodation providers, social media is one of the best platforms—if not the best platform—for marketing and advertising. A social media network can host bits of user-generated content by the million, and it can also broker genuine interactions between brands and consumers. To that end, social media can help hotels and other businesses in the hospitality sector increase their exposure, drive up their engagement and, ultimately, turn visits to a hospitality business website or social media account into conversions.
If you’re a hotel manager or a marketing professional and haven’t integrated social media into your marketing strategy yet, you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities. To help you get started on the right foot when it comes to maximizing social media for your hotel and brand, here are some effective strategies to remember:
Make the Most of Tags and Location Targeting
Most social media platforms have tagging and location targeting features. These are especially useful for hotels because both search and upload behavior are highly locational. For example, if a person is visiting Pasay City in Metro Manila, they will likely search for hotels in Pasay using their preferred search engine. In the same manner, if someone recently stayed at a hotel in Pasay, like Kabayan Hotel near the Manila airport and Mall of Asia (MOA) area, they will likely post on social media, tagging either or both the location and the establishment.
To maximize these features for your hotel, make sure you have the correct information on all your social media profiles, including Google My Business (more on this later). This way, customers can easily search for your establishment, tag you accordingly, and help boost your reach, engagement, and share of voice on social media, among others.
Create “Day in the Life” Video Content
Image-sharing social media platforms like Instagram are a boon for hotels, as they provide an avenue to showcase beautiful shots of amenities. That being said, photos can only do so much for a hotel. For the type of conversion that a hotel establishment is after, a video can do the job more effectively.
Staying at a hotel is an experience, and merely showing beautiful photos may not do that experience justice. A video, however, can more easily make people feel as if they’re there in person and close enough to take in the details. That’s why your brand should consider “day in the life” types of videos and record some snippets of what guests can experience as soon as they check in. Think of this as a case of “show, don’t tell,” with enough to whet potential guests’ appetites without giving away every single part of the experience. Next, upload these videos on the appropriate platforms.
It’s also an option to work with reliable content creators to shoot these videos. Once they’re published, make sure to share the content on your page and to tag creators you’ve worked with. This is great for building awareness, particularly for a potential audience that you may not have reached otherwise. Another option is to look for publicly shared videos of your previous guests and then ask them for permission to use the content for promotional purposes. Of course, don’t forget to provide compensation and motivate them to go back to your establishment.
Use Different Content Formats for Different Platforms
As of this time, Facebook remains the largest social networking site in the world, with almost 3 billion active monthly users. That being said, it’s not the only platform you can use for your hotel’s social media marketing strategy. Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and even Pinterest can serve as effective platforms for your establishment. The key is to figure out what types of content work best for each site, network, or app.
For example, both Instagram and Pinterest are photo-sharing sites. However, Instagram is more focused on shared experiences while Pinterest is geared towards planning and aspirational content. If Instagram is for tapping into that sense of fear of missing out or FOMO, then Pinterest is for starting the journey towards completing one’s travel goals. By this logic, you may want to dedicate milestone-related content like weddings or debuts in your hotel on Instagram while providing striking photos of rooms and amenities on Pinterest that would go well on a Pinterest user’s “travel bucket list” board.
For short, punchy content about your hotel, you can rely on TikTok and Twitter. For longer posts, on the other hand, use your Facebook account or your hotel’s own blog.
Prepare Content and Promotions for All Sorts of Occasions
One of the keys to a successful social media marketing strategy is to capitalize on events. Aside from the major holidays, such as New Year and Christmas, you should also consider seasonal or thematic events. These include things like Mothers’ and Fathers’ Day, school vacations, Valentine’s, and the like. By tailoring your hotel’s social content for these occasions, you can increase reach and relevance, ultimately inviting guests to spend such happy occasions at your establishment.
Follow SEO Guidelines
While your social media marketing strategies don’t directly affect your website’s search engine results page (SERP) rankings, it’s still advisable to optimize your content for search engines. That’s because social media sites are still crawled and indexed by search engines. In short, social media posts may still come up on searches—as long as they’re properly tagged. This is especially true for photos and videos.
Thus, make sure to implement search engine optimization guidelines on your social media posts. Add a title and tags to your videos, use suitable hashtags, and include a location when available. Also, make sure that you’re sharing high-quality links from your own website to drive more traffic.
Connect Your Google Business Profile to Your Social Accounts
Last but not least, you can maximize your social media for your hotel through your Google Business Profile. If you haven’t claimed it yet, do so now, and keep in mind that you have to do this for all your locations if you have multiple branches. Make sure that all the information on your Google Business Profile matches up with the info on your social media pages. Finally, link your Google Business Profile to your social media accounts, like Facebook.
What this does is allow your customers to find reviews about your establishment more easily. The algorithm will also link back to your social media site, as long as your page continuously receives good reviews. This is why you should focus on engagement and make sure to let your guests know that their feedback is welcome.
Nowadays, it’s inadvisable for any brand or company to neglect their social media presence or go without it altogether. All the same, it won’t be enough to create social media accounts for your hotel just for the sake of it. Keep in mind the tips and methods mentioned above so that you can make the most of the social media platforms available to you and get the best results from your hotel’s marketing strategies.
