Social media has not only become a core aspect of our day-to-day lives, but it also has grown into an incredibly powerful marketing tool, especially for the hospitality industry. People love sharing pictures and stories of their travels online, which can often result in your business growing an online precedence organically even without your input.
However, you can increase the effectiveness of a social media presence by effectively leveraging strategies that make the most out of the features that make these platforms shine.
If you want to learn what are the most effective hotel social media marketing strategies for hotels in 2023, read on. Each hotel social media strategy is worth implementing.
Hotel Social Media Strategy – The 10 Best Social Media Marketing Strategies for Hotels
Here are ten social media tactics you can implement on your hotel property to improve quality leads that are converted, internal website traffic, valued customer information, and brand recognition:
- Paid Facebook and Instagram Ads
Creative and engaging social media content is not limited to Facebook, but it still is an excellent platform for integrating sponsored posts into your hotel’s social media marketing strategy.
Instagram is another excellent medium to use to increase visibility and traffic to your hotel’s website. You can advertise on Instagram to reach users who aren’t interacting with your hotel but fall within your target audience demographic.
Targeting is an excellent way to increase revenues, develop your fan base, and increase brand awareness. Since the same organization owns both Facebook and Instagram, you can run paid advertisements on both platforms. However, you will probably generate different types of advertising depending on the demographics you’re targeting.
- Create quality content
In 2022, hotels require a mix of online and offline marketing. By posting exciting content regularly on your hotel’s social media accounts, you have multiple opportunities to connect with potential and returning guests.
When creating social media content for a hotel, it’s vital to be regular and creative. In addition to boosting visibility, you will build loyal fans who will spread the word about your company when your property posts frequently. By using this strategy, your hotel will be in line with “word of mouth” marketing, which customers prefer over paid advertising.
Prepare a social media content plan for your hotel, and choose your distribution channels based on your target market’s needs. You should also consider segmenting the content into categories.
Below are a few categories hotels frequently use on social media:
- Location-specific content
- Food and drinks
- Holidays
- Special events
- Travel advice
- Attractions
- Behind-the-scenes highlights from tours
- Pay attention to social media trends and platform algorithms
For years, news has been delivered to users through Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Pinterest algorithmic feeds. Platform tactics that emphasize providing value to individuals have been altered as a result of criticism of this strategy. A more personalized, educational, or added-value post will be prioritized in the main feed algorithm.
It is estimated that Twitter’s revenue will double by 2023 as a result of its upcoming features and products, which will allow users to pay to access Tweets from their favorite accounts. This reduces a company’s dependency on targeted marketing for income and improves its client service.
- Create a human connection
Create a voice and style for your hotel by using your social media channels. In this way, you can make a personal connection with potential guests so that they can see the people behind your staff. Take the time to highlight your employees individually, or as a group.
You should also get to know your clientele. Are they interested in more images of hotel rooms, places they can travel to from the hotel, or restaurant recommendations? The more engaged your audience is with your message, the more likely they are to stay in touch with your business. You can encourage your guests to follow you and share your photos by tagging them in your published photos.
By organizing giveaways, contests, surveys, and polls, you can further engage your visitors.
- Leverage the power of influencers to promote the business
There are and will continue to be influencers, and their reach can’t be denied. Reach out to local influencers or individuals who can convince your target group to change, but be sure to have a strategy before you invite them to collaborate.
In the past, influencers exchanged free hotel stays for the content they had on their networks. Instead of exchanging room stays for a single review, hotels can establish long-term sponsored partnerships with influencers who can create content for their social media channels. By doing so, it equalizes the power dynamics and provides a constant stream of quality content that can be distributed across the hotel’s channels. Several other businesses have adopted this strategy of using influencers as part of their marketing campaigns.
An influencer can be classified as a macro- or micro-influencer based on the amount of following they receive. Macro-influencers usually have between 100K and 1M followers, while micro-influencers have a more modest fan base. A macro-influencer might have a larger audience, but their fan base may be diluted, making their viewers less focused and captive. Even though micro-influencers may have a much smaller following, they are known for having a strong and loyal fan base.
- Share high-quality videos
As the proverb goes, “a picture tells a thousand words,” but in today’s world, a video is worth a billion. Include the cost of producing high-quality videos in your budget, since they encourage engagement, extend visitors’ time on the page, and are more likely to be shared.
As social media sites have grown, short-form video has become the most popular content type. In addition to creating and distributing films on Instagram as “Reels”, you can also make and distribute videos on Facebook. Alternatively, you can use these videos on a YouTube channel, on your website, or on email campaigns as marketing tools.
Here are some examples of platforms you can use to create short-form content:
TikTok
Many travelers find TikTok to be a fantastic source of inspiration. It is a more recent platform that initially gained popularity among a particular segment of the population, but its audience has continued to grow. TikTok’s popularity has skyrocketed since it began posting video content, and much of its viral content is also posted to Instagram.
TikTok is a great platform to showcase your creative, unique, and fun side! With TikTok, you can showcase your best qualities through short videos, connecting with your audience in a contemporary way.
