This blog on Marketing with Social Channels is the second post in our Hotel Marketing 101 series. In the next post, we'll tell you how to use advertising campaign tools to promote your business.

Hotel Marketing 101: Marketing with Social Channels

In the increasingly-competitive world of travel marketing, hotels have to be creative in promoting their properties. Property owners should be careful to use appropriate social channels to help grow their business. Deciding where to begin can be a daunting task if you're doing it on your own, and an expensive undertaking if you hire someone else to do it for you.

For starters, you need to know your typical guests and where they are looking when researching travel. Know what brings visitors to your area and be part of the conversation that is happening around your destination. Maybe your destination is known for specific landmarks, maybe it’s the location of an annual convention, maybe it’s a popular place for weddings. Knowing why people visit allows you to fully engage with them. Highlight the unique aspects of your area and your property with image and video galleries, and give site users the ability to share across social channels. Invite visitors to share their travel experiences, leave reviews for your property and easily interact with your website.

Don't have a website? You can easily create a simple, yet effective, website using sites like Wordpress.com.

Next, choose the appropriate channels for promoting your property. First and foremost, your own website should be the number one source of information about your property. A blog is a great way to engage potential guests while also providing fresh content on your site (think organic SEO). Always include social media sharing icons and subscriber options on each blog post as well.

Quick tip: E-newsletters are a great way to stay relevant and visible to potential visitors. If you want to do it yourself, try an email provider like MailChimp which is free-of-charge and has pre-designed templates for ease-of-use.

Facebook is an excellent channel for engaging a diverse audience. Post links to your blogs on your hotel Facebook page to generate and maintain reciprocal traction. Invite local residents to contribute their own stories and images. Most importantly, monitor your page for undesirable content and be sure to respond to user posts in a timely fashion.

Twitter can be an excellent tool for allowing you to build report with local tourism partners by announcing last minute travel deals, hotel promos, activities and upcoming events.

Develop your social media goals around these three criteria: visibility, relevance, and simplicity. Spreading your efforts across all channels may increase your visibility but greatly reduce your relevance and simplicity of access to qualified viewers. Set realistic goals for the social channels you have chosen and give it time to develop.

This is the first post in our Hotel Marketing 101 series where we will be giving you the necessary information to successfully market your hotel and increase reservations.

Hotel Marketing 101: Leading the Conversation

Imagine this scenario; you overhear two teenage girls having a conversation in a coffee shop. One girl is talking about how her parents are buying a car for her birthday and the other is talking about what a jerk her boyfriend is. What you have just witnessed could be called a conversation, the only problem is that there’s no filler. Nothing that is relevant to you, no pertinent information exchanged just fluff and nonsense.

Great marketers will tell you that what fuels a successful marketing machine is quality content. The hottest website design is pointless without rich, well-crafted content. A brochure is just an attractive piece of paper if it doesn't say anything relevant. Likewise, conversation between two people is pretty boring if neither of them is really saying anything. Yet content is something few business owners invest in developing, leaving potential customers with half the story.

Take a moment to evaluate your website content. When is the last time you updated it? Are you communicating pertinent information to your potential guests? It is easy to view your own website with blinders, believing that you've accomplished the important task of just having a website. But does it effectively communicate what potential customers need to know about your business? Ask a friend to read through your website. Or better yet, think about a product you would like to purchase. Go to a few websites and research that product. You can easily see the gaps in information as you desperately search for details like product dimensions, available colors, or even which store has it in stock right now. Unfortunately, these gaps in information can also happen on your website and they can equal potential revenue loss as frustrated customers turn elsewhere for the information they seek.

Now more than ever, consumers are making purchasing decisions on an emotional level but more importantly they are researching a greater variety of sources before making these purchases. So first you must be found, be where they are looking for information, and be the richest source of information. Don’t give away this opportunity and corresponding revenue to Online Travel Agencies (which we went over in one of our posts about OTAs). And finally, use your content to really communicate who you are to potential customers. Lead the conversation, and avoid blowing a lot of hot air.