Guest experience extends much further than just what happens on the property. Social Media is a perfect place for hotels to build connections with existing and potential hotel guests and enhance their hotel experience.
Social media can be overwhelming! What exactly should you post to stand out and get people talking? Guest writer Katie Hokin shares her tips for hoteliers to follow right away.
Here are 6 content ideas for you to implement on your social media channels:
1) Shout-outs:
Get a group of local businesses together where you all agree to give each other a “shout-out” on social media during the month. It could be the local ice cream shop or breakfast spot near your hotel. There is no monetary exchange, you are trading post for the post to reach an extended audience.
Don’t forget to relate it back to your hotel –
“Everyday is cheat day when you’re on holidays, so treat yourself to XYZ Ice Cream (just 2 doors down from us).”
2) Competition:
Run a competition to win a stay at your hotel. You can do this in two ways:
-
Tag & Follow:
This normally gets the person to follow your account, tag someone on the post and comment on why they want to win.
-
Follow & Fill out:
Get the person to follow your account and fill in a form i.e getting the person’s email address. If you choose option 2 you need to make it a pretty good giveaway for people to hand over their email address!
Crowne Plaza Melbourne recently ran a competition to win 20,000 IHG Reward Points. Followers were asked to “follow” their profile and comment “what their favourite thing about staying in a hotel is”. This post generated over 350 comments on Instagram alone!
3) On property incentive:
Encourage your guests to share their photos while they are staying with you. You might encourage guests to upload and tag the hotel in their photos while they are staying with you, and in return, they receive a free dessert to your or a $10 Bar credit.
photo courtesy: Katie Hokin
Adelphi Hotel in Melbourne uses #Adelphi_Selphi to encourage guests to snap a selfie and share it on their social media. A simple note is left on the room mirrors – user-generated content AND a chance to delight guests and their hotel experience #winning
4) Ask Questions:
Simply asking your audience questions encourages ENGAGEMENT and prompts them to take action and get involved. Simple questions always work best:
- If you could spend the weekend here kid-free what would you do?
- Where is your favourite Melbourne spot?
- Do you prefer mornings or nights?
5) Influencers:
Invite an influencer to stay with you. It’s a way to generate fresh content to a larger audience, but make sure you have a contract with very specific deliverables in place.
Influencers such as Tara Milk Tea, pictured at The Langham Sydney, have massive followings and produce Insta-worthy pictures that will be shared all over social media.
photo courtsey: taramilktea/instagram
6) Tribe:
Tribe allows you to connect with Influencers at scale. Most people think you need a product to use this service or the influencers need to stay on property BUT you can use it differently. The brief would involve sending them different photos/videos of your hotel and they would caption it for you; “It’s cold and windy here right now. How I wish I was staying here over the weekend…”
Don’t forget that social media is meant to be social. Use it as a platform to entertain, inspire, humour and empower your audience!
This article has been supplied by guest writer Katie Hokin.
Katie Hokin is obsessed with all things hotels, digital and branding and finding solutions to help hotels better market themselves. With a client portfolio of independents and chains, Katie and her team work hard to prove marketing services can be outsourced. Hoteliers can contract out their weak points in marketing to finally get the results they have been dreaming of.