Have you ever wondered how to refine your hotel social media strategy? Check out these four top tips to grow your social media following this week…

This sounds almost maddeningly simplistic, but in a content-led sphere it really does matter. Creating great content for your social media channels is the most important factor to growing your social following, as it is from this content that everything else follows. Nobody wants to follow a hotel which doesn’t know how to handle its content strategy, so don’t be afraid to adopt a multi-faceted approach and share a variety of types of media and content. City guides, local events, video posts, photo galleries and recommended excursions along with sharing guest’s own posts featuring your location, news stories, blog posts and promotions are all worth considering.

•  Top Tip – Create a content calendar for your week ahead and stick to it. Schedule tweets, posts and updates via a scheduling tool such as Hootsuite or Buffer to save yourself time.

A social media account for a brand which consistently posts two or three updates of amazing content a day will likely see more traction from their efforts than a brand which tweets, posts and otherwise bombards its audience with unnecessary updates every 20 minutes. Familiarity breeds contempt, and just like that Facebook friend who constantly shares photos of their dinner, a hotel which doesn’t know when to step away from their social media will soon see engagement cool away to a positively icy reception.

•  Top Tip – Stay focused and ‘on message’, aiming for a few great posts a day rather than a dozen lukewarm ones – and remember your hashtags!

What use is all this content and consistency if it doesn’t suit your target market? Understanding the specific needs of your followers – or your desired followers – is absolutely vital to making any of your other activities worthwhile. Without anyone to see or share your content, social media ceases to be very social. If you have buyer personas, implement them here – or simply draw on your experience dealing with customers in ‘real life’. Who are they? What do they care about? Providing content which has meaning for those who you seek to target will help you to grow an engaged following.

•  Top Tip – Research how companies with a similar target market approach their social media. There may be elements to their activities which inspire your own!

Social media is no place for being a wallflower. Whilst brands should adopt a degree of professional distance, don’t be afraid to follow accounts you find interesting or comment on links pertinent to your industry. Connect with other businesses in your niche and share their content, or discuss current issues within your industry such as the emerging trend of chatbots. Reach out to influencers in the hotel industry for endorsement. Speak to your customers. Remember that social media is invaluable for relationship building.

•  Top Tip – Keep all brand activities in your defined ‘tone of voice’ and be sure not to say anything overtly unprofessional!