Nearly three billion people in the world use the Internet. For example, in the United States, 67% of citizens have a social media account. Tourists are not just okay with brands’ online presence; they expect it. According to Millward Brown Digital, 79% of customers believe it was the brand factor that inclined them to make a particular decision. How? Through engaging content that inspires trust sets a hotel apart from competitors and shows that this particular hotel is more than just a place to stay.
In this article, learn how to choose social media for hospitality marketing.
Explore the social media platforms market
The leaders in the social networking market are:
- TikTok – a short video platform;
- Instagram – a photo platform;
- Facebook – a platform for communication and connection building;
- YouTube – a platform for medium and long videos;
- Twitter – a short text messaging platform;
As of May 2020, Sensor Tower recognized TikTok as the most popular app. Why so? TikTok focuses on short videos and has an endless feed of recommendations. That’s why this social platform has long retained users.
As for video, it’s the most effective format for content marketing right now. That’s why TikTok overtook Instagram in popularity and continues to do so.
Another app that did not make the top 5 but nevertheless surprised everyone in 2021 is Clubhouse. It entered the market with two main trumps:
- invitation-only profile registration;
- a new format – intra-network communication is audio-only.
A separate line in the list of social media platforms are messengers, in which it is possible to create channels and chats.
Where are we going with this? The social media market is huge and constantly changing, and before choosing which niche to enter, you have to study its offerings and formats. Tips for learning:
- look at which target audience the platform is aimed at;
- track trends: it’s easier to get subscribers quickly on a new app, like Clubhouse;
- don’t be afraid to try unfamiliar formats: when platforms proliferate (like YouTube), they always expand their target audience.
Find out what platforms your guests are using
The easiest yet most effective way to know which platform you should start mastering is to ask your guests about it. Conduct this survey as part of your UX marketing:
- Send a question about social media in response to a room reservation at your hotel.
- Do a mailing to your base of potential customers and offer them a discount on their reservation for completing the survey.
If you do not have survey opportunities, analyze your target audience and social media usage statistics. For example, if you target budget rooms for students, see what apps are used by this category of customers.
Explore your options
Another question to ask ourselves, besides “what platforms are our guests using?” is “what platforms can we master?” or, to put it another way, “how far do our capabilities extend, what can we do?” The answer to this question, too, lies in the format of each social network.
Twitter, which has 330 million monthly active users, is very easy to master and maintain. Here you can only post the text of up to 280 characters and pictures/gifs. But this format also has disadvantages: it’s difficult to promote, and you can’t make serious content here.
Simultaneously, TikTok, which requires an investment of time to come up with video ideas and the shooting itself, gives more opportunities and allows you to gain subscribers much faster.
As you consider each social platform, try to discover your hidden opportunities by combining your business and SMM. Of course, it would be nice to have professional equipment and a director to shoot TikTok videos in an ideal world, but an ordinary smartphone will do for starters. Show your users where you offer them to stay, why they would feel good here, immerse them in the behind-the-scenes of your work. People increasingly like authentic live content, not staged footage.
By the way, one of the main differences between TikTok and YouTube is not the length of the video at all. TikTok forgives you poor quality (meaning pixels and unprofessional light in the video), while YouTube does not. This is another virtue of the new networks that are just gaining popularity. Remember what Instagram used to be like? No filters.
Go in more than one direction at a time
You have to understand that you can’t choose the best platform to promote your hotel business in theory. It would help if you started experimenting and trying different social networks and formats. Most likely, even if you single out just one dominant one, the rest will remain.
So, one of the effective methods of content marketing is just distribution on social networks. This is the next step after content creation: at copywritercollective.com, you can learn how to make content that other people will distribute, but you will need to do some of that work yourself. Adapt your ideas to different formats: succinctly describe it on Twitter, joke about it on TikTok, film the implementation process on Instagram and post the full guide on YouTube.
These are the basic guidelines for finding and choosing the best social media platform for hospitality marketing. As a reminder, it’s worth starting with a deep dive into the topic. And right after that, we recommend that you start experimenting because no one knows your business as you do. Communicate with your audience as with friends, and you will quickly understand what they need.
