13 - The Do’s & Don’ts of Social Media For Hotels

In this week’s episode of the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast, we dig into the world of social media. What social media platforms are right for your hotel? What types of posts should your hotel be making? Which hotels are doing a good job on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and SnapChat? Find out below. Question: Which social media channels should my hotel be on? - Zoe C Facebook 72% of adult internet users use Facebook (58% of entire adult population) 1.44B monthly active users More women than men (77% vs 66%) Skews younger, but stats remain impressive (82% of users 18-29… 56% of 65+ use Facebook) US top country, strong presence worldwide (US = 15% of users) https://www.facebook.com/business/news/audience-insights http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/19/the-demographics-of-social-media-users/ http://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/ Organic reach ~5% https://www.facebook.com/business/ads-guide Best Facebook Ad Formats For Hotels - http://www.fueltravel.com/blog/the-best-facebook-ad-formats-for-hotels/ The Basics of Facebook Advertising - http://www.fueltravel.com/blog/the-basics-of-facebook-advertising/ Do’s: Strong, identifiable, attractive cover photo & profile images. Utilize custom tabs → Hotel / Room tours, specials, book direct, contests, etc. Use Facebook Open Graph meta tags Post regularly Encourage engagement Create & share hotel events Experiment with new features → Facebook live video, 360 images, canvas, etc. Share positive reviews / stories from guests Respond to reviews → Good & bad Show personality Showcase your destination Check audience insights Facebook Marketing For Hotels - http://www.fueltravel.com/blog/facebook-marketing-for-hotels/ Don’t’s: Ignore bad comments, reviews Set it & forget it Use hashtags, unless you are using your own branded hashtag, running contest, etc. Pages We Like: Yotel NYC - https://www.facebook.com/YOTELNYC/ Hilton Brand Page - https://www.facebook.com/YOTELNYC/ MyrtleBeach.com - https://www.facebook.com/myrtlebeach Twitter: ~23% of the online population uses Twitter (19% of adult population) 310 Million monthly active users Skews towards men (24% vs 21%) Skews towards higher income & higher education Age is skewed to young adult population https://about.twitter.com/company https://business.twitter.com/en/advertising.html Do’s: Strong, identifiable, attractive cover photo & profile images. Use photos & videos in tweets Use Twitter cards to make links in tweets larger, more customizable Look at your Twitter Analytics → A lot of great, FREE info here Respond to direct tweets, mentions Retweet relevant news, media, etc. Encourage engagement Show personality Use relevant hashtags Don’t’s: Ignore tweets & mentions Set it & forget it Overuse hashtags Pages We Like: Cosmopolitan Las Vegas - https://twitter.com/Cosmopolitan_LV Aloft Hotels - https://twitter.com/Cosmopolitan_LV W Hotel Hollywood - https://twitter.com/Cosmopolitan_LV Instagram 28% of online adult internet users (24% of entire adult population) → 80% of Instagram users are under the age of 35 Skews towards women (29% women vs 22% men) Paid run through Facebook Ads platform https://business.instagram.com/advertising Do’s: Use high quality images & videos Descriptive, concise, clever captions Encourage engagement Use relevant hashtags Add hotel location to images Don’t’s Overuse filters Overuse hashtags Use low quality images & videos Pages We Like: Selina Hostels - https://www.instagram.com/selinahostels/ Gansevoort Hotels - https://www.instagram.com/gansevoort/ Urban Cowboy Bed & Breakfast - https://www.instagram.com/urbancowboybnb/ SnapChat Approaching Facebook’s level of daily video views (> 7B each day compared to FB 8B) 65% of snapchat users upload their own photos daily → compared to >35% on FB More popular than Instagram among teens, younger demographics More snapchat ads… advertising opportunities? http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/snapchat-gains-momentum-new-research/