Social media has become an invaluable asset to hotels. This course introduces students to digital marketing strategies that will allow them to use social media effectively for the benefit of their hotel.
Social media offers hotels an ideal platform to engage their target audiences pre-trip, showcase onsite attractions and promote the lifestyle they provide; but for this to work effectively requires thorough employee training.
Identify Your Goals
Establishing clear social media goals for your hotel and how staff will use these tools effectively are of the utmost importance in creating a professional image across platforms.
For instance, if you want to highlight the people working at your hotel and build trust among guests, post pictures of staff every week on various channels. This allows guests to see who makes up your team and encourages them to maintain relationships with it – plus it encourages followers of your hotel to interact with and repost posts by making your brand relatable and personable!
One goal may be to utilize social media accounts as a vehicle to promote events or special offers, such as discounted rates for certain times of the year. Here, your content would need to be timely and relevant in order to drive maximum engagement and clicks from target market consumers.
As soon as your social media strategy is in place, the next step should be identifying your target audience. For hotels this could mean aspirational travelers planning a trip or existing guests searching for restaurants or activities nearby – these audiences can be determined through analysing current followers as well as demographic data available across platforms.
Assuming your most engaged audiences are females and millennials, then content geared specifically to these groups might be best targeted. Once you know which audiences to target you can then start planning and creating content to reach these groups.
Pick the Right People
Hire someone with the qualifications and personality needed for this task, taking into consideration qualifications as well as passion. Finding someone who knows your hotel’s target audience and social media platform of choice intimately while having a great personality that aligns with both you and your hotel values is of utmost importance.
Your social media manager should possess the writing, creating, and posting skills needed for effective engagement on social media channels; additionally they should possess superior graphic design abilities so they can produce eye-catching photos and videos highlighting your hotel amenities and experiences to draw customers in and influence decision-making processes. A high-quality content strategy will draw potential guests in and influence purchasing decisions of potential guests.
Hotels looking to differentiate themselves should also use user-generated content (UGC) on their social channels to showcase guests’ positive experiences at the hotel and encourage them to share it online. UGC can serve as an excellent way to showcase these positive stories online and encourage guests to share them online with family and friends.
Keep in mind that social media is ever-evolving, so training sessions for your employees to keep abreast of any updates, features or changes that might impact how they manage the social media accounts for your hotel can only serve to strengthen them in their work.
Training employees on social media can also save your company money when it comes to marketing costs. Hiring an in-house social media manager can be expensive and adds overhead; outsourcing social media management services is much more cost-effective and will still produce the same great results. In addition to saving money, these providers also deliver better results because they won’t miss deadlines or take leave during vacation or illness periods.
Set Up Your Accounts
As a luxury hotel or resort, taking advantage of social media’s massive audience is crucial if you want to increase bookings and reach potential guests on an individual basis. Social media allows hotels and resorts to interact directly with potential guests through personal interactions that inspire bookings.
Social media training for your hotel staff is an effective way to promote and expand engagement with your audience, as it creates a consistent voice and style that resonates with them.
Be mindful that people don’t have an infinite amount of time, and if your content doesn’t provide value or interest they will quickly unfollow you. So instead of posting useless memes or low-value material like memes, focus on sharing information that your target audience would find beneficial such as industry updates, property events or local attractions.
Furthermore, it’s crucial that your hotel website contains both photos and videos – humans are drawn to visual content, so this can be an effective way to attract a broader audience. A professionally shot video can showcase your hotel while also creating an emotional bond between viewers.
Promoting special offers or discounts on social media can also increase visibility for your hotel and increase revenue. By doing this, it can increase bookings while driving sales revenue growth.
Social media training can not only offer your hotel marketing advantages, but it may also save money in staffing costs. Instead of hiring full-time employees with benefits, outsourcing your social media management may be more cost effective and will save time and effort when finding and hiring someone new – as well as eliminate worries that they might suddenly become sick, go on vacation or quit abruptly!
Plan Your Content
Hotels looking to use social media are often stumped when determining what content works on social media for them, with each property depending on factors like its location, amenities, services offered, target audience and price point when making decisions on posting strategy. Unfortunately there is no universal solution when it comes to finding appropriate social media posts; each will differ based on location, amenities offered and price point.
Step one in creating a successful social media strategy for hotels is identifying its target demographics – this means taking into account gender, age and nationality of guests as well as travel purpose information. With this knowledge in hand, platforms you use and content plans created will appeal to their target market more effectively.
High-quality images and videos are integral parts of any social media marketing strategy, particularly on platforms like Instagram or TikTok. Posting original content about the unique offerings at your hotel will draw new audiences while encouraging engagement from existing followers. Including behind-the-scenes footage can humanize the brand while building an emotional bond with followers. Furthermore, responding to both praises and complaints quickly is another effective way to show commitment to guest satisfaction and build online brand recognition.
Another essential consideration when developing a social media strategy for hotels is seasonality. Travelers tend to select their trip based on season, so it is essential that your hotel maintains an engaging presence during these times by offering special thematic packages and promotions, hosting celebrations or sharing local attractions and events with guests; additionally leveraging user-generated content (UGC) by asking guests to tag your hotel in their photos/videos can be another effective way of driving traffic towards events and drawing in new guests.
Measure Your Success
If your hotel wants to make an impressionful impact with social media, training is well worth investing in. The results can be seen in follower growth, engagement levels, reach, impressions and perception of how well your strategies are working and where additional work needs to be done.
One key to hotel success lies in understanding your target audience and creating content that speaks directly to their pain points. If your hotel targets travelers seeking new experiences in new cities, for instance, travel guides could prove useful; similarly, hotels with wellness-based offerings could create campaigns promoting healthy eating or mindfulness as guest experiences.
Focusing on high-quality photo and video content is also vital, particularly on platforms like Instagram and TikTok where visuals reign supreme. By producing videos or photos that offer useful and interesting information to your target audience, they will likely share them among their own networks – expanding your influencer marketing reach significantly.
Be sure to regularly track your progress and refine your strategy, taking note of who follows and engages with your account and when. Many platforms provide analytics tools that can help you do just this, giving insight into who engages with posts from your account, what types of content resonates and when. With this data at hand, refine and optimize future posts content for improved overall performance.
Investment in social media training for your hotel staff can make a tremendous difference when it comes to creating an excellent online reputation and increasing bookings. Not only does it show your team members you appreciate them as individuals but it can also encourage them to put their skills towards helping your hotel thrive!