by Michelle Conaghan, 25th November 2011
According to a Hubspot survey of marketeers in 2011, this was the year of measurement and return on investment from social media. I disagree, as I believe the return has always been there. The challenge was that we did not know how to set out and measure our desired outcomes.
I have seen a distinct change of pace in the way hoteliers now regard and value social media along with the actions we are taking as an industry. We have gone from asking 'how much time should I spend?' and 'what training requirements do we need?' to 'what should I budget for social next year? I want to do it right'.
Doing it 'right' means having a plan. And that plan must be integrated into your overall marketing and business plan. Social media goals must align themselves with the overall goals of your organization and must obtain the desired results.
1. Create a plan
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Decide on your goals and align these with the marketing and business plan.
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Agree on a level of sustained activity to include status updates, posting images and seeking engagement.
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Set the number, type and frequency of offers or promotions you want to promote to your community.
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Assign responsibility for the activity
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Ensure consistency across the brand and compliment or amplify marketing activity
2. Set a baseline
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Take a pulse of your presence on social media at a point in time.
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Prepare a competitor comparison.
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Consider measuring elements like; website referral stats, fan numbers, growth rate average, time spent on website, rate of new sign ups… to name but a few.
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Set targets for growth and engagement for each campaign.
3. Manage your time
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According to Hubspot's survey most marketers are now spending on average 5 - 6 hours on social media per week.
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Allow between 2 – 4 hours per month to training and updating your knowledge
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Use a management tools such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or Seesmic to schedule, monitor and manage your presence online.
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Planning will allow you to manage your time effectively
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Your time is valuable so do consider how will you scale the response from the hotel as and when your presence increases
4. Some key metrics to consider
I have included a list of some of the metrics you might use to track your activity and results. The quality of your tracking will determine the quality of your results. Each campaign should be considered strategically before launch to evaluate the goals and the outcomes.
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Site traffic before and after
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Number of calls and extent of enquiries
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Number of recommendations or review posts
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Booking volumes and value
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Referrals from social media
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Quality and value of your Fans/followers
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Level of engagement
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Female to male ratio
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Age demographic
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Conversions on offers/promotions redeemed
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Numbers of database sign ups
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Social advertising reports
- Hotels and Social Commerce – Master the Facebook Opportunity
- Hubspot
- 2012 Digital trends: What lies ahead for the hotel and lodging industry
