Introduction
Robert Frost advise to geographic gamblers rings more true today than ever.
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I– I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference”.
His choice echoes with what hospitality industry giants are doing on social media. Most are lost. They are on the road where there is lot of traffic. However few have chosen big audience engagement and thus have excelled by choosing the road less traveled and that’s what made the difference. They have grown by leaps and bounds and are at the verge of reaping fruits of their decisions made when the road forked..
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Hotels have started introducing new ways to allure customers. They are omnipresent on social media platforms and are with their customers at every step of their booking decisions. They have not just helped them to book but have also enhanced their customer experience. Some industry leaders have their official pages on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Some players have also tied up with online sites like TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc.
Success Stories
Starwood Hotels and Resorts has been using Foursquare as a preferred guest loyalty program. They have used fine social media marketing tactics where a guest may earn extra points once he connects his account with Foursquare. According to a survey, 58% of hotels are on Foursquare.
Hotels (hospitality/travel marketing world) have started introducing new campaigns in line with Twitter. In 2012, Travelodge, the British hotel brand, started communicating with its customers on Twitter. All the happenings in the hotel were posted on Twitter to keep customers informed and updated. The impact of this strategy can be seen in the number of followers for the hotel chain which reached 10,000.
Intercontinental Hotels Group “Tweeted” one million Priority Club rewards last year which were redeemable for hotel nights, retail gift cards, etc. It also invited customers to follow hotels deals on twitter.
Best Western International has launched its own channel by the name of ‘Best Western TV’ on which video ads are aired. The hotel channel has aired 50 videos till now and has around 73k views and 180 subscribers.
Social media activities have enabled hotels to connect with their consumers who in turn have shown their interest by hitting maximum number likes on the hotel’s page of their choice.
Author: Alicia Jones – Strategic Marketing Consultant | Media Mosaic
Media Mosaic is world’s first fully integrated Travel ZMOT (Zero Moment Of Truth) agency, specializing in creating unique campaigns, to help brands WIN@TRAVEL. We bring an extensive knowledge of travel consumers’ demographics and their buying behaviors. This helps us to strategize our clients’ online marketing campaign for maximal Travel ZMOT ROI. We achieve the defined objectives, by mounting research based and interlocking, Branding, Content, Search and Social Media marketing activities. For further info on how to WIN@TRAVEL visit http://www.media-mosaic.com/travel.