Social Media Presentation

With Tiffany White

Hilton Garden Inn & Homewood Suites Shreveport/Bossier City

Social Media Revolution

http://youtu.be/DYedZth9ArM

General Social Media Tips

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

Page vs. Group vs. Profile

PAGE*

• Ideal for business

• Allows people to “like”

the page

• Only manageable by the

administrators

• Other people can

comment on your page,

but not in a prominent

way

Page vs. Group vs. Profile

GROUP

• Usually used as a place

for discussion for a small

group of people

• All members of the group

are visible

• Easy way to share

documents, schedule

events, and chat with

members

• Can’t view Insights

Page vs. Group vs. Profile

PROFILE

• Personal profile

• Used to connect with

friends and family

• Can only have 5000

friends

• Can’t view Insights

• If Facebook finds out

you’re a company, they’ll

delete your profile

Define Your Goal

Ask yourself:

Why do you want a Facebook page?

What do you want your Facebook to achieve?

Why do you want people to keep coming back to your Facebook page?

Examples of goals:

• Generate traffic to your website

•Increase sales

• Build a community

• Find leads; generate revenue

•Provide better customer service

•Increase awareness

•Educate people about your brand/hotel

What’s in it for them?

• Why should people come back to your page?

• Don’t over-share info they can get from brand.com

• Give people a reason to come to your page• Exclusive offers or rates

• Behind the scenes

• Give audience a more personal experience than they would on your brand.com website

Don’t sell

• Social media isn’t for selling; it’s for educating

• Share things that are useful to your fans

• Engage with your fans• Ask questions

• Take polls

• Open the floor for suggestions

• More engagement = more exposure

• Don’t post ads for your hotel: When was the last time you saw an ad in your newsfeed and got excited to read it?

• Facebook is less about marketing and sales and more about conversations and relationships.

Frequency of posts

• How often you post is completely up to you

• Quality > Quantity, but don’t disappear! If you don’t want to pay attention to your own Facebook page, then why should your fans?

• Post regularly – Set a goal for yourself ( 2-3 times per week)

• Posts should be valuable. Don’t post just to post.

• How much time to do you have to respond?• Be sure to respond to all comments – good or bad.• If a comment is bad, respond through a personal message and delete the

comment. Don’t delete the comment without solving the problem or responding.

• If you want people to engage with your page, you need to engage with them too.

• Create a dialogue

Insights

Use Insights to learn about your audience

• Gender

• Location• When should you

post?

• Target certain areas

Insights

• Use the “Pages to Watch” feature to keep up with your competitors• Fluctuation in page likes

for the week

• Number of posts for the week

• Engagement on their posts for the week

• Highlight things that your property offers that your competitors do not

HootSuite

Don’t have time to dedicate to social media everyday? Use HootSuite to schedule Facebook posts.

Facebook Ads Manager

Use Facebook ads to build your audience, increase post engagement, etc.

•Target by geography, interest

•Live analytics

•No minimum budget

• Use the ads manager tools to choose who you want to see your ads

• Can make it as specific of broad as you’d like

• Use analytics to track success

• Can go back and edit ads later

• Stop ads that aren’t showing results

Facebook Ads Manager

Facebook Ads Manager

• Facebook ads fit any budget• Only pay for what you use• Set start and end dates unless you want your ads to run forever

Ad Types: News Feed Ads

Page Likes Email Sign-Ups

Website VisitsPost Engagement

Ad Types: Sidebar Ads

• Similar to News Feed ads, but these show up on your sidebar.

• Just like with Google searches and Google ads, these may cater to your interests and internet activity.

Tips for posts

• Keep it simple – Try to keep it under 250 characters. People are turned off by too many words

• Use pictures!• Use pictures that will draw your audience into the post.

• If people only see your post with words in their news feeds, they’re less likely to engage.

• With their permission, take pictures of guests enjoying themselves in the public areas – grills, restaurant, events, lobby . People love seeing pictures of themselves!

• Pictures of people enjoying your amenities is a lot more effective then you just telling people about them.

• Use Facebook as your page

Twitter

Getting started with Twitter

• Define your goal

• Why should people follow you?

Examples of Goals:

• Generate traffic to your website

• Increase sales• Build a community• Find leads; generate revenue• Provide better customer

service• Increase awareness and stay

top of mind• Educate people about your

brand/hotel

Interact!

• Engagement is even more important with Twitter• How can you interact?

• Retweeting (RT)• Favoriting• Replying• Using #hashtags• Direct messaging (DM)

HootSuite

• You can use HootSuite to schedule tweets too!

• Downside of using HootSuite with Twitter: Pictures show up as links instead of pictures on your page

Left: Without HootSuiteBelow: With HootSuite

Twitter Analytics

• http://analytics.twitter.com

• Have to put in a credit card for Twitter ads in order to view

• View Twitter activity• See which tweets gets the most engagement and what type of

engagement (favorites, retweets, etc.)

