Today, social media is everything for the travel industry. Guests are using social media to research hotels, plan events, and document their own trips. While creating and maintaining a campaign is quite involved, simply avoiding these three common hotel social media marketing mistakes will keep you pointed in the right direction.
Hotel Social Media Mistake #1 – Not Responding or Engaging with Guests
We live in a generation of travelers that want and demand instant gratification, and that includes responding to their social media posts. Today, guests are more likely to leave a review or make a post on a hotel’s social media page than they are to bring a complaint or compliment to light in person. When they do this, they fully expect their post to be interacted with by the hotel.
Social media offers an opportunity to interact with guests in an environment where today’s travelers are more comfortable voicing their opinion. Use that to your advantage by not only answering their questions and complaints but also soliciting their opinions with questions and surveys. The added benefit to all of this interaction is a huge boost to the algorithms used by social media platforms. The more activity on the page, the better the boost for your social media profile.
Hotel Social Media Mistake #2 – Bad Content
One of the biggest mistakes hotels make is the constant posting of business touts. The idea behind social media is to create a dialogue with customers. You also want to become a go-to resource so your posts show up on their feeds more frequently. You do this by posting shareable and informative content about things other than the property, such as community events, local restaurant reviews, and the like. Yes, you still want to do business touts, but they should make up no more than 10-15 percent of your overall posts.
This should go without saying, but the content also needs to be proofread to ensure there are no mistakes. The amateur English professors will come out of the closet if you have so much as a comma out of place.
Hotel Social Media Mistake #3 – Missing the Full Potential of Social Media
Each and every platform serves a unique opportunity when using social media for business. Instagram is visual, whereas Facebook can offer news and information, and Twitter can be more about customer service problems. TikTok is also an amazing platform for garnering attention from a younger crowd.
Take the time to tailor posts to each outlet so they are being appropriately utilized. This is your chance to give potential travelers that have never visited your property an in-depth look at the property to the point they cannot wait to book their room. It is an opportunity for your customer service to shine. If you are merely posting room rates and special offers, you are missing out on about 80 percent of the opportunities available to a hotel via social media.
If you are in need of a better Director of Marketing, give Joseph David International a call. We have been successfully placing managers in executive leadership for more than a decade because we work hard to find the perfect fit for your hotel or organization. For more information about our hotel recruiting services, please click here.