Hospitality Social Media Posting for Success
One of the biggest issues that many forms of business have with social media is continuing to put out consistent and relevant content. It can be very difficult to continually come up with content that engages and builds your audience, and especially so within the hospitality industry. Does video work best? Pictures? Articles? Blogs? Where do you start? How do you post to social media as a hotel?
Fortunately, we have put together a comprehensive list of some of the best practices for posting to social media as a hotel. Whether you are a chain or privately owned, these strategies can be implemented at any kind of hotel. Here are our tips to posting to social media as a hotel.
1. Create unique and branded content.
One of the huge opportunities that many in the hospitality industry are currently missing out on is creating their very own content. Branded content is when a brand creates content specifically linked back to itself. Sounds strange right? Instead of focusing on the specific products and services that a hotel might offer it is more so based in the intangibles, E.g. "The most relaxing environment," "The best views in the entire city." Branded content also directly links back to the brand, so a post or picture will have the brands logo embedded in it, or there will be a physical link back to a web page for the brand. This is particularly smart because you always want to send traffic from one platform to another.
2. Engage your guests.
Current guests staying at your hotel provide another great opportunity for posts. Firstly, they are experiencing what you have to offer in real-time, and not just a review from someone who once stayed at your property. This is important because you can entice current guests to "check in" online, by using a geo tag. When someone tags your location, you get a notification, and can share what they have already posted.
Another smart way to engage current guests is to offer future discounts for reviews and/or traveler photos and videos. A guest showcasing themselves enjoying your hotel and it's features is invaluable to building a brand, and can help grow your audience on social media.
3. Events at/around your hotel
This one is kind of a no brainer right? Featuring the area where your hotel is located is essential to attracting new and repeat guests. A festival going on in the local town, a themed weekend at your property, or a special event going on nearby are all ways to feature your location. Now more than ever people travel for a certain event, or a specific destination. Keep that in mind when hashing out social strategy.
4. Employee accolades and hotel awards
So your staff worked extremely hard this year and you got a high rating across all review sites. Now is your time to brag. Create a post thanking the site where the award came from and everyone who contributed to your high rating, including guests and staff. Let's say your hotel got something like "Top 10 resorts in East Michigan." You can now advertise your property as "One of East Michigan's Top 10 resorts, according to guests just like you!" This is something that definitely catches the eye, and can attract a lot of attention.
5. Special rates at your hotel
Posting specials and promotions is also a valuable part of having social media as a business. This part can be tricky however. Balancing "asking" for business in your posts, with all of the other content we have covered is very important. When you begin to "ask" too much, your followers and audience will take notice and you will see your engagement and brand awareness begin to fall drastically.
How much is too much? Never at any point should you have back to back posts featuring a special, or asking the viewer for business, or to check out a promotion you are running. A good strategy to stick to would be one promotional/special rate post to every three posts of one of the other kinds featured on this list.
Remember, posting consistent and relevant content is the key to posting to social media as a hotel. Always take into account the viewer's perspective and keep in mind that no one likes to be sold to. If you put these tips and tricks for hospitality social media posting into practice, your account will be a booming place in no time!