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You're a hotel manager. Let us pose a question - are your social media posts effectively attracting guests to your hotel?
We pose this question because we've observed many hoteliers facing difficulties in crafting impactful social media content.
That's why we've created a free social media planner template, specifically designed for hotel managers. This resource is designed to streamline your content creation process, ensuring that each post engages and attracts potential guests.
Furthermore, if you're looking to elevate your hotel's online visibility through proven tactics and strategies, be sure to explore our Marketing Pack for Hotel Managers.
Continue reading to learn how you can utilize this tool to boost your hotel's digital presence and make every post a step towards greater success.
What social media platforms are best for promoting an hotel brand?
It's a common misconception that all social media platforms are equally beneficial for promoting your hotel brand.
The truth is, each platform caters to different demographics, utilizes unique content formats, and fosters distinct types of engagement. For instance, LinkedIn, which is predominantly used for professional networking and B2B interactions, may not be the best channel for hotels looking to connect with leisure travelers or to create a personal rapport with guests.
As a hotelier, it's crucial to choose social media platforms that support rich visual content, interactive communication, and geographic targeting. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok are particularly effective. Below, we've simplified this selection with a detailed table.
Additionally, we've compiled comprehensive guides for each recommended platform in our toolkit for hoteliers aiming to expand their reach.
The most effective social media platforms for hotels
| Social Media Platform | Relevancy Level for a Hotel | Detailed Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| High | Instagram's visually driven format is perfect for showcasing hotel amenities, guest experiences, and scenic views. Its features like stories, live videos, and geotags also enhance engagement and local discovery. | |
| High | Facebook's extensive user base allows hotels to reach a broad audience. Its tools for event promotion, targeted advertising, and customer reviews are invaluable for building brand trust and community. | |
| TikTok | Medium-High | TikTok's dynamic, video-first approach can help hotels attract a younger demographic. Creating trending content and behind-the-scenes videos can make a hotel brand more relatable and engaging. |
| Medium | Twitter is ideal for real-time communication and updates, which is great for customer service and timely announcements in the hospitality industry, though it may lack the visual impact of other platforms. | |
| Low | While LinkedIn is less effective for direct guest engagement, it's beneficial for B2B relationships, professional networking, and industry positioning within the hospitality sector. | |
| Medium | Pinterest can drive long-term traffic to hotel websites through high-quality images of rooms, facilities, and destinations, appealing to travelers planning their trips, though it may not generate immediate bookings. | |
| Snapchat | Medium-Low | Snapchat's transient content appeals to younger audiences and can be used for spontaneous marketing or exclusive offers, but it generally provides less sustained engagement compared to other platforms. |
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How to get started on social media for your hotel brand?
Setting up and managing a social media account for your hotel is a task you can absolutely manage on your own, especially when you're just starting out.
It might seem daunting at first, but with a little planning and insight, it's quite manageable. We've broken down the process for each platform in our marketing strategy pack for hotels, providing you with step-by-step guidance.
Identify Your Target Audience
Understanding who your guests are is the first step. Your hotel's social media tone, style, and content should all be designed to resonate with your specific audience.
Consider your hotel’s amenities, location, and the typical guest profile. Are you catering to business travelers, families, luxury seekers, or budget tourists? Knowing your audience helps in crafting your social media messages effectively.
Optimize Your Social Media Profiles
When setting up your hotel’s social media profiles, make sure to include essential information that both informs and attracts potential guests.
This should include your hotel’s location, amenities, unique selling points like "Eco-friendly accommodations" or "Award-winning spa," and direct booking links. Accurate and enticing profile setup is key to converting viewers into guests.
Is It Time-Consuming?
Initially, setting up your profiles and getting accustomed to social media tools may take some time.
However, once you establish a routine, managing your hotel’s social media can become a seamless part of your daily tasks, much like checking your emails.
Should You Hire a Professional?
Whether you should hire a professional depends on how comfortable you are with social media and the amount of time you can dedicate to it. Starting on your own is a great way to learn what resonates with your audience.
If your hotel expands or managing social media becomes too overwhelming, consider hiring a professional with experience in hospitality marketing.
First Week on Social Media for Your Hotel
Let's outline what you should focus on during your first week of launching your hotel's social media presence. For a more comprehensive 30-day plan, please refer to our marketing strategy pack for hotel owners.
| Day Number | Actions | How to Do It Well |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Select appropriate platforms | Choose platforms where your target guests are most likely to be active, such as Instagram for visuals and LinkedIn for business travelers. |
| 2 | Setup your profiles | Ensure high-quality images of your hotel are used. Fill out all details, focusing on what makes your hotel unique. |
| 3 | Determine your target audience | Reflect on who your typical guests are and tailor your content to meet their interests and needs. |
| 4 | Plan your content | Create a content calendar that includes promotional posts about your amenities, guest testimonials, and local attractions. |
| 5 | Begin posting | Introduce your hotel, showcase different amenities, and highlight your staff and services. Keep the tone welcoming and engaging. |
| 6 | Engage with your followers | Respond to comments, direct messages, and reviews. Active engagement helps build a loyal community. |
| 7 | Analyze and refine | Review which types of posts gain the most interaction and adjust your strategy to enhance engagement. |
What are the best strategies to increase the followers of your hotel brand organically?
