An example of Tourism & Hospitality and Social Media

There are more and more hotels putting themselves out in the online world. Facebook pages, twitter, blogs, pinterest, etc… It is interesting to see how they are doing? Some well and some well…. not so great!

We can talk about what they do right and wrong later combining some of my two favorite subjects. Tourism & Hospitality and Social Media.

Hotels big and small are promoting themselves online using social media. Why? Well it’s free, how else is somebody supposed to hear about you other than your website and word of mouth, but if you have no website (meaning you are a small family owned business) well then social media might be your biggest contributor because believe it or not…. Social media is word of mouth 2.0. For all you beginners and the ones always looking to improve as you should be. Nothing is ever perfect enough!

Let’s take a look at some of the resources available to you:

Location: Foursquare – Checking in is not just at the front desk anymore. Get some popularity and free advertising whenever someone checks in. For full details on foursquare, check in to Socially Lost in Media at a later time for some great info!

Feedback: Tripadvisor – A great site to use for improvement and marketing if you have can offer great accommodation and if you take criticism well. On Tripadvisor you can see all the comments posted by people who stayed at a location, they will review the place and usually give reasons to their review. If it is a great review, then there is some good marketing for you done on their part. If it isn’t such a good review, well you turn that negative into a positive by making sure these things don’t happen again.

Show-off: Youtube/Pinterest – Show off what you have. Display it as a video or in a picture, people will share it, comment on it or simply view it. All three options are great as long as you put something interesting, funny or valuable out there. You can’t afford commercial time on a TV channel but you can afford to put it on Youtube. Personally speaking, I don’t own a TV and why should you when you have Youtube. TV has gone online, from youtube to channels simply having shows online. In such a online world, it is shame not to put something on Youtube. Maybe you are selling a product or a service, well put it up on Pinterest. With a service you can display your skills or what you do. Make an infographic of what you do and how it can help someone. For products, let’s say its a t-shirt, put it on Pinterest and let the sharing begin.

Deals: Twitter/Facebook – When you have a great deal you can tweet it and watch the news spread of a great deal that they can get that is valid for the next 6 hours. In the end, you will at least get some followers because they don’t want to be left out when you have another deal. With Facebook you can offer deals specifically to people following you. You can create posts that only they can see and that way your 100 followers can increase to 500 followers in less than a week if it is done right the first time.

Customer Support: Twitter – I bet you never thought of Twitter being a customer support center. Well, it is! Think about it… You have arrived in a new city and you are completely disappointed by the hotel that you booked. You don’t want to have high roaming charges and why should you! You simply go online and send a tweet to a hotel asking about free rooms and if you can reserve one because you will be there in no time. The receptionist simply gives you an answer and what a convenient way to make a booking with proof that you did it. Using twitter as a customer service online text chat can decrease calls made to the hotel and how satisfied will the client be to know that they didn’t have to make too much of an effort to their already stressful day and you just saved them money on their next phone bill!

Use these tips, have a great accommodation to offer, create a lasting impression, do it properly the first time and watch your hotel rooms book before your eyes. If you have anymore questions, don’t hesitate to contact us, it’s free!

Socially Lost in Media – Social Media Marketing and Management