Photo: depositphotos.com

Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) noted that social media is collaborative, dynamic, and interactive online applications, platforms, and media, which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content on social media platforms.

Engaging guests via social media networking is a sustaining trend of investment for tourism and hospitality firms, termed “social media engagement.” Social media has changed the way individuals interact with each other and is redefining the way firms connect with their customers in the hospitality and tourism industry.

Social Media Tools

Experts generally, outline three kinds of social media tools: listening platforms, publishing platforms, and competitive analysis platforms. Separately, each tool tackles social media from a different angle. Together, they can help your brand achieve all your social media and business goals. To understand what tools are necessary for a successful social media campaign, you have to look at the process. It’s helpful to look at social media management as a loop with four separate steps: content creation, content publishing, listening and response and content analyzing and comparing.

Social Media Tools and Analysis

Social media tools are necessary if you want to build a presence on any platform. Social media analysis is the study of data related to a brand’s activities on social network sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter now X, others deemed appropriate based on your goals/needs. Your analysis goal would be to identify insights for improvement and understand what you are currently doing is working. Listening platforms, publishing platforms, and competitive analysis platforms constitute the majority of social media platforms. Listening Platforms can monitor different platforms and identify statements about your brand and products. Are statements accurate? Misunderstood etc.? Relevant? Publishing platforms help you spread your content. Platforms like Hootsuite and Percolate allow you to share content easily, posting across multiple platforms at once. Finally, competitive analysis platforms allow you to focus on metrics that matter to your business.

Additionally, there are lots of social media tools available for free that provide good business value per the Huffington Post. Ultimately the ability to utilize social media tools collectively will yield the best results. To apply these tools requires time and human resources. Answering the following questions could help your planning and assessment of social media effectiveness and utilization.

  • Am I growing my fanbase fast enough? My question, what does fast enough mean? Define it!
  • What are my competitors doing to grow their fanbase quicker than mine? Know your competitive set and what they are doing.
  • Do I post enough content? Again, what is enough content? On the other hand, what is too much?
  • Am I posting content at the right time? Knowing when (date and time of day) to post can be extremely helpful, your research should help make this decision.
  • Is the amount of engagement I get good, bad, or okay? Do we the business have goals for which we are targeting? Are they reasonable and attainable?
  • Is one particular category of content getting more engagement than the others? This question lends itself to a content analysis. Is all content equal? The answer is no!
  • Is there a content category that’s not helping my engagement but takes a long time to produce? Refer to the notes above.
  • Am I boosting enough posts? Some folks seem to go overboard with boosts. I would revisit the discussion of goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics.
  • Do my competitors get more engagement because they boost their posts or because they have great content? Revisit your comp set analysis!
  • How fast should I be replying to customer questions on social? Set response standards and measure against those standards.
  • Do my competitors reply faster or slower than I do? Comp Set analysis!
  • What content worked for previous holidays and events that I can use to help inspire the content for this year? Holidays and seasonal data should be tracked and saved for planning and development of new social media programs.

Moving forward, operators should also be aware of the current trends in social media. Some of these trends are noted below.

Social Media Trends

Notable social media trends could include Video and focuses on specific companies like YouTube, or content creators, creating a community, digital trust concerns, Instagram Threads etc. Additionally, social media trends include the following with my notations.

