Social Media Management in the Hotel Industry

Question: Contemporary issue is Hotel industry is not taking Social Media seriously for the marketing and how does hotel industry is getting affected. Explain the issue in detail. The explanation must include the core management area or areas (finance, administrative, facilities, marketing) the issue are from and their impact on the hotel industry as a whole. Answer: Introduction In the current economic aura, it is not advisable for the hotel industry to rely on conventional techniques of promoting economic growth and increasing prices which may lead a situation where the travelers may book hotels elsewhere. The hotel industry operates in a competitive market structure and in order to gain competitive advantage, brands, hotel owners and operators must capitalize on social media, mobile and analytics and make their business customer centric. This would help them to gain in the long run. Any industrys image is built based on the better views it obtains and also earns better revenues. This is true in case of the hotel industry as well. Hotels with large volume of booking and pricing strategy that attracts customer can obtain a good review in the market. The impact of Social Media on Lodging Performance 2012 a study by Cornells Center for Hospitality Research revealed that the guest satisfaction obtained from online review score directly impact the hotels financial performance. The study also concluded that for increase in every one point in a hotels 100 point ReviewPro Global Review Index causes a 0.89 percent increase in its price, a 0.54 percent increase in the rate of occupancy and an increase of 1.42 percent are seen in RevPar value. Hotels Not Serious About Social Media Marketing The power of the social media is no doubt identified by the hotel industry. The social media marketing is important because people now-a-days are spending a lot more time in the social media than on the print media. People like to share updates that catch their eyes. The success of any industry or business lies in the hands of the customer. Thus the success of the hotel industry also depends upon the customers and their loyalty which can be achieved by using social media marketing to associate and connect with the customers. But most hotels are observed not making use of this social media marketing platform to promote their business. The popular social media platforms that the hotel industry must utilize to increase their popularity are Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. These are the popular social networking sites where persons of all age are operating (English, 2015). The problems associated with the fact that the hotel industries are not using the social media p roperly are: Branding - Customers generally go through the review of a particular good before purchasing it. But if the brand of the good is of best reputation then the brand is enough for a customer to purchase it. The hotel industry must also abide by this method and try to create a brand name. Developing a brand is time consuming which is a constraint if the hotel owners are not marketing through social media. Almost the entire world is connected to the rest of the world by social networking sites. Hence it is the quickest way of reaching the customers cross borders. A simple advertising page on the social networking sites would fetch a lot of likes, followers and viewers. Thus a social media networking is necessary. Market research- the launch of a new product or service requires an extensive market research. But sometimes the hotel owners lack in human and monetary resources to execute such market research. If the hotel owners do not use the social media marketing strategy then appropriate market survey which would reveal the demand for the product or services, the dimensions of the usage of the products, would remain unattended. The market research can be done by Demographic likes on Facebook or by the sentiments and trends on Twitter. Expansion of market- following the above process of market research the hotels can make decisions regarding the expansion of their business from a local region to a national level. The demand of a hotel in a particular region may be placed by groups of people in that region. Without a social media response, the hotels owner may not be aware of the demand of his hotel. Customer Service- catering to the needs of the customer may be costly at times. Without a social media marketing it becomes difficult for the hotel owners to quickly and swiftly resolve queries and problems of the customers. Information about competitors- For better product planning, promotional strategy and marketing decision a company must be aware of the competitors strategy. For hotel owners, information regarding the other hotels in the vicinity or competitive brands must be stored and utilized. With the absence of social media marketing the hotel owners face difficulties in obtaining information of his competitive hotel brands. The relative level of competitiveness also is ignored as it can be smoothly measured by discovering topics that are popular with the target audience of the competitors. For strategic decision for marketing and product improvements, the hotel owners must be specific about their competitive hotels. If hotel owners do not recognize the importance of social media marketing to promote their hotel then the information about its competitors strategy will remain unnoticed. (Sigala, Christou and Gretzel, 2012) Approaches To Manage The Issues A huge trend in Social Media