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Gail Leino
Submitted 2010-05-27 09:35:44
Hotels should be more involved in social media because their business will greatly benefit from it. Social Media keeps growing in importance, not only as a means for interacting with customers, but also as it impacts organic search and ranking of the hotel. Hotels that take advantage of this trend may see major returns as far as online placement and revenue are concerned.
But how to boost social media and assess the ROI in the hotel industry? Be it a passing craze, as some people argue, Social Media is today the fastest growing component of Internet Marketing as far as new users are concerned. Facebook boasts more than 250 million users and 120 millions log in every day. Even though at first Facebook was considered to be a toy for teenagers and college students, now, according to facebook.com, two thirds of its users are out of college, while the fastest growing demographic segment is people over 35.
Social media allows you to establish a straightforward connection with your customers in a way that previous media was unable to. You can initiate a one-to-one relationship in which you may get repeated feedback on how your customers are picking up your marketing messages and products.
With Social Media you can establish yourself as an authority in your niche market and by means of blogs, twitter, facebook, etc you can also establish yourself as an expert in your specific destination. People prefer to buy from experts and also are more likely to follow experts on their blog posts, tweets etc.
Customer reviews and user-generated content determine hoteliers' notion of Social Media. While consumer reviews are particularly crucial and a potential profit for hotels receiving good reviews (just as the opposite is a penalizing), Social Media goes beyond just that into numerous other social media channels.
Indeed, social media optimization is the new thing of internet marketing. Today, Search Engines dedicate high relevance to businesses linked through various social media channels and the result is higher ranking in search engines, and thus more internet visibility.
But what is the best way for hoteliers to do Social Media Optimization? These strategies are useful for hotels that do not already have a Social Media approach and wishes to experiment in Social Media without a big investment. The major Social Media goals for such hotels may include:
1. User-Generated Content Channels like Trip Advisor 2. Facebook Profile 3. Twitter profile 4. YouTube video channels 5. Flickr photo profile 6. Myspace profile 7. A Blog in which you may add specials and any recommendations on what to do in your destination.
It's easy for a hotel to set up these channels without the help of an expert or alternatively employ a company that can do that. At any rate, here are a few points that need to be taken into consideration while opening up these profiles:
1. Channels need to be tagged with suitable keywords 2. Channels need to have a link to your hotel website and vice-versa. 3. Interlink the channels through a plug-in so that the content you upload in one platform is mechanically loaded in the others. The benefit of interlinking is that a post on your blog automatically goes to Facebook and Twitter. Any pictures posted on Flickr automatically show up on your Facebook and Myspace profiles, etc.
What can you do after all those channels are set up? The most important thing in Social Media Optimization is being actively involved in these channels and start conversations. These conversations might be initiated in two different ways:
1. User generated Content: hotels should track the reviews posted on a weekly basis and respond whenever interventions require a follow up. Even an initially negative review about a hotel can be turned into a strategic marketing pro with the proper response from the management.
2. Social Media Channels: channels such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter let hoteliers to be part of a community that shares common interests. Being part of these groups allows the hotel to interact continuously with the group and acquire relevance in the field. For instance a hotel can:
Join communities that share interests, such as destination, golf, beach, mountains. - Discuss any initiatives of your property, like pet-friendly, environmental programs, etc. Talk about the activities that can be done in your destination, an attraction, an event, anything interesting going on in your city. If there is a conference or an event in the area, join their social media group and offer specials and packages for that event. Make a photo album of the hotel, and keep the pictures updated on flickr, facebook. Post videos on youtube or facebook, etc.
After having started getting involved in the Social Media world and having seen reasonable success through the initial strategies, hotels can try more focused actions, advanced steps to venture deeper into the world of social media. In order to proceed with more aggressive strategies, hotels should track the success of their social media strategies. How to do that?
- By tracking the hotel's social media buzz. Milestone, for example, has recently launched eBuzz Connect, a Social Media Management System targeted at the hospitality and travel industries which manages online reputation and social media channels from an integrated single interface. This, and many other tools available in the market allow to identify what people are saying about you on different channels and track your performances month over month to determine whether the social media strategies are effective.
By measuring the Return On Investment revenues, website leads and revenue generated
The ROI from social media channels is more difficult to trace if compared to the social media buzz. The conversion from Social Media Marketing strategies takes on different channels: from the social media channels, for example, a client will book on a hotel website or on the phone although they might have found the hotel on Facebook or on Twitter. The best method to track the conversion from social media channels is to measure the leads (website traffic) created from the social media channels. This is easily accomplished using basic website analytics tools. Using conversion ratios, you can get a fairly accurate estimate of the ROI from your social media channels.
Furthermore, to measure the ROI and efficacy of the social media strategies the hotel can watch the impact of social media optimization on its search engine results. Just type your hotel's name on the search engines: after the first couple of results which should be your hotel website, you should find listings from the third party affiliate sites. With insistent social media optimization, you should see that universal search results will help your hotel's social media channels increase in importance in the results pages. This ensures that all the leads come straight to you and is an indicator that your general search engine recognition is rising.
Although the techniques mentioned above are less objective than measuring conversions from paid search advertising or banner advertising, these arrangements give hotels a good idea of the returns and effectiveness of the social media campaigns. In the future, technology will offer more accurate ways to measure social media efficacy.
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