Using Creative Content To Boost Your Hotel’s Social Media Strategy & Overall Marketing

Even for the most technology-savvy person, managing the social media presence for a hotel can be challenging.  The common initial thought is, “Oh, it’s just Facebook!” or “Oh, it’s just Twitter!”  However, managing an active hotel social media business account for your property is far different from logging on to keep in touch with friends. Potential guests may have their first experience with your hotel online, so it is important that you make a great impression. Luckily, there are several strategies to boost your hotel’s social media strategy and create content that speaks to your hotel guests.

Now that you have decided to become a social media participant and develop online relationships with your guests, you have also unlocked the potential to generate greater awareness and future revenue for your hotel. However, just as you and your team focus on regular maintenance and housekeeping at your property, you must put time and energy into your hotel’s social media efforts for it to pay off. Whichever social media channels you decide best fit your hotel, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube etc., you should always treat them as an extension of your hotel’s brand and part of your marketing strategy. The same as if you were purchasing an ad or having new signage installed to promote your property, the content you post must always be accurate and represent your hotel/brand well.

How do we do this effectively? Producing a strong content calendar, choosing the right social media platforms, and general strategy for your marketing and posts will help get you into the swing of things. Utilizing social media strategies is a wonderful way to market your hotel, so have some fun with it and use a little creativity to help yourself standout in the industry. So, let’s get into the top 5 ways to boost your hotel’s content and social media strategy in 2022.

Step 1: Strive to build a connection with hotel guests to boost your hotel’s social media strategy

Don’t forget to keep the “social” in social media when developing your content strategy. This is the best way to extend extra hospitality and create a high performing social media channel by interacting with your followers, liking their posts, watching their stories, and commenting on their pictures. Follow guests that like to travel a lot? Drop a comment on their most recent picture admiring their travels! By staying social on each social media platform, you’re helping build a human connection with hotel guests which keeps the relationship with your hotel stronger ensuring they book with you again the next time.

A couple ways you can build a connection through your content would be through highlighting your hotel staff. You can share their stories or favorite parts about working at your hotel. You can also do giveaways, posts about daily life running a hotel, and use polls to get guest’s feedback. For example, if you’re thinking about adding a pool vs a restaurant to your hotel, post a poll on social media and see which guests prefer. This helps you make informed decisions on upgrades to your property, while keeping your guest’s best interest in mind. A hotel that shows they care about guests? That’s a win! Building a connection with hotel guests is the #1 way to boost your hotels reputation and social media strategy this year.

Step 2: Post Customer Reviews & Pictures As Part of your hotel’s marketing

There’s no doubt that customer reviews and testimonials go a long way. Whether you’re buying a new product online, booking a hotel, or thinking of hiring a new service, customer reviews ultimately influence your decision making. This is why it’s so important to share these as part of your hotel’s social media strategy! Utilize social media monitoring and encourage your guests to share pictures throughout their stay at your hotel and to tag you in the photos.

Social media monitoring is the process of observing the industry, using research, and responding to brand mentions, hashtags, and comments to analyze what customers are saying about your hotel’s brand. With their permission, you can re-post these as well as any reviews guests leave on your website or OTAs. Be sure to set up “Reviews” on Facebook for an easy way to manage and re-share reviews directly to your channel. This is a great way to curate content while engaging guests and intriguing potential guests. An effective way to get this started would be creating a marketing campaign offering an incentive for everyone who participates in a certain time period. Ex: Free one-night stay at your hotel or a free bottle of champagne for their next stay, etc.

Another great way to utilize customer reviews as part of your strategy is to use influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that uses endorsements and mentions from people who have a dedicated social following and are viewed as experts within their niche. A great way to incorporate this into the hotel industry is by finding individuals who travel a lot and stay at a variety of hotels. Example: Give them a weekend stay at your hotel in return for a social media post tagging your hotel.

Above these paragraphs is an example of a customer testimonial we re-purposed for our hotel management software into a graphic for social media. Consider using design software like Canva or Adobe Photoshop to create quality content. You can utilize a similar graphic style for your hotel.

