Facebook, the world’s largest social network with more than 750 million users, has become the centre of attention for many hoteliers that see a great opportunity for their hotel to appear on this resource. Although in the past it was not taken advantage of, the hoteliers now see it as a must.
Just being on facebook is not enough. As well as interacting with the customers that ask questions on the wall, it is important to know how to create a community that will speak about your business and that might even find on facebook a new reservations channel, however, this is not the main aim.
If you think that you do not have enough fans or you would like to have more, to develop your community, try to respond to the next 10 questions and find out if you are doing everything you can.
- 1. Have you suggested the page to your friends?
Within the fan page, in the section “Invite friends.”
- 2. Do you have a customer database for promotional matters and have you invited them by email to become fans?
Take this time to let them know about any current promotion.
- 3. Do you create interesting content and publish fairly frequently?
Go over all the entries in your blog, if you have one, like the relevant content from other sources. Humour and excitement are prone to spread quickly, acting like very effective hooks on social networks.
- 4. Do you make an effort to connect the online and offline world?
Organise events with your customers which brings the social networks into the picture, uploading the photos during the event, providing some benefit or prize to active users of your online communities…and a large et cetera.
- 5. Do you have buttons of the social networks that you participate in on your webpage?
Buttons-link, or “Like” and “Follow us” buttons.
- 6. Do you put the facebook and/or Twitter links as the signature at the bottom of your emails?
- 7. Do you provide the URL of your facebook page on the stationery and promotional material?
- 8. Do you offer some benefit or permanent discount to your customers for using the social networks to carry out an action connected with your business?
- 9. Do you carry out advertisement campaigns on Facebook?
For this, it is advisable to have professional support and advice.
- 10. Do you organise competitions and raffles?
You could build the loyalty, at the same, of your community members. Be sure to use an application that restricts the user from participating without clicking on “I like.”
If you have responded yes to all the questions, you will likely see this reflected in the fairly acceptable number of fans, if not, be patient… remember that it is not so important the size of your community but rather the strength of the bonds between its members.
