75% of travelers find inspiration for travel destinations from social media. 61% booked their hotel after seeing it on Instagram. With stats like those, social media marketing for hotels is a necessity.
Forge Apollo provides hotel social media marketing in Philadelphia and other areas. Today, we’re sharing tips from our Social Media Specialist, Jenna Bednar, to help you get started. Plus, we’re sharing real-life examples from our work with the ICONA Resorts brand.
Whether you’re a seasoned scroller or a social media newbie, this process will help you create the perfect hotel social media marketing strategy.
1. Setting Goals
Before you start building your strategy, you need to set goals. First, what are your high-level business goals for social media? Some examples include increasing brand awareness and earning bookings.
Then, you need to create SMART goals aligned with your business goals. These should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. For example, a SMART goal could be “increasing followers by 10% by the end of the year.”
2. Understanding Your Audience & Choosing the Right Platform
The next step is to understand your audience to choose the right platform to reach them and achieve your goals.
If you don’t have buyer personas, now is a good time to create them. Understanding who your audience is and where they spend their time online can help you select platforms and content that make the biggest splash for your brand.
Check out our guide on choosing the right social platform for more guidance.
3. Building a Content Calendar
The next step is one of the biggest ones: building our content calendar. Here are some factors to help you build yours. For inspiration, you can also see our hotel social media post ideas.
Creating a Good Mix of Content
First, decide which types of content you want to make. Bednar suggests following the 80/20 rule.
“80% of your content should be educational, entertaining, or inspirational (travel tips, destination highlights, UGC), while 20% can focus on promotional posts (booking deals, amenities).”
Within that 80%, she suggests utilizing different content pillars, which are consistent topical themes in your content. Some examples of content pillars are highlighting local attractions or guest stories.
Some other key factors Bednar says every hotel brand should consider in their content mix are:
- Different Formats – Mix it up to create a static, carousel, and video strategy for social media.
- Repurposing Content – Reuse your highest-performing content in different formats.
- Engaging With Trends – Pay attention to online trends and engage with your brand.
- Listen to Your Audience – Monitor the types of content your audience engages with (or doesn’t).
For example, let’s take a look at some posts from content pillars for ICONA Resorts.
This post from ICONA Cape May highlights helpful information for visitors.
View this post on Instagram
This post highlights a local business near ICONA Avalon.
View this post on Instagram
This post from ICONA Windrift is promotional for the brand’s winter events.
View this post on Instagram
This post for ICONA Diamond Beach joined in on a trending sound.
View this post on Instagram
How Often and When to Post
The next step in creating a social media marketing strategy for hotels is deciding how often and when to post.
Start by considering industry standards. The industry standard is 3-5 weekly posts on Instagram and Facebook. On Pinterest, it’s at least one high-quality pin per week. On Twitter, it’s 1-2 posts per day. Certain platforms have faster-moving feeds, like X (Twitter). These require more frequent posts. Others, like LinkedIn, thrive with less frequent but higher-quality content.
Bednar says consistency and quality are the two most important factors when choosing your posting frequency. She advises brands to “Focus on consistent, high-quality content. Posting less frequently but ensuring posts are engaging and relevant is better than flooding feeds with mediocre content.”
Some other tips she shares are:
- Increase posting frequency during peak travel seasons
- During slower seasons, focus on building long-term brand awareness
- Post when your audience is most active
Leaving Room for Flexibility
Social media is a dynamic, timely marketing channel. Your strategy should allow for some flexibility should you have a last-minute post or a trend you want to capitalize on.
Download our social media content calendar template to help you get started.
4. Crafting Engaging Content
Once you know what amounts and types of content you want to post, it’s time to start creating. The quality of your content reflects your brand.
Work with a Philadelphia video production company, like Forge Apollo, to create high-quality, on-brand stills and video content. We can make hundreds of assets from a single shoot. For example, we created 245 pieces of content from a single shoot with Breathless Resorts.
Here is an example of an Instagram Reel and a static post we created from a shoot at Mahalo Resorts.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
You can also sprinkle User-Generated Content (UGC) on your profile to enhance your brand’s authenticity.
5. Engaging with Your Audience
Social media should be just that–social. Don’t just post content and ignore the platform. Engaging with your audience is especially important in social media marketing for hotels because staying at a hotel is such a personal experience.
Your strategy should include time to respond to comments and DMs and engage with others’ content. Brands should also use features like questions and polls to encourage interaction.
6. Leveraging Influencers & Collabs
Help your brand get more reach by partnering with others. This can come in the form of working with an influencer or using the collab feature on Instagram. Hotel brands can collaborate with other local businesses to increase reach or other accounts under their same parent brand.
For example, ICONA’s wedding Instagram account collaborates with the relevant resort venue accounts to increase reach on their posts.
View this post on Instagram
7. Analyzing & Adjusting
The final step in creating a social media strategy for hotels is to analyze performance and adjust your plan accordingly.
Consider your goals and pay attention to what kinds and frequencies of content are performing well for those goals. If something isn’t performing well, it may be time to let it go and try something new.
As algorithms and trends change, the types of content that perform well also change. So, it’s important to listen to your audience and have an ever-evolving strategy.
Turn to the Experts for Social Media Marketing for Hotels
Developing a social media marketing strategy for your hotel is important, but it doesn’t have to be hard. Follow these tips to significantly enhance your online presence and attract potential guests. As one of the best social media and video production companies in Philadelphia, Forge Apollo can help your hotel stand out in a crowded market. If you’re ready to elevate your hotel’s social media strategy and need expert guidance, contact us today!