Step 3: Always use eye-catching photography as part of your hotel’s marketing efforts

As the old adage goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”  This is definitely true on social media. You can write a great post, but if it’s accompanied by a fuzzy photo or no photo, it’s less likely to get noticed. Whenever possible, always include a high-quality photo that relates to your post. It will “wow” your regular followers and help get the attention of casual observers who may then become followers and future guests. Not sure what types of photographs to post? Don’t be too shy to brag about your hotel. Whenever you have new developments at your hotel that will help improve your guest’s experience – post them! Whether you have installed new high-pressure showerheads in all guest rooms or planted new flowers around your hotel, these are enhancements that will help set your hotel apart from your competition, both locally and online.

For example, if your hotel is pet friendly, take a cute photo of the next furry friend that’s staying there. Be sure to take the photo in a well-lit area with a good background. Have a great selection for breakfast or a brand-new coffee area for guests? Take a photo of it and post it with a warm, welcoming caption.

When posting to Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, don’t forget to use hashtags! Hashtags will get your content discovered by potential hotel guests quickly. Utilize hashtags that are popular, related to your hotel, and mention the city where your hotel is located. Using hashtags increases your chances of getting retweeted on Twitter, increases post engagement on Instagram, and can help you position a campaign on Facebook. Hashtags make it easy for people to find your social media content, increase social media engagement, and attract new customers.

Step 4: Highlight attractions and things to do in the area as part of your social media plan

Telling your followers about local attractions, interesting history and fun tidbits of information about your community will also help create more interest for your hotel. Consider running a campaign that highlights content focused on one new tourist attraction a month, or a campaign asking hotel guests what their favorite attraction was when visiting your town. Creating interest for your town can help drive local tourism. More visitors coming into town means more opportunities to capture hotel bookings from new guests. When posting about these, consider sharing a video or picture of the attraction and sharing details about it. For example, if you have a mountain lodge with a zip line or hiking trail close by, share details about each so followers can plan ahead when they visit your hotel. Plus, if they see your hotel posting about it on social media, they might ask you more about it in person which gives you the opportunity to build a connection and get to know your guest’s interests more.

Step 5: Use stories on Facebook and Instagram to boost your hotel’s social media strategy!

You might be thinking stories? Why do we need to use stories for social media marketing? 70% of Instagram users watch stories daily. This means you can easily get your content seen by followers by adding to your Facebook and Instagram stories consistently. This is a great strategy for reaching your followers quickly. So, what kind of content should you post on there? Here’s where video content shines. Consider doing a mini tour of your hotel, a day in the life of an innkeeper, videos of events nearby, or using polls to engage your hotel guests. You can use content similar to your posts, but make sure it is recorded vertically or in portrait mode for the best engagement. Highlight new developments at your hotel or new staff members. This is your time to get creative and get your content seen by current and future guests.

3 Extra Tools To Boost Your Hotel’s Social Media Strategy

Posting content is a wonderful way to get your social media pages on track, but there is a few more helpful tools you can use to make the process easier.

1. Make a plan for your hotel’s content and social media marketing by picking the days of the week you can commit to posting. This will get you into the routine of creating content for certain days. You may post twice per week or every day, how often you decide to post is your decision, but what scheduling regular posts will do is help your followers know when they can expect new updates from you. Additionally, it will let your followers know that someone is actively managing the page, so if they wish to engage with your hotel by asking a question, they know that someone will see their inquiry and respond. It is a terrific way to begin delivering hospitality before they walk through your front door.

2. Use marketing scheduling software for scheduling posts. A free online software that is easy to use is Later.com. These types of software will allow you to plan, analyze, and publish or schedule your hotel’s content in a few clicks, so you can save time and grow your business. This can be especially useful if you have multiple properties. Scheduling software like Later allows you to post on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and TikTok without having to manually post each time.

3. After you have posted content for a while, look into the performance settings on each social media platform to see the best times to post based on when your followers are online. Once you have analyzed the data, you can then develop a strategy to post at the highest traffic times to boost your engagement and number of likes/comments you get on your posts. Don’t forget to use your scheduling software for this!

With these tips and extra tools to boost your hotel’s content and social media strategy, your channels will be gaining traction and getting sales in no time. Now that you have learned our strategies and your social media channels are ready for 2022, it’s time to make sure your hotel management software is up-to-date and equipped with all the features you need to successfully book more guests and increase your revenue. At innRoad, we help hoteliers around the globe better manage their hotel with our all-in-one property management system.

Learn the 6 must-haves you need in a hotel management software for 2022 in our downloadable guide.