Social media is one of the most imperative platforms when it comes to building a hotel brand and engaging with guests/potential guests. And while hotel businesses around the world are focusing more on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, let’s not forget the iconic little blue birdie and its capabilities of shouting your words out louder — Twitter!
According to a report, a huge amount of people on Twitter follow brands. And that definitely gives you and your hotel business the reason to start marketing on this platform.
However, unlike other social media platforms, Twitter comes with a set of limitations. For example, you can only use 280 characters for a tweet. Well, to be honest, this same limitation could be turned into a beneficial factor if we change the perspective.
If you are a hotel owner or someone working directly with hotels, keep reading as we are going to share some of the top effective tips on Twitter in hotel marketing.
#1. Have An Official Social Media Policy
Before jumping right on to Twitter tips for hospitality marketing strategies, you should ensure that your hotel brand has an official social media policy and should have a defined voice. For example, Instagram content and Facebook content cannot be used for the same purpose or goal — they both have different capabilities and needs to be used accordingly.
Similarly, Twitter has its own set of capabilities and your social media admin should be aware of it. Moreover, s/he should be aware of the brand’s policies and the defined voice of your twitter account. Why? Because s/he wouldn’t have to seek for Tweet approvals and can maintain the freshness.
#2. Engage With Existing And Potential Guests
If you want to market your hotel the most effective way on Twitter, you have to make sure that you are not solely focusing on marketing and selling.
Twitter is fast-paced and conversational, and to keep abreast with this blue birdie, you must ensure that you are listening, responding, and connecting to your guests or potential guests.
To present your hotel brand as one of the best in the industry, you just don’t tweet and let people converse there — you have to get involved. Rather than trying to steer people to your website and make them buy.
#3. What To Tweet?
Considering the 280 character count, you have to be spot-on when you are tweeting. And as mentioned earlier, you can always turn it into a beneficial factor as Twitterati is not used to reading long-form captions.
Tweet photos of your clean and tidy rooms, tweet testimonials — guests praising your hotels, share valuable facts about the hotel industry, tweet polls, tweet offers that you are running, and lot more!
#4. Twitter Customer Service
Guest most of the time take to Twitter to share reviews, take out their frustrations. So, you have to ensure that you have dedicated customer service on twitter as well. Every time a guest or a potential guest posts a query, try to resolve it then and there itself. This would definitely drive a sense of perfect hospitality service among your guests as well as your potential guests.
Twitter also provides a bunch of features for customer support for businesses. And if you want to build a great brand reputation, you have to ensure you tune in to the right conversations and providing good customer support.
#5. Track Hashtags And Keyword
One of the overlooked Twitter tips for hoteliers is listening to the chatter around the industry. The beauty of this iconic blue bird lies in the conversations happening around. Try to keep a track of all the best hashtags for hotels on Twitter and all the ‘what’s happening’, such as Twitterati looking for information regarding a destination. And if you think you can deliver value and answer to their question, drop a comment. Let them know about the ‘things to do’ in those destinations, places to see etc.
For example, if someone tweets, “Looking for a reasonable hotel in Prague. Any Suggestions?” or if someone is seeking suggestions regarding ‘Things To Do In Prague!’, you can respond to that tweet.
#6. Understand The Importance Of Events
You must keep a track of all the popular events that are relevant to your audience as well as your hotel brand is more important than ever. For instance, there’s a music concert in your city and a huge number of people are expected to attend that event. You can use the event hashtag and tweet something about the artists or something that people must know.
It’s all about getting involved in the conversation and build a brand reputation. It would not only help you gain more followers but also generate new business for your hotel — some of the attendees might get in touch with you to book stay at your property.
#7. Schedule Your Tweets
When you are shouting your words on platforms like twitter you have to be consistent. However, for many, it’s quite to be difficult to be on the platform all day, every day. So, how to maintain that consistency?
By using some certain tools, you can schedule your posts/tweets. If you plan to tweet thrice a day, you can come up with 3 tweet ideas at once and schedule them for the day. Some of the good options are HootSuite and Buffer; however, there are several other tools that you can try and see which one works best for you.
Outlook
Twitter might not be as mainstream as other social media platforms when it comes to driving bookings for your hotel. But this platform definitely has the capability to skyrocket your brand image and take it to a whole new level!
Follow the above mentioned steps and make the most of this iconic blue birdie to market your hotel business.
