Social Media Reviews

Social media has quickly become one of the most popular sources for
travel related technology information on the Web. That is why it is
really important your hotel has a significant presence across a number
of different social media platforms. You then also need to determine how
best you utilize each platform to increase the visibility of your
hotel, attract visitors and then (and this is the crucial part) convert
those visitors into customers in order to increase your hotel’s revenue.

Maintaining a strong presence on social media is really important

Previously, the approach to marketing taken by many hoteliers was to
advertise and distribute your message as widely and to as many people as
you thought possible, in the hope that at least some of those people
would then become customers (we’ve all been there, right?). But this
kind of catch all and hope for the best approach often meant that your
message was spread too thinly. Thankfully, these days are long gone.
Today, in order to market your hotel successfully, you need to take a
much more thoughtful and targeted approach to marketing, which is built
around social media.

Why? Well let’s take a look at the stats.
It is estimated that more than 70% of online adults use social
networking sites, with this figure likely to increase by 18% by 2017. In
addition to this, search engines are increasingly using social media in
the way they gather information for their results’ listings, placing
more weight on the amount of activity and social interaction in the
algorithms used to rank a site, as Google’s recent Hummingbird update
shows.

Keep up to date with social media

Whilst you could be forgiven for thinking that the term ‘social media’
is one uniformed platform, there are in fact a variety of different
channels, with each requiring a certain amount of knowledge in order for
it to be fully utilized. That is why you need to make sure your hotel
establishes itself within this multifaceted and sometimes complex arena.
Try to make sure that you are well versed in operating on each social
media site on which your hotel has a presence.

A key factor in
your social media marketing strategy is to make sure you have a presence
on the sites that your potential customers are most likely to visit.
That said, you should also try to keep up to date with new trends in the
world of social media. Ensure that you have a system in place that will
keep up with advancements with existing sites as well as making sure
that you are in a position to establish yourself on the latest social
media platform, whatever it may be. Keep your hotel/brand relevant and
up to date.

Some hoteliers are still missing out

In today’s world where a business can only really be successful if it
has, among other things, a strong online presence, you could be
surprised by the fact that there are still significant numbers of
hoteliers who fail to utilize social media in order to increase revenue.
A survey previously carried out by chief marketing officer Jonathan
Cherins, and his team at TravelClick, found almost a quarter of hotels
were missing out on the benefits gained from establishing a presence on
social media. Jonathan Cherins and TravelClick also found that from the
hoteliers who were using social media frequently, that they saw a
significant increase in both bookings and revenue.

Hotel social media can be overwhelming

Whilst we’ve established that social media is now an important
component in helping to increase revenue for your hotel, before you get
stuck into your all out assault on social media, you should consider how
it will impact on the day to day management and your existing workload.
Don’t underestimate or be overwhelmed by the amount of work needed to
create a strong presence on online. It is much more than simply posting
the occasional one line status update. You’ve got to give your readers
something of genuine value, good quality content is king – be it a
status update, blog post, promotional item or even a picture. Be
consistent and make sure you remain active as a failure to do so could
be received negatively by your audience.

The bottom line – is social media really necessary?

The simple answer is yes. It doesn’t matter if you are a large
international hotel brand or a small independent guesthouse, social
media can be instrumental in helping to increase revenue for your
business. It will also be hugely effective in helping your hotel to
remain competitive, in what is likely to be a fierce marketplace, which
is even more reason to use social media as a marketing outlet and use it
well. It does take time and effort, but used to its greatest advantage
and the rewards can be enormous, whereas the loss from not establishing
your hotel on social media could result in mediocrity and lost income.