Social media marketing for hotels is ever changing and mobile usage is becoming the norm for searches and social interaction. At the forefront of these changes is Facebook Mobile Apps. With more than 1.65 billion active users, this global social media giant has changed the way people communicate and engage with each other.
So it’s a natural progression that Facebook recently introduced the mobile app version of their two popular features, Facebook Events and Facebook Recommendations. How can hotels leverage these Facebook Mobile Apps features within their social media marketing strategies? To answer this, we would first need to understand how these features work and what they provide:
What are Facebook Event and Recommendations?
Facebook Event can be used to notify or invite friends, family, fans or group members to any upcoming function, gathering or bash. They can be private or public. Private events are just that: Events that can only be seen by the people invited. But a person can reach out to their connections and have them invite their friends.
A public event is an invitation to everyone and can be seen by anyone regardless of whether they have a Facebook account or not. Facebook Recommendations on the other hand is used to see what a person’s connections are up to, suggested places to visit, things to do or what events are coming into your local area as well as services that may prove useful.
You will also see updates from a person’s connections for past events attended. It’s essentially a place to give and share experiences of places, events and services with your family, friends and other connections.
Leveraging Facebook features in hotel social media marketing plans
So how can hotels use these features? If leveraged well, your hotel:
Will be able to tap into local events announced through Events and Recommendations to reach your target audience.
Individual users will be able to use the call-to-action buttons (which start from the recommendations page) to interact with your hotel directly through Facebook Messenger or might even tag your hotel alerting friends your hotel is worth checking out.
If any user shares his/her own experiences or recommends your hotel through these features, your hotel would become part of their peer’s networks also and friend recommendations carry weight in final buying and booking decisions.
For hotels that present their own events through their business Facebook account, you have the chance to reach a wider audience.
These new Facebook features present a number of opportunities to drive future and repeat bookings. It’s well worth making them a part of your hotel’s social media marketing strategy.
By DJ Vallauri from 4Hoteliers
