Social media marketing isn’t just for online businesses or large corporations like Target and Walmart. It’s also used in the travel industry by airlines, car rental companies and hotels.
Hotels have been using social media marketing to gain new customers, promote deals and promotions and grow their businesses.
An example of a hotel chain that has successfully incorporated social media into their marketing strategy is Hampton Hotels, a part of Hilton Worldwide.
Hampton created a video series featuring real, emotional stories from guests. A simple campaign, yet it received millions of views in just two months. As a result, the hotel’s Facebook following grew by more than 60 percent.
4 Ways Hotels Can Market with Social Media
Hotels should look to social media marketing via:
- Respond to customer questions quickly – Customers (and potential customers) love using social media to ask questions, share stories and even make complaints. Whatever the question (or complaint) is, respond as soon as possible and try to find a way to solve the customer’s problem. Other followers will see your promptness and value your ability to go above and beyond for your customers.
- Start a blog – Smaller hotels should consider starting a travel blog or a blog featuring fun things to do in the area the hotel is located in. Blog articles can then be promoted on Pinterest and Twitter, shared with others and ultimately bring in more business to the hotel.
- Have contests and giveaways – Gain new followers by hosting contests and giveaways, with the winner receiving a free one-night stay at your hotel (or a prize of your choice). Giveaways can be simple, with people being able to enter by simply Tweeting about the giveaway or sharing the post on Facebook. Contests can be anything from funniest travel photo to worst hotel experience.
- Engage with your followers – This goes above and beyond responding to questions and complaints. Share stories you think your followers might be interested in, get their opinion on what’s going on with your business, ask what they would like to see more of, take a poll on what improvements they would like to see made and more. The more you connect and engage with your followers, the more success you will see on social media.
There are other, less-known, ways to advertise with social media, too.
The article “3 Ways your hotel can use SMS marketing to increase loyalty” discusses how hotels can take their marketing plans one step further and advertise via text message marketing, or SMS marketing.
Three ways hotels can go about this include offering exclusive rewards to repeat customers, making things more convenient (allowing guests to opt-in and receive updates on check-in time, for example) and sharing last-minute deals with potential customers.
All in all, hotels need to actively be engaged on social media.
With one-in-four people using social media worldwide, it’s just too important to skip out on.
Social media marketing is no longer just one way to advertise, it’s the way to advertise for almost every industry, including hotels.
Photo credit: Image courtesy of Shutterstock.com
from Darlene Milligan http://ift.tt/1B4wx6R via Digital marketing agency London
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/1wYFX91
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