Forget about likes and followers. Get serious with social. Think ‘social sales’

Social media is a comparatively new development in marketing, when you look at the more traditional forms. A few years ago, social media was regarded as somewhat light weight with limited value, and more of a nice to have rather than a need to have. Today though, social media is serious.

Of the 7.4 billion people who live on this planet, 2.34 billion have social media accounts. That’s roughly 1 in 3.

66% of Facebook’s 1.78 billion users access the platform every day. Instagram has 14 million monthly UK active users (600 million worldwide). 470 million business members use LinkedIn. And Twitter sees 100 million users login daily.

These numbers are massive, with each platform catering for a particular demographic. The scope for the ability to interact with your target market is huge and is something that hotels should be doing their utmost to instigate.

When it comes to implementing social, in an ideal world, hotels should be doing it themselves (after all, you are there when the food leaves the kitchen for the restaurant, or when the bride comes down the stairs). But often what happens is day-to-day activities come first and social falls to the bottom of the to-do list.

Social media is a full-on task, and it needs to be if you want good results. Too often though hotels simply don't have the resource, or by the time they've trained people up (often front of house) they leave, thanks to the nature of hospitality’s high staff turnover.

So, with the effort involved then, why social? Well the number of users should speak for themselves really. But while being on social will help build brand awareness, it's not just about being on social or 'doing' social because competitors are on there. Social is a powerful communications tool, one that will generate traffic to your site, and ultimately drive bookings. That’s the crux as to why.

You need to attract new guests, and engage with current guests. Content is key. Be different. Think...who are you? How do you talk on social, what's your tone of voice? This can often be determined by the clientele you are trying to reach out to. You can be fun with it, people want to smile, that's why they are wanting to stay with you in the first place (more often than not). So, make them smile with your social content (often why they're on social too - for light entertainment). Have a personality. Be smart, witty, and clever.

Visual content is always a winner – especially video. People in videos always works well. And hotels have an abundance of key people they can draw upon for video content, such as chefs, F&B managers, the GM and so on. As a hotel, you will always have plenty of ‘social video’ opportunities such as recipe videos, cocktail videos etc. You won’t struggle for content.

It’s worth remembering though that social media isn’t as straightforward as you might think. In recognition of this, we thought it would help if we outlined some useful pointers.

Top 20 tips to get your social working seriously for you and your hotel…

Incorporate social into your current processes. When guests check in, ask for their social account handles, message them during their stay, let them know the specials on the menu, ask them how their stay is going. Strike up a social conversation.

Be clever with your hashtags and how you promote your social account handles. One way could be by having your dinner plates branded with a relevant hashtag, encouraging guests to post using it, which allows you to see their social output.

Think offline too. Encourage guests to take to their social accounts to let their friends and family know where they are. For instance, if your hotel rooms have beautiful views...create printed postcards for each room with that very view. On the flip side write; 'Who sends postcards these days? Take a photo on your phone and post/tweet it tagging us in.'

Point back to your website and tag different pages. Especially the booking page. Web content is vital for this.

Google Analytics. Through Google Analytics it's easy to measure your social activity. Make sure though, that if you're using any social tools such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck for example, Google recognises these as social media referrals (easy to set-up), otherwise Google will think people are coming to your site directly.

Listen in. There are lots of smart 'listening in' tools out there where you can set-up keyword searches, and even narrow these down to location. For example you can set-up searches where you will see people mentioning 'looking to go out for dinner, any recommendations?’ within an hour radius of your postcode, you can then join the conversations and entice them to come and visit you.

Post and update at optimal times of the day. Buffer (another neat social tool) allows you to do this, and reports on your most successful posts.

Promote local events/suppliers. They will do the same for you in turn.

Monitor and learn from competitors. There are some hotels out there who are using social very effectively. Follow their lead.

Competitions. These always work well. As a hotel, you’re in a great position to offer give-aways (and you can always use these to help fill those quiet periods).

Include staff in your social plan. For example, kitchen staff could have their own Instagram account, portraying a behind the scenes look at how your kitchen works. A lot of hotels do this now, providing their head chef with a camera phone to capture the food going out.

Reach out to corporates via LinkedIn. A game plan for this is essential. Having a premium account as a starting point can be an instant win as it allows you to get closer to the key decision makers of businesses you are trying to get to use your facilities.

Pinterest. This is great for inspirational ideas for brides to be. Work with wedding suppliers to create a wedding board highlighting your capabilities.

Use site content and press coverage to provide social content. Make sure this is happening.

Verify your Facebook page. You can book rooms through Facebook too. Make sure this is set-up. Add events to the events page. Smart bots are now available on messenger too, which is something worth considering.

Twitter hours do work. Get involved!

React quickly and differently. When a social media trend breaks (for example - the mannequin challenge), and you want to ride on the back of this. Do it quickly, and do it differently. Offer something unique.

Invite social media influencers (those with large social followings – bloggers, journalists, celebs) to stay with you. In return ask them to document their stay via their social accounts.

Try IFTTT. This is a smart tool that brings all your social together, helping you to keep track of what’s going on.

Demonstrate worth. A great way of demonstrating the worth of social (to the board and other key figures) is to offer social specific competitions. Engagement speaks for itself, whilst most social tools (like Hootsuite - as mentioned earlier) have excellent reporting tools which show how many people see your posts, click through on links and so on.

With social there is no quick fix. It’s time consuming, and it isn’t easy to produce ‘smart, witty, and clever’ content. But get it right, and you will soon be selling through social.