Incorporate Local Attractions into your Hotel’s Social Media Strategy

It should not be news by now that an optimized Facebook page can have an impact on your hotel's bottom line. Tagging photos, filling out the short and long descriptions, general information, and other fields are available for optimization on the Facebook page. What else can hotel marketers actively do to bring in more fans to the Facebook page? The following suggestions are for refining your social media marketing strategy using attractions. We do this in the hopes that these ideas stir up other online marketing ideas specific to your property.

1. Choose a local attraction near your property.

The obvious choice is to pick an attraction or event with which your hotel is already partnered. Whether it is through a special offers package or some other form of partnership. If you are a smaller, independent property without any strong ties to a local establishment, find something relevant to your property. For example, if your property hosts many families with kids, consider your nearby theme park or other prominent family-friendly attraction. Pick something that draws people to your area, so it receives a lot of traffic.

2. Bring the fascination into your online conversations.

Seek out the establishment's business page and Like the page. Share its Facebook content directly with your fans by using the Share button on the post. This will alert the attraction's page that you shared its content and the post on your page will still show the brand as the original author. This can put you on the radar of the page's managers, thus opening the door for possible future promotions or partnerships. If your hotel has a blog, write a post about something exciting going on with the attraction. Then post that to your Facebook page and tag the page. Don't forget to include hashtags. Promoting the specific post can be a great, cost-effective way to increase site traffic and direct bookings! Consider using keywords in your posts such as "near [name of theme park]," but make sure to creatively incorporate the keywords and provide value to your fans, as it could be easy to come across as spammy.

3. Utilize Facebook's paid opportunities.

Facebook provides many ways to get your content viewed by more people, and it can work with budgets, both small and large. Running paid ads on Facebook can be a great way to increase your fan base or site traffic, depending on the destination URL. Try running ads drawing people to your hotel because of its proximity to the local attraction. If you have a special, mention it in the ad. Try paying to boost the specific post discussing the attraction. Play around with the different paid advertising options on Facebook and see what works the best, depending on your specific campaign goals.

Some possible results of incorporating a local attraction into your social media marketing are potential partnerships with the attraction, improved search results, and higher engagement and reach on your Facebook page. Of course, this can all lead to an increase in bookings!  The key is to be natural and not to seem forced. You also don't want to push too much of the same content at one time. Make sure to monitor Unlikes as this can be a useful performance indicator. Social media marketing is a crucial element of any hotel's online marketing strategy.  Depending on the hotel's budget and resources, there are varying degrees of how involved to get with social media. Think outside of the box and try something new with your online marketing…you never know what results you may see until you try!