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With the advent of the digital age, the hospitality industry has undergone a significant transformation. These days, before embarking on a trip, potential customers take their time to research the hotels they want to stay in. It’s crucial for your hotel to have a well-established digital presence in order to reach these prospective customers. By implementing effective social media marketing, your hotel can increase its online visibility and make meaningful connections with customers through various digital touchpoints. This can lead to the development of a loyal customer base and strengthen your hotel’s brand. In this article, we will go through how hotel social media techniques that can be implemented in their social media strategies.
To Learn More About Digital Marketing Strategies For Hotels: How to create a digital marketing strategy for hotels: A step-by-step guide [2024]
User-generated content
User-generated content is a type of content that is created by customers rather than your brand. Turning guests into brand ambassadors through User-Generated Content (UGC) is an effective way to enhance your hotel’s social media presence. UGC can range from pictures, and videos, to reviews that showcase guests’ experiences at your hotel. Your hotel’s social media marketing strategy must include some benefits that encourage your customers to share experiences on social media.
The benefits of encouraging your customers to share their experiences on social media are:
- Increase brand credibility: Guests’ testimonials act as a seal of approval, lending credibility and boosting trust with potential guests.
- Increase engagement: Sharing user-generated content on your own social media channels can increase engagement by encouraging guests to engage with your brand and join the conversation.
- Drive referrals: Happy guests can spread the word and generate referrals for your hotel through their UGC.
- Increase brand awareness: Sharing UGC can help to extend the reach of your social media presence and increase visibility for your hotel.
Encouraging guests to share their experiences could be as simple as requesting them to post photos or reviews, offering incentives, or hosting contests. Leverage UGC in your social media strategy to create a lively and authentic social media presence, strengthening your bond with guests.
Live Videos
Live videos are a vital component of a hotel’s social media marketing plan, as they offer a firsthand, unscripted glimpse into the hotel and its offerings. Utilizing popular platforms like Facebook Live or Instagram Live, hotels can engage and captivate their audience with a real-time experience.
Here are a few benefits of incorporating live videos into your hotel’s social media marketing strategy:
- Boost engagement: Live videos tend to receive higher engagement levels compared to pre-recorded videos, as they offer a more natural and genuine feel.
- Create excitement: Live videos can create a buzz around upcoming events or promotions and get your audience hyped up.
- Showcase your hotel’s offerings: Live videos can provide a behind-the-scenes look at your hotel, highlighting its unique features and ambiance.
- Build stronger relationships: Live videos provide a chance to connect directly with your followers, strengthening your relationship with them.
From showcasing the rooms and facilities to giving an overview of the surrounding area, live videos can be used to give an all-encompassing tour of your hotel. By incorporating live videos into your social media marketing, you can create a more dynamic and interactive online presence and connect with your audience in a more meaningful way.
Virtual Tours
Virtual tours are a powerful way for hotels to exhibit their property and rooms to potential guests. Utilizing 360-degree photos or videos, hotels can provide followers with a virtual experience of the hotel, building excitement and interest.
Here are some benefits of incorporating virtual tours into hotel social media marketing:
- Competitive advantage: By offering virtual tours, you’ll be separating yourself from the competition and offering a unique experience to potential guests.
- Increased exposure: Virtual tours can be shared on social media and other digital platforms, giving the hotel increased exposure and reach.
- Improved decision-making: By giving followers a virtual tour of the hotel, they can get a better sense of the property and its offerings, which can help them make more informed decisions about booking.
Integrating virtual tours into your hotel’s social media strategy by showcasing them on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can create a buzz and provide a comprehensive, engaging experience for followers.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a powerful strategy for hotels to promote their brand and reach new customers through social media. By partnering with individuals who have a substantial following on platforms like Instagram or YouTube, hotels can benefit from increased reach, improved credibility, and targeted promotion.
Benefits of Influencer Marketing for Hotel Social Media Marketing:
- Wider reach: By partnering with influencers, hotels can reach a broader audience and gain exposure to new potential customers.
- Increased credibility: Influencer marketing enhances the credibility of your hotel brand by having an influencer endorse it to their followers.
- Targeted promotion: By partnering with travel-focused influencers, hotels can reach a specific and engaged audience interested in hospitality and travel.
- Cost-effective: Compared to traditional advertising methods, influencer marketing can be a more affordable option for hotels. The best strategy for smaller hotels that can is to partner with micro-influencers who have a smaller but highly engaged following.
To create successful influencer marketing, you should carefully select influencers that align with their brand values and have a following relevant to your target audience. The hotel should also establish a mutually beneficial partnership, such as offering a discounted stay in exchange for promotion on social media.
