The Ultimate Social Media Content Guide for Hotels will help your Hotel overcome some of the primary roadblocks with Content Creation.
Content Creation is arguably one of the biggest challenges for Hotels being on Social Media. I have done surveys and questioned Hoteliers on various forums I manage.
50 percent of the responses were related to Content Creation, and it is also incorporated in other responses in one way or another.
And when asked Hotels what they believe Social Media can do for their Hotel some of the top responses are online visibility and improve engagement.
The Content Marketing Matrix for Hotels
I will note that is not a goal for Hotels to be good at Social Media. The primary goal should be like any vehicle your Hotel use to get your message out – Hotels should be good at business because of Social Media.
To create great content and develop a successful content strategy, you must understand your audience (your Hotels prospects) and the journey that they are on.
Like, shares and comments are good, but at the end of the day, this is not what pays the bills.
Your Hotel wants to create Social Content that creates desirable behaviors among your prospects and customers.
Use The Content Marketing Matrix for Hotels to help amplify “desirable behavior”.
a) Awareness
With Social, you need to be quick and direct to generate awareness. Use powerful words or some pictures that will catch the reader’s eye and make them stop and read what you will say next.
Through awareness, you want to focus on content that entertains and triggers your audience’s emotions.
Doing so means investing some time and effort upfront into researching them and the journey that they are on. The first step is to create booking personas, which are just short but very useful descriptions of your Hotel targeted segment.
- Who is your Hotel’s targeted segment?
- Where do they work and what are their titles?
- What do they need?
- What’s going to motivate them to make a booking?
- What are their pain points and what concerns do they
have that could potentially prevent them from making a booking? - Are they the ultimate decision-maker?
- Are they traveling for business or pleasure?
- Who influences them in terms of their booking decisions?
Once you have a better idea of your booking personas you have a good foundation for starting to create content that attracts the right audience for your Hotel.
b) Interest
Through awareness, your Hotel has captured attention from the targeted market segment.
But now we face the essence of the challenges I outlined previously, can your Hotel engage with them enough so they will spend their valuable time to get a deeper understanding of your content?
- Are you providing information?
- Are you trying to educate?
- Are you making a call for action?
- Are you attempting to persuade others to change a perspective or firmly held belief?
- Are you presenting ideas for problem solving or analysis? Or
- Are you just trying to entertain?
To move an audience from leads to prospects you need to know how to put the content in a context that helps leads to determine if your Hotel is credible and sincere.
Providing educational content will help your leads make a more rational decision that is favorable for the Hotel.
Creating effective and high-value visual content is a great way to generate a content transformation process that supports awareness and interest.
c) Decision
You want to help prospects to understand how what you’re offering can help them in a real way. The main way of doing this is by appealing to their personal needs and wants.
With Social Media, Hotels need to take advantage of the power Social Communities provide in showing prospects what’s in it for them when they make their booking decision.
Hotels that clearly explain the benefits of direct bookings and involve the Social Communities to help with this process will experience a higher percentage of positive actions.
When your Hotel communicates with various types of content you need to understand your Social Community.
- What are Social Communities’ expectations?
- How will they use the information you provide?
- What are Social Communities hoping to take away after reading/listening/watching?
- Why are you communicating with this Social Community in the first place?
You also want here to appeal to your Social Communities emotions.
- What types of emotions do you want to evoke here? Fear, trust, loyalty?
- Do you have shared values you want to draw on?
- How do your Social Communities beliefs fit with your Hotels message?
d) Action
If you have done everything right in your Hotels Content Funnel so far then everything is in place for the prospects to make a rational decision that is most favorable to your Hotel.
This is the time where you ask for the booking. Provide a clear call to action that supports everything you have done so far within your Hotels Content Funnel.
- Have you presented a logical, well-constructed argument?
- How do you support your claims?
- What evidence do you have?
- What are the counter-arguments?
The Hotel Content Funnel will take your Hotel through the same journey as the audience that converts into guests.
Conclusion
Social Media Content Creation is a strategic process that Hotels need to learn today. Besides implementing The Content Marketing Matrix for Hotels, you should also look around to find out what worked for others, and what did not work.
Also, pay attention to your competitions. There is a lot of innovative and creative Hoteliers out there to learn from.
We are in this together!
I need to let you all know that we are in on this together. If you need to vent, talk, cry, or just have some to talk with then I am here listening. Since I am working part-time at the local Kroger, I will to the best of my ability to work it out around my schedule.
But you can reach me here:
Email: hotelblogger@aremorch.com
Also, join us at our Facebook Group – Hotel Social Media Community
We will get through this unprecedented event together! #hotelstrong #hospitalitystrong
For any specific information on COVID-19, I recommend go to CDC, WHO, AHLA, AAHOA, and HSMAI. Also, follow information from your local authorities.
NOTE
We are starting to reopen some hotels again (Yay!!!). Make sure you follow their guidelines and say THANK YOU to those that now show a unique spirit to serve, and helps us all get through this!! #hotelstrong #hospitalitystrong
About Are Morch
Hi, I am Are Morch. Your Digital Marketing Coach and Customer Experience Expert that specializes in creating effective digital customer experience offer for hotels while growing and scale customer acquisition and revenue.
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