Measuring the success of your social media efforts is a must, regardless of what channels your hotel is using. What’s even more important is making sure that you are paying attention to the correct metrics that lead to conversions on your website. If you are like most savvy hoteliers, you are likely already taking advantage of Facebook. While it can be easy to get caught up in metrics that make it seem like the content you are posting is performing well, you may have to dig a bit deeper to find the information you are actually looking for.
Engagement
Post engagement includes likes, comments, and shares. The most basic way to measure how well your content is performing is by taking a look at the type of engagement it is receiving. If you had to choose between one of these three, a share is what you should go for. This says that the person sharing your content is actually endorsing you by reposting it to their own followers. While these types of metrics might seem like a good indication of how well your content is performing, if people are not actually clicking over to your website and possibly even converting, then all the likes in the world are not really relevant.
Post reach
While the number of people your posts reach doesn’t matter as much as a click, it is still an important metric to keep your eye on. Post reach, or impressions, is the number of users that your post is shown to. In other words, it is the potential number of users that can click on your post and over to your website. The higher your reach, the more clicks you can receive if your content is appealing. If you notice that your post reach is consistently low, you may want to take advantage of Facebook’s other metrics such as the times that your followers are online and Facebook’s Pages to Watch feature.
Post clicks
Facebook has two ways that it measures clicks: post clicks and link clicks. Post clicks means that a user on Facebook showed interest by clicking the post. It could be the photo or some other area of the post, and not necessarily the link. If this number is high, it means that you are drawing in initial interest. See how this number measures up against actual link clicks to see if your posts are taking people to the next step of visiting your website.
Book now
Facebook made this handy button available to hotels recently. This call to action is located right at the top of your hotel’s Facebook profile in a prime location to remind users that booking a room at this hotel should be top of mind. It’s a good idea to keep track of how many people are clicking on this button and actually converting on your website. The data for how many people click this button is shown on a weekly basis and you cannot view past data. If you want to monitor how this button is performing over time, create a spreadsheet to keep track.
Link clicks
The ultimate goal of any hotel’s Facebook is to assist in converting travelers on its website. If you are interested in seeing the number of link clicks a particular post has received, go to your Insights page and click Posts on the left hand side. Click any of your published posts and a pop up will appear. This will give you a variety of information such as the number of likes, reactions, shares, and most importantly link clicks. You can also add tracking to your URLs to make sure you are getting the most accurate number possible.
When it comes to posting on Facebook, you want to aim for high reach, high engagement, and clicks over to your website. It’s also a good idea to monitor the number of users that are clicking the ‘Book Now’ button on your website since they are ready to make a purchase.
Arielle Sanchez is the Digital Media Manager at E-Marketing Associates, where she writes personalized copy for hotel websites, assists independent hotels with social media, and blogs regularly for the E-Marketing Associates Blog. E-Marketing Associates works exclusively with independent hotels and builds innovative online marketing products that increase direct bookings and drive top-line revenue.
