Why should Hotels consider Social Media for Marketing?
If you haven’t noticed, travel is becoming a most desired wish list in the last couple of years and continue to do so in the coming years. You gotta admit, each time you’re going through Facebook News Feed or Instagram photos, you get stumbled on travel photos & beautiful landscapes (okay okay, just after Cat Videos!).
Come on! no matter what we earn, where we work, secretly (and sometimes out loud) we all wish to travel the world without zero worries. The term “Wanderlust” came from that long cherished desired moments. Just so you know, Instagram – an app owned by Facebook has over 200 million posts with the #travel hashtag and more than one million travel related searches on the app each week.
“Seeing your friends’ vacation photos
that’s definitely something that makes people start dreaming about travel.”
5 Ideas to promote Travel Business through Facebook
Here are 5 ideas which you can use to get more visibility of your hotel business, increase brand value, provide a positive experience to new & existing customer & increase more sales.
Post useful & meaningful content:
Apart from branded content or posting about your generic rooms & services, try to use content marketing on your Facebook page and create engaging content by sharing useful content for your audience.
One thing to consider, if you are going to use Facebook as a direct selling channel, that is not a good idea. While Facebook can dramatically increase your booking with a targeted campaign, but overall it’s more like a non-direct selling platform for your hotel.
Follow 80-20 rule when creating content for Hotels. Your 80% post should be to engage people on Facebook by using useful + interactive content they like. Your target is to build a relationship with your audience that will lead to future booking & retention. Research about their wants & need and use content marketing strategy to create visuals & texts because no one wants to see that you talk about yourself & publish your offers like a brochure. It’s pretty boring. Some effective ideas for Facebook could be:
1. Curated Content: Hack your Travel Bag Packing (Share a BuzzFeed Video)
2. Owned Content: 4 Tips when you are traveling to beach side (if you own a beach hotel)
3. Blog Post: 5 best places to buy trekking stuff (if you’re a resort in Hilly Areas)
4. Infographic: 8 traveling spot to visit in / Happening Places in / Amazing Fact about this Place! (You’re specific Locales)
5. Owned Content: 3 Medicine to keep during travel all the time (Awareness + Visual Content) or Additional Services you provide.
7. Share Calendar Posts:Â Visual Post about a special event, days can generate organic traffic & generate attention revolving that particular day.
Modify your Facebook Page:
You should always get updated to the recent feature Facebook implements for pages and modify your page to use the latest options. The customers should feel as though they’re being welcomed into your hotel when they are visiting the page.
The latest feature of showcasing 20 – 90-second video in Facebook Cover Page or List your services & tag them in your visual content are good examples of showing your ambiance, service & products to your fan base.
Get your Fans Involved:
Share a screenshot of your customer’s review & how you responded to them. Remember social currency is one of the top value your organization can generate to drive more people to your business. Engage with them in an honest way, reply to bad reviews as well. This will show how much you cared for your customer and put a real effort to minimize their future problems.
Travel & staying at the hotel is all about experience and it does not include post ambiance. 80% of your dissatisfied customer won’t complain you directly and few will do it on other review sites & social media. Make sure you’re addressing them well.
Sharing customers happiness can also generate better brand awareness & word of mouth marketing for your business. For example, what we did for one of our page management work for a beach resort
Use Latest Ad format, Tools & Apps:
You can also use tools like Pagemodo or Sortstack to complement your page with something extra. You should also use the Facebook Social plugin to add the Like Button or Box to your website.
You do not want to miss out on latest ad features which can lead to a great experience to your audience, especially Canvas Ad on Mobile Platform. It will provide an interactive experience to your customers in a storytelling method, placing you in top places to go in their choice.
Generate Sales by Offer & Campaigns:
Millions of travelers use Facebook every day, and your hotel needs to be there, too. Follow the tips listed above to position your hotel for long-term Facebook marketing success. Remember that 80-20 rule. You still have 20% of post quota to send out deals, offers and showcase your products & services. A great way to deliver effective post without any offer could be to post an insider view of how you are managing the kitchen, your customer service booth or celebrating a colleagues birthday.
There are great ways to generate sales for your hotel through Facebook. You can post time-bound offer, deal of the day, discount offer, bundle deals etc through a targeted content with a clear call to action. You also need to ensure that your posts are ad optimized (following rules & guidelines of social channel for running promotion). The examples given above for the Room Booking offer on Valentine Day for Lakeshore Hotel is a Facebook advertisement optimized content.
Here’s another content in local language “Bengali” for a beach resort called Baganbari Resort.
Millions of travelers use Facebook every day, and your hotel needs to be there, too. Follow the tips for your facebook page for a long term marketing success.
To get more ideas about how to do effective Facebook Marketing with your Hotel see this infographic published by an Ireland based Luxury Hotel The Dunloe.
If you are looking to have a chat with me about digital media planning for your hotel, resort or travel business you can contact me directly. To read other content marketing article, visit here. I’d be glad if you send our valuable feedback through the form mentioned below.
