Now more than 10 years old and with billions of users, social media has given a voice to consumers on an unimaginable scale.
Use of “social” in the hospitality & leisure industry
From café goers to diners and travellers, consumers make increasing use of social media to choose and rate leisure experiences, share recommendations, feedback and/or images. According to a recent survey by H&C News, examining social media usage in the hospitality & leisure industry, leading up to its 4th February Social Media Roundtable 64% of respondents feel that social media channels are very important to their existing and target customers, with Twitter being the most used channel, followed by Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and others (e.g. Instagram, TripAdvisor , Foursquare, Vine, Flickr etc.)*.
* H&C News hosted a survey inviting marketers from across the hospitality and catering industry to provide information on their usage of social media. The results in this report were gathered between 19thDecember 2014 and 21stJanuary 2015. 132 surveys were completed. If you would like a copy of the report send an email to H&C News.
With customers discussing their experiences in open media, businesses are devoting increasing resources to “social” to engage with consumers. This applies in hospitality, where according to the H&C News survey, 63% of respondents spend between 0-10% (most between 5-10%) of their marketing budgets on social media.Indeed, the survey shows clearly that hospitality and catering company marketing teams understand the power of social channels, with the majority of respondents having used social for more than three years.
Making sense of social
Unsurprisingly, there is a direct link between the ability to measure the impact and overall effectiveness of social media working to achieve clear social goals and strategies.
Just over half of the 132 survey respondents don’t or can’t track ROI, with just under half reporting that they can. Of those, Twitter is the channel that respondents find most effective with 74%, closely followed by Facebook with 70%. Customer Engagement is the most commonly used measurement tool (over 70% of respondents), enabled by social media analytics, including mainly Facebook insights, Google and other web analytics systems, as well as voucher and code redemption processes.
What this is saying is that while industry players ‘get’ the importance of social, many are in fact ‘throwing money’ at social based on little prior thought or insight into what the channel can or should deliver for them – or their customers. This contrasts with a wider trend suggesting that up to 75% of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) plan to tie social media efforts to hard ROI going forward. So what is going on in our industry?
We live in a measurable world
Historically, of course, restaurants, hotels and leisure brands have relied on traditional advertising and ‘push’ marketing to reach customers and prospects. They decided on a message and sent it out into the world to be consumed. But social is not like that.
Nowadays, customers demand to be part of the conversation. They ‘answer back’ and interact with brands during campaigns. It is so important that industry players not only engage with this two-way conversation but understand its business impact.This has led many companies to adopt services like KnowEm,which enable them to sign up for dozens of social accounts. However, tools like that are not the solution, and do nothing for ROI.
Haphazard spend on technology not driven by business needs or goals – or any other form of ill thought through action connected to social – is at best a waste of resources, at worst may result in disastrous outcomes.
Danger Zones
Take the Broadway Hotel in Blackpool. In November 2014, the Broadway fined one of its customers £100 after he posted a poor review on TripAdvisor. Hotel staff felt the penalty was justified, having been insulted by the review. After the story had gone viral, the hotel backed down, cancelled the fee and promised to improve its facilities. Yet its reputation was irreparably damaged; a quick glance at its Facebook page bears that out.
This is a perfect example of a business not understanding consumer behaviour in today’s world, or indeed how to use social media to its advantage, even in the face of adversity. Based on client experience, this is most likely due to the lack of a clear approach to social media management and/or inadequately trained staff. Even in unhelpful scenarios such as this, a lot can be done to reverse negative reputation effects through skilful social media handling. However, this requires thought and training, as indeed seems to be appreciated by the majority of survey respondents, who (claim to) respond to enquiries or complaints on social media the same day.
Knowing how to use social media optimally is not easy. As we heard at the Roundtable – representing a brand is very different to running one’s own personal social media account. Adequate training is absolutely fundamental to ensuring the right approach to both positive and negative interactions.
Benefits of a carefully thought through social media approach
Businesses who have invested in adopting thought-through approaches clearly reap the benefits. Consider @newmedia2.0 client Qapp, a start-up that allows event goers to order refreshments via the Qapp mobile app pre-event, thereby freeing up interval time for socialising rather than queueing. Qapp uses social media to publicise events and engage intelligently with users during and after their experience, leveraging user data.
Just Eat, the online take-away service, is another example of a leading hospitality brand which makes skilful use of social. Just Eat ploughs huge resources into social media, employing writers to reams of content to feed its Facebook and Twitter accounts.
But you will not generate healthy ROI purely by throwing ample resources at social and hoping something sticks. What is needed is a carefully thought through approach, relevant staff training and measurement of impact against goals/strategy.
Think about your brand’s approach to social media:
Do you have clear goals? Brand positioning, marketing, driving sales, improving customer service and/or just talking to customers/getting useful feedback: these are all valid goals, depending on what your are trying to achieve but will only drive ROI if clearly defined and addressed with the right strategy.
Do you know which social sites your customers are on? Your social media approach should be focused on the correct channels – where your existing and target customers are, recognising the difference between B2B and B2C, and knowing how to innovate within those spaces.
Do you have a clear social media strategy? A clear strategy for how to reach your goals and engage with your customers and prospects on the right channels is fundamental to optimising ROI. And don’t forget, social media are not stand alone channels. They are just one part of your overall communications and client engagement mix and should be aligned with everything else you do and/or say as a brand.
Does your team understand the quirks of each social space? A small, highly knowledgeable team can potentially deliver better ROI than a large, unfocused team.
Are your staff trained properly? Does your team understand your business and the above? Can they disrupt, entertain and engage appropriately, and without crossing the line into pointless chatter?
Finally, don’t forget: inactivity makes a brand look uninteresting and uninterested. Once you have stepped into social, there is no turning back. You need to be active. Worse still, ignoring customer comments can be dangerous and costly.
Social Solutions
73% of survey respondents say that they are increasing their social media activity and spend in 2015, and 95% that social media is part of their strategic marketing plan in 2015. To be effective, brands must maximise ROI by ensuring that social activities are linked to clear goals and a strategy to match, which is continually monitored and optimised by properly trained staff. This in turn will trigger a positive feedback loop which will drive further value and investment in social, boosting ROI further, thereby optimising resources.
@newmedia2.0 are a sponsor of the H&C News Social Media RoundTable Event