Contests And Giveaways
Contests and giveaways are a popular way for hotels to engage with their followers on social media and reward their loyalty. These promotions can boost brand recognition and drive engagement.
The advantages of using contests and giveaways in hotel social media marketing include:
- Increased engagement: Contests and giveaways stimulate interaction between followers and the brand, promoting sharing of content and the growth of the network.
- Elevated brand awareness: Running contests and giveaways on social media can increase brand recognition and reach broader audiences.
- Better customer loyalty: By rewarding customers, hotels can foster stronger connections with followers and boost customer loyalty.
To run successful contests and giveaways on social media, hotels should clearly communicate rules and make prizes relevant and desirable to their target audience. The hotel should also promote the event through its social media platform and influencer collaborations to reach a wider audience. The results of the contest or giveaway should be analyzed to inform future marketing strategies.
Storytelling
The art of storytelling can be a game-changer for hotels looking to stand out on social media and allows you to forge emotional bonds with your target audience. By sharing the story of their establishment and the surrounding area, hotels can craft a more personal and authentic connection with their followers and offer a more compelling reason for booking a stay.
Here are some key advantages of storytelling in hotel social media marketing:
- Increased brand awareness: Sharing the story of your hotel and local area can help people grasp what sets your property apart, broadening brand recognition.
- Increased customer engagement: Storytelling can deepen customer interaction by building an emotional connection with your followers. This can help you build stronger customer relationships and increase customer loyalty.
- Differentiation: By telling your hotel’s story, you can distinguish yourself from competitors and create a more memorable experience for your guests.
To execute storytelling in hotel social media marketing effectively, hotels should concentrate on crafting engaging and captivating stories that resonate with their target audience. This may encompass sharing the history of the hotel, showcasing the local area and its attractions, or highlighting the experiences and personalities of staff members. Furthermore, the utilization of high-quality visuals and innovative storytelling techniques, such as videos, can serve to bring the stories to life and retain the attention of followers. Finally, it is imperative for hotels to continuously monitor the outcomes of their storytelling efforts and modify their strategy as required to optimize the impact on their target audience.
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Local Highlights
By presenting information and visuals about the surrounding landmarks, events, and attractions, your hotel can showcase the local area to your social media followers. This approach can foster a relationship between your hotel and the local community and inspire guests to explore and uncover new experiences. By accentuating local highlights, hotels can establish themselves as a hub for regional adventures, thereby elevating the guest experience.
Q&A Sessions
Organizing Q&A sessions on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram is a great way to create the chance to connect with your audience and share useful information about your property. In these interactive sessions, hotel staff can promptly respond to customer inquiries, address any reservations, and offer valuable perspectives on the hotel, its rooms, facilities, and the surrounding area. Hosting Q&A sessions enables your hotels to establish a clear communication channel with your audience and followers, strengthen trust and credibility, and ultimately elevate the guest experience.
Behind-the-scenes content
Behind-the-scenes content can be a powerful tool for hotels to use on social media. By providing an inside look at the daily operations, hard work of staff, and unique aspects of the property, you can create a more personal and relatable connection with your audience and followers. This can result in increased customer loyalty, repeat bookings, and a memorable experience for customers. Sharing behind-the-scenes content on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can be an effective way to engage with followers and enhance the customer experience.
User-generated Reviews
User-generated reviews improved your hotel’s social sharing, this can be very impactful for your search engine optimization. For example, by getting positive reviews on bookings sites like Traveloka or booking.com. User-generated reviews offer hotels an opportunity to gather valuable feedback from their guests, giving insight into what’s working and what needs improvement. By utilizing this information, hotels can make informed decisions to enhance their offerings and better serve their customers. By highlighting guest experiences, hotels can build trust and credibility with potential guests and stand out in a competitive marketplace.
Some benefits of User-generated reviews include:
- Boosted Credibility: Reviews from past guests can lend credibility to your hotel, enhancing its appeal to those researching their options.
- Critical Feedback: User-generated reviews can offer critical feedback on guest satisfaction, allowing you to identify areas of improvement for your offerings.
- Optimized SEO: Incorporating user-generated reviews can also optimize your hotel’s search engine optimization (SEO) by increasing backlinks and improving search engine rankings.
Showcasing positive experiences can make the hotel stand out in a competitive online marketplace, resulting in increased visibility and search engine rankings.
Conclusion
When it comes to the social media platform, your social media marketing strategy needs to incorporate a combination of the mentioned techniques. It is important to have a clearly defined target audience and to identify which social media platforms are most effective to reach your target audience.
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