Create personalised interactions with your loyal and potential guests: Tarun Juyal

How is social media marketing helping you?

In a bigger picture, social media platforms are beneficial for hotel business because they offer an opportunity to create personalised interactions with your loyal and potential guests, which can be leveraged to yield more direct online bookings.  Travel and Hospitality in the last few years have increasingly focussed on engaging the guest through the social platforms and try to understand the needs of every possible guest. Communication with guests is paramount, it is the time where we foster our relationships and perhaps can establish new relationships. However, post covid, building trust is critical. The main focus of communication is about safety and hygiene and various steps which the hotel is taking to for all patrons and employees in regard to COVID-19.

What are the trending and most searched terms for social media marketing for hotels?

Hashtags that are more relevant such as ‘#visituslater’ or ‘#visitusonline’ was high on trend until few weeks back.  Similarly, hashtags like #DontCancelPostpone #TravelTomorrow #readytotravel is a reminder that we are all in this together — hotels, restaurants, tourism boards, convention bureaus, and travellers alike. Also #bedandbreakfast, #hoteldeals, #wecare #luxuryhotels #safeandsecure #staycation are also some of the most searched terms.

Which according to you is the most suitable medium for social media marketing? LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or twitter?

The best bet in Social media marketing for quick ROI are Instagram & Facebook Advertising - Instagram now boasts more than 500 million monthly active users and commands one of the highest audience engagement rates in social media, 58 per cent higher than Facebook and 2000 per cent higher than Twitter.

Facebook allows more advanced targeting than any other advertising platform on earth. Advertisers can target by location (within a 5-mile radius), job description, interests, past activity, and many other incredibly valuable criteria.

Do you feel that in any way you are eroding the privacy of guests by connecting with them on social media?

No, not at all. Needless to say, social media has become an inseparable part of our lives today. And believe it or not, these millennials won’t select a hotel for their stay without a “social proof”. For this reason, your credibility on social media plays an important role in your guest’s purchase decision. By carrying out your hotel’s social media marketing, you get a chance to impress your guests even before they visit your hotel. Type of your audience certainly depends on the services you’re offering at your hotel and of course, your hotel location also play an important role.

In your experience, what percentage of social media marketing converts into sales? 

By engaging one out of every five minutes spent online, social media takes up a significant portion of internet users’ behaviour. Nearly 2.1 billion people have social media accounts and nearly 60per cent of them access social media platforms more than once a day.  This surely helps in increasing footfall and sales, but you can’t quantify it with absolute numbers.  Surely you can tell how impactful it is by looking at engagement levels.In short, the brand awareness built by social media impacts early in the customer journey to the purchase process.