There’s a reason why you’ll rarely find a person without a social media profile. It’s not just a means of connecting with their friends and family but also a directory to discover new businesses. Therefore, paying attention to social media marketing for hotels is a wise step.
Whenever individuals want to choose a hotel for their stays, they usually turn to Google and social media profiles.
Even if this process takes days, they don’t decide without judging what people say about these hotels. They also check pictures to see if the amenities align with their needs.
Only then do they call the shortlisted hotels for further details. If you don’t have a solid social media presence, you might not reach the list of selected hotels.
But don’t worry if you’re not sure where to start. This article will guide you through the benefits, the process of choosing the best platforms, and some strategies. So, let’s get on with it.
Before starting the practical part of this guide, let’s set the stage with five benefits of social media for hotels:
- More customer engagement: With social media marketing for hotels, you interact with customers at their preferred place. You go to them with solutions to their problems instead of vice versa. Potential customers can also easily interact with your posts by liking, commenting, and sparking conversations. Therefore, you’ll first experience increased engagement with proper social media marketing.
- Competitive advantage: If you use social media to understand your customers’ needs, you’ll know what they want. If you mold your offerings to match their expectations, you can outshine the competition. Plus, you can see what competitors do on social media platforms and identify gaps to fill. For example, you can meet this expectation if your customers want free hotel wifi.
- Increased brand awareness: Social media channels are the most popular places for people to discover your business. Using social media marketing, you can meet them halfway so they don’t have to keep searching for their desired information. Informative posts with your hotel’s amenities, room and facility pictures, exclusive deals, etc., allow you to increase brand awareness.
- Effective advertising: Location matters significantly in the hospitality industry. Social media marketing allows you to create ads for a specific demographic. As a result, you’re able to launch effective campaigns without having to waste your budget. Besides, effective campaigns translate to more sales!
- Better reputation management: You must have a good reputation to win more customers. After all, potential guests will read your reviews before deciding. Social media management for hotels is a powerful tool for this and a part of this internet marketing. You can easily monitor reviews through social listening and resolve issues by replying to them for a better reputation.
Now that you know the benefits of social media for hotels, you should jump right into it. However, a social media strategy starts with choosing the right platform. Focusing your efforts on the wrong channel might do more harm than good, especially if you have a limited budget.
For example, a skincare company must show aesthetic pictures and product results. Since Instagram is the best platform for pictures, the company will benefit from focusing on this platform.
On the other hand, a SaaS company’s customers would want it to release tutorials and guides on using the tools. Therefore, releasing consistent long-form content on YouTube would be a good strategy for them.
However, since this guide concerns the hotel industry, we’ll focus on choosing social media platforms for different types of hotels. The keyword here is “platforms” since you can’t choose one and call it a day.
You must use at least three social media channels for effective marketing. So, here are the three tips you need to make your decision.
1. Understand Your Target Audience
The first step to choosing the right social media platform is understanding your target audience. Who do you want to attract to your hotel? Do your hotel wifi solutions and marketing strategies match this audience?
Although hotels can potentially see what their guests are browsing, there are better ways to understand your customers. The first step is to create an ideal customer profile to decide where to direct your effort.
If you want to attract a younger audience, Instagram and TikTok are the most famous with them. You’ll also have to position your offerings to attract this age group.
However, if your hotel caters to the needs of business professionals, that audience is usually on LinkedIn. On the other hand, Facebook would be the best choice for hotels that want to attract a broader audience.
2. Think About the Content You Can Produce
Apart from target audience demographics, the type of content you can produce also plays a part. If you have the resources to produce quality images and videos, choose platforms with visually-aesthetic content.
For example, use TikTok for high-quality short-form videos of your hotel room and amenities.
However, for hotels that can’t create aesthetic content, Facebook or LinkedIn might work better. These platforms require creativity, but you can do well without aesthetics. With platforms like Instagram, poor-quality visuals can do more harm than good.
Unfortunately, the decision isn’t this simple. What if your target audience isn’t on Facebook or LinkedIn? If that’s the case and you can’t produce visual content, you’ll have to think of ways to create it regardless.
For example, you can encourage user-generated content (UGC) or partner with influencers.
3. Determine the Marketing Objectives You Want To Achieve
Sales and bookings are not the only goals of a hotel’s social media marketing strategy. Brand awareness, email loyalty program promotion, and customer engagement also matter. Therefore, the last thing to consider is your marketing objectives.
For things like brand awareness and direct bookings, go for Facebook. But only if a majority of your target audience isn’t young. As mentioned, these people are mostly active on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Unlike Facebook, these channels don’t have a button for direct bookings.
However, you can create ads on these platforms and include a link to your booking website. Besides, all social media platforms are great for brand awareness. However, if your main goal is to engage with customers, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter would work best.
Creating a social media marketing strategy for hotels starts with setting marketing goals. However, it’s not as simple as saying, “We want to increase our sales.”
Firstly, your marketing goals should align with your overall business goals. Secondly, these goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Doing so gives you SMART goals that help you keep a sharp focus. So, instead of vague goals, say, “ Increasing bookings by 20% by the end of this year.”
