The following is a post from Kevin Olivieri, TIG Global Social Media Analyst.
First off, thanks to everyone who attended our webinar last Wednesday. We both appreciate the feedback and hopefully we opened your eyes to some very important aspects of social media strategy. For those who were unable to attend, you can find the slides and recording here, and our review below. Enjoy!
What a year! As 2011 comes to a close, we’d like to take a look at the eight biggest and most common fails perpetrated by hotels using social media.
1. Lack of Promotion
Why spend time cultivating and managing your social media profiles if you’re not going to properly promote them? Too often we see links to Facebook or Twitter buried at the bottom of a website or omitted completely. Your website is a huge referrer to your social media profiles, so promote those profiles on your site and at your property and watch your fans and followers grow.
2. No Retweets
Coming up with content to fill a Twitter timeline is not a difficult task. If you follow people properly, then you are presented with a nearly endless stream of content every time you log in to Twitter. Use the retweet functionality as a way to ensure that not only do you keep your updates fresh, but also so that you can be considered an aggregator of great content for your area. Use the feature to be a go-to source of information, and an excellent resource for your guests.
3. Lack of Post Variety
Social media has become the ideal place to share not only thoughts and information in text form, but also photos, videos and links. If you look back at your updates and see mostly text, then rethink your strategy. Photos and videos consistently outperform text in terms of engagement. And as we all know, engagement is good. Snap a photo or video with your phone or point-and-shoot and post it. It’s worth at least 1000 words, right?
4. Outsourcing Community Management
Think about why users are connecting with hotels online. They want to learn more about the hotel – whether it’s local tips, up-to-date information about the property, or in a search for customer service – in an effort to develop a strong relationship with the hotel. Can a community manager not on property fill these needs effectively? No. To alleviate your time constraints, take 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the afternoon to monitor, search, and engage with the people talking about your hotel. Additionally, take advantage of the email notifications from these social channels to ensure you respond quickly and efficiently.
5. Facebook Insights
There’s tons of information out there recommending the perfect time to post on Facebook to best reach your audience. Unfortunately, as we all know, no two audiences are the same. Fortunately, Facebook offers analytics for every page that analyzes your audience, the content you share, and the content they consume. By analyzing these Insights, hotels can determine the best possible content and best moment to share the content to best reach and grow your audience.
6. No Goals
When social media became very popular a few years ago, hotels signed up immediately on social networks because “it was the thing to do”. Obviously it was a new frontier in business, but it’s inexcusable to get social without developing goals. Goals help give you direction and lead your content strategy. There are a lot of options and distractions on social networks for users, making the need to have a social strategy all the more important. Strong goals and a sound content strategy are the difference between success in social media and complete failure.
Our Solution: TIG Services
We understand that for most hoteliers, the social web can be a very overwhelming place. Whether it be setting up accounts or providing employee training, to developing and implementing Facebook applications or booking widgets, to strategic consulting, TIG Global covers the entire gamut of helping establish your hotel’s social presence.
7. Illegal Contests
Facebook explicitly prohibits contests or promotions that do not run within approved applications (among other things). So by asking your likers to comment on a post for a chance to win something, you are technically violating Facebook’s terms and opening yourself up to all kinds of reprimands, including having your page removed completely. Make sure your hard work in managing your page doesn’t go to waste, and use a service like Wildfire. They’re safe, inexpensive and are used by Facebook themselves. Here are Facebook’s promotion guidelines.
8. Ignoring Reviews
Social media has empowered consumers and amplified their opinions on hotels, publicly. 92% of consumers read reviews, and 89% have their purchasing decision influenced by user generated reviews. It’s no longer an option to monitor reviews: it’s a necessity. Embracing reviews allows hotels to react quickly if need be, identify issues, and find opportunities. The fact is users are talking about your property online, potential guests are reading these opinions. It’s up to you to decide whether to embrace reviews, or neglect them and face any possible consequences.
Our Solution: Revinate
Identifying the need for reputation monitoring services, we’ve partnered with Revinate to help hotels best monitor their vast amount of guest reviews. If you’re unfamiliar, Revinate is an online reputation management platform that aggregates the biggest review sites and select social channels into one centralized dashboard for your perusal. It gives hotels the ability to listen and parse through what guests are saying to help them address any issues that may arise whilst also identifying opportunities to take advantage of to turn a profit. TIG Global also provides services with Revinate to help train your hotel on the platform, complete monthly analyses with strategic recommendations, and implementation of social buzz – a custom review widget for your website or Facebook page.
For 2012, consider these examples above when determining what direction you are taking your social media efforts. As users become more distracted on social channels, it’s going to take serious effort to stand out and remain relevant. Although it will be tough, the efforts will be extremely fruitful in expanding your hotels presence and audience in the new, social web.
Interested in ramping up your online strategy? Check out the full suite of TIG Global interactive marketing tools, send us an email, or give us a call +1 301.841.4700(US) | +44 (0)20 3004 9468(UK).
