Using Social Mentions to Promote Your Property
For many hoteliers, social media mentions are simply for customer service. However, when guests mention you online, another opportunity arises – one that allows you to promote your hotel to your followers. Sharing posts made by users online to your profile will help you earn more engagement on social media, which leads to more travelers finding your hotel and even booking with you.
To make the most of social posts made by travelers and guests, you’ll need to understand two things: the basics of user-generated content and which types of posts perform best on each social media platform.
About User-Generated Content
User-generated content is any content – text, image, or video – made by an individual instead of a brand. It’s non-sponsored content, typically considered candid compared to the professional photos and videos brands use for their marketing.
For the hospitality industry, user-generated content can be as simple as a guest talking about staying with you on Twitter, or as involved as them sharing a video of their arrival to your hotel.
It may seem inconsequential, but it’s essential to incorporate positive content about your property into your marketing whenever you can. Businesswire reports that consumers are 2.4 times more likely to view user-generated content as authentic compared to what brands post. Gen Z makes up 40% of the consumer population, meaning creating and sharing content that tells a story about your hotel is crucial to success.
Twitter’s Quote Retweets and Images
Images dominate most social media platforms, but Twitter is one site where they thrive over all else. You can share user-generated photos to promote your hotel in a couple of ways. First, you can quote-retweet the original tweet to your profile. Quote-retweeting is when you retweet and add your comment on top of whatever the original poster has shared. This method can be more beneficial than regular retweets because any comments or likes go to your profile instead of the original poster’s. Twitter then uses that information to show more of your tweets to those who engaged with your quote-retweet.
Alternatively, you can also reply to the original poster. Continuing the conversation ensures the guest that they’ve been heard and expresses your appreciation to them for sharing such beautiful photos of your property. If you reply, you can still always retweet the original post to your page, as well – Twitter values highly shareable content, and the more attention you’re able to bring to user-generated content, the better.
Facebook’s Videos and Stories
Videos are a popular form of sharing stories on social media, and they make for excellent sources of user-generated content to share. When guests mention you in videos showing off areas of your property – from your front entrance to any beautiful amenities – you should take the opportunity to share that content to your page.
When sharing, you can make a comment to appear above the video. You can thank the guest for sharing or include messaging geared toward drawing in more guests. If you find the same person visits your property year after year, reaching out or commenting to invite them to collaborate with you is also a great way to get more user-generated content on your profile.
Instagram’s Stories and Reposts
Instagram strategy can be considered a blend of Twitter and Facebook – high-resolution photos perform very well on the feed, but Instagram Stories and Reels are increasingly popular among users. With permission, you can cross-post users’ images to your own feed! Potential future guests will see the photos taken by other users as authentic and genuine, giving them a good impression of your hotel and making you memorable.
In addition to making posts on your feed, you can also feature posts that mention you on your Story. If past guests share a quickly-snapped photo of them enjoying your property and mention your hotel directly, you’ll see the option on Instagram to share it to your own Story feed. By doing so, you’ll boost the post’s visibility to your followers and have the chance to redirect viewers to your hotel’s website with text comments on top of the post.
LinkedIn’s Brand-Aligned Sharing
For the business-driven platform LinkedIn, when your property is mentioned, the best thing to do is share it to your feed with a comment. Catchy captions or even longer stories can attract attention on LinkedIn. As long as the user’s post aligns with your hotel’s story, mission, or vision, it will be an excellent addition to your content lineup.
Social media mentions can mean a number of things for your hotel: they can be customer service opportunities, or they can be notifications to exceptional posts that help you leverage your marketing efforts in a new way. Sharing user-generated content is one of the greatest ways to grow your online presence. When you’re able to use your guests’ voices to uplift your property, everyone wins!
Our social media team at Travel Media Group can help you strengthen your social media presence, and TMG OneView® features built-in alerts, so you’ll never miss the conversation when you’re mentioned. Learn more about our social media program and contact us for a consultation.
1 Comment
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great content I feel most Facebook and Instagram is far better platform to promote once property and reach to more people. They have given much benefit to my business also.