Marketing for the hotel industry had been witnessed in 2014. Travelers and businessmen are increasingly using social media to take travel decision and plan them out. To keep pace with the competitors, a strong media presence must be experienced by the potential customers. Search Engine Optimization studies reveal that the people who tend to surf the online search engines for hotels are alarmingly using the social media to compare and check out the activities of the hotel and attractions of the hotels in a particular area. (Kim, Lim and Brymer, 2015) For example: the availability of a popular social networking website is at every step of the guests journey. Guest can make use of the inspiration, research, booking, guidance and reminder throughout the trip. It is estimated that around 24 million people in the UK which is around one third of the total population operate facebook everyday, 82 percent of them operate facbook through mobiles or tablets and around 63 percent of generation X travelers updates status when they are on holidays. The customers who interact or connect with the brands by posting updates, images, checking in and send recommendation to their friends are like the powerful ambassadors that visit a particular hotel. (PwC, 2015)The interaction of the existing customers through the social media and networks can fetch new customers and tend to increase the level of loyalty. (Facebook, 2015) Some of the issues discussed previously need to be considered by the hotel owners and frame strategies to manage and solve these issues. Of course for doing this the hotel owners must understand certain topics related to social media marketing and social media optimization. Below the concepts related to social media management are discussed. (Friedrichsen and MuÃÅ'ˆhl-Benninghaus, 2013) Social Media- The hotel owners must research on the social media presence of his hotel. His must analyze the social media opportunity and threats regarding his hotel, thereafter frame social media strategies and execute them. In this the hotel owner must use the SWOT analysis to recognize the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats regarding the social media management of the hotel. (Strategy Plus, 2014) Social Media Monitoring- here the hotel owners must identify, segregate and analyze variations and make recommendation report. Here the hotel owner must monitor the competitors social media presence by monitoring its social media indulgence. (Switch Digital, 2015) Social Media Management- the hotel owners must have a brief knowledge about the social media management before implementing steps towards social media marketing. The hotel owners must analyze the opportunities related to the social media outreach. (Plus, 2015) Online Reputation Management- For brand management, reputation of the product is very crucial. It is same for the hotel industry. The hotel owners must research and analyze their present online reputation by obtaining the reputation score. In this way scope for improvement of reputation can be learnt. Social Media Marketing- Social Media Marketing requires to create campaign though and executing them by proper tools, Apps and Conversation strategy. By this campaign, the hotel owners will be able to enhance customer satisfaction, to keep an eye on the competitors and to develop strategies of marketing. (Tuten and Solomon, 2013) Networks that work best for the Hotel Industry: Pinterest- this network is underused by the hotel industry in their social media marketing strategies. (Pinterest, 2015) Instagram- Hotel owners can use Instagram to promote and share pictures of events or special occasions that occurred in the hotel. (Jenkins et al., 2015) YouTube- the hotel owners can employ a professional advertising agent who can make short advertising video on the respective hotel and upload it to this website. The videos do not require huge production and really impacts the potential customers. (Stelzner et al., 2015) Twitter (Twitter.com, 2015)- this social networking website helps to create network of support. Here the hotel owner must develop and increase the follower. Twitter is one of the fastest contenting sharing website. T will highly help the hotel owners in their venture. (Leung, Bai and Stahura, 2013) Facebook- Potential travelers and customers sometimes use Facebook as a search engine to find different hotels in different places. This is the platform where the hotel owners can develop access and communication of the existing as well as the potential customers. (O. Crofton and D. Parker, 2012) A hotel owner must also give the businessmen relevant importance. This can be done by keeping a decent presence in the websites like LinkedIn (Business.linkedin.com, 2015) and Google+ (Google+, 2015). A lot of businessmen who travel for different meeting, conferences and seminars are active on these websites. Apart from all these social networking sites, there are numerous apps and tools that can be used to increase the presence of the hotel owners social media indulgence which we will discuss in the later part of the study. Social Media PR- the work of a social media or digital PR is to optimize e-communication for effective promotion of the hotels in the digital area. The PR must monitor and evaluate online media conversation. The hotel industry must employ a Digital PR who would develop, organize and regulate corporate blogs, social network accounts and other relevant multimedia tools. A hotel which is strong in the social media management has a corporate website to organize, promote and be