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How You Can Use Instagram to Drive Your Hotel Bookings
It’s not uncommon for most travelers to now looking to social media as inspiration for their next trip. In fact, Smart Insights found that 1 in 5 travelers use social media to research their trip and, a surprising 52% will change their trip plans after browsing social media. Platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest abound with perfectly curated travel snaps from friends, influencers, and brands. Read on to find out how you can improve your hotel’s social media presence and increase your bookings.
Make It Aesthetically Appealing
If you’re trying to encourage a potential guest to book, you need your feed to look good. Don’t worry about it being perfect but it should be a reflection of your hotel and your brand. A great way to do this is to incorporate a color theme into your pictures. It doesn’t have to be obvious but sticking to a certain colour tone will help your feed look cohesive and allow your brand to be easily recognized.
A simple way to do this is to download Adobe Lightroom (which is free on iOS and Android mobiles); here you can create custom filters, save them as presets and easily apply them to your images before you upload them.
Showcase User-Generated Content
Your social media profiles are a great place to showcase guest pictures and reviews in order to build social proof. Consider creating a unique hashtag, encourage guests to use this on their pictures, and tag you in their posts. As well as building out your content library, this also provides you with authentic pictures and allows your audience to see your property through the eyes of previous guests. When using these images don’t forget to give credit to the original poster!
Create Stories and Highlights
Implementing Instagram stories is a great way to show guests a glimpse of your property and create the ‘fear of missing out effect. You can choose to show hotel rooms, amenities, or unique events that are taking place. Stories are also a fun way to interact with your audience, through the use of polls, questions, and quizzes.
You can also stop these stories from disappearing after 24 hours by adding them to your highlights, which permanently show just below your bio. A good practice is to create different highlights for each topic. Below are some examples of highlight topics you could add to your profile:
- Rooms and Amenities
- Special Offers
- Events
- Reviews
- Location
Engage With Your Audience
Once you have posted your content, don’t just log off and hope for the best. Spend some time on the platform engaging with potential and past guests. Ensure that if someone asks a question in the comments section, it’s answered. If a guest leaves a positive comment, remember to thank them for their kind words. Not only does this increase your engagement rate, which leads to more people discovering your profile, it's common courtesy and guests will feel appreciated.
Looking for Inspiration?
To get your creativity flowing, we’ve rounded up a few hotels that are using their social media presence to get ahead of the game.
- Loews Hotel is making the most of user-generated content (UGC) and story highlights.
- Sparkling Hill features stunning pictures of their property and actively re-post UGC on their stories.
- RIU Hotels easily create trip inspiration through their pictures, as well as taking the time to respond to customers' comments.
Do You Need Help With Your Digital Marketing Strategy?
Does Instagram’s algorithm leave your head spinning? Or are you simply wondering how to tie your social media strategy into your overall digital marketing strategy? Get in touch with our team of experts at Digital Hospitality today to discuss how we can improve your overall digital presence.
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