Social media marketing for hotels has never been more crucial. This involves crafting engaging content, responding to guest inquires quickly and monitoring performance metrics.
Search for influencers whose audience aligns with that of your hotel and work with micro-influencers on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Showcase the story behind your hotel’s unique offerings to increase direct bookings and expand direct business. This could include showing a captivating video showing off the restaurant’s famous lobster dish or featuring aspects of local culture that stand out.
1. Engage with your audience
Successful hotel management requires more than simply depending on online travel agencies (OTAs). With the right strategy and tactics in place, hotels can draw first-time guests and secure repeat bookings. Social media plays an integral part in helping consumers make decisions about where to stay – it is therefore imperative that your audience is engaging on appropriate platforms.
With high commission fees charged by online travel agencies (OTAs), reaching more people directly can help secure bookings and attract potential visitors directly. One effective strategy is building brand recognition and customer engagement; two factors that contribute directly to direct bookings.
Your hotel website and social media accounts provide an ideal way to show what makes your hotel exceptional and special. Showcasing beautiful images of your property, sharing guest testimonials, and featuring staff spotlights are great ways to build connections with audiences while cultivating loyalty among patrons. Authenticity resonates with audiences and creates strong bonds of engagement among them.
Social media platforms are constantly shifting, which makes it essential to stay abreast of trends and events happening near you. Hashtags play an integral part in social media; use them to your advantage by researching popular hospitality and travel hashtags as well as creating customized hashtags specifically for your hotel or resort. Furthermore, use a URL shortener so as not to lose traction due to long links.
Consider forming partnerships with influencers to expand your reach and visibility. Influencers typically boast large followings with dedicated niche interests that you can target successfully; Soneva Jani partnered with Youtubers Kara and Nate to produce a video featuring their overwater villas which received over 8 million views! You could also promote content through Twitter’s paid ads feature; this gives it more prominence in search results as well as appearing as sponsored tweets on individual profiles and home timelines.
2. Build a community
Establishing a Twitter community for your hotel can increase its online presence and draw more visitors to its website. Sharing relevant news articles related to your location or upcoming events helps inform potential guests, while using trending hashtags makes finding tweets simpler for potential guests.
Your hotel can leverage local businesses like spas, restaurants and tour operators to market its amenities more effectively by partnering with spas, restaurants and tour operators – this will increase reach and encourage guests to book their stay! For instance, Soneva Jani in the Maldives collaborated with Youtubers Kara and Nate to feature an overwater villa experience at their resort – their video now has over 8 million views and could help drive bookings!
By building a community on Twitter, you can increase the odds that people retweet and share your content, giving it more exposure and strengthening brand recognition as well as increasing online visibility for your hotel. This will lead to an increase in brand recognition and ultimately grow its online presence.
Social media algorithms identify users based on their browsing histories, so it’s essential that you be aware of what your target market is up to online in order to determine what posts or ads to promote to them.
If you notice someone complaining about an unpleasant hotel stay in your city, respond directly and show that you value their feedback – this will go a long way towards building trust and ensuring customers leave happy.
Remember to regularly post engaging photos and videos on Twitter. Tweets with images tend to get more retweets, increasing engagement rates by up to 34%. Tools like Twitter Lists can help filter content based on your interests so that only relevant tweets reach your feed.
3. Drive traffic to your website
Traffic generation can be simple; turning that traffic into bookings, however, can be challenging. There are several strategies for driving visitors to your website and increasing its exposure online.
Twitter can be an extremely effective marketing tool for hotels. It helps reach a larger audience, promote your brand and boost SEO efforts while simultaneously building relationships with guests and driving traffic to your website.
Establish a Twitter presence that accurately reflects your hotel’s identity by using an attractive header photo that captures people’s interest and including contact details and website links so visitors can easily book stays at your establishment.
Social media platforms are an excellent way to market your hotel rooms, amenities and deals. Post photos and videos to attract new guests while using hashtags related to events you are promoting to monitor their effectiveness and track the progression of campaigns.
On top of social media, your hotel blog can also serve to promote special offers and other activities. By regularly providing valuable content that draws customers in, you’ll increase traffic to your website while building an email list of prospective customers.
Responding quickly and appropriately to guest tweets and posts will demonstrate your dedication to providing excellent guest experiences and go the extra mile in order to guarantee their happiness.
4. Promote special offers
Travelers turn to social media for inspiration when booking accommodation, and Twitter can help your hotel stand out by drawing in guests with special offers and events unique to it, encouraging direct bookings, and building loyalty among your guest base. Leverage this platform by advertising special deals or events exclusive to your hotel; leverage it also as a channel to communicate special offers or events specific to it and foster direct bookings while building customer relationships through direct bookings and increasing guest retention.
When promoting special offers, be sure to use relevant hashtags and images in tweets that include them to increase visibility and engagement. According to research by Buffer, tweets that contain images were up to 18 percent more clickable and received 35% more retweets than tweets without images.
Hotels can use Twitter to build brand loyalty with their guests and form lasting relationships that go well beyond the stay itself. Although airlines and hotels tend to lag behind when it comes to responding to guest feedback on Twitter (only 20% of @ mentions receive responses according to Emarketer), some are making progress; Hilton uses its ‘Hilton Suggests’ account for offering advice to first-time travelers to various cities.
Hospitality industry competition can be fierce, so developing an effective marketing strategy to attract and keep customers is of utmost importance to success. By employing these underutilized Twitter strategies for marketing your hotel can improve its online presence while outshone competitors in this space.
Social media is an ideal medium for the hospitality industry, so make sure that your profiles accurately portray the qualities of your property. Instagram provides the ideal venue to promote special offers or engage with audiences by posting user-generated content like this post from 1 Hotel South Beach. Furthermore, consider investing in a Promoted Tweet campaign so your posts appear at the top of relevant search results and home timelines.
5. Retweet content
Hotel social media marketing can be an intricate undertaking that involves strategy, scheduling, tracking and analysis. Successful hotels on social media possess an engaging content plan that supports their overall goals.
Hoteliers should retweet relevant local content on Twitter as part of their overall social media strategy to expand the reach and engagement with their brand. For example, if a beer festival is happening nearby, hoteliers could post about it and invite guests to attend by sharing this news through their account.
By employing catchy hashtags, your hotel can increase its exposure and draw potential guests’ attention when searching for events and locations. Furthermore, encouraging guests to use the hashtags when posting pictures from their stay further promotes exposure for both of the hotels involved.
Promoting Twitter content through paid ads can be an effective way to expand your following and increase views on your posts. When selecting audience targeting options, make sure they reach the correct people at the appropriate times.
Hotels must remain consistent in their content creation and promotion efforts, especially on social media. People prefer regular updates from brands they follow rather than unexpected ones that come out at random. A detailed content plan that encompasses multiple forms is the key to keeping up competitive online presences and driving direct bookings for hotels.