informative to reach the customers. This is also the job of the social media PR. Solving the problems: Creating Brand awareness (Woodward, 2000) - to reach out to the customers evenly and create a brand name for the hotel, the owners must post content about the hotel on multiple social networking sites. This is a very simple and effective way of connecting to a larger section of the customers by amplification. The advertising strategy of the business has changed. Previously the billboards, newspapers and bus stops where the utilized for promotion purposes but with social media ad platforms hotel owners find it easy and simple to connect with the audience on a worldwide basis. (Hotelmarketing.com, 2015) Market Research- previously market research was done by the marketing executives of the hotels. But now social media enables the hotel managers and marketing personnel to acquire knowledge about the 7 Ps of marketing mix- Price, Promotion, Product, People, Place, Process and Physical Environment (Dominici, 2009) through social networks. To analyze customer behavior Hootsuite has recommended 5 social media metrics that allow the hotel owners to under the customers. These five media metrics are: Ow.ly clicks- the clicks can be tracked down by the ow.ly. This metric enables the hotel owners to locate the concentration of the customers in the world. Facebook Likes- to know the demographic breakdown of the customers and to learn about the age and gender breakdown of the customers Facebook insights must be used by the hotel owners. Twitter Analysis- to know about how the customers respond to the hotels and their service twitter sentiments and insights give the owners a good knowledge. Keyword or trends- the trending on several social networking sites of the hotels help the owners to identify the reputation and the current status of their hotels. Expansion of Business- Facebook Insights can be used to monitor and measure the number of likes, types of comments, the page activities and number of followers and fans by the hotel owners to make decision to expand their business. Hotel owners can also take the advantage of Geo-located searches in Hootsuite. Provide great Customer Service- social media is now playing the role of rendering social customer service. By using the social media networks the hotel owners can enhance customer engagement and resolve customer issues swiftly and quickly. The digital PR must monitor the social accounts and review the customer feedback, responses and even complaints that can be resolved and sorted out. The social media networks enable to connect with the larger section of the world with just a click away. To ensure better customer service, the customer segmentation (Arif, n.d.) is required. The consumer segmentation is categorized into three groups Behavioral, Psychographic and Profile. The behavioral customer segmentation includes benefit sought, occasion of purchase, and behavior of purchase, purpose of purchase and perceptions and beliefs regarding the purchase of the product. The Psychographic aspect comprises of the lifestyle and personality of the consumer. And the Customer segmentation on the basis of profile consists of demographic, socio-economic and geographic aspects of the customers. The hotel owners, the digital PR of the hotel and the Social media marketing professionals must render customer service using these techniques of customer segmentation. Knowledge about competitors- the social media monitoring enables the hotel owners to get ahead of the competitors. The verbal spread of information of the status of the competitors is sometimes inappropriate. Thus information displayed on the social networking sites gives the hotel owners a knowledge of the competitors are doing and could be their next move and strategy. To monitor the hotels marketing and advertising efforts on the social front, the digital PR must monitor the slogans and campaigns which include hash tags of the brand and the names of the top officials of the hotel like CEO or founders. Some popular tools and Apps that can be used by the Hotel Industry as a part of social media marketing are discussed below. (Boicey, 2013) Qwaya (Qwaya, 2015) (Facebook ads tool for professionals) - it can be utilized to manage the facebook ad campaign. (Howard, Mangold and Johnston, 2014) Checkfront (Smarter Online Bookings for Tours, Activities and rentals) - this is an online booking and payment processing system for tourism. It considers payments regarding rooms, tours, activities and rentals. The bookings, tariffs, offers and packages can be manages here. (Checkfront Online Bookings, 2015) AdClarity (Competitive Intelligence for Media) - it monitors the competitors campaigns regarding the social media marketing so that the hotel owners can emulate the success of the competitors and avoid their mistakes. (Perelman et al., 2015) (Hootsuite Social Media Management, 2014) Conclusion In the current economic situation it is impossible for the hotel industries to ignore the relevance of the social media. It is up to the hotels that are able to utilize the benefits of the social media marketing to the full level. Sometimes it is seen that some hotels engage in social media marketing but do not give proper importance to this type marketing strategy. (The Search Engine Shop, 2014)The accounts created are not active or the hotels never appointed a digital PR to manage the social media. We have discussed about the problems associated with the absence of social media marketing. 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