Let’s face it—we live in a digital world. And in the hospitality industry, the best way to target, engage, and communicate with new and existing customers is to use social media metrics to a competitive advantage. But where do you begin? 

Read below to learn how our experts at BCV review and utilize social statistics to effectively increase clients’ consumer base, encourage engagement, and turn clicks into bookings.

The Big Three: Growth, Engagement, and Traffic

First things first, let’s talk about growth—also known as the number of followers you gain on Facebook and Instagram over time. This used to be a key indicator in how businesses measured success, but as Facebook increased to over 2 billion users, its organic reach of content fell to 3%, making it more difficult for content to reach followers. This means that even if a page has a large following, it doesn’t guarantee a high number of impressions on their content, but it can still establish a page as credible and help to increase post engagement.

When the content you post generates likes, comments, shares, and clicks, we call that engagement. Engagement is important across all social channels because it shows you how content is resonating with your audience and how you’re performing against competitors. If destination content generates the most comments and shares, you should post more of that. If potential guests respond well to posts that pose a question or highlight on-property amenities, we recommend working those details into the copy. Generating engagement is hardly the same across each of the big three social channels, but we suggest using past data to your advantage and creating content and advertisements that are specific to the audience you are trying to reach. 

So, how does traffic come into play? As you spend time growing your social channels and increasing post engagement, it’s important to remember that the ultimate goal is to encourage the consumer to tap the link, view an offer, and make a purchase. To do this, we recommend you strategize target advertising to make sure you’re hitting the right audience at the right time, because any traffic you drive to the website has the potential to become future guests, and the goal is to ensure that every advertisement you serve has the potential to turn into a room booking.

The Importance of Setting Benchmarks

The best part about goals? You can set new ones. In 2020, start the year off strong by reviewing the previous year’s data available on Facebook and Instagram, making note of what strategies succeeded, which posts did well in the eyes of consumers, which advertisements resulted in more conversions, and who your most active demographic was. At BCV, our dedicated marketers recommend using these insights to build future strategies, and from there, proposing improvements to ensure you meet and exceed your goals in the new year.

Because social media needs to be constantly optimized, it’s also important to monitor metrics on a monthly basis to ensure you’re tracking toward goals and making adjustments where you fall short. If you’re targeting a specific audience but notice a decrease in clicks, take a look at what age groups, demographics, and feeder markets are generating the most engagement and shift advertisements to them. If destination content or User Generated Content (UGC) produces more engagement, shift content strategy to focus on what’s delivering results. Because social media ebbs and flows, we recommend you closely monitor Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and make tweaks in real time to ensure each social channel evolves and reaches its fullest potential. 

In short, the best way to grow your business, especially in the hospitality industry, is to take advantage of every social resource available, pay attention to your audience, and adjust content as needed. And with our tips and tricks, you have everything you need to grow your media presence when you hit the ground running in the new year.