Facebook: how to improve the visibility and marketing of hotels and bed and breakfasts

26 Jun Facebook: how to improve the visibility and marketing of hotels and bed and breakfasts

Founded in 2004 in the United States by Mark Zuckerberg and originally launched as an exclusive project for Harvard University students, the social network known as Facebook has become one of the most powerful communication tools over the last few years, coming to be the third most visited site after Google and YouTube.

Consider that, in 2016, this social network has reached an audience of 1.86 billion active users monthly and, to date, it’s available in over 100 languages!

If manage a hotel/B&B, whether as owner or as revenue manager, surely you won’t miss the potential of this tool, which can be extremely useful to increase the reputation of your facility.

But how can you succeed in improving hotels and B&Bs’ visibility and marketing through Facebook?

First of all, you need to know that social media can really help improve your brand’s visibility. As we said, in December 2016 Facebook accounted for 1.86 billion monthly active users, which means a huge potential in reaching travellers and guests!

1.Sponsoring and targeting.

Facebook is a free platform based on sharing. This means that, through right messages and contents, it is possible to attract the eyes of a mass audience, including many potential customers.

Using it in a professional way, however, involves paying some costs, such as those for the boosting of your posts. In fact, sponsoring what you publish with a small budget (5 euro a day) and adjusting your target audience will allow you to reach a larger audience getting straight to the potential customer. A further suggestion is then to make a schedule of photos and posts to be shared, according to pre-set times and days.

2. Facebook functions useful to your business strategy

Recently, the social network has introduced new and exciting features from which hotels and B&Bs’ owners and managers can benefit:

  • Events. Hotels can use such application to launch their events and promote them to the target audience. You will also be able to take advantage of this tool by learning more about upcoming events in the area that will attract visitors i.e. potential guests.
  • Recommendations. Since 2016 Facebook has been renewed, making it possible for those who have a business to get recommendations from users/customers. Users can in fact recommend places to visit, gourmet restaurants as well as facilities to stay in overnight to their virtual friends. Every time a user posts a post, he has the option to enable the “recommendation” function. Thanks to this feature, Facebook users can recommend your property to their contacts, expanding your visibility and improving your hotel’s reputation.
  • City Guides. This new Facebook’s feature allows you to collect personalized recommendations for travellers according to where they are staying and the places previously visited by their friends. Facebook extracts all relevant information, such as reviews, enabled booking button, and links to Facebook’s tourist attractions.
  • Facebook Live. Users have an insatiable need for more interactive content. Live videos where users can comment on and ask questions, for example, can be exploited by hotel owners to attract customers and confirm then their loyalty.

3. Balance the focus on your page.

To centre the focus of your page, finally, you should try to differentiate yourself from your competitors as much as possible. This may mean publishing many high quality or funny mood photos, offering video tours of your property, or sharing content related to travel, to make your potential guests spot your site. Then think as you were your target: what would it bring him to book and what would it push him to share your content with his friends?

Now you know you have a smart tool with a lot of potential in your hands …

And while you’re thinking about improving your hotel’s/B&B’s visibility and marketing, Parity Rate will consider how to simplify the management of your hotel or B&B on booking portals and with a simple click.

valentina
valentina@semplicissimo.net
No Comments

Post A Comment