• See data for a 28-day period

• Analyze your followers• Interests

• Location

• Gender

Tweet a lot, but not too much

• Basic rule: tweet 3-5 times a day

• Studies show that people who tweet more frequently attract more followers

• Don’t tweet just to tweet – strategize!

• Be interactive – reply to tweets• Engage with your followers

• Retweet (events coming to your area, inspirational quotes, your hotel in the news, tweets that mention you, tweets from the brand)

• Utilize the “search” tool• Search for tweets that are mentioning your area

• Answer questions

• Reply!

A guide to #hashtags

• A hashtag, or #, acts as a search tool; shows tweets about a certain subject

• Use up to 3 hashtags max

• Too many hashtags can be overwhelming

• If you want more people to find your tweet, use popular hashtags

• Create unique hashtags for promotions

• See what’s trending on Twitter, and join in on the conversation

A few popular hashtags

• #FF or #followfriday

• Give a shout-out to a few of your followers

• #TBT or #throwbackthursday

• Usually older pictures. This can be of your property, past events, etc.

• There’s also #WBW or #waybackwednesday and #FBF or #fallbackfriday

• http://hashtagify.me/popular

• View the top 30 hashtags for the past 30 days

Gaining followers

• Twitter Ads

• Follow then follow• If I follow you then hopefully you’ll follow me

• Favorite then follow• If I favorite your tweets then hopefully you’ll follow me

• Offer then follow• If you follow me, then I’ll give you something (good for promotions)

• If someone follows you, follow them back (strategically)

• Follow your interests and other businesses like yours• Discover compelling content

• Inspire your own ideas

• Connect and build relationships with people in your niche

• Engage in conversations

Additional Twitter tips

• Use the “Lists” feature to organize who you follow

• Tweet at different times

• Bitly: http://bit.ly• Shorten links to use

less characters

• Customize links

Instagram

Why have an Instagram?

• Instagram is a compelling way to showcase your property through pictures and short videos

• Give potential customers a visual way to connect to your property

• People are drawn to visual images

What can you showcase on your Instagram?

• Behind the scenes looks at daily operation in every department

• Guests • Use the tag feature to tag your guests

• Learn what people love about your brand and showcase that in a creative way on Instagram

• Tell your story and express your company’s mission through visual statements• Instagram isn’t for selling your property; it’s

about connecting with your fans

Filters

• Use in-app filters to edit your pictures

• Edit your photos using a number of different in-app tools, including:• Adjust (rotate your picture)

• Brightness

• Contrast

• Highlights

• Sharpen

• Etc.

Instagram tips

• Instagram is meant to show things in real time. Posts can’t be scheduled.

• Like Twitter, use hashtags to make it easier for people to find your picture and profile

• Tag your location• Click on your location to see all the

pictures taken at your property

• Note: You can’t post clickable links on your pictures

Iconosquare

• Iconosquare is a website that helps you keep track of your likes, comments, followers, and statistics• http://iconosquare.com/

• Monthly analysis

• Engagement

• Hashtag impact

• Community

• Can also like and comment on your computer, rather than on your phone

Free Instagram tools

VSCOcam Pic Stitch

• Publish pictures to Instagram without having to crop anything out

• Pictures in Instagram automatically crop to squares

• Available for free on iPhone and Android phones

InstaSize

• Put multiple pictures together in a collage to post as one picture on Instagram

• Available for free on iPhone and Android phones

• Free picture editing app for iPhone and Android

• Filters and features that are more visually appealing than using just the Instagram filters

Additional Social Media Tips

Manage your social media effectively in less time

• Make a schedule and stick to it• Set goals for yourself for each of your social media accounts

• Enlist help• Ask your co-workers for ideas for things to post on your accounts

• Have your co-workers take pictures during their day-to-day activities to use online

• Set aside a few minutes each day just for social media• Respond to comments

• Engage with followers

• Utilize HootSuite to schedule posts

• Ensure that all of the information on your sites stays up-to-date

Cross promotion

• Use each of your social media sites to promote each other• Promote your Facebook page on Twitter and Instagram, your

Instagram page on Twitter and Facebook, and your Twitter page on Instagram and Facebook

• Try to make all of your social media tags match• www.facebook.com/hgihws

• www.twitter.com/hgihws

• www.instagram.com/hgihws

• Market your social media accounts• Business cards

• Email signatures

Additional tools

• High quality stock photos• Unsplash: http://www.unsplash.com/

• Photo Pin: http://www.photopin.com/

• Pixabay: http://www.pixabay.com/

• Free photo editing websites (No download required)• Picmonkey: http://www.picmonkey.com

• Pixlr: http://www.pixlr.com

• Social media business pages• http://www.facebook.com/business

• http://www.business.twitter.com/

• http://business.instagram.com/

Questions?Comments?Concerns?Complaints?