Social Media Marketing for Hotels
In the UK there are 53 million active social media users, which equates to 77.9% of the UK population. And with the average UK user spending 110 minutes on social media every day, there is a lot of opportunity for hotels to catch consumers’ attention through their social media marketing strategy.
Social media marketing for hotels includes management of social channels, building awareness, engaging with audiences through carefully crafted content and creating thorough social media strategies that target specific audiences and wider nets of consumers.
Social media can be a minefield at the best of times, but working with a hotel social media agency such as ours ensures you leave the work to experts within the industry.
At cab Hospitality, we have over 30 years of industry knowledge and specialist experience. We have been navigating social media marketing in the hotel industry since its inception and we understand the different channels, the algorithms, and of course, our clients. Working with us will target brand awareness and consumer engagement to further brand identity, and drive traffic to your website - ultimately leading to increased bookings.
We will ensure your hotel’s social media marketing strategy engages with consumers on a personal level, attracts different pools of consumers and showcases your hotel in line with your brand requirements. When working with cab Hospitality you can rely on a dedicated team committed to effective time management, understanding of social media updates and changes, campaign management, live chat and specialist software to give you the best chance at success.
LOCATE
How do your customers locate you when they are looking for you?
INSPIRE
How do you inspire your target audiences to want your brand?
FOCUS
How do you convert more prospects into sales?
ENGAGE
How do you get your guests to become repeat visitors, brand advocates and recommend your product?
What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing is the use of social media channels to build a brand, increase sales and drive website traffic. Social media marketing for hotels is a fantastic opportunity to create a more personable relationship with consumers, push your brand awareness amongst existing and potential customers, and track the kinds of things your audience and potential customers want to see from you.
Social media marketing comes with valuable built-in data analytics that helps you to understand what performs well, what audiences want to see, and who engages with you most. From there you can tailor your brand, your marketing, and your offerings to reach different audiences for increased website traffic and more direct bookings.
Paid social media marketing for hotels
Paid social media marketing refers to paid ads and sponsored social media posts across a variety of platforms including Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram. For some social media channels it can be difficult to remain in view, however, with paid hotel social media marketing you can ensure that your ad is seen, remains in the top position and is shown to the relevant audiences.
Paid social media marketing includes PPC (pay per click), Facebook paid ads, Instagram paid ads, Twitter paid ads, and LinkedIn. As well as a variety of other emerging social media channels. With more and more businesses turning to social media marketing, utilising the expertise of an agency like cab Hospitality for your hotel social media management will ensure your posts are thoroughly thought out to captivate, engage, inform, and drive traffic; without the stress of navigating it yourself.
Organic social media marketing for hotels
Organic social media management for hotels refers to any sort of non-paid social media interaction, including:
- Responding to comments, messages and questions
- Posts
- Carefully curated content
- Videos
- Stories
Organic social media marketing is the driving force behind the personality of your brand and the best way to directly engage with your audiences. Organic social media includes reactive posts, commenting responses to your audiences, and the posts, videos and stories you release. Organic social media should be used to enforce your brand identity, spread brand awareness and connect with your customer base and further learn from them what they want from your brand.
The best hotel social media marketing strategies combine both paid and organic approaches to generate increased brand awareness and identity, as well as engagement from consumers. Ultimately, the more people interested and aware of your brand, the more engagement you’ll receive and the more likely you are to receive a direct booking or inquiry.
Choose your channels
There are a variety of social media channels available for both paid and organic hotel social media marketing, and with more than 58 million social media users in the UK, hotel social media marketing is a worthwhile strategy for hotels to utilise.
Facebook is a fantastic tool for paid social media marketing in the hotel industry. Facebook has 1.56 billion active users and a host of audiences to engage with. For loyal customers or those interested in your brand, organic posts can drive discussion, engage with consumers and maintain a relationship. Facebook also has the added benefit of fantastic opportunities via paid ads where you are positioned at the forefront of consumers’ feeds through targeted advertisements.
Whatsmore, Facebook offers thorough targeted campaigns that are easy to customise and tailor. As well as detailed result tracking and measurable results to help you understand what works and what doesn’t.
