Social media has been discussed at length for around a decade now. But despite the hold Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram have over most of our social lives, there still exists some pretty big myths when it comes to using social media for business.
Let’s take a look at some of these common misconceptions– are any of them holding you back when it comes to promoting your property on social?
1. Social Media Is a Sales Tool
Of course, on a basic level, social media for brands is a sales tool. The problem comes when you start treating it like one. Think about why people use social media: to socialize with friends and family, network, and discover interesting and relevant content. If you’re using your hotel’s Facebook presence to relentlessly self-promote at every opportunity, you’re doing it all wrong and it won’t be long before you start losing your audience and visibility on the platform as a result. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be using social to share enticing offers, or drive traffic back to your blog, but overly salesy content should take a backseat in favour of meaningful, topical posts and helpful social exchanges.
2. We Don’t Have Enough Content To Feed a Social Campaign
This is another biggie that holds a lot of small hotels and resorts back. But the thing is; social media moves fast, really fast. Sure, this fast pace can be daunting if you think of it in terms of trying to keep up, but it has its advantages too. Since there’s so much content being posted to your guests’ social feeds on a daily basis, there’s nothing to stop you repurposing past content regularly. Lots of people will have missed it, or seen it first time round but forgotten about it. If it’s still interesting, helpful and relevant, there’s no harm in posting it again.
3. You Need a Huge Audience To Be Successful On Social Media
Collecting followers and expanding your audience is great – it means people like your hotel and what you offer enough to subscribe and receive regular updates.
But as always, it’s the quality and not just the quantity of the audience that matters. Just because a Facebook user is following you, it doesn’t mean they’re actually reading what you post. In a similar vein, even if they ‘Like’ your content, they may not necessarily like your content. Instead of getting too caught up in these fluff metrics, seek the stats that really matter – shares, click-throughs, comments and conversions.
4. Social Media Is a Separate Strategy
Social media is not it’s own, independent strategy; it should operate as just one cog in part of a well oiled marketing machine. For example, without a solid content strategy, you’ll have nothing to post. Without a well designed, easy to navigate website that showcases your property, any traffic you drive from social will bounce. A good social strategy depends on a coming together of other digital tactics to be successful.
Have you bought into any of these social media misconceptions? Any other myths you’d like to see busted? Let us know in the comments below!
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