Instagram is a fantastic tool for sharing eye-catching material and interacting with your audience. It allows you to start a conversation about your hotel and services, but it focuses primarily on the visual aspect of your business. In addition to beautiful photos, video is becoming increasingly popular on Instagram. With Instagram Reels, you can make short films that showcase the positive aspects of your hotel to potential guests. They are usually 30 to 45 seconds long. Including Reels in your Instagram content plan is essential in 2022 if you haven’t already.
There has been a significant increase in the use of Pinterest to kickstart travel planning. Pinterest had more monthly active users in 2020 than Twitter and Snapchat combined. As Pinterest’s use for travel planning increases, more hotels should begin paying attention in 2022.
When writing material for Pinterest, such as “10 hidden discoveries in Amsterdam,” make sure all your images and videos are of the highest quality possible. Quality is more important than quantity here. You can share and repin content from Pinterest to extend your reach and even link to your website.
- Create a user-friendly and responsive website
The importance of an excellent website will remain relevant in 2022. Since your website is frequently your guests’ first point of contact and perception of your hotel, you don’t want to fall behind in this area. In order to entice clients to use your website, it should be easy to navigate, responsive, and visually appealing.
The following are a few important trends to watch:
- The most stunning website themes make the most of white (or unfavorable) space.
- Page loads and load times that are optimized without compromising the quality of images
- Design concepts and communication should take accessibility and diversity into account.
- Implement live chat and support
As consumers become accustomed to having information at their fingertips and instant answers to their questions, hotels will need to implement live chat technology to stay competitive. Using live chat and chatbots, guests can contact your hotel directly around the clock. Since many hotels are experiencing a staffing crisis in 2022, this technology will be even more important. It is possible for chatbots to answer basic questions without the assistance of humans. Your chatbots can then direct the internet visitor to your online assistants for more detailed questions, where they can carry on the discussion and offer support instead of making time-consuming phone calls.
- Analyze customer feedback for improvement
Besides being useful for generating reservations, TripAdvisor and Google also provide valuable insight into your hotel’s strengths and weaknesses. Make use of the information you gather from social media to enhance the hospitality experience. Ensure you respond to all customer feedback, both favorable and unfavorable, to show your appreciation. When it comes to social media marketing for hotels, sharing great TripAdvisor reviews is the most impactful.
- Reply to customer comments regularly
Whether you use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or even LinkedIn as your hotel’s media platforms, responding to comments and mentions as soon as possible is essential.
The digital world moves quickly, and most social media users anticipate instant gratification or reactions. Although responding to or engaging with comments on social media may seem tiresome, doing so helps your business in several ways.
For starters, it makes your viewers feel noticed and appreciated. Responding to your consumers will help build relationships, make your customer care feel more personal, and promote more recommendations, whether you’re managing a dispute or just saying thank you for a review.
Your brand’s reputation is enhanced in the eyes of other followers by responding to their comments and conversing with them. You’ll build a good reputation and promote additional engagement if your hotel establishes a reputation for being a company that values and pays attention to its clients. It also enhances the social media performance of your material.
Last but not least, responding promptly to remarks or mentions of your business online can help you manage its reaction. In good scenarios, this may involve spreading and maximizing favorable customer or influencer reviews. However, it also involves promptly resolving customer issues and preventing any complaints from going viral and damaging your reputation in adverse scenarios.
Making the Most Out of Social Media Marketing Strategies
Social media platforms had a significant year in 2021, and 2022 is expected to be more effective. 2022 planning has begun, and your marketing approach should be part of your overall strategy. Positioning your hotel in front of the market may help you achieve your yearly goals.
Posting on one or more channels is considered social media marketing in tourism, and it now makes up a significant portion of almost every hotel’s advertising plan. The secret to success is utilizing various platforms to spread information and create discussions. However, choosing your media must be based on your target audience, the kind of content they enjoy, and your resources. By providing potential clients with helpful knowledge, you will avoid wasting time on methods that won’t work and create a winning strategy faster.
Social media is one of the most effective ways to connect with and engage guests. Make sure your hotel is accessible and has a strong presence on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networks this year if you haven’t already.
Conclusion
Market analysis and competitive intelligence are the initial steps in creating a successful social media strategy. One of the most effective ways to increase website traffic is to use social media marketing for hotels. Engage in regular conversations with your visitors through it to establish a social connection. Creating unique content on your social media platforms will skyrocket views and attract people to talk about your business. Additionally, your social media managers will follow the trend by uploading more content similar to the most viral one.
The key to increasing brand visibility, encouraging bookings, and keeping guests engaged throughout the customer journey is to use high-quality promotional content. No matter what messaging you use across your channels or whether you tailor your messages to each channel, it must be consistent. With social media tactics, generational trends, economic concerns, and rapid technological advancements, the hotel industry needs to adopt social media tactics like the rest of the world.
But above all, you have to take care of your brand. Spending time creating and making it a reality will enhance your income, draw in the best talent, boost visitor retention rates, and strengthen your media exposure.