Since Facebook purchased Instagram in 2012, Instagram has also become another valuable tool for paid and organic social media marketing. Instagram’s main function is as an organic social media platform where users (and brands) can share posts, videos, stories and comments to engage, inform and share. The main benefit of utilising Instagram as part of your social media marketing strategy is to increase brand awareness and offer a more personable look into your hotel.
Instagram boasts 500 million daily active users, offering hotels a huge opportunity to capture someone’s interest when scrolling. Be it through a targeted paid ad aimed at someone browsing countryside travel destinations, or a carefully configured post with content that captivates, Instagram is a brilliant tool to have as part of your marketing strategy.
LinkedIn is a great way to connect with consumers on a professional level rather than personal. While its counterparts in Instagram and Facebook appeal directly to consumers, LinkedIn offers the same opportunities to engage with professionals. For example, if you have a meeting or corporate space available to rent out, LinkedIn is a fantastic channel to advertise this on. Additionally, if you are recruiting, having an active LinkedIn profile is a good way to gather interest in your business and the role(s) available.
An impressive 79% of Twitter users use Twitter to follow brands that they’re interested in and with 396 million active users globally, Twitter creates a wealth of opportunities for your social media strategies.
Twitter is slightly different to Facebook and Instagram in its organic approach, however, it still offers hotels a lot of opportunity to showcase personality, connect with audiences and capture attention. Tweeting pictures of your hotel, any special offers or about interesting hotel events is a great way to connect with your audience and provide them with valuable content they can’t get elsewhere. Additionally, retweeting positive customer experiences is a great way to share positives about the service you provide and reasons to visit your hotel.
Like the other platforms, Twitter also offers paid ads which ensure your paid advertisement is shown to people with relevant interests and searches. Combining both organic and paid ads ensures you’re reaching a wide audience, but also keeping them interested enough to look further into your brand and book with you directly.
Tiktok
Tiktok is another up and coming social media platform that offers hospitality businesses the valuable opportunity to put content in front of large audiences. While Tiktok is largely dominated by younger audiences, travel and hospitality content still performs well with a variety of campaigns launched to showcase events, locations and specific hotels and resorts. Titles and hashtags such as ‘Best places to stay in [location]’ and ‘Top restaurants in [location]’ are a great way to showcase your hotel and gain more interest, views and traffic.
Travel (59%), parties and events (56%), and food (29%) are the biggest things that create FOMO (fear of missing out) amongst millennials. Moreover, after experiencing FOMO, 60% of millennials agree that they would make a reactive purchase. Tiktok also offers hotels the opportunity to get more creative and have more fun with their marketing, engaging with different audiences and delivering on experiences they provide through interactive video content that drives interest to your website.
Pinterest is a slightly more obscure social media marketing channel, however, Pinterest paid ads work the same as other channels in showing users relevant ads based on their interests. For example, if a consumer were to search for spa breaks or spa hotels, your targeted paid ad will appear for them and direct them to a relevant page, a deal, or your site to convert them to a customer.
Even if the user decided not to book a stay with you, they’re aware of who you are, where you are and the services you provide to them, which could entice them to return at another point.
Why would a hotel need social media marketing?
Social media marketing for hotels is a fantastic strategy and a vital component to any hospitality business’ brand. A thorough and well planned social media strategy combining paid and organic marketing will increase visibility, organic discovery, brand awareness and direct bookings. All of which contribute toward increased ROI, brand loyalty, and repeat customers.
We’re skilled in delivering exceptional results for our hotel clients. For one of our existing hotel brands we delivered a user increase of 88.14% through Facebook marketing and a staggering 225.53% through Instagram.
Combine your hotel social media marketing with other channels of marketing such as email marketing and loyalty schemes to further increase brand loyalty and bookings.
We can help
When choosing cab Hospitality for your hotel social media agency, you can trust our expertise. We have over 30 years of industry knowledge and experience and a dedicated team of marketers working on your unique strategy.
Our team will utilise a host of social media channels to plan monthly strategies that ensure reactive and engaging social media management, combined with compelling content for both paid and organic marketing. Our social media management for your hotel will see measurable results, monthly reports, regular check ins, increased brand awareness and more direct bookings.
Please get in touch to find out more about what cab Hospitality can achieve for your hotel.
