Social Media for Hotels. Which are the advantages?

When we talk about social media for hotels, we realize that there are still many hotel owners that have doubts about whether it s necessary or not to have a profile on social media. This is dangerous for several reasons. However, the main reason is also the easiest to understand: nowadays not having a social media profile means losing sales. As simple as it sounds.

However, let s take it easy. No need to rush and create a profile on a random social network, as that would be equally counterproductive than doing nothing.

Social Media For Hotels

Each social network is unique; has their own codes. Therefore, we must learn to use them before creating an account for our hotel at one of them. A post on Facebook cannot and should not be the same as a pin on Pinterest, a post on Instagram or a tweet. As we already said, each network has its own characteristics, and we must analyze them to know which one can be useful for our communication. Important: the fact that we can create an account in every social network in the world, does not mean we should do it. It will be unuseful to have lot of social media profiles if we cannot give them the necessary attention: It is better to have, for example, an active Facebook profile, than having a profile on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest with few posts and little interactions.

Moving forward, we know that we have not justified why social media networks are necessary for hotels. That is why, below, we will mention some of the advantages of social media. With this, we will try to clear up your mind regarding to create a social media profile or not.

• Visibility: A few weeks ago, we talked about this when we referred to the central reservation, and its importance remains the same. In a world in which we compete against thousands of hotels, any tool that gives us visibility becomes a valuable communication tool.

• Low cost: Usually open an account on a social network is free, but properly handle a social profile takes time and work. That is why, we cannot say that have no cost. However, still considering the investment of our own work (or hiring a community manager), the cost per contact on social networks is low.

• Feedback: It is a tool that offers users the possibility to leave their opinion about our hotel. This allows us to know the opinion of our customers in a natural way.

• Proximity: A social profile with a correct and smooth communication between the users and the hotel, gives prospective clients a closer and friendly image from the hotel.

• Speed of response: The ability to provide effective and efficient information is essential in a competitive market like ours. This is where social networks can add value to our business. You could also utilize a social media management software to optimize your promotional efforts by preventing critical notifications from being missed, and having all the messages in one place, allowing for faster resolution of conflicts, or posting promotions or offers of any kind.

• The social factor: Something obvious, but not less important. We know that people collects information across multiple sites such as TripAdvisor Viajeros.com, etc. However, they still trust in the opinion of their acquaintances or relatives, so having a tool through which they can access to these opinions is a substantial advantage for our business.

As you may see, there are many advantages that not only make social networking tools be useful for our hotels, but make them absolutely essential if we want to succeed in a 2.0 world; A world in which the social is vital and the external opinion is vital for the customer decision-making.

We hope that this brief introduction to the world of social media has been useful so that you begin to change the way you develop the communication from your Hotel. If this has been useful and interesting, share it!