There are several long-term approaches to social media and plenty of theory behind it that will deepen your understanding of the social media phenomenon and allow you to create fantastic social media marketing strategies – but no one has time for that research and planning during high season.
How can you get the most out of your social media during the busiest time of year without having to dedicate hours of time to it? Here are a few tips to make it quick and easy:
Want to learn how to make the most of your social media year round? This great download is a must:
The Hotelier's Guide to Social Proof Marketing
Images
Travel is an emotional experience. Leisure travellers seek out a feeling that travel provides, whether that be excitement, relaxation, wonder, enlightenment, or anything else. Images are one of the easiest ways to reach out to a person’s emotions, and are also a quick and easy way to create content for your social media while you are busy over season. A quick snap and a little caption is all you need to craft interesting content, and, on platforms such as Instagram, you aren’t even expected to add a caption.
Images are an easy way to reach out to someone's emotionsLive content
Content doesn’t always have to be mulled over and planned in advance. Has today turned out to be a fantastic day with good weather and plenty of guests are enjoying your swimming pool? Then write a quick post and tell people. It needn’t take more than a minute of your time and you can get back to the action without having had to think up ideas for your social media content.
Schedule
While live posting is a good way to get content up while you’re on the go, it’s not always possible to take even a few seconds away from things like a busy lunch service. Over the high season, scheduling social media is a good way to keep it alive even when you feel like you might not be. Whenever there’s a lull in the action spend a few minutes scheduling your social media so that you have fresh content coming out. Facebook allows you to schedule posts so that they are published at predetermined times, and Tweetdeck allows you to do the same for Twitter. There are also tools such as Buffer that allow you to schedule social media for all your platforms in one place.
Get mobile
You are probably going to be on your feet and in the action throughout high season, and sitting in front of the computer might be out of the question. Luckily, though, the majority of social media platforms have mobile apps, so all you have to do is look down at your phone for a few moments. You will still be able to be in the centre of things while keeping your social media alive.
Share
Retweeting and sharing others’ content is a very quick way to let your audience know you’re still around and open for business in the near future. Are you right near Dartmoor and you notice that someone has posted a picture of some adorable Dartmoor ponies? Just share it. You are still getting engaging content onto your pages, and giving the person whose content you shared a bit of an ego boost.
Stay on top of things
Just because your property is bursting at the seams it doesn’t mean you should neglect the basics of a social media presence. Check regularly for anything posted by your followers that needs to be attended to. Reply to messages and acknowledge mentions, even when you are busy. Now is not the time to let people feel like you don’t care about past, current and potential visitors.
Feature image courtesy of Rosaura Ochoa