  • Video is king: I have always used YouTube but in the beginning never thought of it as a social media platform for marketing and promotion. Obviously, I was behind in that thinking. Years ago, one of my students was explaining to me who Mr. Beast was, and thought, is there money in that? How quickly we have adapted. What we have found is that effective videos typically should be short and to the point, but longer video pieces have their place. They can take the form of an extended podcast or an explanation of content and analysis. For example, we (our program) posted a longer student video presentation explaining the importance of clean water as an example of the United Nations sustainability goals. It was well-received and had a good number of viewers.
  • Playful content is the new “brand personality”: Playful content connects with authenticity and allows the guest, viewer and or customer a chance to know the company or brand doing the posting.
  • The Expansion of social commerce – Social to promote and facilitate eCommerce transactions: It involves leveraging social networks to help with product discovery, recommendations, and sales, combining social interaction with eCommerce trends and functionalities. Maybe think of it as the marriage of E-Commerce and social media platforms.
  • SEO is important for social channels too: Search engine optimization needs to be robust, efficient, and useful for social channels. When many potential guests start to look for your products and its competitors via search engines, they need to be able find your hospitality business quickly and efficiently.
  • Behind-the-scenes content and reimagined transparency: Authenticity is in demand, and audiences want content that lends itself to the transparency of business practices. Don’t make guests figure out your business challenges; share them and share what you and your business are doing to make a challenge better.
  • Authentic content resonates across platforms: As noted above the need for businesses and brands to be authentic and who “keep it real” because guests and potential guests embrace that service attitude.
  • The boom of the creator and influencer economy: I admit that I cringe a bit when a student tells me they want to be a social influencer. My thinking has been, what do they know, and why would someone want to hear their opinions? I think that about myself all the time. What occurred to me is that businesses and brands were not providing the content and insights that their guests and customers wanted, so influencers filled that void.
  • Personalized customer care is a consumer preference: As always service, service. Service is key. Personalized care is embraced. I remember in early industry training that a good memory is a benefit for anyone providing service. Remembering a return guest, what their preferences are (now supported with tracked data) and why they enjoyed their stay are all the personal touch that is a great asset for a business.
  • Marketing and customer care teams use AI regularly: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a tricky business. AI as a tool for learning, promotion, marketing, and more is here to stay. However, for many, AI can be the opposite of authenticity. This does not need to be the case. We need to remember the parameters and limitations for AI and what we are asking AI to do. The issues of false testimonials are clearly a negative. We had a person we know and who knows our program look us up on AI, note I do not know the exact question he asked. The description was flattering but not fully accurate. In fact, the response received detailed our building location and facilities incorrectly. I have no idea where these false facts came from. Therefore, the information generated by AI (CHATGPT) was randomly contrived. This example makes the case for lodging properties to monitor the AI generated materials consistently. As I encourage in the classroom, use AI to identify resources, but always cite those resources and be clear in the questions or tasks that you ask of AI.
  • Social data is key: Social media data should be shared throughout a hotel and its departments to better utilize data Experts encourage digging deep into the data available to identify new trends and or challenges.
  • The evolution of social teams and titles: The jobs associated with social media continue to evolve and grow. As many of us can remember, a revenue manager was once a new job. Effective social media requires time and human resources. Depending on the size and complexity of your social media channels, you are likely to need multiple people to create and sustain an effective social media. The discussion below shares some of the job titles and descriptions of social media positions.
  • Creating a Social Media Team: As social media evolves, so do the teams and the skills needed to run it successfully. For example, Gabby Grahek, strategic services consultant at Sprout, and a social media thought leader, noted: I’m hoping and praying for social specialties on social teams. With organizations continuing to experiment with social, build a budget for these teams and elevate their maturity levels when you can. She also notes, we’ll see niche social professions develop on corporate teams. Evaluate your current team structure and identify gaps. This is a great opportunity to take additional ownership over your career path and pitch a new role that fits your skillset. Or make the case to your manager that you need more headcount to accommodate a new role.

Remember when a revenue manager in a hotel was unheard of? New positions and career paths are developing in the field of social media. Organizations may be hesitant to create new positions unless they are warranted and create value for an organization. The question that needs to be addressed is, can social media resources in the form of people generate enough value to earn a respectable Return on Investment (ROI)?

It should be noted that support for a social media program requires multiple tasks and people working for the platforms to remain current. A social media intern will need to keep the social platforms up to date, create and edit content, and schedule and post new content regularly and in a timely fashion. From a personal perspective the timing of the posts needs to be tested and measured for maximum impact of the post. In our shop, we post alumni profiles, but keep the profiles, which are a combination of text and photos, to two or three per month. Otherwise, a mass of profiles at one time may be considered overdoing it and dilute the value of the subject and content.

Indeed and other recruiting companies list job titles and potentially define and create social media career pathways in their work. Indeed, can also help with estimating salaries for these new positions. Some of these positions are noted below.

