We all know social media is important when creating a marketing strategy for a hotel. But how to actually engage with social media that would bring benefits to a hotel, promote the hotel, get new customers to the hotel, create loyalty, build a strong brand? Below Gruppo La Meridiana presents to you several tips of how to manage social media for your hotel’s benefit.

1. Identification of Hotel’s Digital Marketing Goals

It’s not only about likes, shares and connections. Make sure your hotel’s digital marketing goals are well set and in line with the overall marketing goals of your hotel. In the end you want to attract, acquire and retain customers. And remember that the customer journey doesn’t end with a transaction; it lasts a lifetime, from influence, through booking, all the way to loyalty — and even advocacy — for your hotel and products.

2. Effective Strategy Development

An effective strategy will translate well defined goals into action. Make sure your goals are specific, measurable, attainable and realistic and that you have set a clear timeframe for achieving those goals. Then set a clear plan for going towards those goals. A clear well prioritized plan is a key element of an effective digital marketing strategy.

3. Social Listening

It is not enough nowadays to have a clear social media strategy. You need a social listening strategy as well. You may want to tract the social landscape of your hotel, trace which social network where your customers are most active on. Then track the key sentiments and the most common topics that customers associate with your hotel. Social media gives you access to direct customers input about your hotel, your products and your services.

4. Reputation Management

Reputation management goes hand in hand with crisis management. When a customer is unhappy they will be quick to put their concerns through social media. If you pay your cards right, you may get out of the situation successfully. Studies show that the majority of customers expect an extremely short response rate when they complain through social media. If you are quick to respond and offer to fix a problem, you may not only make the customer happy, but also make the customer buy more from your hotel, make the customer encourage friends and family to buy from your hotel, make your customer more receptive to your advertisements in the future or make the customer praise or recommend your hotel through social media.

5. Content Marketing Calendar

A content marketing calendar will help you plan the quarter/month/week/day. Identify when to post and what to post at relevant social network. Start track, measure and test which combinations of posts that are in line with your goals. Set calendar up to reflect the seasons, events, attractions, local specialties and occasions. All that will help you manage digital marketing as a dynamic process that it is.

These are just some basic suggestions for managing social media. If you need more information of how to use social media to your hotel’s advantage, how to create a digital marketing strategy or how to align your digital marketing strategy with the overall marketing strategy of your hotel, feel free to contact Gruppo La Meridiana. Experts in the hotel industry are happy to share with you their appraised expertise.