Here is a table of 12 highly effective and innovative content strategies that hotel owners can utilize on social media to naturally grow their follower base, along with the types of content that guests frequently interact with.
This table is designed to be clear and succinct. For those seeking a comprehensive guide, complete with detailed, actionable steps, and insights derived from real-world examples of successful hotels, please explore our hotel strategy toolkit.
| Strategy | How to make it so it brings you profit |
|---|---|
| Virtual Tours | Offer virtual tours of your hotel, showcasing different amenities and rooms. Encourage viewers to book a stay through exclusive social media codes, enhancing direct bookings and engagement. |
| Behind-the-Scenes Stories | Share behind-the-scenes content of hotel operations, from housekeeping routines to gourmet kitchen prep. This transparency builds trust and a personal connection with your audience. |
| Guest Photo Contests | Run a contest where guests post photos of their stay. Offer rewards like a free night or upgrades for the best posts. This boosts user-generated content and enhances visibility. |
| Local Influencer Collaborations | Partner with travel bloggers and influencers to create content or host live events at your hotel. Their followers get a personal look at your property, potentially increasing your audience. |
| Room Sneak Peeks | Tease new room designs or amenities with sneak peek photos or videos. Engage followers by letting them suggest amenities or vote on room themes, making them feel part of the experience. |
| Themed Weekend Getaways | Organize themed weekend events and share these experiences on social media. Themes could range from spa retreats to gourmet dining, creating memorable stays that guests want to share. |
| Exclusive Room Tours | Promote exclusive tours of premium suites or newly renovated areas. Offer social media followers first booking options or special discounts to create buzz and drive bookings. |
| Interactive Polls and Quizzes | Engage your audience with polls and quizzes about travel preferences or guess the location in your hotel. This keeps your followers active and encourages frequent interactions. |
| Local Attractions Highlights | Feature local attractions or events near your hotel. Provide insider tips or special guest discounts for these places, showcasing your hotel as a knowledgeable and connected locale. |
| Guest Reviews Spotlight | Highlight positive guest reviews and testimonials, with permission. This not only shows appreciation but also leverages social proof to persuade potential guests to book a stay. |
| Eco-Friendly Practices | If your hotel is engaged in sustainable practices, share these initiatives. Whether it’s energy-saving measures or local community support, this attracts guests who value sustainability. |
| Flash Deals | Create urgency with flash deals available only to your social media followers. This can include last-minute room rates or special weekend packages, encouraging quick decisions and repeat visits. |
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What are some common social media mistakes to avoid as an hotel brand?
Hotel owners can sometimes stumble when navigating the complex world of social media. Below, you'll find a detailed table that highlights common errors in social media usage within the hotel industry, their potential impacts, and strategic advice for improvement.
| Mistake # | Mistake Description | Consequences | What Not to Do | What to Do Instead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ignoring Guest Reviews | Damage to reputation and guest loyalty. | Do not disregard negative or positive guest reviews. | Respond promptly and thoughtfully to all reviews to demonstrate that guest feedback is valued. |
| 2 | Inconsistent Online Presence | Reduced guest engagement and online visibility. | Avoid erratic updates or overwhelming bursts of content. | Maintain a consistent posting schedule with a well-planned content calendar. |
| 3 | Excessive Promotional Posts | Guests may unfollow or ignore posts due to perceived spamminess. | Don't focus solely on promotional offers and sales pitches. | Create a balanced mix of content that educates, entertains, and informs your audience alongside promotions. |
| 4 | Poor Quality Images | Creates a negative impression of the hotel's quality and ambiance. | Avoid using blurry, poorly lit, or irrelevant photos. | Use high-resolution, professionally taken photographs that showcase the hotel’s amenities and charm. |
| 5 | Ignoring Local SEO | Missed opportunities to attract local traffic and guests. | Do not overlook the importance of local keywords and geotags. | Implement local SEO strategies by using relevant keywords and tagging your location in posts. |
| 6 | Not Collaborating Locally | Limited community engagement and local partnerships. | Avoid isolating your hotel from the local community and businesses. | Engage in partnerships with local attractions and businesses for mutual promotion and to enhance guest experiences. |
| 7 | Not Showcasing Unique Features | Difficulty in differentiating your hotel in a competitive market. | Avoid generic content that could apply to any hotel. | Highlight unique aspects of your hotel, such as exclusive amenities, historical significance, or special events. |
| 8 | Underutilizing User-Generated Content | Loss of authentic, relatable content that could enhance credibility. | Do not ignore the content your guests create during their stay. | Encourage guests to share their experiences and feature their content on your channels, with permission. |
| 9 | Poor Crisis Management | Risk of escalating negative situations into public relations disasters. | Avoid deleting complaints or responding in a defensive manner. | Handle crises transparently and professionally, showing a commitment to resolving issues and maintaining trust. |
| 10 | Lacking Personality | Failure to connect personally with potential guests. | Don't let your social media voice be too corporate or impersonal. | Infuse your social media interactions with personality that reflects your hotel's brand and values. |
| 11 | Not Monitoring Performance | Inability to understand what strategies work and which don’t. | Avoid neglecting the analytics provided by social platforms. | Regularly review analytics to gauge the effectiveness of your content and adjust strategies accordingly. |
| 12 | Ignoring New Platforms and Trends | Falling behind in the competitive digital landscape. | Do not stick exclusively to traditional or outdated platforms. | Stay updated with new social media trends and platforms, adapting your strategy to include emerging opportunities. |
How to implement a successful system on social media for your hotel brand?
