ResNet World director of marketing Josiah Mackenzie explains how to make the most of the different social media platforms available, and how to choose the right one for your hotel
Social media works best when it is closely aligned to the culture and values of a hotel. There’s no use forcing the open culture of social media on a hotel where the guests will not embrace it. Social media should be a service, so selecting platforms to participate in must involve thinking through how your social media activity will provide better service.
Therefore, rather than each hotel trying to participate in the same list of social media websites, the selection process outlined here will help you choose the platform to suit your property and your guests. We must approach social media with the end goal in mind. Decide on objectives, and from there, pick tactics.
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Return on objectives is the new ROI
New media marketing channels differ so much that it is nearly impossible to do a side-by-side comparison on effectiveness. At best, we create a different set of success measurements for each platform.
That’s fine, but it makes high-level marketing strategy decisions much harder. What services and websites are worth investing your time and money on?
To assist you with these decisions, I encourage you to evaluate ‘Return On Objectives’ (ROO) instead of Return on Investment (ROI). For example, if service is a top strategic focus for you, it is possible to quickly compare the diverse range of social networks — and to see which ones are allowing you to serve your guests in the best possible way. So, what social media objectives are you measuring for?
Once you have identified your objectives, you can match them to one or more of the following social networking options that are most popular today:
TripAdvisor (peer review sites)
Facebook (social networking)
Blogging (information sharing)
Twitter (microblogging)
YouTube (video sharing sites)
Photobucket (photo sharing sites)
Foursquare (location-based site)
Meetup.com (events)
Below is a review of the pros and cons of each site…
TripAdvisor and other peer review sites
What it offers: TripAdvisor offers hotels the ability to reach travellers in the decision-making phase of the travel buying process. When someone is on TripAdvisor, they are often comparing you head-to-head with your competition in a contest determined by what your guests have said about you.
How it might help you: If you provide an exceptional experience, and your guests are talking about it, there is no better way to get the word out. People will trust reviews written by their peers much more than what we as marketers can pitch. Let your guests do the selling for you.
Levels of time commitment: Once you set up monitoring systems, this may take as little as five to 10 minutes each week. Considering this low time investment required, and how important it is to many travellers in the planning process, it needs to be a top priority for most hotels.
Good for: Hotels with a strong commitment to making every guest delighted.
Not so good for: Hotels with poor service and facilities — and don’t really care.
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