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 industry’s 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 Cornell’s Center for Hospitality Research revealed that the guest satisfaction obtained from online review score directly impact the hotel’s financial performance. The study also concluded that for increase in every one point in a hotel’s 100 point ReviewPro Global Review Indexcauses 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
One of the key roles of social media from a marketing perspective is the development of a client based platform. It is becoming an increasingly important part of any business’s marketing. Businesses can utilize existing online platforms to build networks of current and potential clients. By being active online allows businesses to connect with their customers in innovative ways to become a trusted source of information and convey the passion they have for their industry.
Anderson, C. (2012). The impact of social media on lodging performance. Cornell Hospitality Reports, 12(15).
4 2.3 Social Media …………………………………..… …………………………………………. 5 2.4 Apps and Mobile Devices ……………………..… ………………………………………… 5 3. Application of Online Marketing in a Hospitality Organization (Hilton Hotels) …..
Social media is an effective media of communication between the consumers and companies. The companies are using social media for improving consumer engagement and brand lift. This essay gives a brief overview of social media platforms and how effective they have been. It shows that the whole marketing concept has undergone radical transformation due to the social media interaction. The essay ends in conclusion depicting what marketers need to take care in order to have successful social media campaign.
We cannot deny how big of an impact social media has on our lives now, not only on people but businesses too. It has opened a whole new door to the business world and given them a big opportunity to interact and attract a larger amount of customers. It’s given us a new and faster way of communication by exchanging pictures, stories, news, blogs, online discussions, etc. In exchange businesses have benefited by a long shot just by the click of a button. With the help of the Internet a company no longer is dependent on a particular customer base to survive because now it can reach out to a worldwide audience within seconds. It’s imaginable the countless business attributes of all social media to this day and still is growing. Social media
Social media in business continually rises to be an in important tool in everyday business and this means that communication is greatly evolving. In this development period, social media has had a prodfound impact on businesses especially in marketing. As a result, many are using social media as a communication tool regardless of the negative impacts experienced in some aspcts of social media.
Social media is capable of connecting a brand with its consumers and discover how they are being perceived, it also has the power to change perceptions and identify the key people within the business network. The unique feature of social media is that it can provide corporations and businesses solutions developed through operating with consumers and stakeholders. Basically, social media serves as a visible connection to one’s corporation and its stakeholders, consumers, suppliers, etc, who each have a defined role within the system to filter and regulate information. As mentioned earlier, the influence of social media is spreading in a proliferative pace that has resulted to an essential transformation in society, technology and business customs.
Social media is increasing on the internet very quickly, with millions of people, who have already joined it. It is a young phenomenon, impulsed by the desire of meeting and chatting with friends, on a single platform, such as Facebook® or Twitter®. But, social media means to join groups and pages, to participate to debates, to give feedbacks or reviews too. In this way, how is it useful for hotels and hospitality companies? What are the advantages? What are the drawbacks? In the first part, this essay will analyse the different advantages for hotel marketing, of employing social media. Then, it will study the drawbacks that social media pages can create against hospitality establishments.
The purpose of this report is to show that even though some state that Social Media has fallen short of their expectations, it is actually good for business, given that it enhances the visibility of their brand and helps businesses stay connected to potential customers.
Social media is defined as a group of Internet-based applications which build on the platform of Web 2.0 and the contents of these applications can be modified by all users in a participatory and collaborative method (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Social media creates a platform for companies to talk to their customers as a hybrid element of promotion mix. With the emergence of social media, the tools and strategies for companies to connect with customers have also changed (Mangold and Faulds, 2009). To adapt with the emergence of social media in the marketing, companies should have unique insights about these significances (Quan-Haase and Young, 2010). The significances of social media embody three main aspects which are technology, decision-making and purchase behaviors of customers.
As I just started as a General Manager at the hotel “Pelusos”, I reviewed the reports of our recent customers and found out that we do have millennial clients as well as a business market. However, they are not becoming returning clients because they do not feel we meet their technological needs. As we are aware thanks to social media, there is a tremendous necessity for guests to be connected all the time. This is clearly understood by majority of hotels because as the American Hotel and Lodging Associations reported, 87 percent of hotels are using social media in their marketing effort. Hence, if the hotel social media and advertisement are not been updated constantly, we are wasting a good resource for marketing and selling. Also, as Elizabeth Smith mentioned on his article, the guests experience starts long before a traveler arrives. It begins when
The purpose of this research is not to evaluate how many hoteliers vigorously using social media strategy, comparatively is to examine the area and objective of the issue why some hoteliers don’t understand and grasp the importance of social networking as a new tool of communication with its consumers or guests. Recommending solution to this issue that can help different hotelier to implement social networking strategy and technology that can boost up their occupancy rate, repeat-purchase and customer loyalty.
Especially, MO created a new social platform: Fans of MO, which is allowing loyal fans and regular visitors to share their favourite MO experience. The platform’s post will update continuously and approved by hotel’s staff. Customers sharing their hotel reviews through Tripadvisor which like an interactive travel forum. Photo, personal experience and different kind of rating are including in the Tripadvisor reviews. The updated information, photo and video will be post in the Facebook’s fans page which has over one hundred and seventy thousand people liked the page and over 1.3 million people visited this page. Conservation between the company and customer could be make at these social media.
Social media campaigns provide an insight into the competitive market to improve the communication and the brand identity of an organisation (Keller, 2014). In the case of the tourism industry, social media like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter help firms to expand their brand reach by building a relationship with customers through an open conversation process (Ammerman, 2015). A social media campaign helps the tourism industry to achieve more customer satisfaction and loyalty. Considering the words of Ramaseshan and Stein (2014), it is essential for a social media campaign to select a suitable social media platform for engaging the customers with the right choice of messages. Therefore, a tactical plan for a social media campaign is going to be developed for Shropshire Hills Tourism, UK. The tactical plan attempts to create potential leads by developing a photography competition campaign on Facebook.
The advances in mobile technology while not revolutionary, will nonetheless have an impact on revenue management (Latest Trends in Reservation Systems 2011). The emergence of social media and Generation Y being mostly associated with these technologies would mean that hoteliers would need to be aware that customers also seek validation from third parties such as from bloggers and reviews given from these parties do influence customers. Fuggle (2016) states that it is important for any hotel or travel firm to establish and nurture an online presence and also to note that it would become part of a daily day to day activity to maintain that presence. According to Fuggle (2016), a survey undertaken by TrustYou states that 95% of respondents would read reviews online before booking. Maintaining an online presence would require a fair amount of effort, however the word of mouth advertising which is what the business gets in return can be beneficial for the business (Fuggle 2016).