When it comes to social media management for hotels, the focus is as much on creating an inviting atmosphere and showcasing your amenities as it is on promoting your rooms.
Developing a strategy for this involves a mix of careful planning and genuine representation of your brand.
How to track results?
For monitoring performance and outcomes, analytics are crucial. Each social media platform provides its own tools for this purpose.
For Instagram and Facebook, you can utilize Insights; for Twitter, there's Analytics, and so forth. These tools help you monitor engagement rates, follower growth, and the overall reach of your posts.
Specific success metrics for hotels might include interactions on posts featuring your rooms and facilities, the number of bookings or inquiries made through social media, and user-generated content, such as guests posting pictures or reviews of their stay. An increase in these metrics usually signals a successful strategy.
What marketing budget?
Regarding the appropriate marketing budget for your hotel, there isn't a universal figure, but for small to medium-sized hotels, starting with a weekly budget of $100 to $500 on paid advertisements can be a good initial approach.
This budget allows for testing various ad formats, targeting options, and platforms to discover what delivers the best return on investment. Based on the results and objectives of the campaign, adjustments can be made accordingly.
While paid advertisements are not essential, they are highly beneficial. We delve deeper into this in our strategy pack. Due to the decreasing organic reach on social media, paid ads are an effective way to ensure your content reaches both your existing audience and potential new guests.
The advantages include increased visibility, targeted reach (allowing you to focus on specific demographics, locations, interests), and crucially, actionable insights from ad performance data. This last point enables you to continuously refine your strategy for improved outcomes.
How often should you post?
Regarding posting frequency, the key is to prioritize consistency over quantity.
For hotels, a suitable pace might be once a day on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, where showcasing visuals of your property and services is essential.
Utilizing Stories and live features provides additional, informal ways to engage daily. On Twitter, where the dialogue is more rapid, two to three posts a day can keep your brand relevant without overwhelming your followers. The goal is to maintain a steady presence that keeps your audience interested without inundating them.
Make your hotel brand more profitable
We have studied the strategies of the best hotel brands in the world. All their tactics are explained in our pack!
Where can you get the social media strategies that will actually work for your hotel brand?
We understand the reservations many hotel owners might have about stepping into the realm of social media marketing.
It's quite common to view the landscape of digital promotion as overwhelming, particularly when phrases like "online reputation management" and "guest experience enhancement" seem complex and intimidating.
Running a hotel is an around-the-clock commitment, and carving out time, resources, or budget for what might appear as an optional endeavor can seem impractical. Coupled with doubts stemming from previous unsuccessful attempts, or the belief that the inherent quality of your accommodations and services should naturally draw guests, it’s understandable why social media marketing might be sidelined.
Acknowledging these hurdles, our team has developed a strategy pack specifically designed for hoteliers like you.
This toolkit is crafted to simplify the process, translating complex marketing terms into straightforward, actionable steps. We've concentrated on strategies that are not only budget-friendly but also simple to execute, ensuring they don't demand a large initial investment or deep marketing expertise.
Our hotel strategy pack tackles each issue, from the misconception that substantial financial resources are required, to the challenge of keeping pace with the fast-evolving digital marketing landscape.
We provide clear, concise solutions that underscore the benefits and effectiveness of social media, aiming to turn skepticism into confidence.
By doing so, we strive to make it easier for you to recognize the potential in using social media to boost your hotel's visibility and guest engagement, without compromising the core operations of your establishment.
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