I do not know how many times I have heard people say that they are “Social Enough” and do not need to be on Facebook (or any other social media). “I don’t need to Tweet, Snapchat, post photos to Instagram, be on Google+, maintain boards on Pinterest or use Whatsapp,” to be successful. “It takes too long, I will need someone dedicated to posting, I don’t have the money, yada, yada, yada”.
Don’t be CRAZY! I am here to tell you that if you do not have some type of a
social media plan that you are missing out on free opportunities to
engage with your guests and potential guests!
Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting maintaining any type of social media site to waste time, post pictures of cats and babies or yesterday’s dinner (not that I have anything against cats and babies… and I do like to eat) or just have sites to have sites, I am suggesting that you use the social medias to communicate with companies and your peeps (and in the long run, their peeps) in an organized and pre-ordained, scripted manner. Social Media is like a spider web… the more you generate interest, the more people share your information. Pick one or two sites and start gradually. Look at the demographics of your hotel and choose what social sites apply!
Your plan (and you need to have a formal PLAN), should include a variety of posts:
One: Provide news, updates, and information about your hotel, your guests and your staff
Two: Describe and talk about programs, promotions, and sales opportunities for your hotel
Three: Give tips, provide travel info, link attractions, organizations, describe local information, events, and activities around your area
Four: Repeat Steps 1 through 3
Five: Give them reasons to love your hotel over and over
It’s like Brian McKnight said (sung),
- Your hotel is like a dream come true
- People just want to be with you
- Make it plain to see that your hotel is only one for them
- Repeat with new info in same categories as above……
- Make them fall in love with all things “your hotel” over and over, by giving them reasons and telling them!
According to Brandwatch, social media has quite an audience in varying age demographics. Here are several compelling social statistics to justify the value of digital sales and marketing:
(As of July 2015,)
Total worldwide population was 7.3 billion
The internet has 3.17 billion users
There are 2.3 billion active social media users
91% of retail brands use 2 or more social media channels
Internet users have an average of 5.54 social media accounts
Social media users have risen by 176 million in the last year
1 million new active mobile social users are added every day. That’s 12 each second
Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp handle 60 billion messages a day
(I could dazzle you with social media statistics all day, but if you’d like to read all the scoop, the entire Brandwatch blog article is linked here. )
So what is your plan for 2017. Are you going to continue to wing it? Or, are you going to create a plan and jump in with both feet? You know that I am going to suggest that you “jump”! Great American Hotel Group has relationships with some pretty great companies that provide social media services. They will work with you to develop a plan for your social media campaign and postings, will talk to you and listen to what your message is, will interact with you to make sure that the content is specific and has just the right amount of salesmanship AND will let you be involved. The costs per month are equivalent to about 3.5 room nights (in most markets) (2 room nights in other markets). If you want to add extra dollars to build likes, boost posts or advertise – that is up to your budget!
Hiring a company does not exempt you from self-promoting your social medias. If you don’t ask – you won’t get followers. You and your staff should add “calls to action” to email signature blocks, correspondence, brochures, and website, inviting users to follow you on social media for all the latest and greatest!
What are you waiting for?
Happy getting social in 2017!
Linda