Also, consider your budget when creating a social media strategy. Next, learn everything you can about your audience. If you’ve followed this guide religiously, you’ve probably already done this when choosing the platforms. If not, collect information from feedback, social listening, surveys, focus groups, etc. But what should you collect?
Some things that will help you with this are ages, locations, behaviors, preferences, expectations, etc. Such data can help you create campaigns that resonate with your audience.
You must also look at your competitors and their audience. This way, you’ll know what others are doing and how to set yourself apart.
The next step is to audit your profiles if you have already created them. See what’s working and what you need to change.
However, if you don’t have profiles yet, create them. Then, add as much information as you can. This will help you optimize your profiles to appear in search results.
Once you’ve done that, look at similar hotels and find inspiration for the type of content you should create. Also, consider your goals before creating a post calendar.
With this step, the hard part will be over. All you have to do now is to follow that calendar, create the ads or posts, and publish them.
You can start promoting on social media after choosing a platform and creating a strategy. However, you don’t have to settle for generic posts showing your hotel and discussing its amenities.
You can get as creative as you want and drive explosive engagement. For example, you can collaborate with local businesses or charities to build a community. Or you can invest in paid advertising and reach a broader audience. If you’re unsure where to start, try using the following four social media marketing ideas for hotels.
1. Share Your Brand Story
Back then, amenities and a comfortable stay were enough to attract your target audience. But now, guests want to connect with the hotels they stay in. This won’t be possible unless your brand story aligns with their goals and vision.
Therefore, research your audience and see what narrative they want to hear. Then, add that narrative to your offerings.
For example, sustainability has recently become a hot topic in the hospitality industry, as has AI. If your audience follows these trends, invest in energy efficiency, water consumption, waste management, and smart services.
Next, create a brand story and tell the world about your efforts. Use words that your audience uses to better resonate with them.
However, you don’t always have to follow trends. If you think your brand story is good enough on its own, don’t be shy about using it. Tell people why you started your hotel, your long-term goals, and how they fit into those goals.
2. Show Off With Instagram Reels
If you’re using Instagram without creating Reels, you’re wasting its potential. This is especially true if you want to attract a younger audience or have an aesthetic location.
This new Instagram feature lets you create short videos. Of course, you can’t completely skip static visual posts if you’re marketing on Instagram. But Reels generate more engagement since they’re more interactive.
Film multiple areas of your property and compile them to introduce your hotel. Moreover, feature your food on Instagram Reels to attract foodies.
You can even go behind the scenes of your hotel and attract guests with transparency. Don’t forget about any unique amenities you offer, like a swimming pool, gym, or spa.
3. Leverage User-Generated Content
UGC on social media always attracts a large crowd. It is a testament to the fact that people like your hotel. But what is UGC? It is any form of content that customers create rather than your marketing team.
The first way to leverage this type of content is to add your reviews to your marketing materials. For example, you can create a highlight on Instagram and share Yelp reviews there. You can also create posts on Facebook and promote those reviews.
Moreover, create a unique hashtag and encourage guests to use it when sharing their stay pictures. For example, ask guests to share that they liked the hotel’s internet services or breakfast buffet.
4. Arrange Contests To Boost Engagement
Another thing people like to do on social media is participate in contests and giveaways. They like interacting with the brands they invest in and winning something from them. Therefore, arranging contests is one of the best ways to increase engagement.
Try setting up a photo booth to encourage customers to take and upload pictures on social media. Incentivize the best photos with a short trip to a particular location or an exclusive discount on their next stay.
Similarly, you can ask followers to caption one of your posts and reward the funniest one.
Even if you have completed your research with campaign ideas, there are some things you need to keep in mind. For example, even the best campaign idea might fail if you don’t consider your wording. So, let’s look at five social media marketing tips for hotels:
- Be consistent: Social media marketing isn’t something you can master daily. You must be consistent and learn from the results to make your campaigns more effective. Besides, you must stay at the forefront of your customers’ minds. Therefore, you can’t risk losing their attention.
- Pay attention to branding: Your social media posts should also contain branding elements. Add your logo, colors, and patterns, and create a system for your posts. This will make your profile look aesthetic and spark recognition among your followers.
- Adapt your strategy: Each social media platform has a different algorithm. What works on Instagram might not work on Facebook. So, familiarize yourself with each platform and understand how it works. Then, adapt your strategy for each one before you start posting.
- Engage actively: Social media marketing isn’t just about posting and creating ads. You also have to engage with your audience. Don’t leave them hanging when they comment or send you a DM. Show enthusiasm for solving problems and answering questions.
- Keep tracking: Once you’ve set up your campaigns and ads, remember to track their performance. Use the platforms’ built-in analytics tools or a third-party tool to determine areas for improvement.
Social media marketing for hotels brings unmatched results when boosting your online presence. However, don’t ignore traditional marketing. Since hotels thrive on locality, brochures, signage, and flyers work well.
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With Beambox, you can conveniently grow your social profiles and curate your online presence. Moreover, you can grow your rating on the most important local review sites.
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