Is Your Hotel Social Media Strategy Outdated?

Over the last few years the relevance of social media has completely changed – and hopefully your hotel social media strategy along with it.

It is hard to believe that once, social media was a networking site for close friends and family. More often than not it was a place where we posted awful pictures from family gatherings. Even our favourite Myspace is nothing more than a memory!

Even as social media developed, we saw marketing banners arriving across websites. Poorly worded adverts and bad-quality photos became the new advertising. 

But your hotel social media strategy should now look completely different than your one from a few years ago.

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The Statistics For A Hotel Social Media Strategy

The statistics of 2021 are completely different from the statistics a decade ago. In fact, most importantly, 98% of internet users are already active on social media according to Global WebIndex 2018.

What does this mean?

That there are almost no new audiences to reach out to. Which means that optimisation is the key to a hotel’s success.

Other statistics to consider include:

• 70% of social media surfing is done on mobile, 22% on laptop and 8% on mobile web.
• People spend around one third of their online time on social media.
• 60% of people follow brands on social media.
• For 18-34 year olds, nearly 50% follow pages in order to make purchases.

Which makes marketing your hotel on social media an excellent choice, right? Plenty of views, a bunch of likes, perhaps a share or two will do the job…

But it isn’t that straightforward. When you put together your hotel social media strategy, you have to be aware of some other issues.

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How Social Media Is Changing for Hotels

Now social media platforms are under a huge amount of pressure to improve their services for users. This includes:

60% of Gen-Z users who are calling for more user privacy. (Which also led to Apple’s recent iOs update providing anonymous disposable emails and the ability to secretly read emails without them being marked as read etc.)

Facebook recently altered its algorithm to diminish the appearance of business posts, and prioritise the posts of friends and family.

Instagram no longer provides a chronological feed, and instead prioritises the best performing posts. This means that it reduces the visibility of smaller hotels (unless you’ve read how to promote your hotel on instagram!)

So with that in mind, what can your hotel do to maximise its strategy?

 

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Update Your Hotel Social Media Strategy

There are several steps that your hotel should take action on immediately.

Be Findable On Social Media

If you haven’t already, set up your hotel business page across all forms of social media. Potential guests might be searching social media in their spare time, looking for that dream destination inspiration. 

By using your hotel pages as a sort of “pre-landing page” you can draw in potential guests who are both actively and passively searching for your destination. 

Be Clear Cut

High-quality pictures with concise captions will go a long way.

Forget rambling on about everything your hotel has to offer, and make each post or picture a very specific subject. Remember – guests will click through on the things that are related to their desires.

Be Reachable

Your hotel should be a quick message away for all guests – not just existing ones. 

With messaging enabled, your staff can quickly reply to queries (and even expedite the booking process!)

Engage With Guests

For normal businesses, engaging with customers is a strong way to build relations. For hotels it is doubly important.

After all, guests are making memories that will last a lifetime at your hotel so make sure to not only offer them the full experience while they are there, but also before they arrive and after they leave.

Respond to their queries quickly builds a strong relationship on social media, and replying to posts that your hotel is tagged in will only make them endorse your hotel that little bit more!

Encourage Employees

Encourage your staff to take part in your hotel social media strategy. Their own photos, posts and interactions with guests build more human connections with guests.

Simply make sure that you produce a full set of social media and branding guidelines first!

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Launch Your Updated Hotel Social Media Strategy!

In the hotel industry, bookings are often months in the planning. So make sure that you lay the groundwork for future guests today!

If you need some extra pointers on advertising your hotel, simply get in contact. We offer free audits of your digital hotel marketing strategy to outline what needs to be done, and how we recommend fixing it.

Make sure to check out our blog page for the latest guides and tips on making your hotel a success!