Most Hotels has now discovered one of the key shifts that come along with Social Media. We can no longer push our message across, we have to pull in customers in with engaging, useful content. Hotel stories has become more than a fairy tale or a novel.
So how can Hotel marketers take advantage of this shift? The best and most effective ways today is to combine the power of storytelling with Social Media.
How to tell a story via Social Media
Every hotel has a story to tell. The new fascinating thing that comes with Social Media is that the Universe will involve your Hotel in a story one way or another. Start to embrace it and take your Hotel to a new level.
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- The story has to be Authentic
Customers will listen to your Hotels stories in the same manner as you should listen to theirs. Authentic and successful content produces greater comprehension, understanding, anticipation, and receptivity.
The net effect of comprehension, understanding, anticipation, and receptivity is trust. By telling a story and connecting with the customer, a storyteller can generate trust with the customer.
Stories produce trust. But not just any story will do. You must tell a story that has the right features — features that produce successful connections, plus those which exhibit integrity-building features.
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- Inspire
The ability to Inspire is the biggest opportunity to reinvent your Hotel brand. Very often in my presentations, I use Coca-Cola’s #ShareaCoke campaign. They used various methods from names to song lyrics to inspire their fan base to #ShareaCoke with their friends.
Grab an ice-cold @CocaCola and catch @joeylogano in the @FS1 booth for the @NASCAR_Xfinity Series race – 1 p.m. ET @BMSupdates! #ShareaCoke pic.twitter.com/qiFU5kr08q
— Coca-Cola Racing (@CocaColaRacing) April 14, 2018
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- Minimalistic
We are truly living in the information age. And the information is coming at us pace that is more than most of us can comprehend. The biggest challenge for Hotels marketers starting to use Social Media is to avoid information overload.
The Hotel stories your customers will relate to is represented through trigger points in relevant micro-moments. Learn to identify key micro-moments that represent values that your Hotel supports, and that identify the market segments you want to reach.
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- Context before and after
The best way for your customers to identify with the stories is to put in a context that relates to before and after.
The key here is to ask a relevant question that allows you to tell compelling before and after stories.
Do you want to reach, educate and/or influence new audiences?
Do you want to remind current customers you’re still relevant?
Do you want to get complicated yet compelling data or a report in the hands of people who could or should be using it?
Do you want decision-makers to know that influential people are on your side?
And do you want to do all of this in an objective way that gives your Hotel credibility?
A great example here is programs like Extreme Makeover use before and after images. Visual storytelling is a very effective way to make some effective points that help persuade customers to make a decision that benefits your Hotel.
Before and after! Delicious tagine stuffed peppers for our #Conference guests https://t.co/VqE4gQuPto #meetingprofs #eventprofs pic.twitter.com/ISQHBtfktc
— Aztec Hotel & Spa (@AztecHotelUK) October 18, 2016
The most effective Social Media Channels for Storytelling
Telling your Hotel Stories just require a little bravery. Make a shift to destination branding. Then you have a supply of beautiful never-ending content to share. Take advantage of curation tools that will add exceptional value to the story.
We all have to identify the Social Media Channels that best meets where our customers are. Of course, it can vary a bit depending on your Hotels market segments which channel the best reach your ideal market segments. I have during my research and data focused on three primary channels that are the best fit for Hotels.
a) Facebook
Builds brand loyalty and reputation. Establishes your business as an authority through interesting content and informational posts. It reaches a variety of segments of an audience with one post. Facebook offers the opportunity to create ads to drive traffic to your Hotels website. Creative content encourages dialogue and gets in-depth with your customer base. Ideal for sharing personal stories, testimonials, reviews, detailed information about your Hotel.
b) Twitter
Shares breaking news and quick updates promotes new products, content, or brand contests, collects instant feedback from your audience. Serves people looking for quick info, Hotel news, and immediate response to questions about services, products or events. Twitter focuses on dialogue creation and starting conversations with customers. It is known for its #hashtag communication functionality. Great platform for customer services purposes.
c) Instagram
Instagram is all about the visuals, so you need to set out to build a cohesive, recognizable brand identity. How you approach your Instagram brand will be influenced by the strategy you have already determined. Tell your Hotel stories with a caption. Instagram is a visual social network, so many people end up neglecting the caption when this is valuable real estate. Captions allow you to expand on the image, give it context and even make your followers laugh. It can also tie an image back to your business.
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT AND FACEBOOK ADVERTISING FOR HOTELS
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About the author
Are Morch is the founder and owner of Are Morch – Hotel Marketing Coach. Get more from Are on Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Pinterest | Instagram| Podcast
