Create Successful Internet Marketing Strategies for Hotels using Social Media Platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Blogs.

Over the last couple of posts, we’ve discussed hotel marketing strategies and marketing campaigns, and tips on using hotel guests and inhouse magazines as effective marketing campaigns. In this post, I’ll be telling you about internet marketing strategies using social networking communities.

Over the last few years, emails and internet chatting has slowly led to a better and bigger platform for interaction. The World of Social Media. And quality hotels have been incorporating online media marketing by using social media as a platform to connect with their customers and potential customers. So how can you use social media to promote your hotel or hospitality business?

Successful Hotel Marketing Strategies

Part 1 of 4: Successful Hotel Marketing Strategies – Inhouse Magazines and Brochures

Part 2 of 4: Word of Mouth a.k.a. Social Networking Communities

Word of mouth, as we’ve discussed in my introductory post Custom Media Marketing Strategies for Hotels, is the most crucial element in every successful marketing strategy of hotels. And after inhouse magazines and brochures, social media marketing is the next factor that every hotel must focus on, to reach out and spread “happy words” about the hotel.

What are the different types of social media?

Great social media sites crop up every day. So focussing on all aspects of social media may not be the best approach to reaching out to potential customers. We’ve all heard of the old adage, a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush. Try to build a firm ground in a few prominent social media platforms, before getting ambitious and going all out. For the hotel industry, the best social media platforms are Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs, not necessarily in that hierarchical order, but yes, no matter what your creative marketing agencies say, these social media platforms are the three best options as of now.  It may change, but not today. We do have several other social media platforms that are great to create awareness about your hotel, but I wouldn’t want to confuse you with more names now. Look around, and I’m certain you’ll find a lot of good options through a search engine.

How to create a social media presence?

Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs, as I’ve mentioned earlier, are the best platforms to promote your hotel. To implement a social media campaign for your hotel, obviously, you need to create a strong presence in all three mediums. All three mediums have their own way of building networks, the most personal one being Facebook, the most spammy one being Twitter, and the most authoritative one being a Blog.  Now you’re going to need all three, and for entirely different reasons, because together the three-combo can pack a serious punch.

The Combination of Facebook, Twitter and a Blog

Facebook is a great social medium to create an internet marketing strategy that involves the creation of a community, and one that can pay rich dividends as long as you show interest in keeping your community active. As long as you reward your community members with gifts and freebees, they will spread your word for you, and they will spread it well.

Twitter is by far, the best medium to create a point of purchase scenario online, and draw people to your hotel, while branding your hotel as a customer-friendly one at the same time. It is also the medium with the lowest recollection rate due to the high number of tweet links that a user is bombarded with, every day. The advantage of Twitter has drawn so many spam accounts that it’s quite difficult to differentiate a spam link from a genuine one. But yet, if you learn to use it well, there’s probably a good chance that you can create an excellent campaign that will have your hotel desk bell ringing all day long.

Blogs are the perfect medium to create a strong online presence, and reach out to people who want to know about your hotel, or about your city. Create a blog, but don’t restrict it to the facilities in your hotel. Add more, and you shall receive more! Talk about new events in your city, about places to visit in your city, travel packages, guest reviews of your hotel, the add-ons that only your hotel can provide, and so much more. Blogs can actually do more than brand your hotel. It can increase the trustworthiness of your hotel, as blogs have the added benefit of comments and feedback. Take the help of a good custom media house that can help you plan an exhaustive campaign that can change the way you draw customers.

These are just a few basic tips that you could use while planning your next marketing campaign for your hotel. Learning to use the internet to market your hotel is a bit like starting a hotel.

The business model is simple. After all, it’s the execution and implementation that makes all the difference between a badly planned one and a great one.