Hotels and Social Media: It’s A Complicated Relationship. Here’s the Key to Getting Started.
There’s one topic that brings much anxiety to most hoteliers. I’ll give you a hint: it starts with an “S” and ends with “ocial media.” It doesn’t need to be a stressor. In fact, when used properly, social media can add tremendous value to your hotel and brand. From better customer service to advanced market intelligence to simply providing a personal touch to your brand, social media has it all.
Before getting in to the ins and outs of setting up each social platform, let’s take a step back. Social media is all about connecting, so there is one key thing that you need to develop across all social platforms (and really any type of external communication). That is your brand’s voice. Your brand’s voice allows you to connect with your audience and differentiate your business from the competition, making the relationship between hotels and social media comfortable and easy.
Here are five tips to developing your brand’s voice.
1. Understand what your brand stands for & who you are talking to
Your brand’s mission, tagline, promises, target audience and USPs should guide your social voice. Ask yourself some of the following questions:
- What are your brand’s core values?
- What qualities do you want associated with your brand?
- Why does your brand/property appeal to travelers?
- How does your brand/property differ from the competition?
- What demographics visit your brand/property? And how do they use social media?
- What demographics are you trying to attract to your property/brand?
2. Choose a persona
Once you understand your brand and target audience, you need to develop a persona that fits accordingly. What kind of personality will your messaging have? Is your brand serious? Funny? Smart? Quirky? Geeky? Sophisticated?
3. Develop your tone & language
What kind of vibe will your brand radiate? Are you going for shock value (one of my favorite examples is from Intel, below)? Is your brand an insider? Lovable? Hip? Identifying these tones will allow you to set appropriate wording, phrases and slang to use to develop an authentic, credible brand voice.
4. Keep it consistent
With multiple people often managing a brand’s social communication, it can be tough to ensure your brand’s voice always sounds consistent across platforms and times of day. However, keeping the persona and tone consistent is crucial to grow your audience and carve out your niche.
5. Revise and perfect
One of the great things about social media is that you can learn and get feedback in near real time, presenting brands a couple of great opportunities: 1. Monitor what your audience is talking about to gauge their interested and chime in/revise your strategy accordingly. 2. Test out new waters. Try out a new topic or post a joke. If it falls flat, you will know quickly and can move on.
And there you have it. These tips should help you to interact and engage on any platform. If you want them in a simple-to-read, simple-to-print one pager, you can download them here.
Stick with me this week for some specific best practices and tips for getting set up on many of the biggest social media platforms, including Google+, Facebook, Twitter and more.
Photo Source: avenuemedia.ca