  • Social media intern: Interns are a great way to go when starting out down the path of developing and defining social media programs and the people that are needed to support them. A social media intern’s role is to learn the basics of social media in a business setting. Read more: Learn About Being a Social Media Intern.
  • Blogger: Bloggers are charged with creating content and in doing so maintain and generate new interest in a company and its products. Content could be white papers, articles, and contributing to blogs regularly. Content can be what drives online searches and hopefully highlights your business. Obviously, solid English and writing skills are a must, and an ability to edit the work of others is also valuable.
  • Content curator: A question here is, does the content of a post, match the platform and the goals of a business? Is this something that is already been done or overdone? Is the content current with the trends? Think of this person as an editor, selecting content, and the mix of text, photos, graphics, and videos that are appropriate.
  • Social media coordinator: A social media coordinator ensures that the operations of a social media campaign are running smoothly. They work to plan, implement, and monitor a brand’s social media presence. It’s their goal to improve brand awareness and reputation while engaging with online followers. By creating an active social media presence, they can boost sales and brand recognition.
  • Social media specialist: The focus here is staying current in terms of technology and social media trends. These individuals can organize and coordinate a social media program and or more specific campaigns.
  • Social media manager: This is a leadership or supervisory position focused on social media. For example, our program has placed some of our graduates in entry-level social media roles that have evolved into managerial and leadership positions. Read more: Learn About Being a Social Media Manager.
  • Social media community manager: Their goal is to ensure social media community members feel like they belong and are valued by the brand. Their focus is brand loyalty and community interaction.
  • Marketing associate: Marketing associates obviously focus on marketing efforts that can include product image and the management of market target segments that are all centered on the business’s brand. These social media workers will balance print, email, website content and social media.
  • Digital strategist: As one climbs the ladder of social media and works on strategy, they are assessing ways to create strategy and social media campaigns using optimal platforms and options. The effort is to enhance the brand presence based on current trends.
  • Brand manager: A brand manager, arguably going beyond social media is working to sharpen a business’s focus on its target markets. The work to align brand and message with organizational mission, goals, and objectives.
  • Digital project manager: These positions are tied to quality assurance and guest satisfaction. They help to build a trusting relationship between a business and the guest and potential guests. The focus here is also more broadly on project management.
  • Data analyst: These folks are all about mining the data and making sense of it. How did your company do in its last social media campaigns, were goals accomplished? Data could include clicks, impressions, likes and other indicators.
  • Content strategist: These folks can create content for websites, and also plan for effective use of social media platforms for a business.
  • Creative director: This is the big job and encompasses the entirety of the reprocess for a company including its social media efforts. This is a leadership role and an important one.

Additionally, another role can be influencers. It is noted that fifty percent of millennials place their faith in social media influencers’ product recommendations, and the key driver behind this trust is their authenticity! If this is a key target market for you, then perhaps this is an important social media associated role.

Going Forward

There continues to be vast opportunity in social media. It can be useful for businesses to identify social media trends and the companies engaged with these trends. Keeping abreast of research on social media trends and more. Social media planning can provide the framework for social media data and current events and be a basis to support an organization’s social media goals and objectives. To effectively do this, knowledge of social media news and current events is important. Some current news is shared below.

  • Instagram is experimenting with rectangular previews on profile grids.
  • Threads is finally working on an advanced search option.
  • X (aka Twitter) is testing the removal of like, comment, and repost buttons from replies.
  • YouTube is experimenting with picture-in-picture mid-roll ads during live streams.
  • Instagram allows users to link their Spotify accounts to save songs.
  • Threads is creating custom feeds feature where users can name their feeds.
  • Instagram now allows up to 20 images in a carousel post.
  • Instagram is developing a feature to block chat screenshots when media can only be viewed or replayed once.

Another news example is TikTok. While I am not a TikTok user, many are. It will be useful to monitor its status in anticipation of possible legal challenges. A ban could act as a catalyst that could impact many facets of social media including whether or not there is a replacement platform and strategy?

Social media is a growing and complex area of business that extends across multiple sectors. As business tools, organizations need to match their goals and objectives to the social media tools and trends that will be optimal for them to meet those goals. Currency on trends, product innovations and return on investment are key to social media success.

On the human resources side of the equation, do businesses have the personnel to perform the tasks needed for effective social media programs? Education and training will be key factors for identifying solutions. For example, options could be on the job training (OJT), or more formal educational courses that focus on technology and more specifically social media strategies and tactics. For example, it is not as easy as one might think to create coursework to address video expertise for YouTube. There are diverse efforts in this and other social media channels currently but perhaps a combination of OJT and specific social media platform education and training would be optimal. LinkedIn learning is growing as an ideal source of training.

As noted in other shared perspectives, we utilize students to assume the role of a social media coordinator for the school, and work with myself for content and our business communication coordinator for social media expertise. We also utilize our ECU Social Media Policies as guidelines. Organizations across sectors need to set the standards under which they want to engage on social media in a professional manner.

Reprinted from the Hotel Business Review with permission from www.HotelExecutive.com.